One meat alternative that's pretty affordable (and much better tasting and healthier than most TVP I've tried) is Butler Soy Curls. If you buy them in bulk from their website, it comes out to around $3.24 per pound of rehydrated soy meat for the 18-pack of individual bags (The big 12lb bag is an even better deal, coming in at around $2.43 per lb of rehydrated meat). If you rehydrate it with a vegan bullion cube, it tastes genuinely excellent, and the texture is incredibly meat like.

I also found Impossible burgers at costco for $6lb (which was quite a bit more than real meat patties, but so much less than they are any other store), and those were delicious, to the point that I prefer them to real meat.

Chickpeas can also work as a ground meat substitute for things like tacos and chili.