I love the fact that you said you should take the last day, if you can, to not cook. One of the things that budget meals here on KZfaq tend to forget is just how much work it takes to make every single meal from scratch every single day. Mental health breaks and just breaks in general are as important as sticking to a budget, I think.

Rebecca is the home economics teacher this generation needs❤️

"You can still have preference on a budget" Yes! Everyone has told me that I'm being too picky with my current food budget but this is so so important. Thank you so much for this

When I was growing up, cookbooks, magazines, grandmothers, the government, and schools taught us what you're teaching now. You are providing a service that is very much needed. I'm happy to see it. I'm older now and don't need the information like I did when I was younger but I watch anyway because it's so enjoyable to watch your videos!

Thank you for showing us how to budget our meals. My husband and I are on a fixed income now and this really helped me realize we can eat cheaper yummy meals every week.

I think freezing the leftover portions (if the meals are freezable) for a day when maybe you don't want to cook, or want to eat something different is great too! You are just so creative, and I can't believe how much you made with just $50!

I have 3 people to feed but even $75 for a whole week on groceries is crazy amazing! Thank you for doing this ❤

French toast could be a good way to rollover the bread and milk into next week :)

Thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes. I am a senior on Social Security. I cannot spend more than $6 a day to eat. I rarely buy meat since it is unaffordable. I receive a brown bag of groceries from a charity for $5 a month. I usually receive two pounds of meat in this bag. This helps to boost my protein intake. I truly appreciate your cooking creativity. It has helped me so much. God Bless you!

10:50 Coffee. Recently I read a great piece of advice for getting better flavor while using coffee makers: before starting the coffee maker, add a tablespoon or so of water to the carafe to avoid the first bit of coffee getting scorched by the heating plate which can make the whole pot bitter.

Really like this video. Your meals are realistic in portions and have a great variety. Looking forward to how you roll over leftover ingredients and incorporate new menus. You are a blessing! Thank you!

I love that this menu plan was a mix of homemade, store-bought, and semi-homemade. It seems like most budget meal plans are either completely store-bought processed stuff, or making everything from scratch. I think this one is much more realistic.

Thank you so much. My husband watched with me for the first time today and said “This is awesome!” We can now shave $50 a month off of our grocery bills. We are going to save it for a camping trip!

My mom had a rule that has been passed down to all of her children, No one cooks on Friday". We didn't have much but very Friday, it was my Dads job to come home with a paycheck and dinner. We still live by that rule. Be creative!

Fantastic! You are teaching people that NO ONE in America should go hungry! I am an emigrant from Eastern Europe. Came to this country 40 yrs ago with nothing to my name. Cooked wonderful meals for $15-20 a week - these days when, after working for many, but still being careful as how we spent our money - we accumulated a nice nest egg. I still cook our meals every day, always purchase meat and veggies fruit when on sale that week. The money we save we spend on sports, entertainment, travel and also going to restaurants- while on vacation.

For the spaghetti dinner, try adding 1 can cream of mushroom soup, will make the 24 Oz jar of sauce cover the pound of pasta. Also makes the sauce amazing. Live your videos, and thank you so much.

Wow not only can you meal plan and cook, you also had a math / cost plan in the video. As a single person those guidelines suggest me spending way more money than I do in a week. They would be too expensive. It was eye opening. Thanks to your videos I can eat well on less money. Another great video from you!

Seriously excellent video. Congratulations! I raised my family (husband and three sons) on a budget. My husband was in the Army, so there wasn't always wiggle room in our budget. Now that the boys are grown, we still budget every month and I couldn't imagine shopping any other way. Your recipes are realistic and I appreciate the thought you put into all of your videos. Congratulations on your success, it is well deserved.

Rebecca, you did a FABULOUS job! Really impressed with your creativity!

I often put the bones in my crockpot and let it cook on low for a day or so…the bone broth is delicious and so useful.

I am not sure how I ended up watching this, I am a single parent from Australia. However, what jas struck me is your kind, generous and non-judgemental nature. Thank you so much for sharing your skills.

