51 Easy Cheap Lunch Ideas To Stay Under Budget

Knowing what to have for each meal of the day could be powerful, each on our wallets and our minds. But all is just not misplaced! There are loads of straightforward low cost lunch concepts on the market to maintain us going.

I’ve compiled fifty-one of my favourite straightforward recipes into this fast and simple listing. Save time, cash, and stress with these low cost meals, ideally suited for work, faculty, or a lazy day at house.

What Are Good Cheap Lunch Ideas?

There are loads of tasty and budget-friendly lunch concepts you possibly can attempt. A easy sandwich with recent greens and hummus or turkey and cheese could be satisfying and doesn’t price a lot cash.

A bowl of soup or chili will also be filling and cost-effective on a good price range, particularly if you happen to make a big batch and freeze parts for future meals.

A salad with combined greens, beans, and hard-boiled eggs or hen is one other wholesome and budget-friendly lunch for choosy eaters.

Leftovers from dinner could be straightforward to get pleasure from an inexpensive, scrumptious meal the simple means. Don’t neglect to contemplate fruits like apples, bananas, or grapes for a nutritious and moveable snack.

Cheap Lunch Ideas for Work

Cheap lunches can nonetheless be wholesome, nutritious, and filling. Each straightforward lunch concept will simply get you thru an extended, arduous day at work.

Many are tasty sufficient to tempt you lengthy earlier than the clock ticks over into lunchtime.

1. Baked Herb Chicken Breasts with Couscous Meal Prep

Source: allnutritious.com

First on the listing is a baked hen meal prep recipe of my design to wow your style buds. I at all times make this for myself because it’s tremendous straightforward to create and full of wholesome substances.

There’s nothing higher than having fun with one thing tasty and figuring out it’s additionally good for you! This wholesome, low cost lunch recipe will get you thru the center of your workday for the entire week.

2. Instant Pot Chicken Caesar Wraps

Source: mooshujenne.com

If you’re meal-prepping, then your Instant Pot is your greatest pal in your meal plan! It’s tremendous straightforward to cook dinner up the proper number of meals in an Instant Pot with out investing a ton of time or cash.

Case in level: these hen Caesar wraps! This is like having fun with a extra filling hen Caesar salad with out all of the prep work. Customize it to fit your tastes, and revel in it at noon!

3. Chicken Fajita Meal Prep Bowl

Source: allnutritious.com

This Chicken Fajita Meal Prep Bowl is a wholesome and engaging meal that’s straightforward to make. That’s why I attain for it so usually.

It has a lot of protein from hen, black beans, and quinoa and contains greens like bell peppers, onions, and cherry tomatoes. Get via the center of your day with a protein increase!

The recipe provides you suggestions for making it your personal, too. Overall, it’s an amazing selection for meal prepping!

4. Avocado and Smashed Chickpea Wraps

Source: recipesfromapantry.com

Looking for one thing kid-friendly you can even ship to high school together with your little ones? Look no additional! This avocado and smashed chickpea wrap is tasty, full of protein, and ideally suited for youths.

It’s moveable and simple to eat, so it’s nice for taking a visit of their lunchbox. Best of all, the flavors are nice, irrespective of how previous you’re. Chickpeas and avocados are an earthy, salty, scrumptious pair.

You’ll love this wholesome wrap recipe in your work lunches!

5. One-Pan Chicken Legs with Chickpeas and Quinoa

Source: allnutritious.com

If you recognize me, then you recognize I like a one-pan meal. There’s one thing about wanting down at your accomplished meal prep and figuring out that you simply solely have to clean a single dish that’s so satisfying!

These one-pan hen legs show that utilizing fewer dishes doesn’t imply compromising taste. With a ton of spices, fiber, and protein, this recipe could have you crusing via the remainder of your day.

6. Baked Bean Muffins

Source: amummytoo.co.uk

Are you a fan of baked beans? You’re not the one one! This baked bean muffin recipe is a intelligent solution to get pleasure from everybody’s favourite canned greens.

Each batch accommodates an entire can of protein-packed beans, so you recognize the muffins are filling. The actual kicker is the flavour of those beauties.

Cheesy and moist, with an fringe of tomato, they’re to die for!

