12 Cheap Crockpot Family Dinners

These cheap crockpot family dinners are the meals that carry my grocery budget through the second half of the month.

From a pot of chili to a 15 bean soup, a loaded potato soup, red beans and rice, and a pulled pork that feeds a crowd for the price of one roast, they stretch the cheapest ingredients in the store into dinners people ask for again.

Here are the twelve I lean on!

Dried beans, potatoes, rice, ground beef, and the big cheap cuts of pork are what these are built on, and the slow cooker is what makes those ingredients taste like they cost more.

Most of them make enough for two nights, which is the other half of how they save money.

1. Crockpot Chili

A pound of ground beef, two cans of beans, tomatoes, onion, and chili powder, and it feeds six with leftovers for lunch.

Brown the beef first and everything else goes in the crock for the day.

Stretch it further with an extra can of beans, and nobody notices.

Cornbread on the side and cheese on top.

2. 15 Bean Soup

A bag of mixed dried beans, a ham hock or leftover ham, onion, carrots, and broth, and it’s the cheapest full dinner I know how to make.

The beans cook from dry all day on low, and the ham falls apart into the broth.

A can of tomatoes goes in during the last hour, since the acid slows the beans down if it goes in early.

It’s what I make the week after a holiday ham!

3. Loaded Potato Soup

Russet potatoes, onion, broth, and a little cream cheese, cooked soft and mashed partway in the crock, with bacon and cheddar on top.

A bag of russets is one of the cheapest things in the store, and this uses half of it.

The bacon is a topping and not an ingredient, so a few slices go a long way.

Green onions and sour cream, and it’s a full meal in a bowl.

4. Red Beans and Rice

Dried red beans, a little smoked sausage, onion, celery, bell pepper, and Cajun seasoning, cooked all day and served over rice.

The sausage is there for flavor and a single link seasons the whole pot.

Mash a few beans against the side of the crock at the end to thicken the sauce.

Hot sauce on the table, and it’s Monday dinner in New Orleans and in my kitchen.

5. Kielbasa and Potatoes

A ring of kielbasa, baby potatoes, onion, and a little butter and garlic, and an afternoon on low turns the cheapest sausage in the case into a dinner my family looks forward to.

The potatoes cook in the sausage drippings, which is where all the flavor is.

Green beans go in for the last hour, and grainy mustard on the side.

6. Taco Soup

Ground beef, canned beans, corn, tomatoes, and a packet of taco seasoning, and it’s a dump dinner that costs less than a fast food run.

The cans do most of the work, and the beef is the only thing that gets browned.

Tortilla chips crushed on top in place of crackers, and cheese and sour cream if there’s any in the fridge.

Leftovers are lunch for two days.

7. Poor Man’s Stew

Ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onion, and a tomato and broth gravy, and it’s beef stew made with the cheapest beef there is.

The potatoes and carrots make up most of the pot, and the beef seasons it.

It thickens on its own over the cook, and a little Worcestershire at the end deepens it.

Bread and butter alongside, and it’s the dinner my grandmother called supper.

8. Pulled Pork

A pork shoulder, a dry rub, and a splash of broth, and eight hours later there’s enough pulled pork for sandwiches tonight, tacos tomorrow, and a freezer bag for next month.

Pork shoulder is the cheapest cut per pound in the meat case most weeks, and it’s the one cut that gets better the longer it cooks.

Barbecue sauce goes on after shredding, and a bag of coleslaw finishes the sandwich.

It’s the biggest bargain on this list.

9. Crockpot Goulash

Ground beef, elbow macaroni, tomatoes, onion, and a little paprika and Italian seasoning, and it’s the American goulash every school cafeteria used to serve.

The pasta goes in for the last half hour and cooks in the sauce.

A pound of beef and a box of pasta feed six, and the leftovers reheat into a second dinner.

Cheese on top, and it’s gone.

10. Crockpot Bolognese

Ground beef, canned tomatoes, onion, carrot, celery, and garlic, cooked low all day into a meat sauce that tastes like it simmered on a stove in Italy.

The carrot and celery stretch the beef and sweeten the sauce.

Over spaghetti one night and in a baked pasta the next, and the rest goes in the freezer.

A jar of sauce costs more than this whole pot!

11. Chicken and Rice Casserole

Chicken breasts or thighs, rice, cream of mushroom soup, and broth, and it’s the casserole that fed a generation on a budget.

Thighs are cheaper than breasts and better here, and the rice goes in for the last hour.

Frozen peas stirred in at the end for the vegetable.

It costs a few dollars a pot and feeds the whole family.

12. Olive Garden Minestrone

Beans, tomatoes, carrots, celery, zucchini, spinach, and small pasta in a garlicky broth, and it’s the restaurant soup for the price of a few cans.

There’s no meat at all, and nobody at my table has ever pointed that out.

The pasta goes in near the end, and the spinach right before serving.

Garlic bread made from the loaf that was on sale, and it’s dinner for six.

Notes on Cooking on a Budget in a Slow Cooker

Dried beans cost a fraction of canned and cook from dry in the crock all day on low, so a bag of beans is the cheapest protein in the pantry.

Ground beef, pork shoulder, chicken thighs, and kielbasa are the cheap meats that improve in a long cook, and the slow cooker is what makes the cheap cuts tender.

A pound of meat feeds six when it’s stretched with beans, potatoes, pasta, or rice, and every recipe above does at least one of those.

A 6-quart slow cooker makes enough for two nights, which is how a cheap dinner becomes a cheap week.

The soups and sauces freeze flat in freezer bags, and a small chest freezer paid for itself in my house in one winter of doubled crockpot dinners.

Buy the bouillon base in a jar and skip the cartons of broth, since a jar makes gallons.

A kitchen scale helps me portion the family packs of ground beef into pounds for the freezer, which is when meat is cheapest to buy.

More Budget Crockpot Dinners on the Site

The slow cooker chicken and dumplings is the cheapest chicken dinner I make, and it belongs on this list.

My hearty crockpot beef stew with root vegetables uses chuck, which is the cheap beef for stew.

And the quick crockpot dinners with ten minutes of prep post has more dinners built on pantry staples.