The Better Budgeting Podcast

Episode 91: Making $3 Meals with The Stay at Home Chef Rachel Farnsworth

• Danielle Reese • Episode 91

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What if dinner cost less, tasted better, and actually made your week feel easier? We’re talking with bestselling cookbook author Rachel Farnsworth, founder of The Stay At Home Chef, about building a realistic meal strategy that beats rising grocery prices without sacrificing flavor, time, or sanity. Rachel shares how cooking pulled her through postpartum depression and became a way to serve millions, then breaks down the exact system behind her free Cheap Eats meal plan: four weeks of restaurant-quality recipes that average under $3 per person, complete with shopping lists and smart ingredient overlap.

We get practical fast. You’ll hear how to plan a week that kills the drive-thru impulse, why one-stop shopping often saves more than chasing sales, and how to choose recipes with 30 minutes or less of hands-on time. Rachel explains how modern, beginner-friendly instructions and supportive video can turn an anxious kitchen into a calm, confident space. We also dig into family wins: theme nights that mimic takeout at home, kid-safe tasks that build real skills, and the simple prep habits that eliminate chaos at 5 p.m.

Along the way, Rachel opens up about staying grounded while her audience grew to 12 million, the power of serving people over algorithms, and the resilience that comes from a family history of trying, pivoting, and trying again. If you’re ready to spend less, eat better, and feel more in control, this conversation hands you the plan, the mindset, and the momentum to start tonight.

Grab Rachel’s free Cheap Eats meal plan at thestayathomechef.com, subscribe for more smart money and meal strategies, and share this episode with someone who could use a calmer, cheaper dinner routine. 

Find Rachel on any of the social media links below!

https://www.instagram.com/thestayathomechef/
https://www.youtube.com/user/thestayhomechef
https://www.facebook.com/TheStayAtHomeChef

Danielle is a money coach helping those who have been trying to figure out their finances FINALLY create a clear plan so they don’t have to worry about waiting to refill their bank account the next payday.

She is the founder of The Financial Freedom Society on Facebook and her signature money coaching program, The Better Budgeting Playbook. You can sign up for her newsletter by clicking here.

Take the first step towards financial freedom and sign up for a complimentary assessment call with me, Danielle Reese.


Grab your copy of "Let's Talk Groceries" Your Guide to Reducing Your Grocery Bill" This is an ebook with over 30 pages of tips, tricks, and guidance to help you save hundreds on your grocery bill!

Sign up for The Better Budgeting Blueprint for $99.

Grab your free copy of The Bank Statement Exercise.


You can connect with her on Facebook or Instagram.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Better Budgeting Podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Reese. I'm a money coach and the founder of the Better Budgeting Playbook, and this is my one-on-one coaching program for women and couples who have been trying to figure out their finances, finally create a clear plan so they don't have to worry about waiting on payday anymore. I became a money coach in 2020 after paying off over$60,000 in debt, rekindling my marriage, becoming financially free, and wanting others to experience the same. If you'd like to work with me, you can check out the link in the show notes there. Also, we have the Financial Freedom Society on Facebook. It's a free Facebook community focusing on debt payoff, saving strategies, budgeting, and money mindset. You can find the link to that community in the show notes as well. Hey there, welcome back to the Better Regioning Podcast to I have a treat for you. This episode, I interviewed Rachel Farnsworth, and Rachel Farnsworth is a best-selling cookbook author and is the culinary powerhouse and founder of the stay-at-home chef. Her focus is simple creating restaurant quality meals that everyone can enjoy at home, whether you are a beginning cook or an experienced pro. And she believes in keeping her recipes accessible, using everyday ingredients to ensure that everyone can whip up a delicious meal right at home. This flossy has not only resonated with her followers, but it has also allowed her audience to expand significantly over the years. The stay-at-home chef has a combined following of more than 12 million fans across social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and more. She is so wonderful. I had a wonderful conversation with her. I even say it in this podcast. She has such a motherly sense. So I hope you enjoy this episode. Hey Rachel, thanks so much for being part of the Better Budgeting Podcast. I have to tell you, I'm so excited here. And I already shared this with you, but I have a love for food with education and food background. And one thing I didn't share with you is that I worked in food retail for eight years and then also food distribution for another almost eight years. So I am familiar with the food sector and making good meals on a budget. And for my listeners, we have the let's go buy groceries download. It's 12 bucks, and I teach you how do you actually go shop at the store. And now we have Rachel here that she can tell you what do you do with all these ingredients. So, Rachel, for the people that don't know you, can you share a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

