You've been wanting to start a low carb or keto health plan but you're concerned that higher protein eating will cause your grocery budget to go through the roof.
We're sharing over 50 of our favorite cheap keto meals that'll make it easier for you to do low carb or keto on a budget. They're a Whole Lotta Yum!
You'll love these budget low carb ideas!
Are whole foods more expensive than processed packaged artificial foods? Often! But if you're serious about feeling great and losing extra pounds, eating low-cost food with real ingredients is the best way to accomplish that.
Making easy cheap low carb meals is totally possible and it'll make it easier to keep that grocery bill down. Regardless of what you read elsewhere, keto does NOT have to be an expensive diet.
Whether you're looking for cheap chicken meals, ground beef, turkey, and more, you'll love our variety of these budget low carb recipes for dinner.
Cheap Keto Dinner Recipes
Whether you're craving tacos, burgers, casseroles, a hearty soup, lasagne, "macaroni", and more, we have tons of budget low carb, and keto meals for your family!
These cheap keto dinner recipes are mostly from our website but we include some other recipe websites too.
Low Carb Crack Slaw (Egg Roll in a Bowl)
If you haven't yet tried our keto egg roll in a bowl, also known as keto crack slaw, you've just found one of your new favorite recipes!
This cheap keto meal has a few ingredients and only takes 15 minutes to cook and is basically considered a deconstructed egg roll. You can easily swap out the ground pork for beef, chicken, or turkey depending on what's on sale.
Cooking with ground meats is one of the best ways to keep your dinner costs down, we eat multiple meals per week with ground turkey, ground beef, chicken, or pork.
Italian Ground Turkey Skillet
Italian ground turkey skillet is one of our personal favorite low carb meals loaded with keto friendly vegetables when we want to eat dairy free. It can also be made with ground beef.
Instead of fresh veggies you can also use cheaper frozen vegetables like swapping zucchini for defrosted green beans and defrost them before adding to the skillet.
Green Chili Chicken Casserole
This easy keto green chili casserole is not only inexpensive, it uses simple ingredients and bakes in only 20 minutes. Our most popular keto casserole!
One of my favorite keto cost saving tips is to cook with frozen chicken like we did with this easy cheap keto recipe. You'll save big on chicken by purchasing frozen, you can also swap frozen chicken thighs or frozen chicken tenders if they cost less.
More inexpensive low carb casseroles:
- low carb chicken parmesan casserole
- keto chicken enchiladas casserole
- Ground beef zucchini casserole
- keto taco casserole
- Crustless taco pie
- chicken broccoli casserole: Eat Well 101
Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole
Chicken bacon Ranch is always a family favorite combo, we're using an inexpensive Ranch seasoning packet without sugar for our chicken bacon Ranch casserole with broccoli.
15 Min Sheet Pan Chicken and Veggies
One pan dinners like our 15 minute sheet pan chicken and veggies is always a winner! You can use either chicken breasts, thighs, or tenderloins.
Sheet pan meals are a great way to keep the costs down since they're a one pan meal and no other sides are needed, plus they're great for doing a fridge clean out and using up random leftover fresh veggies you have on hand to prevent food waste.
Keto Stuffed Peppers
These simple keto stuffed bell peppers are a low carb take on the traditional rice-filled classic. Buying the peppers in bulk or on sale will keep the cost down, or grow them in your garden like we did this year!
Ground meats like ground beef are also one of the least expensive cuts of meat, which also makes it easy to do cheap keto.
More keto stuffed peppers:
- Tuna stuffed peppers (using canned tuna)
Crock Pot Tuscan Chicken
Keto Tuscan chicken is one of our more recent keto chicken thighs recipes and it's quickly become a reader favorite. Chicken thighs often cost less than chicken breasts, plus they're juicier.
More chicken thighs recipes:
- Marry me chicken (crock pot)
- Crock pot butter chicken
- Air fryer bone-in chicken thighs
- Stove Top Chicken Thighs
- Garlic mushroom chicken thighs: Sweet C Designs
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajita Meal Prep
Meal prepping dinners and other meals like our chicken fajita sheet pan meal prep for the week is a great way to do keto on a budget.
