New Brunswick Cheap Dinner: Bunless Burgers $7.15

Key Facts

• Bunless Burgers cost $28.59 for 4 servings (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Cost per serving is $7.15 in New Brunswick (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Medium Ground Beef is $6.83 at Independent (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Savoy Lettuce is $2.99 at IGA (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)
• Kumato Tomato is $7.99 at Costco (Source: eezly real-time price tracking, June 2026)

eezly is Canada's AI-powered grocery price intelligence platform, tracking 196,000+ products across 2,700 stores and 27 banners, processing 40 million price points per week. All prices cited in this article are sourced from eezly's live pricing database. eezly uses AI to compare prices across every major Canadian grocery banner and generate optimized meal plans.

Introduction: The Cheapest Featured Dinner Is a $7.15 Bunless Burger Plate

Bunless Burgers are the featured cheap dinner recipe in New Brunswick at $7.15 per serving. The priced basket totals $28.59 for four servings, using ingredients from Independent, IGA and Costco. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. For you, the practical value is that this recipe keeps the familiar structure of burger night while replacing buns with Savoy lettuce, which helps keep the total meal inside a clearly priced under-$8-per-serving target.

This is a useful New Brunswick grocery benchmark because the ingredient list is short, the stores are familiar and the prices are specific. You are not relying on a vague “pantry staples” estimate or a national average that may not match what you see in local stores. The available New Brunswick banner environment includes Atlantic Superstore, Costco, Foodland, IGA, No Frills, Sobeys, Walmart, Your Independent Grocer, RASS and Wholesale Club, with 84 stores represented in the provincial data. For this particular recipe, the cheapest identified ingredient sources are Independent for beef, cheddar slices and pickles, IGA for lettuce and Costco for tomatoes.

If you want to plan around cheap dinner recipes under $8 in New Brunswick, the key is not just the total price. You also need to know which ingredient is doing the most work in the basket. In this recipe, Kumato Tomato at $7.99 from Costco is the highest-priced item, while Savoy Lettuce at $2.99 from IGA is the lowest-priced item. That spread matters because small swaps in burger toppings can change your final cost per serving more than you might expect.

Recipe 1: Bunless Burgers — $7.15 per serving

Bunless Burgers cost $28.59 for four servings, or $7.15 per serving, using New Brunswick prices from Independent, IGA and Costco. The recipe is the most complete dinner in the data because it includes beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles in one priced basket. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. If you want a burger-style meal without buying buns, this is the most straightforward way to turn the priced ingredients into a full dinner.

For your dinner plan, the structure is simple. You use Savoy lettuce as the wrap or base, cook the Medium Ground Beef into patties or crumbles, add Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices and finish with Kumato Tomato and Dill Pickles. The recipe works especially well when you want something that feels like a takeout-style burger plate but still has a grocery-store cost you can calculate before you shop. At $7.15 per serving, it fits the search intent behind “cheap dinner recipes under $8” more cleanly than many meat-based meals.

The most important shopping choice is splitting the basket by store. Independent is the cheapest identified store for the beef, cheese and pickles in the current data, while IGA is the cheapest identified store for Savoy lettuce and Costco is the cheapest identified store for Kumato tomato. If you already plan to visit more than one store, you can use the exact store split below. If you prefer a one-store shop, you should still use this ingredient table as your benchmark so you know which items are driving the final price.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Independent is the cheapest identified source for three of the five Bunless Burger ingredients: Medium Ground Beef at $6.83, Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices at $5.79 and Dill Pickles at $4.99. IGA is the cheapest identified source for Savoy Lettuce at $2.99, while Costco is the cheapest identified source for Kumato Tomato at $7.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. If you want the exact $28.59 basket cost, your cheapest route is a split shop across those three store names.

That split-shop approach is most useful when your week already includes a Costco trip or when you are combining this dinner with other meals. If you are making only this recipe, the tomato price is the item to watch because Kumato Tomato accounts for $7.99 of the $28.59 basket. Your least expensive item is the Savoy Lettuce at $2.99, which is why using lettuce as the bun replacement helps keep the burger plate within budget-meal territory.