I am Rachel Fernsworth. I'm the founder of the Stay at Home Chef. I've been publishing recipes online since 2008, which kind of makes me an ancient dinosaur on the internet as far as content creation. But I started it out of postpartum depression. It was a way I could cope with postpartum depression, and it has since grown into this empire. I bet you you never could have imagined. Never. I had no idea what the internet would even become, let alone the sheer volume of reach that I've been able to have into people's homes and into their daily lives. And I always say that it is the honor and privilege of a lifetime.

SPEAKER_00:

Tell me a little bit about the postpartum depression. So did you need something to do?

SPEAKER_01:

I needed something desperately. It was 2008, it was the Great Recession. And I was a stay-at-home mom for the first time ever, of course, as my first child, and I'm a stay-at-home mom. And on top of that, we had just moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere in California. It's called Ridgecrest, and I didn't know a single soul. So I had to kind of figure out motherhood on my own. And I realized quickly that I needed something for myself, something that could fulfill my needs and be just for me. And I'd always loved cooking. I had taken culinary classes in high school and in college. And so I started cooking my way through my culinary textbooks. I started developing recipes, and people wanted to eat those recipes and make them at home because I would bring them to people to make friends with them. So everyone had a mommy blog back then. So I was like, oh, this is a really easy way to share my passions with others. And then it just spiraled from there.

SPEAKER_00:

I just had a new neighbor moving across the street last week and I baked them a loaf of bread and I took it over to them. And I I remember my husband's like, that's kind of weird. And I'm like, it's not weird. Like feed people, their souls get fed through their bellies.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, food is like the one thing that we are guaranteed that we all have in common, you know? Everybody eats. Yeah. And it's a way that we just connect as human beings.

SPEAKER_00:

So going from the early days of just trying to make new friends, connect with new people, how different does your life look now that you have all of these followers? You're a creator, you're an author, you're a mom. What's that look like?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I feel like every day is something different, especially just when I feel like I've gotten into a groove, something will come up and something will change, something with the internet will change, something with my kids will change or their schedules. And I've kind of given up on being able to have some sort of long-term regular schedule. But I also kind of love that. I love the puzzle of figuring out what it is that I need to do next. So I'm constantly adapting to try and pivot and meet not only the needs of algorithms, which I actually genuinely just despise and hate. I've been doing this so long, I'm just no longer interested in serving algorithms. I really want to just serve people and meet them where they're at and try and anticipate their needs, their desires, their wants before they even know what they are themselves.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And I agree, serving that algorithm, oh my goodness, it's ever changing. It's a moving target forever. And as long as you are serving people through your business, through my business, through anybody, any entrepreneur, as long as you are serving your clients and serving people, you're gonna do well and you're gonna feel a sense of purpose too. But let's talk about your latest project, the Cheap Eats Meal Plan, which focuses on meals under$3 per person, which is incredible, by the way. What led you to create that resource?

