• Home
    • Recipes
      • Recipe Index
      • How-To & Cooking Tutorials
      • Popular Recipes
    • Meal Plans
      • Weekly Meal Plans
      • Freezer Meal Plans
      • The ORIGINAL 20 Meals for $150 Plans
    • Classes
      • Grocery Savings 101 Workshop
      • Freezer Cooking 101 Workshop
      • Meal Planning 101 Workshop
      • Whis-Kid Cooking Lessons
      • Instant Pot Cooking 101 Course
      • My Efficient Kitchen Course
    • Store
    • Blog
    • Contact
      • About
      • Press
    • Login

    $5 Dinners | Budget Recipes, Meal Plans, Freezer Meals

    Budget Recipes, Meal Plans, Freezer Meals and Cooking Tutorials for the Busy Home Chef

    Join Erin's 5-Ingredient Challenge in 2023

    Taco Soup and Sweet Watermelon

    August 31, 2008 by Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom 7 Comments

    0 shares
    • Share
    • Tweet

    Sign up to receive FREE weekly emails with recipes, coupons and other money saving tips right into your inbox. Become a friend on Facebook too AND/OR join the $5 Meal Plan Family and get meal plans delivered to you each week!

    I know this is a popular one! Here’s how I do it and how much it costs me! This one can be stretched with more rice and 1 more can of tomatoes for lots of leftovers!

    Ingredients
    1/2 lb Ground Beef ($.90)
    1-2 cans whole tomatoes ($.59)
    1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies ($.65)
    1/2 cup rice, uncooked ($.10)
    1 taco seasoning packet ($.33) (Or make your own taco seasoning here.)
    1/2 cup red and black beans, uncooked ($.30)
    1-2 corn cob ($.50)
    water
    4-6 slices watermelon ($.35)

    Directions

    • Soak beans in water overnight. Cook beans covered with at least 1″ water for 1.5 – 2 hours, until tender. Save a litte juice and drain off the rest.
    • Boil/nuke corn and then cut off kernals.
    • Brown beef, drain. Put back in pot. Add tomaotes, Rotel, rice, taco seasoning, beans and corn. Cover with water and simmer until rice is cooked and your house is filled with the tasty aroma of Taco Soup!
    • Serve yummy spicy soup with sweet drippy watermelon!

    Cost $3.72
    I love it when it comes out way under! This is a great one to double, freeze and pull out on a busy afternoon!

    0 shares
    • Share
    • Tweet

    Filed Under: Beans Recipes, Beef Recipes, Budget Friendly Recipes, Rice Recipes Tagged With: corn cobs, ground beef, watermelon

    Comments

    1. Hearts And Home says

      August 31, 2008 at 9:17 pm

      Taco Soup is my boys favorite meal meal.

      Thanks for sharing all the great ideas.

      Reply
    2. Bobbie says

      September 1, 2008 at 10:12 am

      I love taco soup. I made it this week- had enough to bring to a sick friend and enough for my house too. It is so enocomical!! I just found your site and am loving looking around!

      Reply
    3. Martha A. says

      September 1, 2008 at 1:30 pm

      Something else you can do to cut down the cost a bit more is make your own taco seasoning. It often has perservatives in it that I do not like too!
      Anyhow, I use chili powder, garlic powder or fresh minced garlic, onion powder or really finely minced onion, cumin and a little flour or cornstarch. I have some recipes for real stuff if you want.
      Also, for the canned tomatoes, I get a #10 can of diced tomatoes or tomato sauce and freeze it in smaller containers to use. It is under $2 or around that for the whole can. If you use diced green peppers or check at farmers market for chilies etc. and freeze them, you can use these in taco soup then all year with your tomatoes. I have also frozen tomatoes which I got free or cheap or grew myself.
      I also was given tons of dry beans that people did not want, they last a long time and then that is free!
      Just a couple more ideas to make this wonderful dinner cheaper! I have also done it with leftover chicken instead of beef! If you can make double the amount for the same price then freeze half of it for another dinner!

      Reply
    4. [email protected] says

      September 5, 2008 at 12:03 pm

      I just found your site, and I’m loving it! I can already tell I’ll be printing off a lot of these… Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
    5. Angie W. says

      June 8, 2011 at 8:20 pm

      We tried the soup today. We LOVE it – it is a hit! It cost us about $7.35 for the ingredients, without the .99 cents for Taco Seasoning or rice, and we added shreadded cheese on top. So – for $10.00 – it will feed us for a couple of days – splitting it back into 2 $5.00 meals. πŸ˜‰

      Reply
    6. Aurora Montelongo says

      July 16, 2012 at 12:13 pm

      I just love your ideas on how to make 5 dollar dinners. Being that I am on a fixed income and finding your ideas so refreshing. Also the way you break down every ingredient is so very new to me that I love it. Thank you for sharing your favorite recipes.

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. 5 Dollar Dinners–Taco Soup | Petra School says:
      June 9, 2011 at 3:06 am

      […] So – the Taco Soup & Sweet Watermelon recipe is here: https://www.5dollardinners.com/2008/08/taco-soup-and-sweet-watermelon.html […]

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    I’m Erin Chase…

    Also known as the
    $5 Dinner Mom.

    I have a little problem. I cannot make a meal that costs more than $5.
    It’s a fun challenge,
    and my pocketbook
    thanks me.
    Want to join me?

    Learn more here!

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

    Search $5 Dinners

    Favorite Meal Planning & Cooking Resources

    Whis-Kid Cooking Lessons Grocery Budget Makeover My Freezeasy Erin Chase Store 5DD Freebie Library 20 Meals for $150 Plans

    © 2023 5 Dollar Dinners | Disclosure Policy | Copyright Information | Terms of Service/Privacy Policy | Accessibility | Design & Tech Support by Klong Designs



    Copyright © 2023 Β· 5 Dollar Dinners Genesis Child Theme on Genesis Framework Β· WordPress Β· Log in