Recipe 2: Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups — $5.15 per serving

Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups cost $20.60 for four servings, or $5.15 per serving, using the priced New Brunswick ingredients from Independent and IGA. This variation uses Medium Ground Beef at $6.83, Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices at $5.79, Savoy Lettuce at $2.99 and Dill Pickles at $4.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. Compared with the $7.15 Bunless Burger plate, this recipe is $2.00 less per serving when you omit the $7.99 Kumato Tomato.

This is the strongest low-cost variation if your main goal is to keep dinner comfortably under $6 per serving while still serving a meat-based meal. You cook the ground beef, divide it into lettuce cups, add cheddar slices or chopped cheese, and finish with chopped dill pickles for acidity. You are using the same burger-flavour profile, but you are narrowing the ingredient list to the lower-cost items in the basket. For you, that means fewer items to buy and a smaller checkout total.

The savings are meaningful because the highest-priced ingredient in Recipe 1 is removed. Using rounded per-serving costs, Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups at $5.15 are about 28.0% cheaper per serving than Bunless Burgers at $7.15. That comparison is especially helpful if you are planning several budget meals in New Brunswick and want to decide whether a topping is worth adding. You still get beef, cheese, lettuce and pickles, but you avoid the single most expensive item in the original basket.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Independent is the key store for this cheaper variation because it supplies three of the four ingredients: Medium Ground Beef at $6.83, Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices at $5.79 and Dill Pickles at $4.99. IGA supplies the Savoy Lettuce at $2.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. If you are trying to keep your shopping trip efficient, this recipe reduces the required store list from three stores to two because it does not use the Costco tomato.

That makes Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups a practical weeknight option when you want a lower-cost dinner but do not want to change the meal concept entirely. You still get a burger-inspired plate, but you are not paying for every topping in the full version. If you already have tomatoes at home, you can add them, but the priced version of the recipe remains $5.15 per serving based only on the listed New Brunswick ingredients.

Recipe 3: Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates — $5.44 per serving

Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates cost $21.76 for four servings, or $5.44 per serving, using Savoy Lettuce from IGA, Kumato Tomato from Costco, Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices from Independent and Dill Pickles from Independent. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. This is the lowest-meat-free variation in the priced set because it removes the $6.83 Medium Ground Beef while keeping the cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickle elements.

This recipe is best for a lighter dinner, a side-heavy plate or a no-cook meal when you want to avoid turning on the stove. You can layer Savoy lettuce with sliced Kumato tomato, cheddar slices and chopped pickles, then serve it as a cold plate. It is not the same type of meal as a beef burger, but it uses the actual priced ingredients from the Bunless Burger basket and keeps the cost below $6 per serving. If your household is trying to stretch a meat purchase over more than one meal, this variation gives you a way to use the toppings separately.

Compared with Bunless Burgers at $7.15 per serving, Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates at $5.44 are $1.71 cheaper per serving, or about 23.9% lower using rounded per-serving prices. The difference comes from removing the beef while retaining the $7.99 tomato, which remains the largest item in the variation. For you, this is a useful reminder that meat is not always the only cost driver in a recipe. Premium produce can also shape the final meal cost, especially when it is the highest-priced item in the basket.

Ingredients with Prices

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

Where to Buy Cheapest

Costco is the cheapest identified store for Kumato Tomato at $7.99, IGA is the cheapest identified store for Savoy Lettuce at $2.99 and Independent is the cheapest identified store for Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices at $5.79 and Dill Pickles at $4.99. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. If you are already shopping at Costco, this recipe lets you use the tomato purchase without also buying ground beef.

You should choose this variation when you want the cheapest recipes built from the same ingredient set but do not need a traditional hot dinner. It is also useful as a second dinner if you buy the full Bunless Burger basket and want to stretch toppings into another meal. Because the priced recipe omits beef, your preparation time is shorter and your cooking steps are minimal.