This such a cool video idea. Not a toast girl but this is such a good jump off point for someone who has not cooked in months. Thanks for the inspiration.

Groceries are very expensive and thank you for going over what the USDA says we should spend a week on nutritional meals. Which many Americans can’t afford. I also appreciate you saying go out for dinner or pick up a Pizza and take a break. A simple reminder to take time for self-care. Thanks again.

I just love your content. Im 64 years old but you have taught me so much. Youre definitely my favorite dollar tree cook!! ❤

Another above and beyond video. You have one of the best KZfaq channels - not just in your niche of budget cooking/eating, but across all topics - bar none! 🎉

It amazes me the amount the government says we should spend on groceries for our family without taking into the cost of living and what we make. They are so out of touch with reality. I love how you can show us all these options on a realistic budget.

I don't think you understand how important this video is to me. We've actually had a financial difficulty, and I am looking for any possible way to cut down on finances going out, and this includes food pricing. It's just my husband, me, and our 15 month old daughter. This is definitely going to help me out. I'm making my shopping list as I watch this video. Lol. Things are pretty rough at the moment, and Walmart delivery is almost a necessity. Him and I are both blind, and going to the store would cost about $20 to get there, and back. So watching videos, and making the grocery list at the same time on the app is phenomenal.

Add 1-2 Spoons of vinegar to the broth with bones before the second cooking. It is a very old chinese way of enhancing of calcium content of the broth (with vinegar or lemon juice). More calcium for the bucks 😁

Now that's what I call eating good on a budget. I thoroughly enjoyed this video. You did a great job. Thanks for sharing.

This was such a good video, and I really appreciate all the effort. The beginning was so thoughtful and empathetic, and the surprise USDA math lesson was eye-opening! And, as usual, thanks for the recipes!

Growing up in the 1960’s, I was the oldest daughter of 11 children. Dad was a laborer and Mom stayed at home. We never went hungry but ice cream, sodas and candies were rare. Cooking from scratch was key. It’s nice that there are more convenience foods available to help with budgeting and feeding families. Great video 👍🏼💕

I love your channel. And share it with a lit of my clients who are all very low income. So I appreciate all you do. You are helping so many people.

I'm fairly new to your channel but I've made up for lost time by watching your content kinda non-stop 😅 Your energy is comforting and relaxes me regardless of what else is going on around me.

I love how you prepped some stuff before the week. So smart. Chicken is cheapest and can be made so many ways. Chicken cacciatore, chicken francese, chicken parm......People push to make things from scratch but with two people working and the reality of life is people should use what short cuts they can to keep life simpler. You do an excellent job!

I would really love to see how you shop for different meal plans on a budget - for instance, my husband and I are low carb, high protein. My sister and her husband are vegan and gluten free. We are all trying to squeeze our dollars out to make them last at the grocery store! Thanks again for a great video 😊

The us government cost estimate versus what you came up with was so valuable! Truly impressive how you did with only $50!

I'm single 61 years old on fixed income. I spend around $100 dollars a month on food. Your videos definitely help me to prepare different meals on a budget. Thanks for your work and ideas. Can't wait for the website.

I really could have used this kind of information when I was a single mom of 3, working full time and trying to stretch a budget back in the 90s/2ks. Great stuff. Suggestion: using some of the money you don't have to spend on the items you roll over to buy things to bulk the pantry such as flour, sugar, beans, seasonings, etc. Also, do you have a grocery store around you that sells bulk bin stuff? It's a great way to stock a pantry inexpensively.

I always enjoy your Dollar Tree meal plans and have purchased food items there because I saw them on your channel. I am really loving that you are branching out to more stores in your videos as well. You always have a very realistic meal plan and I love that you incorporate snacks and taking a day off and treating yourself if funds allow.

Rebecca...thank you so much. I needed this in this new stage of my life to feed me and my family. You are such an inspiration with an amazing heart who genuinely does what you do to help others. I tend to cry watching your content because it shows me that yes ... I CAN do this.

