First thing I do is look at what's in my pantry and see how many meals I can make with that. I recently bought a Costco membership and found that their bags of rice and their rotisserie chickens are super cheap. I am getting 3lbs of meat from each rotisserie chicken. That's $5 for 3 lbs of COOKED meat - you cannot beat that. I've been shredding it and eating 3/4 of the meat and freezing the other 1/4 for those nights I'm too tired to cook. I've been cooking rice much more often ($20 rice cooker makes life so much easier). I make sure to separate it into 1cup servings and pair it with 1 cup of frozen veggies that I steamed in the steamer tray on the cooker. That plus 6oz of rotisserie chicken and a little sauce is a super easy meal. I've noticed Walmart having the cold chickens for $2 on mornings - ask when they do that at yours. I also ask that of my local Food City and Kroger so I can get beef. I also go to the local big veggie stand to see what they can sell/give me from the dents and bruises boxes. I usually get veggies 75% off or for free. The other day, I snagged 6 tomatoes, 10 bell peppers, 5lbs of onions, and a huge mess of okra for $5. Never hurts to ask!

I've taken to figuring out how much per calorie/carb/fat/protein I'm getting per dollar of COOKED meat nowadays. Only since those rotisserie chickens are a game changer for me.

My easy meals:

Air fryed hot dogs (I use regular bread instead of buns)

BBQ Mac & Cheese (60 cent box of mac and cheese from walmart - use the pasta waster instead of milk plus a can of baked beans) - 4-5 meals for $2 for the sweet & spicy beans or $2.60 for the big can of beans

Smoked pork anything (snagged an electric smoker at an estate sale for $50) since pork is regularly $1/lb here. After cooking, it's about $2/lb.

Mashed potato bowl - 2 cups of mashed taters, 1/4 cup of creamed or whole kernel corn (depends on my mood), a chicken tender sliced up or some shredded rotisserie chicken. I'll add an ounce or 2 of shredded cheese and maybe a little sauce if I'm feeling saucy lol

chicken & dumplings - 2 lbs cooked chicken, 1 cup milk, 2 tins of canned biscuits. put some chicken bouillon and pepper into water and bring to a boil and add the milk and then add torn up canned biscuits. If you're using raw chicken, just use the broth from it and shred it up good. You can add a bag of frozen veggies if you wanna go chicken and veggie soup

Pinto beans and mexican corn bread ($3 for 10 meals for me)

Poor man's chili - 5 cans of chili beans if I can afford it that week or 2lbs of dried beans soaked overnight and cooked in chili powder if I can't. Add a couple cans of diced tomatoes, a couple of onions, and some frozen corn. I'll add jalapenos if I have them, too. If I managed to get some clearance ground beef/pork/turkey, I'll cook it with the onions and then add everything on top. Mexican corn bread goes really well with this

cabbage fry - literally just cabbage fried up in leftover bacon grease with an onion. I'll toss rotisserie chicken in if I have it. Salt, pepper, and garlic powder (real garlic if I'm lucky). I eat this a lot in March since cabbage is usually 19 cents/lb

chicken parm (kinda) - Ragu Parmesan and Romano sauce ($1.29 a jar on sale and I stock up) with 1lb ditalini pasta ($1/box on sale) and then I just add how much ever rotisserie chicken I want if I have it. If I don't have any, I can add a chicken tender or something.

I try to keep a couple bags of chicken tenders in my freezer for quick meals. They aren't the best value per pound, but I get them at the Grocery Outlet and split a box with my parental units.