7. Sweet Honey Garlic Chicken Meal Prep

Source: allnutritious.com

I’m an enormous fan of fast and simple hen recipes relating to office lunches. The hen stays moist and scrumptious whereas ready within the fridge, particularly if you happen to coat it with sticky sauce.

Enter my candy honey garlic hen recipe! This sauce is the bomb, full of many scrumptious Asian flavors to maintain your hen moist and engaging. Serve over noodles, stir-fried greens, or rice.

8. Mason Jar Thai Chopped Salad

Source: clankitchen.com

Chopped salads are perfect for work lunches. They’re really easy to organize and embrace a ton of pure fiber to maintain your intestine comfortable. Plus, you possibly can customise them to fit your tastes!

This mason jar Thai chopped salad is easy to organize and flavorful. The mason jar helps preserve every thing contained, making assembling your lunch a breeze.

Check out these different wholesome faculty lunch concepts!

9. Banana Cinnamon Overnight Oats

Source: savorthespoonful.com

Overnight oats for lunch? I’m not complaining! Overnight oats are a deal with you possibly can get pleasure from at any time of day, and these banana cinnamon oats will likely be calling your identify by midday.

This is a filling recipe to achieve for if you happen to’re working low on time. While the recipe requires them to sit down in a single day, you possibly can at all times make these within the morning and allow them to sit till lunch for a similar impact.

10. Cajun Chicken Salad

Source: amandascookin.com

Add a kick of spice to the center of your workday with this scrumptious Cajun hen salad. This is a good way to reuse any leftover hen, giving it new life with the recipe’s daring flavors.

You can use this hen salad nevertheless you want! I like how versatile it’s. Sandwich it between two slices of bread, get pleasure from it in a lettuce cup, or use it to high your favourite greens for a summer time salad.

11. Southwestern Chicken and Rice

Source: lovefromtheoven.com

Chicken and rice are a type of lunchtime staples everyone knows and love. Both substances are filling, and we all know they’re straightforward to organize. However, plain hen and rice get boring quick!

That’s why this Southwestern hen and rice recipe is so nice. It invitations all of the comfort of a easy hen and rice recipe with the flavour of a comforting weeknight dinner.

Healthy Cheap Lunch Ideas

For many people, ‘cheap’ meals usually imply tremendous handy takeout meals that aren’t superb for us. These recipes show that you could get pleasure from wholesome lunches with out breaking the financial institution!

12. Lemon Chicken with Veggies Meal Prep

Source: allnutritious.com

Looking for one thing excessive in protein, vitamins, and fiber? I’ve bought you coated with my lemon hen and greens meal prep recipe. This tremendous easy recipe comes collectively very quickly.

It’s additionally gluten-free and keto-friendly, making it an amazing possibility for these working with some restrictions. With this recipe, you possibly can have your whole week’s lunches sorted very quickly!

13. Kimchi Noodle Salad

Source: rachaelhartleynutrition.com

This punchy recipe is nice for meal prepping, providing a fast and simple lunch recipe that produces an enormous batch. You solely want half an hour, a beneficiant quantity of kimchi, and your favourite greens.

If you’re keen on a bit of spice, that is the recipe for you. The low-level kick from the kimchi is the perfect noon pick-me-up, particularly in summer time. This is a chilly salad with a ton of warmth to again it up.

14. Chickpea Spinach Salad

Source: hurrythefoodup.com

You solely want seven minutes to make this recipe occur. That’s proper, seven minutes! Even probably the most vehement salad haters will fall in love with this recipe. It’s handy, wholesome, and scrumptious.

My favourite a part of this recipe is all of the totally different textures. They come collectively into the proper chunk each single time. You can assemble the salad beforehand or deliver the substances to work.

15. Spicy Pineapple Chicken Meal Prep

Source: allnutritious.com

Spice and sweetness are the oldest of culinary buddies. That’s why this spicy pineapple hen meal prep is so nice! Serve it with scrumptious brown rice, saucy noodles, or stir-fried greens.

The pineapple on this recipe is what makes it sing. The pineapple enzymes break down the hen, making it extremely tender. So it stays tasty and moist even days after you’ve ready it!

