One of our local Facebook groups is now filled with "feed a family of four for $10 by spending $7 on ground beef or dumpling cans of stuff into a pot" type posts because of the looming hungergeddon with SNAP being withheld.
I posted this to show the difference between what is probably the cheapest cook it yourself full meal in a box and the homemade version.
Since we are posting cheap meals here is a comparison of buying for the meal and buying for the pantry.
Mac and cheese two ways. I went to cook dinner but only found one box of mac and cheese. Well my wife only wanted basic mac and cheese with a single smoked sausage cut in half. Easy. She gets the boxed stuff. Cost of hers was $1.63
But what was my dinner going to be? The same but different. The last of an onion, a small bell pepper from the garden†, 4 oz of Colby Jack left over from yesterday, one smoked sausage like hers, 4 oz of elbow mac, milk, butter, flour. Cost for mine: $2.81.
These two bowls are almost identical in calories.
More than double the cost?
Calories in her bowl: ~1580
Calories on mine: ~1800 calories
So the homemade version is almost 42% more than hers but on a nutrition and flavor level they can't compare at a the 78¢ difference.
I didn't intentionally buy anything to make my specific meal. It was made from pantry staples that I always have on hand and can be bought in bulk. Flexible ingredients that can be combined in infinite combinations on the fly. It's not just cheap it lets you solve cravings without going out.
What's the time difference between these two meals? About 4 minutes. And that was entirely because the elbow mac is better quality than boxed and takes longer to cook. The bechamel cheese sauce and the pepper, sausage and onion mix all cooked while the pasta was cooking.
† literally free because I got the seeds from the library and planted in the ground, seed starter tray, no mulch, no fertilizer.
Velveeta based Mac and cheese is not.
I live in The South. I got a bbq place down the road. I went there shortly after moving here. Their Mac and cheese is a 4 ounce Styrofoam cup of Velveeta Mac. Disappointing on size, style, composition, flavor and every other loss metric. I get cravings for bbq. I have never once gone back in 8 years. It ruined the whole place for me.