I like to cook for my family and I really like prepping their meals for the week. However, there are some situations that prompt you to grab a cheap meal for your family. I always keep in mind my weekly grocery budget. When you’re on a budget you have to be creative by figuring out how to eat out and stick to your budget.
When I make my grocery list, I like to include at least 1 meal that my family can pick up at a restaurant. Our grocery budget is $120 per week which includes occasionally eating out. There is nothing wrong with including a takeout meal within your budget that you family will enjoy.
You should always be mindful of the best cheap restaurants that work within your family budget.
Reasons Why You May Need to Eat Out
- Sickness: when you are sick you might not have the energy to cook or prep meals.
- Late night: When you kids are involved in afterschool activities or you have unexpected office hours for the day, it can put a damper on your cooking for that particular day.
- Longer Than Expected Commutes: Somedays you will run into delay traffic due to accidents or construction work.
- Special Occasions: You may have a birthday or a specific holiday you would like to celebrate with your family.
- Other Family Members are sick: Sometimes you have to take care of others and you find yourself burnt out to the point where you don’t feel like cooking.
- Family Emergency: Life happens right? We all run into situations where things happen that are out of our control and we must react quickly. In this type of situation, you may be forced to make a decision to grab a bite to eat on the go.
When you have to make the choice to grab takeout for your family you want meal options that don’t crush your budget.
You might find that some of these meals’ options are not the healthiest choice for your family. However, eating out should be limited and not done every day when you are trying to stick to a budget.
This comprehensive list will show you how to eat and stick to your budget.
Here is a list of 9 Cheap restaurants that will help you feed your family without breaking the bank.
Steak and Shake
Guess what you can get a made-to-order meal for under $4? Did you know that Steak and Shake has meal choices for your whole family for under $4 each?
The $4 for four items menu at Steak n Shake includes:
- Original Double ‘n Cheese Steak burger ‘n Fries
- Single Bacon Cheese Steak burger™
- Triple Steak burger™
- Chicken Fingers
All meals come with fries, an additional side, and a cookie.
Plus, they have other great deals for your family such as:
- Kids Eat Free on Weekends (Saturday and Sunday at participating locations, with $9 spent on adult meals)
- Half Price Happy Hour weekdays from 2-5 (All drinks and shakes are ½ prices, including)
- Pick 2 for $3 Value Meal (you can pick from All-American Steakburger, Buffalo Ranch Steakburger, Steak Frank, Grilled Cheese and Fries)
See Steak and Shake current promotions and coupons here.
Subway
If you are in the mood for a sandwich look no further than Subway for great sub deals. You can choose the sub of the day and pay only $3.50 for the 6’ sub or go all the way with a footlong sub that cost only $6.00.
Subway specials are a great way to save money on your lunch or dinner. They also have daily specials where value subs are only 4.99 every day. You can head home and add your favorite chips and drink from your pantry to save even more money.
Here is the current list of subs that you can choose if you would like to take advantage of the $3.50 or $6.00 deal.
- Monday – Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki
- Tuesday – Oven Roasted Chicken
- Wednesday – Turkey Breast
- Thursday – Italian B.M.T
- Friday – Tuna
- Saturday – Black Forest Ham
- Sunday – Meatball Marinara
See Subway current promotions and coupons here.
Salsarita’s
Are you craving Mexican food tonight? Well you are in luck because you can order the Fiesta Pack which easily serves five people for 29.99.
The Fiesta pack includes rice, protein, beans, salsa, and all the toppings you want.
You can select Mexican rice or brown rice for your rice option. Then you have a selection from three different beans such as black, pinto or refried beans. There is a nice selection of toppings you can pick which has seven different house-made salsas and a nice selection of fresh toppings.
This pack will last my family for two days.
Why wait? You can click here to order Salsarita’s online.