16. Curried Quinoa Apple Salad

Source: rachaelhartleynutrition.com

Are you after the proper intersection of candy and savory? This curried quinoa and apple salad has the textures, flavors, and vitamins to make your lunch break the perfect a part of your day.

It’s additionally an amazing recipe to have in your again pocket in your subsequent potluck or picnic. The key to success is crunchy, crispy apples as an alternative of mealy ones.

Try Honeycrisp or Pink Lady apples for the perfect outcomes!

17. 3-Ingredient Teriyaki Chicken

Source: allnutritious.com

Cheap, wholesome, and simple to make? That’s proper! This recipe is my invention, and I at all times attain for it. With simply three substances, it is a killer teriyaki hen sauce that moistens the hen.

Sprinkled with recent inexperienced onions, there’s nothing higher than this in the midst of your day. I additionally love how versatile this recipe is. Serve it on noodles, on greens, and even by itself.

18. Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

Source: canadiancookingadventures.com

Soups are the most effective lunchtime meal prep recipes as a result of you can also make a ton without delay! Soups – notably vegetarian soups – additionally freeze properly, in order that they last more.

This vegetarian black bean soup is wealthy in protein and earthy flavors. Plus, it makes use of principally canned substances. Feed your self for a complete week for lower than ten {dollars}, or prep for the entire household!

19. Sticky Sesame Chickpeas

Source: thedairyfreemenu.com

If you possibly can’t eat hen, these sticky sesame chickpeas provides you with the identical expertise as a pleasant Asian hen dish. This dish is a good noon deal with with a candy, earthy sauce.

Best of all, you can also make it in simply fifteen minutes! With no must cook dinner your hen, the cooking time is nearly nothing, so it’s useless straightforward to make this throughout a busy workday.

20. Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich

Source: acedarspoon.com

If you’re after one thing easy, low cost, and wholesome, there’s nothing flawed with a basic sandwich. This vegetarian sandwich recipe is full of Mediterranean flavors that really feel recent and pleasant.

With all of the substances, you possibly can knock this sandwich collectively in ten minutes or much less. It’s nice if you happen to don’t have entry to a range or microwave at work or want one thing tremendous quick.

This is likely one of the greatest sandwich concepts that aren’t boring!

21. Tangy Veggie Wrap

Source: hurrythefoodup.com

If you’re bored with sandwiches, why not attempt a easy wrap? This tangy veggie wrap has all of the protein, texture, and taste you would ask for from an amazing meal prep recipe.

This will simply get you thru the latter half of your day. You may even slice the wrap into two parts to get pleasure from at totally different afternoon instances while you begin feeling snacky.

22. Mediterranean Chickpea Salad

Source: theroastedroot.internet

I’m an enormous fan of chickpea salads. They’re wildly straightforward to organize, stuffed with refreshing taste, and bursting with sufficient protein to hold you thru hours and hours of labor.

While they don’t at all times look tremendous filling, chickpeas are like condensed morsels of pure protein.

Their mellow taste makes them an excellent salad base, so you possibly can toss whichever substances you need into the fray.

23. Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing

Source: delicrunch.co

Enjoy a basic Caesar salad in your lunch with this straightforward recipe. The selfmade dressing makes this recipe sing, due to its creamy, tangy taste profile.

Paired with a beneficiant sprinkling of croutons, this salad is addictive. Even if you happen to don’t have all the best substances, the recipe is forgiving sufficient to permit any substitutions.

24. Simple Chickpea Salad

Source: sustainmycookinghabit.com

Here’s one other tackle a chickpea salad, which is even easier than the final! With a straightforward dressing and a few refreshing chopped greens, this salad is good for summer time work lunches.

Serve this as a facet dish, or get pleasure from an enormous bowl of this straightforward chickpea salad in your fundamental meal. If you favor grazing all through the day, this additionally makes for a wholesome and scrumptious snack.

Quick Cheap Lunch Ideas

If you’re low on time and feeling the noon stoop, these recipes have your again. We all know the sensation of being in a rush and nonetheless needing to gasoline up!

Whether you’re meal prepping or making your lunch on the day, these recipes will take solely half an hour to make.

