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Some videos focused on "recession" or "budget" meals and recipes have cropped up on the popular social media platform TikTok in recent months.
They demonstrate how to make dishes that will help viewers stretch a dollar, featuring ingredients that are inexpensive or that people may already have regularly in their homes.
One TikTok user has been sharing multiple videos in which she shows how to cook affordable, filling "recession recipes" that draw from recipes from the Depression, past recessions and wartime. Dishes she has demonstrated range from pot pie to cake to pretzels.
Canada is preparing to ban the TikTok app on its government-issued mobile devices, a report says. ((Photo Ilustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
In a video posted early this month, a separate TikTok user showed people how to make a few kitchen staples – brown sugar, powdered sugar and hot chocolate mix – themselves.
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"If we are entering a recession, every penny counts, so here are three things that you can make at home that are super cost-effective," that user said in the video.
Meanwhile, a video posted by a different TikTok user highlighted lentils as a way to save money. The user showed a recipe for making a burger with a combination of lentils and ground turkey.
In recent months, "budget meal" videos have been showing traction.
There was an increase of 20% in the usage of hashtag for that specifically, from late March to late April, Today reported.
These kinds of videos have been surfacing against a backdrop of heightened worry about the economy.
Psychotherapist and author Jonathan Alpert told Gxstocks they reflect "both economic anxiety and a deeper cultural shift."
"On one hand, they’re a practical response to rising costs as people are trying to stretch their dollars," he said. "But on a psychological level, it reveals a growing sense of uncertainty and a desire for control in unpredictable times. Sharing or watching these videos can offer a sense of agency, especially for younger generations who feel priced out of the American dream."
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He said the videos "serve a communal function," noting that people "look to others for reassurance" during tough times and that "watching someone creatively cook with $5 worth of ingredients can be comforting and inspiring."
According to Alpert, the videos "allow people to construct an identity around thrift and resilience" while also revealing that "people are not just trying to survive a recession, they’re trying to make meaning out of it."
While the U.S. economy isn’t currently in a recession, some on Wall Street have said in recent weeks that the probability of one happening this year has increased. In late April, an estimate from the Bureau of Economic Analysis indicated the U.S.’s first-quarter gross domestic product "decreased at an annual rate of 0.3%" in the first three months of 2025.
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Economic uncertainty has been mounting amid the Trump administration putting in place tariffs on goods brought into the U.S. from foreign countries, such as a baseline levy of 10% on countries that haven’t retaliated against reciprocal tariffs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is slated to publish Consumer Price Index data – a common measure of inflation – for the month of April on Tuesday.
While overall inflation in March saw a slight drop from the prior month, prices of food and many other things have remained a pain point for many Americans. Food at home posted a 0.5% increase month-over-month in March and was 2.4% higher than it was a year ago, according to Consumer Price Index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
