5 Freezer Meals You Can Make for Under $20 Total

Freezer meals are the ultimate budget cooking strategy, and it is not even close. You spend one afternoon cooking five big-batch recipes, portion them into freezer-safe containers, and suddenly you have a month's worth of emergency dinners ready to go whenever life gets hectic. No last-minute grocery runs, no expensive delivery orders, no staring into the fridge at 6 PM wondering what to make. Just pull a container from the freezer, thaw it, heat it, and eat. The best part is the cost. When you buy ingredients in bulk and cook in large batches, the per-serving price plummets. The five meals in this guide can all be made for a combined total of under $20, which works out to roughly $1 per serving when you account for the number of portions each recipe produces. That is less than a single fast-food combo meal for an entire homemade dinner. This is not about complicated freezer cooking systems or buying a chest freezer for your garage. These are five simple, crowd-pleasing recipes that freeze beautifully, reheat perfectly, and happen to cost almost nothing to make. ## Why Freezer Cooking Is a Budget Game-Changer Freezer cooking amplifies every dollar you spend at the grocery store. Here is why it works so well for budget-conscious households. **Bulk buying pays off.** Buying a three-pound tube of ground beef is cheaper per pound than buying one pound at a time. A giant bag of dried beans costs a fraction of multiple small cans. When you are cooking five recipes at once, buying in bulk makes sense because you will actually use everything before it goes bad. **Nothing goes to waste.** Food waste is a silent budget killer. Americans throw away roughly 30-40% of the food they buy. Freezer cooking eliminates this problem because everything gets cooked and frozen immediately. That bunch of celery does not wilt in the crisper drawer. The chicken does not expire before you get around to cooking it. Every ingredient gets used. **You cook once and eat for weeks.** The time savings compound into financial savings. When you have a freezer stocked with meals, you skip the impulse pizza order on Tuesday night and the overpriced lunch on Thursday. Those $12-15 meals you avoid add up to hundreds of dollars in savings over a month. **Buying on sale becomes a strategy.** When chicken thighs go on sale for $0.99 per pound, you can buy five pounds and turn them all into freezer meals that afternoon. You are essentially locking in the sale price and stretching it across multiple future dinners. ## The 5 Freezer Meals Here are the five recipes, each with cost breakdowns and freezing instructions. All prices reflect typical costs at stores like Aldi and Walmart. ### 1. Classic Beef Chili — Total Cost: About $6.00 [Classic Beef Chili](/recipes/classic-beef-chili) is the king of freezer meals. It is hearty, flavorful, and actually improves after freezing because the spices continue to meld. This recipe makes eight generous servings, putting the per-serving cost at about $0.75. **Ingredient Costs:** - Ground beef, 1.5 lbs — $4.00 - Canned kidney beans, 2 cans — $1.70 - Canned diced tomatoes, 1 can — $0.85 - Onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin — roughly $1.00 from pantry staples - Tomato paste, 1 small can — $0.60 **Freezing Instructions:** Let the chili cool completely to room temperature. Ladle into gallon freezer bags, filling each bag about three-quarters full to leave room for expansion. Squeeze out as much air as possible, seal, and lay flat on a baking sheet in the freezer. Once frozen solid, you can stand the bags upright like books to save space. Each bag holds four servings. ### 2. White Chicken Chili — Total Cost: About $5.50 [White Chicken Chili](/recipes/white-chicken-chili) is a lighter, creamier alternative to classic red chili, and it freezes just as well. Made with chicken, white beans, green chiles, and a creamy broth, it produces six to eight servings at roughly $0.70-0.90 per serving. **Ingredient Costs:** - Chicken thighs, bone-in, 1.5 lbs — $2.50 - Canned white beans (cannellini or great northern), 2 cans — $1.70 - Canned green chiles, 1 can — $0.85 - Chicken broth, 1 carton — $1.50 - Onion, garlic, cumin, oregano — roughly $0.75 from pantry staples **Freezing Instructions:** Shred the chicken before portioning to ensure even reheating. Cool the chili completely, then transfer to freezer bags or containers. If you plan to add sour cream or cheese when serving, leave those out before freezing — dairy additions are best added fresh when reheating. Lay bags flat to freeze, same as the beef chili. ### 3. Taco Soup — Total Cost: About $4.50 [Taco Soup](/recipes/taco-soup) might be the easiest recipe on this list. It is essentially a dump-and-simmer recipe: open cans, add seasoning, cook for 20 minutes. The result is a thick, taco-flavored soup loaded with beans, corn, and tomatoes that yields eight servings at about $0.55 each. **Ingredient Costs:** - Canned black beans, 1 can — $0.85 - Canned pinto beans, 1 can — $0.85 - Canned corn, 1 can — $0.75 - Canned diced tomatoes with green chiles, 1 can — $0.90 - Tomato sauce, 1 can — $0.65 - Taco seasoning (homemade from cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder) — $0.50 **Freezing Instructions:** Taco soup is one of the most freezer-friendly recipes in existence. It is almost entirely shelf-stable ingredients in a broth, which means it freezes and thaws without any change in texture. Cool completely, portion into freezer bags or containers, and freeze flat. Serve with tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream after reheating. ### 4. Slow Cooker Pulled Pork — Total Cost: About $5.50 [Slow Cooker Pulled Pork](/recipes/slow-cooker-pulled-pork) takes almost zero active effort. You season a pork shoulder, place it in the slow cooker, and walk away for eight hours. The result is tender, shreddable pork that works in sandwiches, tacos, rice bowls, quesadillas, and nachos. A single pork shoulder yields ten or more servings. **Ingredient Costs:** - Pork shoulder/butt, 2-3 lbs — $4.50 - BBQ sauce or a simple mixture of ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar — $1.00 - Onion, garlic, paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper — roughly $0.75 from pantry staples **Freezing Instructions:** Shred the pork after cooking and mix it with the sauce. Let it cool completely. Portion into freezer bags in two-serving amounts — this makes it easy to thaw exactly what you need rather than defrosting the entire batch. The shredded pork freezes exceptionally well because the sauce keeps it moist during freezing and reheating. Squeeze out air, seal, and freeze flat. ### 5. Lentil Soup — Total Cost: About $3.50 [Lentil Soup](/recipes/lentil-soup) rounds out the list as the most affordable option by a wide margin. Dried lentils are absurdly cheap, and when combined with basic aromatics and pantry spices, they produce a thick, protein-packed soup that serves six to eight. At roughly $0.45 per serving, this is budget cooking at its absolute peak. **Ingredient Costs:** - Dried lentils, 1 lb — $1.50 - Carrots, 3 medium — $0.50 - Celery, 2 stalks — $0.35 - Onion, 1 large — $0.35 - Canned diced tomatoes, 1 can — $0.85 - Garlic, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper — roughly $0.50 from pantry staples **Freezing Instructions:** Lentil soup thickens considerably as it cools and freezes. Add a splash of extra broth or water before freezing so the soup returns to the right consistency when reheated. Cool the soup completely, then ladle into freezer bags or containers. Leave about an inch of headspace for expansion. This soup is excellent straight from frozen — just dump it into a pot on low heat and stir occasionally until heated through. ## Combined Cost Total: $25.00 (Before Pantry Adjustments) The raw total for all five recipes comes to about $25. However, this assumes you are buying pantry staples like spices, oil, and garlic from scratch. If your pantry is already stocked with basics — and it should be after a few weeks of budget cooking — the actual out-of-pocket cost drops to around $18-20 for all five meals combined. That gives you roughly 40 individual servings of food for $20. At $0.50 per serving, you would have to work pretty hard to find a cheaper way to eat. ## How to Freeze Meals Properly Good freezing technique is the difference between meals that taste great three months from now and meals that taste like cardboard. **Cool completely before freezing.** Putting warm food in the freezer raises the temperature of everything around it and can cause partial thawing of other items. Let food come to room temperature first, then refrigerate for an hour before transferring to the freezer. **Remove as much air as possible.** Air causes freezer burn, which ruins texture and flavor. With freezer bags, seal the bag almost all the way, then press out the remaining air before closing the last inch. Some people submerge the bag in water up to the seal line — the water pressure pushes out the air. **Freeze flat when using bags.** Lay bags on a baking sheet in a single layer until frozen solid, then stack them vertically like files in a drawer. Flat bags thaw faster and store more efficiently than lumpy, round shapes. **Use proper containers.** Heavy-duty freezer bags, glass containers with airtight lids, or silicone storage bags all work well. Avoid thin plastic containers or regular zipper bags, which crack and do not seal tightly enough. ## Thawing and Reheating Guide **Overnight in the fridge** is the gold standard. Move the container from the freezer to the refrigerator the night before you want to eat it. By dinnertime the next day, it will be thawed and ready to reheat on the stove or in the microwave. **Cold water bath** is the fast method. Place the sealed bag in a large bowl of cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes. A quart-sized bag thaws in about an hour. A gallon bag takes two to three hours. **Straight from frozen** works for soups, stews, and chilis. Place the frozen block in a pot over low heat, adding a splash of water or broth. Stir occasionally as it melts. It takes about 20-30 minutes but requires no advance planning. **Microwave defrost** is the last resort. It works, but it tends to heat unevenly, cooking the edges while the center stays frozen. If you use this method, stir frequently and use 50% power. ## Labeling Tips Never skip labeling. You think you will remember what is in each bag, but three weeks from now, frozen chili and frozen taco soup look identical. Use masking tape and a permanent marker to write the recipe name, the date it was made, and the number of servings. Some people also note reheating instructions so anyone in the household can prepare the meal without asking questions. Freezer cooking is not a trend or a fad. It is a practical, proven system that budget-conscious families have used for decades. Spend one afternoon making these five meals, stock your freezer, and enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing dinner is always just a thaw away.