I Made 11 Dinners For Two People On A $20 Budget (In NYC!)

Senior food producer, June, is challenged with making as many dinners for two people as she can with a $20 budget while living in New York City. Spoiler alert: She somehow made more (?!) meals with $20 than she did with $25. Watch to find out how!

#BUDGETCHALLENGE #BUDGETEATS

HOST: June Xie
VIDEO DIRECTOR + PRODUCER: Julia Smith
EDITOR: Zach Lennon-Simon
ART: Sarah Ceniceros + Allie Folino
ANIMATION: Vineet Sawant
POST-PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR: Philip Swift

FOLLOW for more #DELISH!

[krrimy]

She is probably the only chef I see who never wastes a single item! I'm impressed!! Have a lot to learn from her :)

[Eviltopia]

Back solely for June content. I hope y'all gave her a raise. I don't sit around watching anyone else for an hour and a half in the middle of the day.

[dnyellebaldwin]

This is the “ June needs a raise” petition. Delish, if we get June 2, 000 signatures aka likes, will you give her a raise?

UPDATE: we are now at 3k signatures. Delish, we know you’ve seen this comment. What’s it going to take to give our girl a raise?

[CamziVonZombie]

Aaron getting her an ice cream sandwich in the middle of dinner to help with her spicy mouth was really cute.

[lkn]

Your honesty about your depression was a gift to us all, as i think so many of us are going through similar things. Thanks for staying so real

[jessicagulbraa]

June's depression meals: salmon tacos with homemade jicama slaw
My depression meal: a sleeve of saltines while watching June cook.

[jy]

June I have been dealing with eating disorder for over a decade but watching your video is helping me to define what food should be and I'm beginning to appreciate food in its entirety again. You are the only one YouTuber I can watch the entire hour long video joyfully the whole time. Thank you for your endearing videos, pockets of vulnerability and just your awesome self! ❤️

[rachelbarr]

June’s budget eat series is truly the best thing the internet has to offer

[krisanthonysilveira]

The amount of respect this woman has garnered is incredible. She just powers through her meals, I'm humbled and will be returning to learn more!
And khichdi she pronounces it right aaron!! I must say you are lucky to have a thrifty wife. Love from India.❤️

[AnnaNicoleBee]

This woman is the definition of "there's food at home".

[Holly-Pocket]

I want to see a whole series where June goes to *someone else’s* pantry and finds what they have to make an impromptu dinner.

[badmomba]

Your grocery haul diagrams make my little organized heart so happy.

[ceejuu]

The fact that June acknowledges her depression being a little worse on Tuesday and gives us all a little self care reminder 😭 straight up brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for sharing ❤️❤️

[edstella]

This might get buried and this is never the focus of June's videos, but I always wanted to say this... Thanks for being a positive and relatable person in these videos to showcase a fairly typical Asian-American style of cooking and methodology in the kitchen. Especially with all the anti-Asian vitriol going on more than ever. Lots of media both fiction and "reality television" like depict how Asians eat and cook as challenge foods or somehow demean it as ghoulish and disgusting. It's showcasing "the exotic" to ridicule and for people to gawk at and scorn. My parents are Filipino and my dad had a strong ethnically Chinese background and did not grow up in a really developed area. So much of style of cooking and flavors are simple with Chinese roots and focus on not wasting and making either simple or cheap ingredients delicious-- and they were. I hate the relationship many Americans have with Asian food, either seeing it as unclean and disgusting, cheap and inauthentic, or needing to be "polished" and elevated to something unrecognizable to be palatable. Along with June's innovation, respect for other cultures by having dishes inspired by them, and June's ability to maturely discuss topics like depression and racist-based, outdated ideas about MSG, seeing her stuff is always so validating. Thank you, June.

[annawallace]

You know how you re-watch episodes of your favorite show as a background comfort? I do this with Budget Eats.

I adore you, June. You are endlessly creative, entertaining, and comforting.

[Gjigfvniyf]

June saying “but that’s okay because that just means we’re gonna take our time” was honestly something I needed. Love the honesty and love the advice, hope your feeling a little better now

[yettismama]

June's hair gets increasingly rockstar as quarantine goes on. I'm here for it.

[wenifredstewart]

I know frugality is important to all of us and June especially, but she deserves a raise! June deserves to be a millionaire.

[sapstomarz]

June: *critiquing salmon salad in lots of detail*
Aaron in the background: *DUMPING SPICES ON SALAD*

[mjking]

Aaron feeding June the Ice Cream sandwich, telling her she needed it was so sweet.

I also second his suggestion of an ice cream sandwich series.