Pasta and Provisions
If your family love Italian food, then you can order Pasta and Provisions. They offer prepared food that will easily serve a family of 3. Their food options change seasonally but can range from Italian dishes such as chicken piccata, baked ziti, chicken parmesan, and chicken marsala.
easily serve a family of 3. Their food options change seasonally but can range from Italian dishes such as chicken piccata, baked ziti, chicken parmesan, and chicken marsala.
Their meals vary in size and cost. You can expect to pay between 8.95 and 10.95. However, if you like lasagna with meat, spinach, or vegetable they offer an option that serves 3-4 or 9-12 people.
The prices will vary between 9.95 and 30.95.
See Pasta and Provision current promotions and coupons here.
Kentucky Fried Chicken
If you like fried chicken this is another great place to order a quick meal on-the-go. We love to grab KFC $5.00 fill up. KFC gives you five different meal options that you can select.
If you love pot pie I would urge you to get this meal deal a try. The only option we have not tried is the famous bowl. The bowl is a little different for our taste buds.
Our favorite options are the crispy colonel sandwich and the drumstick and thigh.
Here is the list of options you can choose from:
- Crispy colonel sandwich, wedges, cookie, and a medium drink
- Drumstick and thigh, mashed potatoes, biscuit, cookie and a medium drink
- Chicken breast, mashed potatoes, biscuit, cookie and a medium drink
- Pot pie, cookie and a medium drink
- Famous bowl, cookie and a medium drink
See Kentucky Fried Chicken current promotions and coupons here.
Wendy’s
I love to go through the drive through and see that fast food places still have dollar menus. However, when my family is in the mood for quick fast food, we like to grab the Wendy’s 4 for $4.00 bundle deal. You can’t go wrong with this cheap meal deal for your family.
You can choose from eight different entrees, a drink, small fry and chicken nuggets all for the wonderful price of $4.00.
The entrees you can choose are the double stack burger, crispy chicken sandwich, grilled go-wrap Jr., Jr. bacon cheeseburger, crispy chicken BLT, Jr. cheeseburger, spicy go wrap and Jr. cheeseburger deluxe.
There are so many great options to select with this bundle deal that it makes it a great choice for families on-the-go. Three bundle deals can normally stretch into lunch and dinner for my family.
See Wendy’s current promotions and coupons here.
Domino’s
Sometimes, once every two or three months we order take-out pizza. We love to use Domino’s long-standing special which is the Pick 2 or more items for 5.99 each. Domino’s gives you a nice variety to choose from.
You can choose from a medium 2-Topping pizza, bread twists, salad, marbled cookie brownie, oven baked sandwich, stuff cheesy bread, 8-piece boneless chicken or pasta. We normally stick to three medium pizza which will last for 3 meals.
This is a perfect option when you have invited guests and you’re not in the mood to cook. We normally put together the ingredients to make a toss salad which makes a great addition to pizza night.
- 3 Medium pizza: 5.99 each
- Head of Lettuce: .89 cents
- Cucumber: .50 cents
- Tomato: .79 cents
- Dressing: 1.50
See Domino’s current promotions and coupons here.
Biscuitville
If you love breakfast, you can find some of the best food and best prices at Biscuitville. They are a fresh southern fast food restaurant that mainly serve breakfast food with a limited lunch menu.
They have limited hours between 6:00am and 2:00pm. They have the best biscuits that are freshly made every fifteen minutes.
In addition, to biscuits you can find breakfast platters, home style sides and sweets. My family normally get the breakfast platter which includes a meat of your choice, 2eggs, biscuit and a side (grits, gravy, or hash brown).
This platter costs $3.99 and it’s very fulfilling.
- 3 breakfast platters: 3.99
See Biscuitville current promotions and coupons here.
Koyoto Hibachi Express
If you love hibachi food this is a great option to buy to serve a family with 4-5 people. They offer a wonderful family meal that comes with teriyaki chicken (or another meat option), sautéed vegetables, fried rice, and a variety of sauces.
You can also choose from soup or salad. The price for this meal is 18.99. We normally have leftovers after dinner, and we will eat this meal the next day for lunch.
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