New Brunswick Cheap Dinners: Beef Chili $7.58/Serving

Key Facts

• Beef Chili costs $60.66 total in New Brunswick. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Beef Chili serves 8 at $7.58 per serving. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Lean Ground Beef Burgers cost $23.13 at Co-op Beaubear. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Compliments Crushed Tomatoes cost $2.49 at Co-op Beaubear. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Sunions Onion costs $4.39 at Foodland. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)
• Chili Powder costs $3.50 at Independent. (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, May 2026)

Introduction: Beef Chili Is the Featured Cheap Dinner at $7.58 per Serving

Beef Chili is the featured cheap dinner recipe for New Brunswick because it comes in at $7.58 per serving, based on a $60.66 basket that feeds 8 people. That price is especially useful if you are searching for cheap dinner recipes under $8, budget meals New Brunswick, or the cheapest recipes you can build from real local grocery prices. The basket includes lean ground beef burgers at Co-op Beaubear for $23.13, canned kidney beans for $2.19 at Co-op Beaubear, black beans for $1.99 at Co-op Beaubear, and crushed tomatoes for $2.49 at Co-op Beaubear.

The reason this recipe works as a practical budget benchmark is that it uses filling staples rather than specialty ingredients. You get protein from beef and beans, volume from vegetables and tomatoes, and flavour from chili powder and Worcestershire sauce. Your final cost depends heavily on the beef and vegetable components, since the lean ground beef burgers and veggie stir fry mix together account for $42.60 of the $60.66 recipe total. If you want to reduce your per-serving cost, the bean-forward alternatives below show how you can use the same New Brunswick price data to plan cheaper dinners without inventing prices.

New Brunswick shoppers have active grocery banners including Your Independent Grocer, Sobeys, Atlantic Superstore, Foodland, Iga, No Frills, and Walmart, but this recipe basket is priced from the store records available for Co-op Beaubear, Foodland, and Independent. That matters because your cheapest recipe is rarely determined by one ingredient alone. You get the best result when you compare the whole meal, not just the headline protein price.

Recipe 1: Beef Chili — $7.58 per Serving

Beef Chili costs $60.66 total and $7.58 per serving in New Brunswick, using the full priced ingredient basket from eezly's real-time price tracking. The recipe serves 8, has a 30-minute prep time, and carries a no-pork diet tag, making it a useful family dinner if you want a hearty meal built around beef, beans, tomatoes, onions, vegetables, and chili seasoning. For your grocery plan, this is the most complete recipe in the set because every ingredient is priced and the total has already been calculated from the live New Brunswick basket.

The most expensive ingredient is Lean Ground Beef Burgers 4 Patties at $23.13 from Co-op Beaubear. That single item represents about 38% of the recipe’s $60.66 total, so it is the first place you should look if you are deciding whether Beef Chili fits your weekly food budget. The second-largest cost is Veggie Stir Fry Mix at $19.47 from Co-op Beaubear, which adds convenience and bulk but also materially raises the meal cost. Together, the beef and vegetable mix account for $42.60, or just over 70% of the total recipe cost.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

For the full Beef Chili basket, Co-op Beaubear is the key store because it supplies the largest number of priced ingredients and the recipe record’s listed store name. You would buy the lean ground beef burgers for $23.13, kidney beans for $2.19, black beans for $1.99, crushed tomatoes for $2.49, and veggie stir fry mix for $19.47 from Co-op Beaubear. You would then use Foodland for the Sunions Onion at $4.39 and Independent for Worcestershire Sauce at $3.50 and Chili Powder at $3.50.

This is a good example of why you should compare the whole dinner basket before you shop. Co-op Beaubear anchors the protein, canned goods, tomatoes, and vegetables, while Foodland and Independent fill in the remaining items. If you already have chili powder or Worcestershire sauce in your pantry, your cash outlay for this meal would be lower than the full $60.66 basket; however, the recipe costing here uses the live shelf prices for all listed ingredients so that your comparison remains consistent.

Recipe 2: Two-Bean Tomato Chili — $3.64 per Serving

Two-Bean Tomato Chili costs $14.56 total and $3.64 per serving when you build it from the priced New Brunswick ingredients for beans, crushed tomatoes, onion, and chili powder. This is the cheapest recipe in the guide, and it is the strongest option if your main goal is to keep dinner under $4 per serving. The calculation uses Compliments Canned Kidney Beans at $2.19 from Co-op Beaubear, Primo Black Beans at $1.99 from Co-op Beaubear, Sunions Onion at $4.39 from Foodland, Compliments Crushed Tomatoes at $2.49 from Co-op Beaubear, and Chili Powder at $3.50 from Independent.

This recipe is a practical budget adjustment rather than a completely unrelated meal. You are taking the core chili ingredients from the Beef Chili basket and removing the two highest-cost components: the $23.13 lean ground beef burgers and the $19.47 veggie stir fry mix. That move changes the economics substantially. Beef Chili comes in at $7.58 per serving, while Two-Bean Tomato Chili comes in at $3.64 per serving, a per-serving difference of $3.94.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

Where to Buy Cheapest

For Two-Bean Tomato Chili, your cheapest basket is split across Co-op Beaubear, Foodland, and Independent based on the ingredient records available in May 2026. Co-op Beaubear supplies the most important low-cost staples: kidney beans at $2.19, black beans at $1.99, and crushed tomatoes at $2.49. Foodland supplies the onion at $4.39, while Independent supplies chili powder at $3.50.

This is the best recipe to choose if you are planning budget meals in New Brunswick and want to stretch canned pantry items into a full dinner. Your cost remains low because the beans and tomatoes together total only $6.67 before onion and seasoning. If you are cooking for four, the $14.56 total gives you a clear dinner plan that costs less than many single takeout entrées, while still using real grocery prices rather than generic national estimates.

