Cheap dinner ideas start with the right meat, not with cutting meat out.
This guide gives you 20 family dinners built on the four cheapest proteins in Australia: beef mince, chicken, sausages and slow cook beef cuts. Every dinner carries an approximate cost per serve in AUD, so you can plan the week to a real number.
You will also find serves-per-kg maths, a cheap meats comparison table, and the buying habits that keep dinners under $5 a head all week.
What Makes a Dinner Cheap? Cost Per Serve Explained
The cheapest meat dinners are built on mince, chicken thigh, sausages and slow cook cuts, landing at roughly $3 to $5 per serve. Price per kg only tells half the story; what matters is how many plates each kilogram fills.
One kilogram of beef mince stretches across six family serves once it is cooked through a sauce or filling, which puts the meat cost around $2 a plate. A kilogram of chicken thigh does similar work. Compare that with a bought family dinner at $12 to $15 a head and the gap is the whole grocery argument.
The prices through this article are approximate guides based on typical Australian prices. They will move with specials and seasons, but the rankings between cuts stay reliable, and that is what you plan around.
The Cheapest Meats for Family Dinners
Six proteins do the heavy lifting in every budget kitchen: mince, chicken thigh, drumsticks, sausages, chuck and gravy beef. They are the workhorses of the best value beef cuts and poultry range, and they all improve rather than suffer when cooked ahead.
| Protein | Guide price (AUD) | Serves per kg | Approx. meat cost per serve |
| Drumsticks | $6 per kg | 4 | $1.50 |
| Sausages | $9 per kg | 5 | $1.80 |
| Chicken thigh | $11 per kg | 6 | $1.85 |
| Beef mince | $12 per kg | 6 | $2.00 |
| Gravy beef | $14 per kg | 5 | $2.80 |
| Chuck steak | $16 per kg | 5 | $3.20 |
Serves assume a family plate with vegetables, pasta, rice or potato carrying part of the meal. Portion maths for each household size is covered in our meat serving size guide.
Cheap Beef Mince Dinners
Mince is the cheapest way to put beef on the table, at roughly $3 to $4 per finished serve. Check how much mince per person you need before you shop; most families overbuy.
1. Spaghetti Bolognese
The budget benchmark. A 1kg batch sauces six big plates at about $3.20 per serve, and leftover sauce becomes tomorrow's jaffle or jacket potato filling.
2. Beef Rissoles with Mash
Rissoles bulk out with onion and breadcrumb, landing around $3.50 per serve. Pan juices over mash mean nothing is wasted.
3. Chilli Con Carne
A tin of beans stretches 500g of mince across five serves, about $3 each. It also freezes better than almost any mince dish.
4. Cottage Pie
Mince and vegetables under potato, around $3.40 per serve. One dish feeds the family with leftovers for lunch.
5. Beef Tacos
Taco night runs about $3.80 per serve with shells and toppings. Kids eat it without negotiation, which counts for plenty on a budget.
6. Mince and Vegetable Stir Fry
End-of-week vegetables plus 500g of mince over rice, roughly $3 per serve. The fastest dinner on this list at under 20 minutes.
Cheap Chicken Dinners
Chicken thigh and drumsticks beat breast on price and stay juicy through reheating, keeping these dinners near $3 to $4.50 per serve.
7. Chicken Thigh Tray Bake
Thighs over potato, pumpkin and onion in one tray, about $3.60 per serve. Hands-off cooking while you do everything else.
8. Roast Drumsticks
The cheapest roast in Australia. Drumsticks with roast vegetables come in around $2.80 per serve.
9. Butter Chicken
Homemade sauce over thigh pieces with rice, about $4.20 per serve. Costs a third of the takeaway version.
10. Chicken and Rice One-Pot
Thighs cooked into seasoned rice, roughly $3.30 per serve. One pot, one wash-up, no leftovers wasted.
11. Chicken Wings Night
Wings glazed and roasted with slaw land near $3 per serve. Feels like a treat, prices like a bargain.
12. Chicken and Vegetable Soup
Drumsticks simmered into a big pot of soup, about $2.50 per serve. The cheapest complete dinner in this guide.
Sausage and Slow Cook Dinners
Sausages are the quick cheap option; chuck and gravy beef are the slow ones that eat far above their price. Slow cook cuts need time, not skill; the method is in our guide to slow cooking beef in the oven.
13. Sausages and Mash
The weeknight staple with onion gravy, about $3 per serve. Good sausages make it dinner rather than a compromise.
14. Curried Sausages
An Australian classic that stretches eight sausages across five serves, roughly $3.20 each. Better the next day.
15. Sausage Tray Bake
Sausages roasted over vegetables, around $3.30 per serve. Zero attention required after the tray goes in.
16. Chuck Casserole
Chuck braised with carrot and onion, about $4.50 per serve. Falls apart after three hours and reheats perfectly.
17. Gravy Beef Stew
The cut named for the job, about $4.20 per serve with potato and vegetables built in.
18. Slow Cooker Ragu
Chuck shredded through tomato sauce over pasta, roughly $4.30 per serve, and it freezes for the fortnight ahead.
19. Shredded Beef Rolls
Slow cooked beef piled into rolls with slaw, about $4.80 per serve. Leftover ragu does double duty here.
20. Beef Curry with Rice
Gravy beef simmered in curry sauce, around $4.40 per serve. The longer it cooks, the cheaper the cut tastes.
How to Keep Meat Dinners Cheap All Week
Cheap dinners stay cheap when you buy once, portion properly and cook twice. Buying your mince, sausages and slow cook cuts together in larger packs brings the per kg price down; the numbers are in our guide to bulk meat buying.
Portion before you freeze, in meal-sized amounts, so you thaw exactly what a dinner needs. Then double the batch dishes: bolognese becomes ragu rolls, chilli tops jacket potatoes, and one Sunday casserole covers Wednesday with no extra cooking.
Finally, compare where you buy. Online butchers often beat supermarket per kg prices on exactly these value cuts; the honest comparison sits in our piece on meat delivery versus supermarket meat.
Conclusion
Twenty dinners, four cheap proteins, and every one under about $5 a serve. Cheap dinner ideas are really a buying decision: the right cuts at the right per kg price do the rest. Order your mince, sausages and slow cook cuts from Cost Cut Meats and keep the whole week on budget.
