Cooking for One on a Budget

Cooking for one is oddly expensive. Recipes make eight portions, so you eat the same pot for five days or you throw half of it out. Packages are sized for families, so the half onion goes soft in the fridge and the extra can of beans never gets opened.

I wrote this book so a single serving costs a dollar or so and nothing in the fridge goes to waste.

What is inside

A 34 page printable PDF with 30 recipes. Each one serves one, with prep and cook time, an estimated cost for the meal at 2025 US grocery prices, a price on every ingredient line, a numbered method and a tip. Then a leftovers note: what to do with the other half of the can, the spare tortillas, the rest of the tomato sauce. Every meal costs between $0.51 and $1.37 (estimated), with a typical dinner near 91 cents.

The back page is a solo cook's freezer map: what to freeze flat in bags, and what to freeze in ice cube trays so a cube equals one serving of sauce.

Three dinners from the book

• Single-Serving Garlic Butter Noodles: $0.65 for the meal. Three ounces of spaghetti, butter, garlic, a spoon of peas and parmesan, 15 minutes.
• Bean Quesadilla for One: $0.75 for the meal. A tortilla, a quarter cup of beans from the half can you opened the night before, and cheese.
• Lentil Soup, One Big Bowl: $0.72 for the meal. The tip is to double it and freeze half for about 40 cents more.

Four rules for the solo cook

Freeze in single portions. Buy loose onions and carrots instead of bags. Open a can of beans, use half, and freeze the rest in a jar. Cook rice or pasta for two on purpose so tomorrow's dinner is half done.

Why the leftovers note matters

The cheapest dinner is the one that uses food you already bought. Each note links the extra ingredient to a recipe in the book, so a can of beans becomes two dinners rather than one dinner and a waste.

Prices in the book are estimates at 2025 US grocery prices, and the ingredient price is on every line so you can use your own.

Who it is for

Students, new graduates, people in a first apartment, anyone whose household shrank, and anyone who cooks alone on weeknights. The recipes use plain ingredients from a regular budget grocery store, a single pan or pot, and a stove or toaster oven. Nothing needs a special tool, and most dinners are ready in 20 minutes or less. If you have been eating cereal for dinner because cooking for one feels pointless, this is the book that makes it worth turning on the stove again.