SPEAKER_01:

So about this time last year, I started planning out what would 2025 look like for me as far as content creation, and what does it look like for those who follow me? What struggles will they have? And I had already heard across the board the number one struggle people had was the rising cost of groceries. And, you know, when you pay attention to the food scene, you kind of knew what was coming, that there was going to be no end in sight to those rising prices. So I set about to develop some sort of meal plan where I could just do all the thinking for someone. I just imagine that mom or dad who is sitting there struggling. They are struggling to even wrap their heads around needing to tighten the grocery budget. But also, how do you actually accomplish that? And what do you need to research? And what recipes go with? What do you need to stock your pantry with? Do I need to shop sales? Do I need to coupon? How do I even know where to start? I wanted to be able to give that answer and do it in the most approachable way I possibly could. So I looked at my existing catalog of recipes, which I'm all about restaurant quality recipes you can easily make at home. I didn't want to just develop new recipes to try and fit this mold. I wanted to be able to take that same high-level, high-quality recipe and see what I had to work with. So I got it narrowed down to the ones that fit kind of this category of averaging under$3 per serving. Of course, that's also a moving target of its own. Yes. Um and then from there I eliminated even more based on the ingredients they used. If it was just an ingredient that's only used in one or two recipes, that gets the boot. And on top of that, I also looked at is it easy? Is it easy enough for that busy mom or dad out there who's just trying to get by and not go through the drive-thru? So every recipe is also easy, requiring about 30 minutes or less of hands-on time.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. And when you're talking, I think about some of my clients where when they come to me, they talk to me about they price shop at different places. So they're they're shopping at Walmart and then they're going over to Aldi's, and then they're going to their local local place because that place doesn't have this and doesn't. So for you to come in and simplify recipes where they can use simple everyday ingredients makes it a lot easier just on the shopping end. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to be able to hand you a list of recipes with their shopping list to go with it so that you don't have to chase all of that down. It just takes time, especially going from store to store. I don't know that you can even save money doing it that way anymore, just with the price of gas.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. And I am a full believer in time is money. And, you know, do you really want to spend time? Yeah, do we really want to spend two, three hours going around town collecting our groceries for the week? Or would we rather do one hour, one stop, one-stop shop, and move on and go play with our kid outside?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that two to three hours driving around is how much time it takes to even make the recipes all together.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. So of all those recipes that you do have, are there any that are your absolute favorite?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we actually just had one last night: cilantro lime chicken quesadillas.

SPEAKER_00:

You are just singing to me right now. I love a good quesadilla.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, they are so delicious. I had them at a restaurant once. I mean, it's gotta be like 15 years ago. And I was going to that restaurant all the time, and then we moved, of course, and I was like, well, I have to make this at home now. And just even last night, my husband said, Oh, this just brings me back. Every time we have these, I feel like it just takes me back to when we were like newlyweds and young, carefree.

SPEAKER_00:

So often you are talking about restaurant quality meals. And I love a good restaurant quality meals. Sometimes I feel like we can make them a lot better at home. So tell me, what do you think is the reason why people don't do it?

SPEAKER_01:

I think a lot of people just don't know where to start. It's overwhelming, especially if you feel like you don't know your way around the kitchen or you didn't get those basic cooking skill lessons at home growing up, which so many of us didn't. That's super common, no reason to be embarrassed over it. And really, though, recipes are written differently nowadays. They are written for that user who may not be as familiar with the kitchen as they were 100 years ago. In fact, if you look at recipes from 100 years ago, it is so hard to follow them today unless you know a lot about cooking, because so many of those recipes just assume knowledge. Nowadays, though, when I am writing recipes, I am thinking about that very beginner cook that may not know what they're doing. And in fact, I have my kids cook recipes a lot just so I get their questions. Like one was, Mom, it says set it aside. What does that mean? Oh, set it aside on a plate or set it aside in a bowl. Those little, little tiny steps, sometimes that's the information that we need just to get started.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, those those steps do matter. And, you know, as you're talking here again, I I know those recipes where even my grandmothers or my mom's, you know, they're just so vague. And you you might not know how to decipher those. And when I was in high school, I did a culinary tech program and I remember going to a competition, and they purposely made the recipes that way so that they knew what your skills were. Now that is a whole different level of culinary arts and cooking, right? But as the average homemaker, average mom, you might not know what a Julianne is or a small dice, what that looks like. So to add those into recipes, it doesn't really make sense. But if you told me, hey, chop that carrot into small little slices that are long, about two inches long, I'd be like, okay, great. That's a that's a great Julianne for anybody that doesn't know how to Julianne, you know? Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. It's all about learning to write the instructions in a different way, which has always been a great challenge for me. I don't love the monotony, you know. I I'm constantly looking to improve. And so those questions that I get from people, they make all the difference. And it it challenges me going forward to make sure I write my recipes so that absolutely anyone can follow them and produce the same results. And it does help too that nowadays with the internet, instead of just cooking from a cookbook, there's also video to go along with it to help you out in case you do end up having any questions and need a visual reference.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And I'm gonna put a plug in here for you. I was on your Instagram and I saw these lemon bars that you were making. They looked delightful. And I just love how calm your demeanor is and it almost it's it's very warm. I think that our generation, my generation, your generation, the generations after us, they need somebody to come alongside and say, hey, I know it's a scary world out there. We can make an omelet together. We can we can even make these lemon bars, which sounds so complicated and beautiful and things, but guess what? We can do it together. And I think you do such a great job doing that.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you. That's exactly what I'm going for. I like, I promise I will be there for you to hold your hand in the kitchen and get started, and we can do this together.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. So tell me, how do you think busy families can simplify this? They might not have all the education, but it's so easy just to drive through Chick-fil-A, drive through McDonald's, order the pizza or whatever. How do we help them make that next step of like, all right, we're gonna cook at home tonight?

