Rebecca Chobat has been finding ways to make low-cost meals fulfilling and delicious for years, under her TikTok account @dollartreedinners.
From stretching $5 across three dinners to cooking a $20 Christmas dinner (for a family of six!) the home chef transforms Dollar Tree ingredients into meals that are legitimately mouthwatering.
And with every video, a swell of positive comments pour in.
“Thank you very much,” one viewer commented beneath her viral Christmas recipe. “We were going to go without Christmas dinner this year, but won’t have to now.”
“I love that!” Chobat responded. “Please share how it turns out!”
At first, Chobat started filming cooking videos to challenge herself creatively, but over time she realized just how vital her recipes were for families across the country.
“I started it for fun, and over time I talked to the people who utilize it as a resource and got a better understanding of their reasoning and challenges,” Chobat told Scary Mommy last spring.
“Through those conversations, I've adapted my content to better meet their needs.”
In her latest TikTok series, Chobat decided to tackle her hardest challenge yet: stretching $100 in groceries across 90 meals. Over the course of 30 days, she made breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day on the shoestring budget.
It wasn’t easy. The month involved a lot of food prepping, fruit freezing, and scouting grocery stores like Dollar Tree (and Food Lion) for sales every few days.
But she did it.
“We made it!” Chobat said on July 25, grinning ear to ear. “The full 30 days on $100, without going over budget. In fact, I still have some change left…I made it 30 days with 39 cents left to spare.”
Watching Chobat’s videos, it’s clear that she prides herself on sustainability and transparency.
She includes taxes when she calculates her shopping trips. And when she buys ingredients for a video, she doesn’t go beyond those resources, even if she had them in her kitchen cabinets at home.
She sticks to the list.
For example, when she ran out of flour during her “$100 over 30 days” series, she took unused bread crusts from sandwiches she saved, and ground them into bread crumbs.
“When you’re making a menu, try not to pick out just a random handful of meals,” she advised in one video. “Try to find recipes with similar or overlapping ingredients, or find multiple uses for everything that you buy.”
In another video, Chobat responded to a select few viewers who questioned the lack of seasoning in some of her recipes.
“I get a lot of comments from people who are concerned about the fact that I don’t add seasonings, or garlic powder, or things like that to my food,” Chobat said. “But I’ve talked to a lot of people, I’ve done a lot of research, I’ve worked with food banks and food pantries to know that these items are not as common in households as you may think.”
Chobat is constantly putting herself in the shoes of others, who might not have extra pocket change to spend on “kitchen staples” that some people take for granted.
“I have to consider whether the cost outweighs the benefit,” she said.
Chobat also knows that “cooking fatigue” is real — especially for people working one (or two, or three) jobs. Some viewers simply don’t have the time or energy to make the recipes that she shares, and she wants her videos to be helpful for everybody.
“I always try to integrate a few ‘I don’t feel like cooking’ options into my regular grocery shopping,” Chobat explained, admitting that she gets cooking fatigue sometimes too.
So, why center so much of her content around Dollar Tree ingredients?
In food deserts across America, Dollar Trees may be the only option for some shoppers. And if there’s other stores in the area, Dollar Tree is often still the cheapest one (even with their baseline increase to $1.25 an item).
According to the last U.S. census, 37.9 million people live below the poverty line. That’s one in 10 Americans.
For a lot of viewers, Chobat’s videos are not just helpful. They’re empowering. They’re vital.
“I don’t think people are giving you enough props for how important the work you are doing is,” one viewer commented when she finished her 30 day challenge. “This is what accessibility looks like.”
“This was probably the most honest series I’ve seen on TikTok,” praised another.
“Thank you so much for sharing with all of us,” read a top comment. “Your hard work means so much to so many of us.”
If you'd like to watch Rebecca's videos from her "$100 in 30 days" series and try any recipes for yourself, her playlist can be found here.
Header images via Rebecca Chobat / TikTok
