History Main / NoBudget

** Before, shows like ''Series/{{Idiotest}}'' or ''Emogenius'' also offered grand prizes of $10k, but scoring was in dollars, and there were still small bonuses in endgames. As of July 2023, only two shows still on the air score in dollars: ''Series/ChainReaction'' and ''Hey Yahoo!''.

** Before, shows like ''Series/{{Idiotest}}'' or ''Emogenius'' also offer grand prizes of $10k, but scoring was in dollars, and there were still small bonuses in endgames. As of July 2023, only two shows still on the air score in dollars: ''Series/ChainReaction'' and ''Hey Yahoo!''.

* Most modern Creator/GameShowNetwork originals, especially since ''Series/AmericaSays''. These shows typically award champions a flat $1,000 and offer a top prize of $10,000 -- with exceptions of ''America Says'' ($15,000) and the new ''[[Series/{{Gambit}} Catch 21]]'' ($25,000). Losing the bonus rounds win ''nothing extra.''
** Before, shows like ''Series/{{Idiotest}} or ''Emogenius'' also offer grand prizes of $10k, but scoring was in dollars, and there were still small bonuses in endgames. As of July 2023, only two shows still on the air score in dollars: ''Series/ChainReaction'' and ''Hey Yahoo!''.

* Most modern Creator/GameShowNetwork originals, especially since ''Series/AmericaSays''. These shows typically award champions a flat $1,000 and offer top prizes of $10,000 -- with exceptions of ''America Says'' ($15,000) and the new ''[[Series/{{Gambit}} Catch 21]]'' ($25,000). Losing the bonus rounds win ''nothing extra.''

[[caption-width-right:270:Sorry, we can't afford a page image. Even this caption was just borrowed from a friend in exchange for a walk-on.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/RomeoAndJulietSealedWithAKiss'' cost around $2 million, which is extremely meager for a full-length animated film. The film was [[DoingItForTheArt directed, written, and animated]] by former Disney animator Phil Nibbelink, with the voice acting provided by friends and family members. The results were mixed, though many did commend Nibbelink on such an ambitious project. Unfortunately, [[BoxOfficeBomb it still flopped at the box office]].

* Any daytime gameshow produced by Creator/FremantleMedia subsidiary Grundy that aired on Creator/ChannelFive during the Pearson Television days was this.

* All tracks except "Avatar" on {{Music/Grottomatic}}'s first album, [[http://grottomatic.bandcamp.com/album/on-no-budget On No Budget]], were made on Tim's personal computer. He composed the album art with Microsoft Paint. He was living in poverty at the time.

* Music/{{Nirvana}} recorded their debut album ''Music/{{Bleach}}'' for barely over $600.

* Music/{{Nirvana}} recorded their debut album ''Music/{{Bleach{{'' for barely over $600.