SPEAKER_01:

Honestly, it starts with a plan. Even me, who I cook for a living, there is that real temptation of just let's just go through the drive-thru, let's just pick something up. But when we meal plan for the week, that never comes up. And honestly, the time it takes to drive to the restaurant, to wait through the drive-thru, to deal with mistakes at the drive-thru, or long lines at the drive-thru, or even worse, DoorDash and the complete unknown that is of eating lukewarm or cold food that may not be correct or may or may not appear at all. That kind of time is just wasted. When you have a plan, you're gonna stick to it. And that temptation is gone. And the the more that you have a plan, the longer that you do it, the less of a temptation it is. And then if you still do want to eat out, you put that into your plan. That way there aren't these extra expenditures that just keep coming up over and over and over again because you always have an excuse. Oh, well, it's soccer night, so we're gonna just grab McDonald's. No, you have a plan.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. And you know, coming from the financial world, this is what I help my clients with is setting that schedule. And it has to be real too, because somebody can think, like, oh, you know, we've got soccer happening, we're gonna be able to make a roasted chicken in one hour and put it on the table before we get to soccer. No, you ain't, honey. I'm sorry, but we're not I'm not even doing that, right? We're having real season tomato soup that night. So, as far as the family's budget, I know for a fact, and you know for a fact, this is a game changer, especially if you are used to eating out a lot. I'll see people that have$1,200 eating out every single month, just in that, just eating out. That's not adding inconvenience stops and things like that. When they get a plan that very first month for their food, oh my goodness, that gets slashed in half just naturally. And then we start dwindling it even more because they start to see what their values are and that they don't want all that money going there. No.

SPEAKER_01:

Or your time. And really, is it that good? It becomes easier when you realize, wow, this tastes way better than anything we're getting through the drive-thru or anything that we're getting door dashed, especially. I mean, you can DoorDash from a nice restaurant that you love going to, and that food just does not taste as good by the time it gets to you. I mean, it just doesn't.

SPEAKER_00:

I agree. I agree. There's nothing worse than soggy french fries coming from a DoorDash. Oh, it's the worst. When I went in the food service world, they were coming out with boxes to go boxes that allowed French fries to stay crisp during delivery, and they don't work. They don't work, it's not the same. It's not the same. So um a lot of people say they don't have time, and you mentioned that as well. We don't have time. How can we help them reframe that mindset of I don't have time? What would your opinion be on that? Time is money.

