I buy meat when it's on sale, separate, and freeze. That and a bag of frozen veggies stir-fried with coconut oil is quick, cheap, and easy.

I'm t2 diabetic so I eat pretty low-carb for that. Myhubby and kids need more carbs than me, so I try to plan for that by adding potatoes or occasionally rice or corn chips for them. Here are some of my favorite dinners, all of which have some steps that can be done ahead to make them faster to get on the table in the evening.

First, some meal-prep tips:
* I have a local grocer where I can get decent ground beef (not grass-fed, that's nowhere in my budget :frown: ) for $1.99/lb. in big family packs. I buy a couple and divvy it up in 2-lb. portions (for my family of 5) and freeze them. If we're having ground beef for dinner I take out a pack that morning and leave it on the counter. It's ready to cook when I get home.
* My life is MUCH easier when I wash/chop/par-cook veggies on Sunday afternoon for the coming weeknight meals. Salad fixings, broccoli, green beans, sturdy greens like cabbage...they will all hold up to "steam-sauteeing" on Sunday, then reheating/finishing off the cooking process later in the week.
* I've recently started buying 5-lb. bags of frozen chicken breasts ($2/lb), which I toss into my crockpot (still frozen). 8 hrs on low will give you a giant pot of chicken that you can shred and throw in the fridge for ready meals or snacking. You can do the same thing with a whole chicken for cheaper, but "fast" has been more important to me than "cheap" lately.
* I try to boil a dozen or so eggs on Sunday to use through the week.


* Taco/Nacho Night: If I've done my meal prep and my veggies are all chopped, I can have this meal on the table in less than 30 minutes. Brown ground beef and season for tacos. Hubby and I make ours into big salads topped with avocado (if they're on sale), sour cream and salsa. My kids eat nachoes (same ingredients, but added cheese and tortilla chips.... I know...you do what you gotta do).
* Curry: Heat up a big skillet with a little coconut oil. Toss in a bag of frozen veggies (your choice) or a couple servings of your par-cooked veggies from the fridge. Once your veggies are nearly done, toss in a serving of shredded chicken from the fridge and add coconut milk and seasonings (curry powder, salt, etc.). Heat through and eat up.
* Chef Salad: salad fixings, topped with shredded chicken and diced boiled egg, add your fave dressing (I'm a Ranch girl).

These are just a few ideas. I STRONGLY recommend the cookbook Well Fed. The recipes are amazing, but even better is her Hot Plate template and ideas. She suggests cooking up whatever proteins you'll need for the week on Sunday, plus par-cooking a bunch of veggies. Then when you get home, you decide if you want Mexican, Indian, French, Thai, whatever ... then you finish off the veggies, add your meats and spices/sauces and BAM!, you've got an amazing dinner on the table in 20 minutes or so. Her ideas completely changed the way I was feeding my family. I think she shares a lot of those ideas on her blog, too (www.theclothesmakethegirl.com).

I think you've already gotten a lot of great ideas. Like everyone said - buy meat on sale and freeze into portions. I buy frozen veggies on sale ($1/bag).
I always grab a 5 or 2lb bag of yellow onions which beefs up a meal for me.
Get canned tomatoes (paste, sauce, crushed, stewed, diced, anything!) when they're on sale (can get REALLY cheap!) and make a chili with that ground beef or turkey you got on sale! Or make a spaghetti sauce with any kind of meat, peppers (green are always cheaper, and then the bagged ones are even cheaper, then they make frozen bags of peppers and onions that would probably be the cheapest), onions, and put it over spinach.
Canned artichokes are great to grab when they're on sale too and can be thrown in the crockpot with a meat, some canned tomatoes, and spices. When I grocery shop, I grab the meats and veggies (and sometimes fruit) that are on sale. The meal planning comes once everything is in the kitchen and I see what kind of possibilities I have.
Cans of tuna I'll get when they're $1/each or less. Can you eat cheese? I've made some great noodle-less tuna casseroles with zucchini and summer squash.

Good luck!

Here is a site that did Paleo on $20 a week per person and recipes
http://www.koastrength.com/15/post/2013/05/week-4-recipes.html

Shar140, I do put them in frozen: just open the bag and dump 'em in there! I'll usually throw in some seasoning, too... salt, garlic powder, etc. They can get a little dry in the crock pot, but this way seems to minimize it. Also, because I either use them in other recipes or dip the pieces in mayo, it doesn't matter as much to me.

I eat beans (gasp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so my cheap go to is chlii. Not sure that will be of much help to you though, on account of the beans.

There is such thing as chili without beans.

Agreed, but if you want cheap it's not a bad compromise.

Another is to pick up meat at the grocery store with the manager's special sticker on it. This means they are about to throw it away. The chili is going to cook for six hours so contamination should not be a worry.

THIS. I still do this-- picked up 6 organic whole chickens one time for a steal. Two are still hanging out in our freezer.

Also, we shop at Trader Joe's a lot-- I can buy good quality stuff, often pre-done (i.e. bags of kale) for cheaper than at our regular grocery store.

Aside from that, we do pulled pork in the crockpot (expensive, but it feeds 2 people for several days), chili (without beans) and eggs with insert sale meat product here. We do a lot of meat + vegetable and minimal effort cooking, because I'm lazy and busy.

I discovered salads in a jar last week, and have prepped them for lunches-- layer dressing, then hard veg, then meat, then lettuce/spinach and when you're ready, shake them up and eat. Awesome, low effort, and pretty cheap.

Grassfed ground chuck in lettuce boats...cheap, delicious and can change like the wind depending on the spices you use.

You could probably stuff all this in a zucchini and add some ground meat for a decent supper.

Mmm zucchini boats! I can't wait for zucchini to be in season!

We participate in a CSA from May-October. So we have to pay a lot up front, but then every week through those months, we get a part of the local farm's harvest. Right now we're getting radishes, lettuce, garlic scapes, chard, snap peas...and maybe that's it right now. Oh and lots of herbs. It ends up being so much cheaper than buying produce at the store...plus it's organic and local!

Also, I don't think this would be a solution for you right now since you're in an apartment, but maybe you could share and store it with a friend...but we bought a quarter of a grass-fed cow from our farm too. Grass-fed beef can be expensive, as I'm sure you know, but in the end we got our beef (ground, roasts, and steaks of all kinds...and they threw in the neck bones for stock!) all for about 2.50/lb. AWESOME in grass-fed beef standards. The issue is storage for most people though.

You'll get there! I eat so many more veggies over the summer, and if you shop farmer's markets and in season produce, you'll save a lot of money!