When I'm trying to budget before payday, I'm usually digging through the freezer and my pantry to find what I can make without having to go to the local shop to buy groceries. This is why I like to have a well-stocked pantry. It's also why I like to have a crock pot.
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You can throw some pantry staples in the crock pot and end up with something delicious. It's perfect for weeknight meals and planning ahead.
Five simple dinners. One grocery list.
No recipe hunting, no messy shopping notes, no complicated chef projects. Just family dinners that fit real weeks.
Have a look through these 20 crockpot dinners to give you an idea for something to make when it's the week before payday.
1) Slow Cooker White Bean and Ham Soup
This slow cooker white bean and ham soup is something I like to make when I need something cheap but also nutritious and filling. I like to keep dried beans and some good cartons of broth in the pantry so that a good soup is never far away.
Soups are great for the crock pot and great for stretching your budget. The only fresh ingredients you really need are carrots and celery, but at a push you could use prepackaged frozen. I keep a mixture of dried white beans and also canned white beans.
The dried white beans need to be soaked overnight so that they cook through. If using the canned beans, you can bring this together in an even quicker period of time.
All you need to do is serve this up with some leftover ham. After it's been cooking for about 7 to 8 hours, you'd be amazed at how tender everything comes out and how much flavor the soup has. Serve it up with your favorite crusty bread.
2) Crockpot Lentil and Vegetable Stew
I always like to keep lentils in my pantry for when I need to watch the pennies. Stews are well suited to the crock pot. The long cooking time helps to tenderize everything and maximize flavor.
You can throw a lot of different things into this.
Keep the base ingredients around carrots, potatoes, and onions. Add some good broth and some tinned tomatoes, and you have something hearty, nutritious, and cheap. The crock pot does all the work for this one.
Serve this up with your favorite bread, and you have a complete meal.
3) Slow Cooker Chicken and Rice
Chicken and rice is a favorite of mine, especially when using the crock pot, and you can easily turn it into something tasty without spending a lot of money. I like to buy chicken and keep it in the freezer for later use, especially towards the end of the month.
All you need is some onion, some good seasonings, and your favorite chicken stock to create something good. I like to use fresh vegetables, but if you don't have them, you can use frozen too. Use your favorite seasonings and herbs, and don't forget salt and pepper.
You'll have something tasty and budget-friendly.
4) Crockpot Black Bean Chili
I love to make a good bean chili. It's one of the most cost-effective meals you can learn how to make, using up your pantry staples like black beans, tinned tomatoes, and some good spices. You can end up with a straightforward yet tasty meal.
The crockpot is great for cooking dishes like these and for developing a lot of flavor. I like to serve this up with rice or sometimes even something like naan bread, just to mop up all the sauce. You should have plenty of leftovers too, which you can use for lunch or the next couple of nights' dinners.
5) Slow Cooker Potato and Corn Chowder
Corn chowder is a big favorite of mine, and I love adding things like potatoes to it. It not only helps bulk it out and makes it cheap and filling, but also makes it rich, nice, and thick. I always think of this as stick-to-your-ribs style food.
You can use canned corn, or I like to keep frozen corn in my freezer as it's cheaper. Just let your slow cooker do its thing. The key to making this one nice and tasty is plenty of seasoning, and I like to use cream at the end to make sure it's nice and rich, but you can also use milk.
Serve it up with some sort of starchy carbohydrate, like bread, naan bread, or even a flatbread, to make it complete.
6) Crockpot Salsa Chicken Tacos
Tacos don't need to be expensive to make, and all you really need is some good salsa, spices, and chicken breasts. All this together in the slow cooker, cooking nice and gently, and you'll have pull-apart chicken ready for dinner. A lot of the flavor will come from the salsa, but you can also add extra seasonings to your own taste.
Top this off with whatever you have in the fridge. I always like to have yogurt and some sort of cheese, which will help bring this all together. You can even serve this up with your favorite rice or even noodles.
Salsa chicken became a family standby because it only asks for three ingredients and zero measuring cups. On the nights I forget to plan dinner until 3pm, that math matters more than I’d like to admit.
7) Slow Cooker Split Pea Soup
Split pea soup is a classic here in Scotland. I usually make mine with dried split green peas, but you can also use yellow split peas and even canned if you have them, as opposed to dried. I think some diced ham gives a lot of flavor, but you could even make the soup without it, and it'll still be good.
I like to keep a can of Spam in my pantry, and you could use that here, which helps you stretch your budget even further. Add your favorite herbs and vegetables and let the slow cooker do the hard work.
8) Crockpot Red Beans and Rice
Beans and rice are always a great combination for when it's getting close to payday. Dried beans, some aromatics like onion, celery, garlic, and some good chicken broth, and you have dinner right there.
The good thing about recipes like these is that they are customizable. You can add whatever herbs, fresh or dried, and make it spicier or not so spicy, depending on your tastes. If you have any leftover meat hanging around in the fridge, throw that in too.
9) Slow Cooker Sausage and Cabbage
Smoked sausage is one of those great ingredients that is handy to have in the freezer. Because it's already cooked, you can create something from it super quickly. Add in some cabbage, potatoes, and carrots, and you've got something nutritious and filling from just staples in the pantry.
Make sure you use plenty of seasoning and a good broth to get maximum flavor. You could serve this up with rice or even on a baked potato. My favorite way, though, is with my favorite bread.
10) Crockpot Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce
Everybody needs to know how to make a good tomato sauce, especially from canned tomatoes. They are a pantry must-have and well suited to when you are in the run-up to payday. It needs a little onion, garlic, and herbs and you have a great base sauce that you can toss through your favourite pasta.