25. Zucchini Stir Fry with Garlic and Sesame Seeds

Source: allnutritious.com

Need a fast and simple vegetarian or vegan possibility? This is a comfortable lunch possibility that comes collectively as quick as something. The zucchini and onion cook dinner rapidly, absorbing all of the sauce to grow to be moist.

This is a two-ingredient stir-fry that you should utilize any means you want.

Drop on high of your favourite noodles or serve with a steaming heap of aromatic jasmine rice to get you thru the center of your day.

26. Tortilla Pizza

Source: organicallyaddison.com

The tortilla pizza is each pizza lover’s secret weapon. This is a unbelievable solution to get pleasure from your favourite deal with without having to purchase a ton of substances, make dough, and even fear concerning the sauce.

If you’ve got an oven the place you’re employed, it is a fantastic workday lunch! Otherwise, you can also make this as quickly as you come house.

It solely takes ten minutes, and you’ll high it with all of your favourite toppings.

This is a good lunch concept for youths’ faculty lunches!

27. 10-Minute Peanut Noodles

Source: servedfromscratch.com

Speaking of ten-minute recipes, right here’s one other scrumptious noon recipe that received’t take away your worthwhile relaxation time! Whether you want it for lunch or dinner, this recipe will ship.

The nutty, creamy sauce is tremendous comforting, making this the perfect solution to get via a noon stoop. Enjoy chilly on a summer time afternoon, or make it recent and heat for a winter night time.

28. Chickpea Salad Sandwich

Source: acedarspoon.com

Even if you happen to’re residing a vegetarian life-style, you possibly can nonetheless benefit from the style of a hen salad sandwich! This chickpea salad sandwich has all of the flavors you recognize and love from this potluck staple.

Greek yogurt is the key ingredient right here, making the sandwich creamy and savory with out including a ton of mayonnaise. That’s what makes this low cost, straightforward, tasty, and wholesome.

29. Low-Carb Smoked Turkey and Cucumber Sandwiches

Source: thekitchenismyplayground.com

Whether you want a recipe for tea time or a fast and simple low-carb lunch, that is the place to be. These ‘sandwiches’ don’t have any bread to them, as an alternative utilizing slices of cucumber because the sandwich slices.

This makes this recipe tremendous refreshing and crunchy! Ideal for a sizzling summer time day while you don’t have a number of time to cook dinner, that is tasty, straightforward, and full of crunch.

These different low calorie turkey recipes will likely be excellent in your lunch bag!

30. 5-Minute Buffalo Chicken Wrap

Source: everydayfamilycooking.com

If you’re like everybody else on the planet, likelihood is that you’ve got a little bit of a factor for buffalo hen. Good information, you don’t have to attend till recreation day to get pleasure from this punchy sauce!

This five-minute buffalo hen wrap makes use of leftover hen tenders and any unfastened greens to create one thing divine. If you don’t have leftover tenders, you would at all times use frozen tenders too!

31. Cheese Quesadilla

Source: organicallyaddison.com

Quesadillas are the most effective lunches you possibly can get pleasure from on a price range. All you want is cheese, a tortilla, and a scrumptious dipping sauce to finish the meal.

Reach for this recipe when you have a grilled sandwich maker, range, or oven at your office to soften the cheese. This is a unbelievable after-school snack in your children, too.

32. Asian Garlic Noodles

Source: theforkedspoon.com

Asian-inspired noodle dishes are excellent for meal-prepping your work lunches! This tremendous easy twenty-minute stir fry proves that past a shadow of a doubt.

If you’re a garlic lover, these noodles are for you. You can serve these heat or chilly due to the easy sauce. You may even take the sauce with you to work, boil the noodles there, after which serve!

33. BLT Bagel Sandwich

Source: sugarandsnappeas.com

Who doesn’t love a BLT? This model makes use of a bagel as an alternative of the basic sourdough or bun, making it a bit of sweeter and a bit of bit chewier.

The better part about utilizing a bagel for this sandwich is that the bread retains very properly. Even if you happen to assemble the sandwich a couple of hours earlier than lunch, the bagel received’t get soggy or wreck the style.