The instant oatmeal bars are ingenious! I had 6 packs I needed to use because my stepson doesn't want them and they've been sitting and I had an organic green apple that was looking sad/getting soft. I made a double batch of the bars with crunchy apple bits and they are DELICIOUS! SO GOOD!!

Inspirational. I’m no longer struggling financially but, boy, I sure could have used your videos when I was raising a family.

For a quick garlic toast, mix a little garlic powder with butter/margarine. Pop bread in toaster then spread the butter :)

The calculations you did re the USDA is eye opening! That’s not even taking into account the cost of living in certain parts of the country is super high. Outside of dollar tree always being the same price regardless of location I hear the prices on many YT channels similar to yours and they are way lower then where I live. It’s insane how many ppl are living below what even the government is saying is what we should be paying.

You can tell you’ve been doing this a while now, both in the quality of your vids and the calm confidence with inevitable nuts in the comments. Still think your most standout quality (and you have many good ones) is consciously serving different needs and communities. I wish you much success; it’s been cheering watching as more people find you🍳

I wish I could use $66 weekly for groceries!! I'm a widow on a fixed income and I have $100 a month for groceries, soaps, TP, etc... Thats why I watch channels like this! I get so many great ideas, eat better and stay in budget. Thanks for all you do!!

You did so good!! I love how you’ve edited this and broke these down and included your thoughts behind this. Thank you so much.

You are a lifesaver. You have no idea how much your channel has helped me. Thank you 🩷

You’re doing GREAT so you don’t need to justify what you’re showing us! With food costs so high, we are all budgeting so your suggestions are welcomed!!!

REBECCA you are a super-heroine!!! In my early twenties (forever ago), I found myself unexpectedly unemployed. I was down to my last $20 with no prospects in site. Oh how your videos would have helped me way back then. As with all experiences though, it was for my benefit and I've learned and grown so much for that really difficult period of my life. When I was a single, adoptive mom some years ago I found it super simple to stay on budget by having theme nights. It wasn't anything fancy, but it kept my meal planning honed in on less-expensive meals. It also made it nice on my kiddos as they knew what to expect and they helped me plan (and prepare) the meals. Monday was meatless meals. Tuesday was always a chicken dish. Wednesday was crockpot meals. Thursday was Mexican or Italian favorite. Friday was homemade fast food. Saturday was soup and bread. Sunday was classic Sunday dinner meals (like roast, lasagna, etc.) that I knew I could either repurpose in other meals through the week or the leftovers would fit perfectly into another theme (like lasagna, I would put half in the freezer and heat that up for a Thursday a few weeks later. Truthfully, when I made lasagna I would always make three 9x11 casserole dishes worth. One was eaten that Sunday (as I was a full-time worker, student, and mom, Saturday I would prep as much food for the coming week as possible) with the leftovers used for lunch and the other two were cut in half and frozen in smaller dishes for future meals. Even though we are in a position where we don't have the same meager grocery budget as I once dealt with, I very much enjoy your videos. I love seeing someone become passionate about something and teaching about that subject with love for others. You are a very sweet beacon of hope. Keep putting out such useful content!

Been a college student on a budget in this economy is so difficult but your videos have helped me so much

I always love hearing your breakdowns of everything. I live in an area where our Dollar Trees don't have fridges, so a walmart meal plan is more realistic for me. I'm always keeping you in my back pocket for when I move out!

Thank you for sharing the government budgeting table for groceries….that is rather mind blowing, as I bet there are an enormous amount of households that cannot afford that amount for groceries each week!! Great video!

Honestly, I love the way you create the budget grocery episodes. Your criteria is truly budget friendly. It's frustrating when a creator uses say ".75c worth of milk" and counts it as 75c rather than the whole carton you had to buy for $3.

Dang! You are very well organized and your meals are creative. I like how you used what you had and didn't waste anything.

Rebecca I can only spend 50.00 for 2 weeks and I thank you for this video cause it gives me more ideas. Their is just myself so I can make meals with leftovers. I order my food from walmart because I do not drive anymore.