* NoBudget/LiveActioNTV

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Due to being made without any major studio input, many independent films have very small budgets by Hollywood standards.
* Creator/RobertRodriguez' ''Film/ElMariachi'' was made with a budget of $207,225. However, only ''$7,225'' went into making the film, as it was originally going to be direct-to-video. The rest was later provided by Columbia Pictures to help get the film a theatrical release. In The Robert Rodriguez 10 Minute Film School and his book ''Rebel Without a Crew'', the director lists the at times crazy techniques used to make the film on such a low budget:
** The camera was a borrowed 16mm that came with no manual, so he needed to call a store in Texas to help identify the camera and teach him how to work it. To avoid spending too much money on film, everything was shot in only one or two takes (though he admits to spending more than expected because he only bought as much as he needed, keeping him from using bulk discounts). To give the illusion of multiple cameras, he would freeze the action after a few seconds and move to another spot to keep going.
** The film was transferred to 3/4" video, saving tens of thousands of dollars that would have instead been spent on making a film negative, and edited on video. The resulting video copy is what got shopped around, and Columbia ponied up the money to make a 35mm film print for theatrical release.
** Incorporating bloopers into the plot in order to avoid retakes and simply cutting to another angle to disguise mistakes.
** All of the firing guns were real guns because he couldn't afford blank-converted ones from a rental armory (the submachine guns were borrowed from the local Mexican police!). Because the automatics would jam on the first round with blanks due to lacking a bullet to provide force working the action, he would copy the firing frames or cut away from the shooting while playing a canned machine gun sound effect and having actors drop handfuls of casings on the ground to provide the illusion of automatic gunfire. The guns that weren't real were water guns.
** The only non-natural light was a pair of 250-watt desk lamps with some improvised filters and reflectors.
** As the title of his book suggests, there was ''no crew''. Rodriguez did everything himself from the writing and filming to the sound recording and editing. Because actors would otherwise be standing around doing nothing, he had them act as extra hands when needed.
** The camera couldn't sync to a sound recorder and was too loud to record sound while filming anyway, so he shot the film silently and recorded dialogue and foley on set a few minutes later. When the dialogue didn't perfectly match the lip movements during post-production, [[FilmingForEasyDub he used cuts to other angles to take the mouth off-screen]].
** They had two guitar cases: a black one for the mariachi's guitar and a brown one with the guns (modified with straps on the inside for the weapons). Unfortunately, the cases are ''both'' supposed to be black. Rodriguez would simply film the black case being opened and then cut to the already open brown case.
* ''Film/StepsTroddenBlack'' was made with no crew. It relied on a budget of less than a thousand dollars, using volunteer actors and borrowed equipment, getting by on the strength of its dialogue and some surprisingly good amateur actors. The complete lack of a budget makes the relatively high production values and competently produced visual and makeup effects even more impressive.
* ''Film/HardwareWars'' was, relative to its budget, one of the most profitable films of all time, making over $1M on a budget of $8,000.
* Other than financial grants from the French government and producers who took interest in the film's premise, the 2016 Filipino romantic comedy ''Film/SavingSally'' was made in ''ten years'' on a ₱10,000 budget. That's around ''$200''! It did pay off as the film earned ₱27 million or roughly $600,000 to positive reviews, which while definitely not to the same level of financial success as a mainstream UsefulNotes/MetroManilaFilmFestival feature, is still commendable for an independent production.
* Auteur Shane Carruth made ''Film/{{Primer}}'' with a budget of $7,000, most of which was spent on the film stock. It received strong reviews, but critics complained that the dialogue was made even more impenetrable by the terrible sound quality in some scenes.
* Creator/ChristopherNolan's first feature film, ''Film/{{Following}}'', cost about $6-$7,000. The cast and crew were all employed full-time, so everything was filmed on weekends. Every scene was extensively rehearsed, because they didn't have enough film stock for more than two takes. Nolan used his friends' and family's homes for location shooting, and had to film with natural lighting.
* The films made by Creator/EdWood had very low budgets. [[SoBadItsGood It shows]]. Here are the known budgets for his films [[note]]No estimates are known for ''Film/NightOfTheGhouls'' (1959) or his early 1970s films.[[/note]]:
** ''Film/GlenOrGlenda'' (1953) had an estimated budget of $20,000. Creator/BelaLugosi agreed to play in the film for a salary of $5,000, although legend has it he only pocketed $1,000 for his appearance.
** ''Film/JailBait'' (1954) had an estimated budget of $22,000.
** ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' (1955) had an estimated budget of $70,000.
** ''Film/Plan9FromOuterSpace'' (1959) had an estimated budget of $60,000.
** ''Film/TheSinisterUrge'' (1960) had an estimated budget of $20,125.
* The British zombie film ''Film/{{Colin}}'' made some headlines due its reported £45 budget.