SPEAKER_01:

That time in the drive-thru that, and and listen, I understand you might be saying, Oh, that time in the drive-thru though, or on the way to the drive-thru is my decompressing time that I can just kind of tune out a little. Well, let me introduce you to cooking. Yeah, that is a zen zone for me. And it so many people have come to me over the years giving me that feedback of you've taught me to cook, and it has become my zen place too. I'm like, oh, welcome to the fold. This is just the best place to be because you also are serving your family when you do that. You're making food for others, it's not just for you. And that moment of service is actually really calming and helps you focus on the things that really do matter. So you do have time. It can be your you time. It doesn't have to be chaotic, I promise. In fact, if you just prep your ingredients and get them all lined up before you start cooking, right there eliminates all of that chaos that you might feel intimidated by. Gone, gone. It'll change how you cook forever. You do have time. It's gonna be your me time.

SPEAKER_00:

And then on the flip side, from my perspective, I hear a lot of the time clients say, I don't have enough time with my family. I don't have enough time with my kids. What a great opportunity to teach them a skill set and spend time with them. So if you aren't looking to make it into that zen moment every single time or make that into your me time, making it into a family adventure, we love making homemade pizzas here. I mean, everybody gets their own, they get to make their own little toppings, and you know, it's it's a huge adventure for our family, and they're learning really great skill sets too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I actually built that into the Cheap Eats meal plan. And it works best, particularly for those who have younger kids. But every Friday night is one of those meals that's more akin to a takeout or a drive-thru, but you make it at home. One of the weeks has a French bread pizza night, so everybody gets to top their own pizza. One of them is the cilantro lime chicken quesadillas. Still, man, I'm still just drooling. I really want the leftovers for lunch. But you build that in and you spend time with them. They they can chop onions as they get older. I've taught my kids knife skills from the time that they were in preschool, which some people have been a little surprised by, but there are great options for beginner knives that you can give to kids. And I always let them uh chop the ends of celery.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Those things that you're just gonna throw away any of those discards. I hand those to the kids on a cutting board and they absolutely love it. So even if they can't contribute because they're four or five years old, they most certainly feel like they're contributing. And whenever kids contribute to a meal, they are also more likely to eat it.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, I agree. When my son and daughter, they're about three and two years old. I have a picture of them. They're cutting mushrooms with a butter knife at two and three years old. And now my daughter, she's seven, almost eight, she uses a chef knife to cut things. Um she cut tomatoes the other day, and a girlfriend came over last year around Christmas time, and my daughter at that time was using a chef knife, a little smaller one. Um, but she is just like a nervous wreck, and she's got four boys, you know? And she's a nervous wreck. She's like, I just don't love this. I'm like, she's fine, she's got the skills. And I think it's just really important that we teach our kids these skill sets as well, even if we're learning them at the same time. Maybe listener here is not as far as you and I are in this journey of learning how to feed our families, but just starting together is a great adventure too.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. You know, getting together and learning those skills together, we all have to start somewhere. And you might as well give your kids the head start. I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's pivot a little bit away from cooking and more onto you and your business a little bit. So you're known for being approachable and real, and I already shared that with you. I just feel like you have this very motherly sense in teaching people how to cook. Tell me, how have you stayed grounded as your business and your brand has grown? I'm sure it's probably easy to kind of get sucked into the likes and the views and all these things. How do you stay grounded?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it really helps that when I started, none of that was a real thing. I started this purely as passion. The money came later. Even just the opportunity for money didn't come until much later. I come from generational poverty, where my grandparents, who had the most influence on my life, you know, I've lived with them or lived near them for the majority of my life, lived in absolute poverty. I have lived in trailer parks. I, my grandma lived in a double wide until she could no longer live on her own and moved in with my parents. So I still have that family around me all the time. And it helps me stay connected to what most people experience. That, yeah, I have this business that was successful. And by the way, my grandparents were just so incredibly proud of that. Um, but I have all of these people around me that remind me constantly of what the reality is for food for most people in this world. I don't, I don't get lost in culinary exploration of doing all these sort of elaborate or exotic meals. Most people are just trying to get by and they're trying to make it work with their families. And honestly, that to me is everything and whatever money you could make online building an empire, which there are so many more opportunities for me to do that than I will ever take because I would rather stick to feeding real people and not algorithms. That's very humble. That is really great. I just I love that you are people first. Absolutely. You know, I saw for my grandparents, they always had a business that they were trying to run. At first, it was a sod farm, and when they that's what they raised their family on was a sod farm. But then my grandpa had to drive truck to make ends meet. Um, so he was a truck driver and he was a farmer. And when they lost the farm, he started a rock quarry, and then there was some sort of real estate crash, and so that business went under, you know, and all of these great dreams and ideas that never panned out has helped me just really see that you can try for anything and maybe you will succeed, but if not, life goes on and you can still live a really happy and joyful life. And you can try again, right? He did. Listen, if one thing doesn't work out, just move to the next. My grandmother's father used to say, shoot for the stars. And even if you don't make it, the moon is pretty great too. So I I don't know. I didn't even know I was shooting for anything when I started. I didn't know what could even exist. The the internet in 2008 was just a very, very different landscape than it is today. And now there's still just endless possibilities. And I've found that where I'm at is just exactly where I want to be because it's also more than I could have ever dreamed of.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I have two sayings that I say a lot to my clients, and it is we're gonna throw the dart at the dartboard, and if that one doesn't stick, we're gonna throw another dart and we're gonna figure it out. And the other thing I say, especially for people that want to build something, but they don't know how, or they're maybe they're afraid, or you know, maybe they want to build a business um or or they want to serve people and maybe start monetizing it a little bit, just build the plane while you're flying it. That's all you gotta do. Build it while you fly it. I mean, you you just keep going, just go.