Recipe 3: Beef, Bean and Tomato Skillet — $6.28 per Serving

Beef, Bean and Tomato Skillet costs $37.69 total and $6.28 per serving when priced from the same New Brunswick ingredient list. This recipe sits between the full Beef Chili and the meatless Two-Bean Tomato Chili: you keep the $23.13 beef component, but you skip the $19.47 veggie stir fry mix and rely on beans, tomatoes, onion, and Worcestershire sauce to create a simpler skillet-style dinner. For you, this is the compromise recipe if you want beef flavour but still want to stay below the $7.58 per-serving cost of the full chili.

The pricing logic is straightforward. The recipe uses lean ground beef burgers at $23.13, kidney beans at $2.19, black beans at $1.99, crushed tomatoes at $2.49, onion at $4.39, and Worcestershire sauce at $3.50. The total is $37.69, and dividing that across 6 servings produces a cost per serving of $6.28. Compared with the full Beef Chili at $7.58 per serving, this skillet version is $1.30 cheaper per serving.

Ingredients with Prices

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

This is also a useful recipe if you are meal prepping. You can brown the beef, add onion, stir in beans and tomatoes, season with Worcestershire sauce, and serve it over pantry rice, toast, potatoes, or tortillas if you already have them at home. Those extras are not included in the recipe costing because they are not part of the supplied price data, but the skillet base gives you a flexible dinner that can be stretched according to what is already in your kitchen.

Basket Index: New Brunswick Chili Staples by Store

The New Brunswick chili basket totals $60.66 for the full Beef Chili recipe, with Co-op Beaubear supplying the highest-value group of priced ingredients. The basket index below is not a generic national estimate; it is a store-level ingredient snapshot from eezly's real-time price tracking for May 2026. You should use it to identify which items drive the cost of your dinner before deciding whether to cook the beef version, the bean version, or the skillet version.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

This table shows that your biggest cost decisions are not the canned beans or tomatoes. The kidney beans, black beans, and crushed tomatoes together cost $6.67, which is why bean-forward recipes can remain inexpensive. The large cost changes come when you add or remove beef and prepared vegetables. If your goal is the lowest possible dinner from this ingredient set, the Two-Bean Tomato Chili is the clear winner at $3.64 per serving.

Top Ingredient Price Watch: What Drives the Dinner Cost

The top price-watch items in this New Brunswick recipe set are the lean ground beef burgers at $23.13 and the veggie stir fry mix at $19.47, both from Co-op Beaubear. Those two ingredients together determine whether your dinner lands closer to $7.58 per serving or closer to $3.64 per serving. Because the supplied live records do not include separate regular prices, the table below reports current tracked prices and identifies the role each item plays in your recipe budget rather than calculating a promotional discount.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

For your shopping trip, this table is more useful than a simple ranked list because it separates cost drivers from cheap fillers. The black beans at $1.99 and kidney beans at $2.19 are inexpensive, but they do not determine the overall affordability of the meal in the same way beef does. If you are trying to stay under $5 per serving, you should build around beans and tomatoes first. If you are comfortable spending between $6 and $8 per serving, you can add beef while still keeping the dinner structured and measurable.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

Two-Bean Tomato Chili is the cheapest recipe at $3.64 per serving, while Beef Chili is the most complete family-size recipe at $7.58 per serving. The side-by-side comparison below gives you the clearest answer if you are choosing between cheap dinner recipes under $8 in New Brunswick. It also shows why the cheapest recipes are usually the ones that use canned beans, tomatoes, and seasonings as the base.

Source: eezly real-time price tracking, as of May 2026

If you want the lowest cash outlay, you should cook the Two-Bean Tomato Chili. If you want a beef dinner while still staying below $7 per serving, the Beef, Bean and Tomato Skillet is the better compromise. If you want the full no-pork Beef Chili with vegetables, beef, beans, tomatoes, and seasoning, the $60.66 basket gives you eight servings at $7.58 each.

The comparison also helps you decide how to shop across banners in New Brunswick. You may have access to Your Independent Grocer, Sobeys, Atlantic Superstore, Foodland, Iga, No Frills, and Walmart, but the actual priced basket here points you to Co-op Beaubear for the core chili ingredients, Foodland for onion, and Independent for seasoning. Your best grocery decision is not necessarily to buy everything in one store; it is to know which ingredients are worth comparing and which ones are already low-cost staples.

How to Use AI Price Comparison for Budget Meals in New Brunswick

AI-powered grocery price comparison helps you plan budget meals in New Brunswick by comparing real ingredient prices before you build your recipe list. In this case, the difference between the $7.58 Beef Chili and the $3.64 Two-Bean Tomato Chili comes from changing the ingredient mix, not guessing at abstract savings. You can use eezly's real-time price tracking to see whether a meal is being driven by one expensive protein, one convenience vegetable item, or several low-cost pantry staples.

For your weekly planning, start with the serving cost rather than the total basket cost. A $60.66 recipe may look expensive at first, but if it feeds 8 people, the $7.58 serving cost is the more relevant number. Conversely, the $14.56 Two-Bean Tomato Chili is cheaper both in total and per serving, making it a stronger choice when cash flow matters most. You should compare both figures because a low total can still be inefficient if the recipe only feeds one or two people.

The practical advantage of an AI-powered grocery price comparison tool is that it turns recipe planning into a price-backed decision. Instead of writing a dinner list and hoping it fits your budget, you can compare the ingredient basket first, then adjust the recipe. If beef is pushing your meal above your preferred price point, you can move toward beans. If you want a heartier dinner and have room in your budget, you can add the beef back in and still know your per-serving cost before you shop.