Meal prep or batch cooking means you're buying less ingredients overall and it just simplifes the dinner process.
Country Style Ribs
By chance you have a pressure cooker, our ribs recipe is super popular on our site. So moist and juicy, everyone will think these were slow cooked all day long!
We LOVE eating country style ribs, not only is a super affordable cut of meat, they're always a crowd-pleaser. Pork is one of the least expensive meat cuts since it matures quickly and doesn't need as much space as other animals.
More pork recipes:
- Keto pork chops
- Pork shoulder blade steak w/ mushroom cream sauce
- Air fryer pork chops bone-in
Salsa Chicken
Things don't get much easier than 3 ingredient salsa chicken! You can even use chicken thighs instead of breasts and just cook for less time to 165 F.
Air Fryer Drumsticks
Cooking an inexpensive protein and serving it with sides like frozen veggies or a simple salad makes for a quick and easy cheap low carb dinner.
More air fryer ideas:
- Air fryer chicken tenderloins (no breading)
- Air fryer brats and peppers
- Air fryer pork tenderloin with rosemary
- Air fryer whole chicken wings - buying whole wings is even cheaper than the separated wingettes and drumettes
- Air fryer ham - use the monk fruit sweetener option if you make the glaze, terrific with no glaze too!
Low Carb Taco Soup
Low carb soups like our popular slow cooker taco soup is a great way to make protein stretch. This is a family dinner favorite!
Many of our inexpensive low carb soup recipes use ground meat or start with frozen protein like chicken, which often costs less than fresh.
More soup ideas:
- Pizza soup
- Egg drop soup - just 52 calories per cup and super filling!
- Chicken bacon Ranch soup
- Stuffed pepper soup - make this with dairy or without
Low Carb Fried Rice
Fried rice with cauliflower is a family-friendly inexpensive meal that's easy to adapt. We used chicken breast in here but ground meats would be a good cheap variation.
Cutting your cauliflower head and making cauliflower rice is cheaper than buying a bag of cauliflower rice.
Big Mac in a Bowl
Big Mac salad is another reader fave that is a great alternative to eating out. You get the taste of takeout but without the artificial ingredients. Keep the cost down by making your own Big Mac sauce.
More Big Mac Inspo:
- Cheeseburger Casserole
- Big Mac bites: Homemade Interest
Crustless Taco Pie
Keto crustless taco pie combines ground beef and eggs to make a family favorite low carb dinner. Eating eggs for breakfast, lunch, or dinner are a great way to get cheap keto protein!
More low carb egg recipes:
- Crustless quiche with ham and broccoli
- Keto sausage egg casserole - who said egg casserole is just for breakfast?
- Loaded egg salad - great on lettuce wraps or low carb bread
Italian Chicken Stuffed Zucchini
Stuffed zucchini with chicken is a great comfort meal at any time of year, it's especially delicious when you use garden fresh zucchini.
If you have space for container gardening or a small garden, growing your own veggies and fresh herbs is a great way to save money. Our $3 of zucchini plants yielded 100 zucchini last year!
Another zucchini recipe idea: Zucchini lasagne by Savory Tooth
Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps using last night's dinner leftovers is always a cheap and simple meal idea. Whether it's our pulled pork lettuce wraps using Instant Pot pulled pork, taco leftovers, shredded Mexican chicken, or even leftover casserole.
Air fryer sausage and veggies
Sausage and veggies is always a dinner favorite and makes for the perfect cheap keto dinner recipes. We recommend stocking up on all types of sausages when they go on sale or buying them in bulk at Costco.
Air fryer sausage and vegetables is a quick meal for two, to serve a family or to meal prep this for the week we recommend cooking it on a sheet pan in the oven for a little longer than the air fryer cooking time.
More sausage recipes:
- Stuffed sausage with string cheese
- Kielbasa and sauerkraut
- Baked Italian sausage and peppers
- Baked sausage casserole
Low Carb Broccoli Cheese Soup
A vegetarian dinner is always a great way to cut costs with some of your meals. A hearty low carb soup like our keto broccoli cheese soup is always a must when you're craving comfort food.