* ''Slashers'' was shot on a single handheld camera in a paintball arena. This was an appropriate choice, since the cameraman was also a character, hired by the titular game show to keep a live image of the contestants as they attempted to survive the killers.
* ''Film/TheCastle'' was made on a budget of AU$19,000. Not only that, but it was filmed in 11 days because the budget didn't stretch enough to cater anymore.
* Every Creator/RogerCorman movie ever made.
** ''Film/TheLittleShopOfHorrors'' was filmed in less than 48 hours. It was even shot on sets from another movie, before they were dismantled.
** ''Film/TheTerror'', which was made as said sets were dismantled. A film that didn't even have a script, but they had Creator/BorisKarloff and Creator/JackNicholson and built from there!
** And then Corman handed Peter Bogdanovich footage from ''The Terror'' and the last two days Karloff was obliged to film for him and said "Make a movie." The result was ''Film/{{Targets}}''.
** Constantin Film had to make a ''Comicbook/FantasticFour'' movie quickly to retain the film rights. They handed Corman $1.4M, and [[Film/TheFantasticFour it was made]] ([[AshCanCopy but not released]]).
* Mike Jittlov's original ''Film/TheWizardOfSpeedAndTime'' short had no budget and was created by Mike.
* ''Film/AFistfulOfDollars'' was made on the set of a much crappier SpaghettiWestern called ''Guns Don't Talk'' as an attempt to recoup its budget. The actors had to provide their own costumes.
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' (most of the money came from rock groups such as Music/LedZeppelin, Music/PinkFloyd, and Music/{{Genesis|Band}}). The [[NoEnding ending]] used was partially because the team couldn't afford the one they had written. (They'd blown too much money on the pyrotechnic effects for the Tim the Enchanter scene.)
* You can tell the makers of ''Film/ForbiddenZone'' had way more ambition than they had budget to pull it off, as one can tell by the sometimes outrageously cheap-looking sets. But, given that the film is so damnably surreal, it kind of works at recreating that strange, Fleischer-cartoon feel they were going for. Plus, it helps that the director was related to Music/DannyElfman and able to get him to compose a really awesome soundtrack.
* Subverted by ''Film/TheRoom''. Extremely limited sets, very few location shots, crappy blue screen effects. Final cost? ''$6 million.'' Tommy Wiseau wasted money like crazy, buying two cameras to film every scene side-by-side on film and digital. He spent a fair amount on buying the copyright so the characters could sing "Happy Birthday". Some people speculate that the film was a money laundering scheme, which would be where most of the supposed budget went.
%%* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}. Which also contributes to its sheer awesomeness.
* Creator/PeterJackson's first film ''Film/BadTaste'' was filmed by just him and a few friends over a few years, in which their lack of budget led to things like several actors playing two or more roles, making latex moulds in the kitchen oven, and various other (sometimes quite ingenious) solutions.
* ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' in the extended edition of ''[[Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers The Two Towers]]'': After Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas meet up with the resurrected Gandalf, Aragorn and Gandalf have a conversation at night. Apart from the opening establishing shot, the whole conversation is tight close-ups and the background is absolutely pitch-black. [[AllThereInTheManual Apparently]] they shot that scene in a shed.
* ''Film/TwelveAngryMen'' partly counts as they could only afford enough film to record once, so no mistakes were allowed.
* ''Film/FriendOfTheWorld'' was financed by ''Film/ApocalypseNow'' actor and stuntman Kerry Rossall. While the budget has not been disclosed, a review of the film claims it "[[https://setthetape.com/2021/10/07/friend-of-the-world-film-review/ seems to be a budget smaller than the amount I spend on coffee every month.]]"
* In-universe example: ''Chubby Rain'', from ''Film/{{Bowfinger}}''. Bobby Bowfinger says the $2,184 spent are the actual budget for every blockbuster, but UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting inflates it to a million-dollar figure.
* ''Film/{{Birdemic}}''. Made for under $10,000. Where to even begin?
** The birds are played by low-quality [=GIFs=] of hawks and vultures with poor seagull cries. They tend to explode upon striking the ground. All explosion, fire, muzzle flash, and smoke effects are likewise extremely low-quality [=GIFs=].
** In an infamous scene, the protagonists fend off a bird attack with ''coat hangers''. They were scripted to use curtain rods, but the Motel 6 used for filming had no detachable curtain rods and apparently it would have been too much money to buy them.
** Many of the businesses appear to have been filmed in while closed for the night, such as the restaurant which is completely empty except for a waiter and a singer. Only a few corporate meeting scenes have an appreciable number of extras, leaving other scenes set in diners and restaurants conspicuously empty. Filming done near roads during the actual bird apocalypse shows traffic passing unimpeded and real birds flying around.
** The whole film appears to have been shot on a low-quality video camera with little to no editing.
** One of the extremely few practical effects in the film (birds spitting acid) was done by hurling several cartons of orange juice from off-camera onto the actors. This could only be done in one take, as that was all the orange juice they had.
** Sound editing was almost non-existent. No room tone was taken and the background noise changes wildly between angles due to it. All sound was apparently taken off the camera's own microphone, with greatly varying levels and clarity.
** Except for a few songs, all of the music is royalty-free. The infamously long opening driving scene has a short royalty-free clip simply loop multiple times.
** Filming could only take place intermittently on weekends due to everyone having day jobs, causing the movie to take ''4 years'' to complete.
* The whole reason ''Film/ManosTheHandsOfFate'' was even made was because the director had a bet going that he could make a movie based on a shoestring budget. He ''technically'' won...
