How did she do that?

I can’t tell you how many times someone says “ya, sure”.

Last night we had  chilli .  I cooked the beans in the insta pot and rinsed and drained them.   (2 cups beans to enough. Water to cover your second knuckle - or at least an inch above the beans.  Never fill the insta pot more than 1/2 full if you are cooking something that will expand.   )
Added them back to the pot and added: Beans 1.5 pounds at DT for a dollar or .67 a lb.

1/2 lb cooked hamburger that had been de-fatted. ( 2.44 a pound at Zaycon
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste ( GO for 6/1.00)
1-1/2 cups of stock made from vegetable boullion ( fractions of cents -Costco Business )
2 cans stewed tomatoes ( GO for 3/1 Organic Hunts -pull date June)
1 T homemade taco seasoning
1 tsp each of garlic powder and onion powder.

I put the instapot back on the slow cooker mode and let it simmer all afternoon.

we served it with choice of sour cream, tortilla chips, and .or cheese.

Total cost of chilli for a 6 quart pot.

Beans:  Pinto cost for 6 cups cooked is .15
Hamburger :  2.44 lb is 1.22
Vegetable boullion. :  too small to calculate
Stewed tomatoes:  .33 a can for a total of .67
Taco seasoning:  : too small to calculate
Tomato paste 6/1 is .16

Total for 6 quarts is 2.20 or .366 a quart or .19 a bowl

Its not necessarily what you buy but when and where you buy it.
Watch for name brands, watch for pull dates.   Some things can go beyond pull dates, but do not trust canned goods that have acidic content.   Dry things like powdered milk etc last pretty much forever.
The pinto beans are grown in USA. Non GMO.   Alternative stores are limited to the variety of product, but a careful eye can find good bargains .

Pizza sauce is half the price of any other store at the Dollar Tree and it is a name brand.   They also carry some Betty Crocker, and Campbells.  Some items at the dollar tree are more expensive than the regular grocery store.  You do have to know your prices.

Grocery Outlet is an overstock store.  A few things are regular items.  There are also great buys on here today, gone tomorrow.   Many have reasonable pull dates.   I got Pillsbury Whole wheat flour for. .25 for 2pounds.   It was gone when I went to the seattle store.  He who tarries is lost.   Check your pull dates, stick to a good brand, and buy accordingly.   I bought six cans of Hunts, Organic stewed tomatoes at 3/1.00.  The pull date was June.   I left the ones in the box that were March.
I just bought what I knew we would eat in the six weeks that were pre pull date.   You can put stewed  or diced tomatoes in the food processer or Leander and make them more like sauce.   Its not a bargain if you cant use them up before the pull date or you dont like the flavor.  If you aren’t picky about only eating seasonal flavors during that “season” you can clean up.   We got “Oreo” type cookies that were pumpkin flavor for .50 a box.   They are perfectly good food with a reasonable pull date, it just isn’t fall.   Honestly, I cant taste the pumpkin.

  A lot of times the merchandise is something that was put out on a test market and didnt fly.   We were getting cassarole starters for free a few years ago just because they put them out for more money than the meat that went in them.   People, surprisingly, didn’t  buy them.  Someone else’s trash is someone’s treasure.   You need to be careful not to overbuy unless you intend to share it with the food bank.

We scratch cook unless the store bought alternative is either cheaper or it is too complicated to make. It doesn’t pay me to make something that takes hours of time.  I figure the money savings.  If im going to make ten cents an hour to make it from scratch, you can forget it.

The chilli cost us a little over two dollars for 12 servings.   12 servings would cost at least 6.00.   It took me maybe 15 minutes  hands on time.