This is well suited to the crock pot as cooking the tomatoes helps to enhance their sweetness and bring out all the flavour. You can also add things to this, like beans or pulses, to make it more filling. Finish off with your favourite cheese, like grated Parmesan, for a budget-friendly meal.
11) Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry
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Making a curry is a great way to use pantry staples like beans and lentils. When you get sick of making stews, chickpeas are classic in curries, and all you need is some good tomatoes, coconut milk, your favorite curry powder, and canned chickpeas. Don't forget your aromatics like garlic and onion.
Can't make a good curry without some onion.
Slow cooking is great for making curries as it helps develop the flavor, and it's pretty versatile too. You can have it with rice, you can have it with naan bread (flatbread), and you can also add any vegetables you have in the fridge that need to be used up.
“A slow cooker doesn’t fix a tight week. It just makes the tight week a little kinder.”
12) Crockpot Beef and Barley Soup
Soups are a big thing here in Scotland, especially in the winter, and it's amazing what you can make a good soup out of. Barley is a big ingredient. It's perfect for the pantry and school cooking.
It gives a lot of nutrition.
Adding some meat with some carrots, celery, and onion, and slow cooking results in a hearty, filling soup. Bread and butter finish this off for me. If you like it chunky, leave it as it is, or if you like it smoother, sometimes what I do is blend a third of it, then return it to the pot so you end up with a slightly smoother texture.
13) Slow Cooker BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
Most people think of pulled pork sandwiches, but they forget that you can do the same thing with chicken. The slow cooker is great for that.
I always like to make sure I have a backup of chicken breasts in the freezer for the end of the month. Some aromatics, chicken breast with barbecue sauce, plus a little stock, and you've got your own barbecue pulled chicken.
You can serve this up in your favorite bun with some good coleslaw or even some pickled vegetables. You'll end up with some extra left over, which is great for lunches or dinner. If you don't have any buns, serve it up over rice or even something like couscous.
14) Crockpot Minestrone with Pantry Beans
Minestrone is one of my favorite soups to make, as you don't have to follow any real recipe and you can use whatever you have lying around and in your pantry. Think of things like your favorite canned beans, some tinned tomatoes, and adding your favorite pasta helps to bulk it out. You could even add rice if you didn't have any small pasta shapes.
A sofrito of carrots, onion, and celery helps to build the flavor. If you don't have any fresh, you could use frozen. Don't forget to add the pasta towards the end of cooking so that it doesn't turn to mush.
Any other vegetables you have lying around that need to be used up, throw them in too.
I like to toast a nice slice of ciabatta to have with my minestrone. Use your favorite bread for a nutritious and cheap meal.
15) Slow Cooker Baked Potato Soup
Baked potato soup is something I make when I have a lot of potatoes that are starting to turn. It's also slightly more unusual and a great way of turning a cheap ingredient into dinner for the next few nights.
The key to this one is adding things like spices and herbs and enriching it with some dairy, like milk or cream and cheese. Top this off with some chopped bacon bits (crispy bacon bits are preferred), but sometimes I will use something like chorizo if I don't have bacon, as long as you get it nice and crispy.
Don't forget to mash up some of your potatoes as well, and then add them back to the soup to help thicken it and turn it into something really hearty.
Soups and stews stretch a grocery budget better than almost any other dinner category because the base ingredients, broth, potatoes, beans, are cheap and filling on their own. Everything else is just seasoning. That’s the whole trick behind most of this list.
16) Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup
As long as you've got some chicken, some good tinned tomatoes, your favorite beans, and stock, you can make this tasty and filling soup. Frozen corn should always be in your freezer so that you can make this one. All you need to have are the spices, like chili powder and cumin.
After the long, slow cooking, the chicken will be easily shreddable. You can even do this whilst it is still in the crock pot. Finish off with some tortilla chips and a little bit of lime juice or lemon if you don't have lime.
17) Slow Cooker Vegetable and Rice Casserole
This vegetable and rice casserole is ideal for when you don't have any beans, lentils, or protein, but you do need to get something nutritious. So amazing what you can do with vegetables and rice. You don't even need fresh ones.
Frozen mixed vegetables are our pantry staple, a pantry must-have.
Add the vegetables in the stock, along with any herbs, spices, and aromatics, to the slow cooker and let it simmer away gently. Adding the rice towards the end will stop it from turning mushy. If you don't have rice, you could use pasta.
A good substitute would be orzo.
Add anything you like to this that needs to be used up, and don't skimp on the seasoning.
18) Crockpot Pinto Bean Burrito Bowls
Burrito bowls are a favorite of mine and well-suited for making a cheap meal. Combine it with some good stock, some onions, and your favorite taco seasoning. All you need is a good store-bought salsa and some rice to finish off the meal.
Useful additions like cheese and corn, and a little bit of sour cream, help to make it into the classic. Beans and rice are so important for budget-style cooking.
19) Slow Cooker Turkey Meatballs in Marinara
Meatballs in a marinara sauce, but using turkey. Ground turkey is a great hack for watching your pennies. It's also healthier and has less fat than using ground beef.
The only hard part is to mix together the meatballs and then brown them in a pan. This is so important to get flavor into the meatballs and the overall dish. The rest of this recipe can be taken care of by the slow cooker.
Don't try to add the meatballs raw to the slow cooker. They will just disintegrate, and they will lose their shape. Make this classic and serve over spaghetti or even in your favorite sub roll.
20) Crockpot Stuffed Pepper Soup
This soup is not only budget-friendly but also tastes like stuffed peppers in soup form. Peppers and canned tomatoes, along with some rice and ground beef, give you that familiar flavor of stuffed peppers. Don't forget to add plenty of seasonings.
I like to use an Italian seasoning blend, but even something like just oregano would work here. Don't forget to brown your beef to develop flavor and add the rice towards the end. You don't want it to be overcooked and mushy.