34. Easy Spicy Ramen Noodles

Source: naturallieplantbased.com

Take primary packet ramen noodles and provides them a spicy makeover. This flavorful and fast meal comes collectively in simply ten minutes with a number of pantry staples!

These are fairly spicy, due to the Korean gochujang paste, so this recipe positively isn’t for the faint of coronary heart. That stated, if you happen to’re a spice lover, there’s no higher noon pick-me-up.

35. Tuna Salad

Source: littlesunnykitchen.com

Tuna salad is so versatile. You can use it to enlarge salads, sandwiches, and bagels, and even get pleasure from it as a snack by itself.

The prospects are infinite, so it is sensible to have a recipe for this in your arsenal.

Using canned tuna, you possibly can craft an inexpensive and scrumptious lunch or snack very quickly. Tuna is nice mind meals, so that is ideally suited if you happen to want a bit of kick in the midst of your day.

36. Air Fryer Grilled Cheese and Tomato Sandwich

Source: simplyairfryer.com

Nostalgia alert! This recipe for the last word grilled cheese and tomato sandwich is sure to heat your coronary heart and your stomach. The acquainted flavors are excellent for a troublesome day with quite a bit in your plate.

It’s comforting, heat, and filling sufficient to hold you thru no matter your afternoon has to problem you. Best of all, you can also make it with something from an air fryer to a stovetop.

37. Sandwich Pinwheels

Source: thefastrecipe.com

Pinwheels are a intelligent solution to put a tasty twist on a well-recognized favourite. No matter what you get pleasure from in your favourite sandwich, you can also make a pinwheel that matches!

The secret’s chewy flour tortillas. Wrapped tight round your favourite fillings, these tortillas create the proper moveable lunch you possibly can take with you anyplace. From picnics to work days, this recipe works.

38. Beans on Toast

Source: christinascucina.com

Take a touch from the British and check out one thing new with this tasty beans-on-toast recipe. Using canned beans and easy toast, you possibly can get pleasure from a useless easy dish in a matter of minutes.

I like this recipe as a result of any lunch recipe that makes use of canned meals instantly takes stress out of the equation. All you might want to get this carried out is a toaster and a microwave!

39. Tahini Pasta

Source: asweetalternative.com

Tahini is certainly one of my favourite dressings as a result of you should utilize it for just about something. Sweet or savory, tahini has bought your again. In this case, it’s the proper dressing for a easy pasta.

If you need this to be a bit of bit creamier, attempt including some Greek yogurt or a dollop of mayonnaise and mustard to the combination. Regardless, it is a easy, earthy pasta dish you’ll by no means get bored with.

Cheap Cold Lunch Ideas

If you’re employed someplace with no microwave, oven, or range, then chilly lunches are a necessity. Cold lunches could be completely scrumptious, and also you don’t must spend an arm and a leg to make them!

Check out these tasty chilly lunch concepts to modify issues up.

40. Chickpea Salad with Cucumbers and Tomatoes

Source: allnutritious.com

If we’re speaking about chilly lunches, then we will’t go away chickpea salads out of the dialogue. I attain for chickpeas on a regular basis once I want one thing chilly, fast, and simple.

Not solely are they filling, however they’re additionally the proper mellow basis for any mixture of your favourite salad toppings. In this case, this Mediterranean-inspired salad is tremendous refreshing!

41. Buffalo Chicken Salad

Source: healthyfoodiegirl.com

Take a easy hen salad sandwich and crank it up a notch with the addition of some buffalo sauce. This is an ultra-creamy sandwich with a ton of crunch, taste, and creaminess as well.

I extremely suggest whipping up an enormous batch of this hen salad to make use of nevertheless you want. On high of salads, on a comfortable brioche bun, and even unfold on some crackers. The prospects are infinite!

42. Vegan Bean Burrito

Source: nutriciously.com

burrito doesn’t essentially must comprise meat. It simply must be filling, well-wrapped, and stuffed with basic Mexican flavors. That’s why I like this straightforward black bean burrito.

This recipe makes use of rice, black beans, greens, and Mexican spices to create one thing lovely. This is an simply moveable lunch you possibly can take anyplace, from work to high school or perhaps a picnic.

