← Cheapest meal plan optimizer
Most diet tools ask what you want to eat and then tell you the bill. If your grocery money is the fixed number, the useful question is the other way round: given this much a day, what is the most protein I can get? The optimizer's "what a budget buys" table answers it.
Open the free cheapest meal plan optimizer
Everything below is computed by the same solver the free tool runs, on its twenty starter foods at example prices (2,000 to 2,300 calories, 45 to 80 g of fat, at least 28 g of fibre, no food above four servings a day, half servings). The figures are a shape, not a quote: edit the prices to what you pay.
The solver maximises protein subject to the daily spend, with the other bounds held. Figures are the continuous optimum, before rounding to half servings, so treat them as a ceiling you can approach.
| Daily budget | Most protein |
|---|---|
| $2.00 | 109.8 g |
| $3.00 | 149.2 g |
| $4.00 | 175.4 g |
| $5.00 | 196.2 g |
The first dollars buy lentils, oats and peanut butter, the cheapest protein per cent. Later dollars go on denser sources such as whey, chicken and yogurt, which cost more per gram but fit inside the calorie cap. The same table for a vegan food list stalls near 137 g (see the vegan plan): more money cannot help once there is no room left.
It knows only the nutrients you give it and the prices you typed: not vitamins, allergies, taste, pack sizes or sales. The cheapest or highest-protein plan is often repetitive; the tool can also cap the share of calories from one food. It is not medical or dietary advice and will not plan under 1,200 calories a day.
On the starter foods and example prices, a $2 daily budget reaches about 110 g of protein inside 2,000 to 2,300 calories, the fat bounds and 28 g of fibre. That is the continuous optimum before rounding to half servings, so a real menu lands a little lower. Edit the prices to yours.
No. On these foods $2 reaches about 110 g, $3 about 149 g, $4 about 175 g and $5 about 196 g. Each extra dollar buys less protein than the one before, because the cheap protein is used first and the calorie cap forces a switch to denser, dearer sources.
They are the same model asked in opposite directions. The cost view fixes a protein target and finds the cheapest plan; the budget view fixes the spend and finds the most protein. The budget view is the one to use when your grocery money is the fixed number.
Related: how to eat high-protein on a budget, a cheap vegan high-protein meal plan and what protein a daily food budget buys.