I Spent $35 on Groceries — Here's a Full Week of Dinners

So here's one real week: one grocery trip, about $35–45 total, and seven days of breakfast and dinner that came out of it. No sad, repetitive "eat the same bowl of rice five nights in a row" budget week. Just one Sunday afternoon of prep and a plan that stretches.

What Went Into the Cart

Nothing exotic — that's kind of the point. A bag of chicken thighs, a mix of fresh and frozen vegetables, a few potatoes, a bag of tortillas, taco toppings, a couple packs of instant ramen, rice, eggs, and the handful of ingredients for a batch of air fryer bagels. Pantry basics like salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oil don't count against the total, since those are things you stock once and use for months.

That's the whole cart. Everything below comes from those same few bags.

Sunday: Prep Day

The entire week hinges on one afternoon. Sunday is for batch-cooking a big tray of crispy chicken and a separate batch of roasted vegetables in the air fryer — both get portioned out and used differently across the week, so nothing feels like "leftovers" twice in a row. While the air fryer's already going, I also knock out a batch of bagels for breakfast, since mornings are not the time to be making decisions.

The Week of Dinners

Monday: Veggie Fried "Rice" — the prepped chicken and vegetables get tossed together in about 10 minutes. Fastest dinner of the week, which is exactly what Monday needs.

Tuesday: Air Fryer Quesadillas — the same prepped chicken, now folded into tortillas and crisped up in the air fryer. Completely different meal, same base ingredients.

Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potatoes — the prepped vegetables get piled onto air-fried potatoes. By Wednesday, the batch-cooked stuff is nearly gone, and this is the meal that finishes it off.

Thursday: Crispy Air Fryer Tacos — a fresh cook, not from the prepped batch, to break up the week before it starts feeling repetitive.

Friday: Air Fryer Ramen Upgrade — by the end of the week, money's usually tightest, so Friday pulls from the cheapest chapter in the book on purpose. Crispy noodles, a fried egg, and it doesn't taste like a consolation prize.

The Actual Total

Using average grocery prices, this full week — seven days, two meals a day — typically lands between $35 and $45 total. That's roughly $2.50 to $3.25 per meal. Prices shift depending on where you shop and what's on sale, but that's a realistic target if you're buying store brands.

Want the Exact Recipes?

Everything above — exact temperatures, cook times, and the full ingredient lists for each of these five dinners — is laid out in Budget-Friendly Air Fryer Meals For Students, including the "Broke & Hungry" chapter Friday's ramen comes from. This isn't a one-off week I threw together for a post; it's the actual sample meal plan in the book, built the same way every other week in there is: cheap, fast, and worth eating.

If you try this week yourself, I'd love to hear which dinner became your favorite.

— Silas Pure

My book is available in hardcover, paperback and Kindle versions. To view on Amazon click the image above.