Blog series

What It Costs

Real grocery and recipe costs, priced line by line at real stores.

What It Costs

What a Big Dinner Salad Actually Costs (It Is Not Cheap)

We priced 29 main-dish salads at a real Kroger: median $8.06 per serving, near double a typical dinner - plus the cheap salads that beat the trend.

August 24, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Are Budget Recipes Actually Cheap? We Priced 21 at a Real Kroger

We priced 21 popular internet dinner recipes at a real Kroger: median .63 per serving at the register, and three reasons budget claims come in low.

August 17, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Seafood Dinners: Inside the Expensive Tail of Our Data

Seafood tops our cost ranking at .05 a serving for fish, but canned tuna is /bin/bash.76 a portion and our cheapest seafood dinner priced at .46.

August 13, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Egg Prices in 2026: What a Dozen Costs and What It Means for Dinner

BLS put a dozen large eggs at $2.14 in June 2026, the cheapest since November 2023 - but egg dinners still ran above our $4.62 median.

August 7, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

The Hidden Tax of Small-Yield Recipes

Recipes making 1-2 servings cost a median $12.48 per serving in our priced data vs $2.49 for big batches - and the register total barely changes.

August 3, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Why Chicken Dinners Cost More Than Beef Ones in Our Data

Chicken breast costs a third what ground beef does per pound at our store, yet chicken recipes still price .30 more per serving. The reason is recipe structure, not the meat counter.

July 30, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Cheapest Protein Per Serving: 712 Dinners, Ranked by What They Actually Cost

Beans $4.09, beef $4.16, chicken $5.43, fish $7.05: every protein ranked by median cost per serving across 712 priced dinner recipes.

July 26, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

Every Dinner Under $2 Per Serving in Our 712-Recipe Data

All 48 dinners under $2 a serving from 712 priced recipes - the cheapest 15 in a table, why chicken makes the list 11 times, and the honest trade-offs.

July 22, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team What It Costs

What Dinner Actually Costs in 2026: 712 Recipes, Priced Item by Item

We priced 712 dinner recipes item by item at a real Kroger - the median is $4.62 per serving, and the cheap tail is beans all the way down.

July 22, 2026 · CentsPerServing Team