4 ‘Struggle Meals’ That Are No Longer Affordable

Everyone has to eat, even when times are tough. So-called “struggle meals” have always been the bridge between tight budgets and grumbling bellies because they’re filling, simple and affordable.

Contents

Bread and Water All the Many Budget Meals That Start With Eggs Anything With Ground Beef The Countless Struggle Meals That Feature Rice

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That last part is the key, but even the most basic sustenance is falling victim to food inflation. The following classic struggle meals are becoming too costly for many families to keep serving in a pinch.

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Bread and Water

Bread and water has been the go-to metaphor for subsistence-level rations for time immemorial — but what has long been regarded as the most bare-bones level of nourishment is getting pricey.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Producer Price Index (PPI) for bakery products like bread rose in 35 out of 36 months during the three-year period beginning January 2021 — and the situation hasn’t improved since. Even as the price of grain rises and falls intermittently, the cost of the finished product just keeps going up.

Then there’s water, the foundation of all liquid intake and the most crucial necessity for sustaining human life. According to the Bank of America Institute, water utility prices have been rising nationwide for decades. However, the increase has been sharpest since 2022. In especially hard-hit areas like the Mid-Atlantic region, water bills jumped 9.5% year-over-year in 2024 alone.

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All the Many Budget Meals That Start With Eggs

Frugal families have long relied on eggs as a versatile, nutritious and affordable food — but in 2025, it’s the product that epitomizes the strain that inflation puts on household budgets. An economist writing for the Farm Bureau stated that egg prices rose by 350% per dozen between March 2024 and March 2025 alone — and the situation was hardly pretty before that.

BLS historical data showed a dozen eggs cost $1.13 in 2005 — on par with the $1.22 the same dozen cost nearly a decade and a half later in 2019. Then, in the post-pandemic era of high inflation, a dozen eggs peaked at what seemed to be a sky-high $4.82 in January 2023. Prices dropped substantially afterward, only to rise again just as quickly to a bruising $6.23 in March 2025.

Anything With Ground Beef

Ground beef — long the staple of struggle meals from sloppy Joes to Hamburger Helper to burgers to burritos — cost between $3 and $4 per pound for most of the 2010s, according to BLS historical data.

However, the pandemic put an end to that price stability.

In August 2020, the price of a pound of ground beef peaked at $5.33 before falling to the still-high low-fours just as rapidly — but not for long. The price has risen steadily ever since to its current record high of $5.85 per pound.

The Countless Struggle Meals That Feature Rice

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than half the world’s population relies on rice as their primary food source. The ultimate struggle meal filler food, rice can be combined with scant portions of virtually any protein or vegetable to turn a little into a lot — and it’s cheap.

Or, at least it was. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), a pound of rice cost about $0.50 per pound from 1980 through the mid-2000s. The Great Recession triggered a spike that sent the price up to an average of around $0.75 per pound in 2008, which held through the 2010s. Then the post-pandemic era saw another sustained increase that brought the price of rice to its current cost of more than $1 per pound, with International Banker blaming weather-related crop failures and a rice export ban from India as the chief culprits.

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Sources

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), “What is behind the rise in prices for bakery products?”
Bank of America Institute, “Hard Water Bills”
Farm Bureau, “Egg Prices Continue Setting Records”
BLS, “Graphics for Economic News Releases”
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), “Rice Sector at a Glance”
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), “Average Price: Rice, White, Long Grain, Uncooked (Cost per Pound/453.6 Grams) in U.S. City Average“
International Banker, “No Immediate End in Store for High Rice Prices”