In the mood for dinner? How about a home-cooked meal for a family of four for less than $10?

With many households on a budget these days, we decided to put to the test whether we could feed a handful of people without breaking the bank.

So we asked a group of roommates in San Ramon to put together a "Dollar Store dinner." How did it taste? Did the cheap price leave a bad taste at the dinner table? Was this a dinner deal or a dinner disappointment?

A trip to the Dollar Tree Store in Dublin revealed the store offers a wide selection of food products. From frozen pizza to hot dogs to popcorn to cookies, the aisles of this store have more than you might think is available for just a dollar.

We selected the following for our "Put to the Test" dinner challenge:

• Two packages of spaghetti noodles
• A jar of spaghetti sauce
• Finely grated cheddar cheese
• A package of mixed frozen vegetables
• Six English muffins
• A tub of butter
• A large bottle of ice tea (five servings)

And yes, we even picked up dessert – a box of brownies.

Keep in mind, though, that because you're getting a deal, you're not going to get all name-brand items (although the brownies were Duncan Hines). Plus, many of the store's products have expiration dates in the not-so-distant future.

The roommates kept dinner pretty simple by boiling the pasta, simmering the sauce and mixing it with the steamed-then-sauteed veggies. Is it cheating to add spices to the mix? Because they added a healthy dose of salt and pepper.

The entree was served with some toasted-and-buttered English muffins and washed down with some lemon-flavored ice tea.

The verdict?

"A little bland," said Brandon Brown, 22. "Nothing some salt can't fix. But it doesn't taste like it was dirt cheap."

In fact, the rest of the household found nothing wrong with the meal, except that next time, they'd replace the English muffins with a loaf of French bread. And of course, no one complained about the brownies. 

There were plenty of leftovers after three people ate the meal, including an entire box of pasta.

BOTTOM LINE: Dinner for four for less than $10? Definitely possible and surprisingly delicious with added seasoning.

For health nuts and foodies, though, the cheap meal deal may not be worth it. Our pasta sauce contained a fair amount of high fructose corn syrup. And our "cheese" was labeled "American Shreds," a "pasteurized process topping" whose main ingredients include water, food starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and some dubiously unspecified "artificial flavors" – basically nothing from a cow. And not exactly up to Michael Pollan's standards.