New Brunswick Ingredient Basket Index

The five-ingredient Bunless Burger basket totals $28.59, with individual item prices ranging from $2.99 for Savoy Lettuce at IGA to $7.99 for Kumato Tomato at Costco. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. This basket index shows you which ingredients are carrying the most cost in the recipe and where each cheapest identified price appears in New Brunswick.

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

The basket index makes the trade-offs clear. If you are cutting costs, the $7.99 tomato is the first item to evaluate because it is the largest single share of the recipe basket. If you are prioritizing protein, the $6.83 ground beef is the item you keep, while adjusting toppings around it. If you are trying to build a cheaper meal without losing the burger format, the $2.99 Savoy Lettuce is doing important work because it replaces buns and serves as the base.

This type of ingredient-level review is more useful than looking only at the total meal cost. A $28.59 dinner may look simple at first, but your decisions about tomatoes, cheese and pickles determine whether the meal lands at $7.15, $5.15 or $5.44 per serving. When you compare recipe variations this way, you can build budget meals in New Brunswick from the same basket instead of starting from scratch every night.

Top Priced Ingredients for These Cheap Dinner Recipes

The best-priced ingredients in this New Brunswick recipe set start at $2.99 for Savoy Lettuce at IGA and rise to $7.99 for Kumato Tomato at Costco. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. Because the available data provides current live prices rather than separate regular prices, the table ranks the usable price points for these recipes and does not claim a regular-price discount.

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

For your grocery plan, the ranking is still useful even without a claimed discount percentage. The cheapest item, Savoy Lettuce at $2.99, appears in all three recipes and helps reduce the need for a separate bun or bread purchase. The middle-priced items, Dill Pickles at $4.99 and Medium Cheddar Cheese Slices at $5.79, create the burger flavour profile. The two highest-priced items, Medium Ground Beef at $6.83 and Kumato Tomato at $7.99, are the items you adjust depending on whether you want a heavier meal or a lower per-serving cost.

Price Comparison Table: All Recipes Side by Side

Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups are the cheapest recipe variation at $5.15 per serving, while the full Bunless Burgers recipe costs $7.15 per serving. Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates sit between them at $5.44 per serving. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. If your budget target is dinner under $6 per serving, Recipe 2 and Recipe 3 both meet that threshold, while Recipe 1 remains under $8.

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

The comparison shows how much control you have when you start with a priced basket. You can make the full Bunless Burgers recipe when you want the most complete dinner, or you can trim the ingredient list to reduce the cost per serving. Recipe 2 saves $2.00 per serving versus the full burger plate, while Recipe 3 saves $1.71 per serving versus the full burger plate. Those savings come from removing one high-impact ingredient rather than changing the entire meal plan.

If you are planning a week of budget meals in New Brunswick, you can use this table as a decision tool. Choose Bunless Burgers when you want the full beef-and-toppings dinner. Choose Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups when you want the lowest cost per serving. Choose Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates when you want a lighter no-cook option built from the same shopping list.

How to Shop This Basket in New Brunswick

The cheapest identified shopping route for the full Bunless Burger basket is Independent for beef, cheddar and pickles, IGA for lettuce and Costco for tomato. [Source: eezly real-time price tracking]. That store mix matters because the recipe total is calculated from specific store prices, not from a generic average across New Brunswick.

Your first step is to decide whether you are cooking the full $7.15-per-serving recipe or one of the lower-cost variations. If you are making Beef and Cheddar Lettuce Cups, you can skip Costco entirely because the $7.99 Kumato Tomato is not part of that version. If you are making Tomato-Cheddar Lettuce Plates, you can skip the $6.83 Medium Ground Beef and focus on the produce, cheese and pickles. That flexibility is the main advantage of pricing recipes ingredient by ingredient.

You can also use eezly’s recipe and meal-planning tools to compare similar meals before you shop. For more recipe ideas, visit https://eezly.com/recipes. For automated meal planning, visit https://eezly.com/meal-plans. For current grocery price comparisons and store-level deal discovery, visit https://eezly.com/deals.