Knoced it way out of the park once again Rebecca !!! SO well done !!! 😀❄☃💗😀❄☃💗😀❄☃💗

You’re out here saving people’s lives and that’s not a joke! So informative and helpful and the food looked so good and filling!

Love your videos! A suggestion for an inexpensive meals might be Tuna noodle casserole. I make it for my husband and I and from one recipe I get 3 9”x6” pans of casserole. We eat one for dinner (have leftovers) and I freeze the other two to have later. Vegetable soup is another economical meal, a half pound of ground beef will make a good size pot of soup. And lastly, look a smoked ham hocks. They are reasonably priced and can be used for soup, red beans and rice and many other low cost meals and it’s surprising how much meat you get from them. I also cook the bones down for stock!!

Rebecca I used to cook a lot of stuff. & I did it all from scratch, BUT now that I am 65 & disabled I look for quick & easy meals. So I appreciate your suggestions. Thank you

The care and planning you put into these videos amazes me! Another great video!

This was an incredibly helpful video! All the meals look and sound delicious, the USDA chart was interesting because I’ve never thought to look something like that up or aware it existed 🤷🏽‍♀️ Thanks Rebecca for all of your hard work!

Another amazing video! I'm on a fairly restricted diet at the moment, very low fat (gallbladder) and very low sodium (hypertension) but I'm getting better about finding substitutions and tweaking your recipes to meet my restrictions. I always get such great ideas from you and I always look forward to seeing you in my feed because I know it's going to be good, usable information. Happy New Year to you and your family. I know it's going to be a great year for you! ❤

My husband and I watch your channel and really enjoy and appreciate your dedication and enthusiasm for the budget meals. You do your research and make things simple and fun!

This video came at the perfect time. Thank you so much! I’m grateful to the person who requested this because I needed it too!

Congratulations! 🎉For your KZfaq button award!!

as a 63 year old,you make me rethink my ways of cooking thank you big hugs

I am always blown away by how creative you are! Something I have been cooking recently due to how cheap it is is ground turkey. Works in most applications where you would use ground beef but it is much cheaper. I can make two separate meals for 3 people with a frozen log of it and it is only $2.75.

Thank you for doing Walmart grocery shopping. I'm saving today's video to refer back to. Congratulations on getting 100k. You've worked hard for this. It doesn't come easy. I never miss an episode. Thank you for sharing 😊

You did a fantastic job of shopping, staying within budget, making a variety of meals and most important - making your dollars stretch to provide several meals!!! Excellent.

I’m enjoying your channel so much, Thank You so much for sharing your money saving tips and advice, your recipes are amazing!

Another great video Rebecca! The wife and I always enjoy your content. Here’s to a great 2024 to you and yours!🍻

Your videos are so amazing and can’t get enough of them lol you do a great job explaining and I know it’s a lot of hard work 💜 so thank you

Love the ideas for this season! I look forward to these budget series

I love all of these great ideas. Cooking for one here so will likely attempt to half a few of these to try out. Thank you!

Great video! Well organized, easy to understand, and appealing to different age groups. I learned to budget, shop and cook by the time I was 10 because it was a skill my Mom didn't have. If you pinch pennies until they scream, you have room in your budget for items that are a treat, which makes you happy. ;-) One idea for spending less is to make your own seasoning mixes. There are a lot of spice mix recipes online and you're sure to find ones you like. Walmart spices here where I live start at one dollar per bottle. It only takes a few dollars to cover the basics, and you'll save money week by week. Aldi also has a nice line of fresh tasting spices.

I came across your channel about 2 weeks ago and have been watching your past videos non stop, I love your channel and look forward to your future videos. Thank you for sharing.

I love it. Your channel is so helpful. Thank you so much!