Low carb mac and cheese
Another meat free option! Eating vegetarian meals is another way to do keto on a budget, and when you're craving pasta, comforting keto mac and cheese is a great idea.
Cheap keto foods: protein
Here are some ideas for cheap keto foods for proteins that'll help to keep your Keto Diet meal costs down. Just pair them with low carb veggies for making cheap keto meals in a snap.
- ground meats - beef, chicken, turkey, or pork
- bone-in poultry - chicken thighs, breasts, drumsticks, wings. Buying meat with the bone still in and even the skin still on will always cost less than cuts with the bone removed.
- frozen chicken- breasts, thighs, or chicken tenderloins
- sausages - We stock up on these when they're on sale and Costco sells them in large packs.
- canned tuna
- pork cuts- pork almost always costs less than other cuts (unless it's something pricy like baby back pork ribs). We're talking pork shoulder roast to make pulled pork, pork ribs (regular not the baby back), pork tenderloin or pork chops that often go on sale, and of course, bacon!
- casseroles and soups - mixing in other ingredients and sauces really makes the meal stretch
- vegetarian dishes - the protein is often the most expensive part of the dish
- frozen fish like tilapia
- protein powder- you might be surprised to see this on the list, but a meal made with 30 grams of protein will almost always cost less than meat protein.
- Eggs - one of the least expensive protein options per serving!
- tofu - the least expensive low carb high protein plant based option
Cheapest keto meals on a budget tips
1. Eat Inexpensive Cuts of Meat and Protein Sources
Don't think you need to splurge on premium cuts to enjoy delicious keto meals. Tons of less expensive cuts of meat like chicken thighs instead of breasts, pork shoulder, or beef chuck instead of ribeye steaks.
2. Stay Away from Expensive Processed Keto Snacks
While it's tempting to fill your pantry with convenient ready-to-eat keto snacks on the keto diet, these can quickly eat into your budget. Instead, opt for whole food snacks like cheese slices, nuts, or a simple hard-boiled egg. They're not only cheaper but healthier too.
3. Shop Grocery Store Sales and Use Coupons
Become a savvy shopper by keeping an eye on weekly grocery store sales and clipping coupons (or use a coupon app). This can significantly reduce your grocery bill, especially on keto staples like meats and dairy. Planning your meals around what's on sale can lead to lead to huge savings for the month.
4. Buy Foods in Bulk to Save on Large Quantity Pricing
Buying in bulk can lead to huge savings, especially for non-perishable items like nuts, veggies, proteins, and healthy fats like avocado or olive oils. Wholesale stores or bulk sections in supermarkets are your low carb friends. Just make sure you have enough storage space and consider sharing with a friend or family if it's too much.
5. Meal Planning for the Week
Meal planning for the week is a game-changer. It not only prevents food waste but also makes sure you don't buy things you don't need. You'll be amazed at how much you save and how little food goes to waste.
6. Cheap Keto Recipes with Simple Ingredients
Keto doesn't have to be complicated. Easy and delish meals can easily be a low cost meat cut paired with simple low carb veggies. Think grilled chicken with a side of roasted broccoli or a beef stir-fry with mixed peppers. Simple, effective, and easy on the wallet, you can't find an easier cheap keto recipes than that.
7. Make Use of Frozen Veggies and Meats
Frozen vegetables and meats are a cost saving keto eater's best friend. Not only are they often cheaper than fresh options, but they also last longer and can be just as heathy.
We love to roast vegetables from frozen and add them to other recipes or use them in sheet pan dinners. Individually quick frozen chicken is usually cheaper than fresh as well.
If you loved our recipe, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and leave us a comment too! Connect with us on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube!
More Low Carb Dinner Ideas
- 30 Keto Casserole Recipes
- 30 Days of 30 Minute Keto Meals
- 21 Easy Keto Meals for Beginners
- 10 Best Low Carb Crockpot Recipes
- 25 Keto Chicken Dinner Recipes
On Keto? Grab our FREE keto foods list here OR Snag our Keto Binder HERE!
