I tracked my food spending for one month and the number made me physically uncomfortable. Lunch alone was costing me $12-15 a day — $60-75 a week just for the meal I ate at my desk while scrolling Twitter. That was more than my weekly grocery budget should have been for all meals.

The next week I set myself a challenge: feed myself lunch and dinner for seven days on $40. I hit $38.72. I have done it every week since.

The Strategy: Three Ingredients, Five Ways

The mistake people make with meal prep is cooking 14 different recipes. You end up buying a tablespoon of this, a pinch of that, and half the specialty ingredients go bad in the fridge. The $40 method is the opposite: buy a small number of versatile staples in bulk and prepare them in different combinations.

The $40 Shopping List

• Chicken thighs (family pack): $8 — cheaper than breasts and do not dry out when reheated
• Eggs (18-count): $4 — protein for breakfasts, snacks, or quick dinners
• Rice (5 lb bag): $5 — lasts multiple weeks, but we are counting the weekly portion
• Dried lentils (2 lb): $3 — protein and fiber, cook in 20 minutes
• Frozen mixed vegetables (2 bags): $4 — no waste, no chopping, just as nutritious as fresh
• Canned tomatoes (2 cans): $2 — sauce base, soup base, chili base
• Onions (3 lb bag): $3
• Oats (large container): $4 — breakfast for the full week plus snacks
• Bananas (bunch): $2
• Seasoning basics (salt, pepper, cumin, paprika): $5 — one-time buy that lasts months

Sunday Prep: Two Hours

1. Cook all the rice. One pot, 20 minutes. Split into containers.
2. Season and roast the chicken thighs. 400°F, 35 minutes. Let cool, slice or shred.
3. Cook the lentils with one can of tomatoes, some onion, and cumin. Simple lentil stew.
4. Sauté half the onions for the week — caramelized onions make everything taste better and take 30 minutes on low heat while you do other prep.
5. Hard boil six eggs. Grab-and-go protein for mornings you are running late.

During the week, you mix and match: rice bowl with chicken and frozen veg, lentil stew with a fried egg on top, oatmeal with banana for breakfast, chicken and rice wrapped in whatever greens are leftover. Nothing is a recipe. Everything is a combination.