I think the idea of packet seasoning is helpful to those that are stuck for what to do with a large bag of chicken, but what if instead of green beans you bought a bag of frozen peas & carrots. Then had made two pie crusts, made a filling for a chicken pot pie, using a roux and little of broth along with milk, Vegetables: peas& carrots, diced onion, dash of garlic powder, diced potato and a couple fresh mushrooms…seasoning with S&P too. Add in 1/4 of one of your containers of chicken. Then place one pie crust in a deep dish pie pan and fill with mixture and top with other pie crust…bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 min. Or freeze for another day. Then you could have made chicken & dumplings with rest of chicken in the container ( Paula Dean) has a simple yet delicious recipe. All you need is flour, salt and water to make the dumplings. Roll out and drop them into some of your broth that has been seasoned with some diced onion and little garlic. It is cheap and makes around four to six servings. Also, you could make chicken salad, chicken spaghetti casserole, which might have tasted better to you than that canned sauce. You could have deboned some of your chicken thighs, pounded them out and made chicken Piccata to serve with the leftover spaghetti. Another pasta dish is buffalo chicken pasta. Could have used some of the cooked chicken to make chicken enchiladas in a sour cream sauce. This way you have so many more taste and options…like instead of a frozen pizza using chicken scraps ( little bits not large enough to make a full dish)to make a barbecue chicken pizza from scratch. There are just so many options with chicken, but to save money we have to resort back to making most things from scratch. Just how we make it.

I loved this. I went to Walmart last night and bought the whole 2 week meal ingredients. Thank you for this grocery prices are ridiculous these days but thanks to all your prep work I know what I’m making for dinner for 2 weeks and doing it for an awesome price ❤ please keep more of these coming

Great video!!!! I think this is your best video ever! Thank you thank you so much for doing this video. Thank you so much for shopping at Walmart because so many people do not have access to other grocery stores. I like that you gave a detailed explanation about the USDA food chart & the percentages for 2 people. I like that you showed the prep for the meals. I also liked that you showed what items were left at the end of the week. Looking forward to next week’s video.

I think you're fabulous! Thanks for making and sharing your cooking adventures on a budget! You inspire me to try to actually cook for myself!

** an idea for you. Omit the packets of oatmeal, get the regular stuff and use the coffee creamer as flavoring.

What a wonderful video. I enjoyed every recipe idea and even the extra information you gave. I'm looking forward to your next video 🙂

Love you, Rebecca!! ❤❤

Thank you for all you do! Also I liked this format as a change from what I eat in a day style. 👍 well done as always

Just loving this video and all the plans you have for the New Year, recipes on a website, print-outs, etc. I can't imagine how many people you've already helped (including me!) with your easy-to-make and delicious recipes, and also showing how it is possible to create substantial meals on a very, very low budget and how to do it with the step-by-step explicit instructions, you are so patient and thorough In making sure you give us all the correct information ideas and details on everything you do. It's so appreciated, Thank you!!

Thank you so much for this video! You did such a great job making so many meals with that single bag of chicken! Love this!!

Great video. Love your advice and how you explain everything along the way.

As usual, you did an excellent job of turning these ingredients into delicious meals! Thank you for putting your heart into these videos. 😍

I love your channel and get so much help from your videos. Thanks for sharing your content and congratulations on the plaque!! 😊

Excellent job Rebecca ❤ thank you so much 😊

Happy New Year! I love your channel; you're actually a very good cook, and the fact that you can make delicious meals on a budget is so cool! The recipes looked delicious! Well done!

That budget planner was great. Thank you for sharing it. Love watching your ideas for meals. I'm a terrible cook but love the idea of it.

I am excited to see next weeks video!!! Your videos are always informative and have great ideas!!! Thanks for all your hard work!

Love your channel. Thank you

You put a lot of thought and effort into to this and it is greatly appreciated. Fantastic job. ❤

This video is so cool for a person like me who cooks for one and loves leftovers, thank you for some great ideas!!

I appreciate all the work you do for these. You are Loved 🥰

Our 5lb russets are $1 more than what you paid. But its still close! Thanks for the ideas! They really help on tight weeks for those of us on fixed incomes. 😊