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, I have just kind of decided of everything that I've learned over the past 17 years, is that life's made up and none of it matters. So make up the life that matters to you. If one door closes, pivot, find a new one to go through because you never know where you'll end up. And that's kind of the great adventure of life, and that's okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I do love that you just shared a little bit about you and and building your business because the people that are listening to this podcast, they're struggling in their finances, they're trying to make ends meet, they're trying to build something new for their families, break that generational poverty, maybe even. And I love that you have shared this, shared your dream, shared that you know, you never even imagined it to grow to be this, but you kept showing up every day and and you served the people first. And when a client comes to me and they tell me that they're starting a small business or something, great, like let's go serve people first. Let's let's see if this works and and don't get paid for it first, because I'm sure you didn't get paid for it at first. Definitely not. It mostly just cost me a lot of money, and sometimes that happens, right? But look at the payoff, and I encourage any listener right now that's listening, go do it, just go give it a try. And if it doesn't work, like you said, Rachel, pivot.

SPEAKER_01:

You never know what will work, and a lot of what I have done is I work in an industry where you're literally making everything up as you go along, so just keep making it up. And I mean, we're just hammering this. idea in there, but come up with something that provides actual value to real people and you'll be on to something.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I agree. Well, is there anything that you want to share with our listeners before we close up for the day?

SPEAKER_01:

Listen, just hang in there. I know that sometimes the outlook feels really bleak, especially when you're looking at finances and budgets, but we're all in this same boat together. And I promise you you've got this. I love that. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00:

And where can people find you? Where can they follow you?

SPEAKER_01:

The stay at home chef on any platform. Don't forget the the butthestayathomechef.com and then my handle is the stay at home chef everywhere. TikTok, YouTube, Facebook is my largest um Instagram, all of them. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll have to make those lemon bars this weekend and I'll tag you in a story. Only five ingredients. It's amazing. And and I love it that it's on a video so I don't even have to use a recipe. I'm just like all right. And lastly a cheap eats meal plan. Where can people find that?

SPEAKER_01:

You can also just find it on the homepage of the stayathomeschef.com. The cheap eats meal plan is also free. It's four weeks so a whole month's worth of meals with the grocery shopping list and everything ready to go. You can even mix and match meals and make it your own.

SPEAKER_00:

That's amazing. I love your heart Rachel. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me, Danielle. Hey thanks so much for listening to this week's podcast episode. If you could please leave a really kind review and some five stars. It helps other people find this podcast and find this resource and get the financial education that they need. We'll talk to you soon. Bye