43. Bulgur Wheat Salad

Source: allnutritious.com

I consider that bulgur wheat doesn’t get sufficient love, and I’m right here to alter that! This is a fibrous grain with a mellow taste that’s nice in your intestine well being. Best of all, it’s straightforward to cook dinner with.

If you’ve by no means cooked with bulgur wheat earlier than, attempt my easy salad with this heavy grain. It brings out the perfect of the wheat with a light-weight dressing, crunchy greens, and creamy avocado.

44. Mediterranean Salmon Salad

Source: theroastedroot.internet

Salmon is a good lunch ingredient. It’s refreshing, filling, and wonderful mind meals. However, it’s not the simplest factor to cook dinner if you happen to’re in a rush or need one thing chilly!

Enter canned salmon. This underappreciated ingredient is so nice in salads. Packed with briny taste and flaked to perfection, it’s scrumptious as a part of a summer time salad.

45. Curry Chicken Salad with Grapes

Source: saporitokitchen.com

Curry hen and… grapes? Hear me out on this one! The little gems of grape scattered all through the daring curried hen assist add little bursts of sweetness to each chunk.

This salad is by turns creamy, candy, and spicy. Add within the crunch from the pecans, and also you’ve bought a successful combo!

46. Chicken Bacon Ranch Wraps

Source: budgetdelicious.com

Love a hen, bacon, and ranch salad? Make the flavour mixture further filling and moveable with these scrumptious wraps! There’s one thing so addictive about these chewy, flavorful wraps.

Maybe it’s how straightforward they’re to make or the intersection of crunchy greens and engaging hen. Considering how briskly they’re to make, these are a number of the final faculty lunch treats.

47. Lemon Tuna Noodle Salad

Source: homanathome.com

If you’re trying to put a bit of spin in your tuna salad, look no additional. This lemon tuna noodle salad is the proper answer for a cool summertime lunch. It comes collectively in simply minutes!

The recipe makes use of pantry staples like canned tuna and dry pasta to create one thing magical. With the sunshine lemon dressing and the dappling of spinach, it is a wholesome crowd-pleaser for the entire household.

48. Gluten-Free Paleo Tahini Chicken Salad

Source: strengthandsunshine.com

Remember once I stated that I like Tahini? Well, I actually love tahini, and that is simply another excuse why. It’s the proper dressing so as to add a little bit of substance to any easy hen salad.

Not to say, it brings all of the flavors collectively properly. Use whichever greens you’ve got out there in your vegetable drawer to whip up a fast salad, costume with tahini, and bam! You’re prepared for lunch.

49. Cucumber Sandwiches

Source: julieseatsandtreats.com

Looking for one thing fancy, perhaps even a bit refined, for lunch? These mild cucumber sandwiches are simply what the physician ordered! They’re crunchy, cool, and ideal for having fun with in summer time.

Bring these to your subsequent potluck brunch or serve your friends a proper excessive tea, full with cups of tea and little finger sandwiches. They’ll love the cooling, mellow style of those sandwiches!

50. Savory Cottage Cheese Burrito Bowl

Source: healthyfoodiegirl.com

What occurs while you combine cottage cheese with salsa? Magic, that’s what! This savory cottage cheese burrito bowl is out of this world, pairing creaminess with the chunk and boldness of salsa.

This is a vibrant dish with colours bursting from the plate. Featuring a ton of recent greens, is it any marvel that it is a summertime favourite?

51. Guacamole with Hard Boiled Eggs

Source: inspiringsavings.com

Finally, now we have a brilliant easy and wholesome dish. If you haven’t gone to the grocery retailer shortly and also you’re working out of issues to cook dinner, this recipe has bought your again.

The creamy avocado is nearly like a more healthy model of mayonnaise. Spread it on high of your perfectly-boiled eggs and revel in with a beneficiant quantity of cracked pepper.

Fun, mild, and funky, that is the perfect summertime snack on a lazy day.

That’s a wrap! With fifty-one tasty, low cost, wholesome methods to get you thru your busy lunch break, you’ll be unstoppable this week. Do you’ve got any go-to lunch recipes I missed?

Let me know that are your favorites within the feedback beneath, and good luck for the week forward!