* ''Film/MonsterAGoGo'' started filming as a B-Movie, but ran out of budget partway through. After being shelved for a few years, it was finished in a way so cheap as to be insulting.
* Many UsefulNotes/{{Nollywood}} (the Nigerian film industry) movies, the first cinematographic industry in volume, are like this, and a lot of times it shows. This has led to a backlash called the ''New Nollywood'' movement, aiming to uplift the status of Nigerian cinema from a quantity-over-quality factory of lowbrow DirectToVideo fodder to a respectable industry able to keep up with those from industrialised nations. Some of these films, such as ''The Figurine'' and ''The Wedding Party'' avert this with more than decent production values, receiving critical acclaim overseas.
* ''Film/ThanksKilling'' was made for $3,000.
* ''Film/ViolentShit'' was made over four weekends on a budget of $2,000.
* ''Woodchipper Massacre'' apparently had a budget of only $400.
* ''[=MonSturd=]'', another for $3,000.
* [[https://web.archive.org/web/20060508050921/http://www.agonybooth.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21 As told by director Tony Malanowski]], ''Night of Horror'' was made for $4,000 after he dropped out of film school - "Lots cheaper than 4 years of college (even though I had a full scholarship)". Its remake ''Curse of the Screaming Dead'' is probably not much more expensive even if it has more gore and such.
* Anything made by the Polonia brothers, like ''Film/{{Feeders}}''.
* ''Film/ATalkingCat'' was made for only $1 million and it shows. The film has amateurish camera work, sound and special effects (especially the poor lopping and mouth movements of Creator/EricRoberts' cat).
* ''This Is Not A Film'' was... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin not actually a film production]]. It's a personal video diary by UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}ian political prisoner (and "former" high-profile film maker) Jafar Panahi, filmed partially on his iPhone in his own apartment. A good part of it is Panahi summarizing the story of a couple movies his government did not let him make [[LoopholeAbuse because he was banned from directing, screenwriting, and interviews but not acting]]. The video was smuggled out of Iran ''[[JailBake inside a birthday cake]]'', and screened internationally in movie theaters to critical acclaim. Its actual budget is rather difficult to factor — how much did the birthday cake cost?
* ''Amateur Porn Star Killer'' — $45.
* ''The Last House on Dead End Street'' was made for $800. The budget was originally $3,000 but the creator spent most of that on drugs.
* ''Film/{{Manborg}}'' had a budget of $1000, and is all the more awesome because of it.
* The {{found footage|Films}} {{mockumentary}} horror film ''Film/TheLastBroadcast'' was made for only $900, and is notable for being one of the first films shot on video to get a theatrical release.
* ''Film/CryWolf'' is an interesting example. The producers had made a short film as a contest for Chrysler, and the prize was a million dollars. They used the money to make the film, along with quite a bit of conspicuous Chrysler ProductPlacement.
* ''Film/WhoKilledCaptainAlex'' takes the No Budget thing to the extreme, being made on a budget of roughly $200. For context, the film company that made the film lived in a slum in Uganda, so you couldn't really blame them for the money issues. It makes up for it [[DoingItForTheArt with the sheer level of passion everyone put into it]].
* All three of Creator/ColemanFrancis' directorial works play this trope in the most literal ways yet. The same actors, same locations [[note]]What few there are since all three are shot outside[[/note]], non-existent makeup or effects, little to no props, terrible cinematography, and [[StockFootage stock material]] that never fits with the rest of the film. ''Film/TheBeastOfYuccaFlats'' takes it to an even bigger extreme by having next to no sound at all, that is unless an actor's face is obscured so that the dialogue wouldn't have to sync up with the mouth movements. [[note]]Supposedly the crew was unable to obtain any sound equipment at the time so Coleman improvised by shooting the film as it is to stay under budget.[[/note]] It's quite an accomplishment when you manage to make Ed Wood of all people look like a professional filmmaker in comparison.
* ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' is famous for having been made on a budget of $27,575, boosted to $250K after Miramax bought the rights to it and added music. It was filmed at night in the Quick Stop where Creator/KevinSmith actually worked, and most of the actors are his friends and relatives, several of them playing multiple roles. Smith stated that he maxed out eight credit cards to make the film.
* Kevin Smith made ''Film/ChasingAmy'' for $250K. Initially, he was given a budget of $3M, but only if he cast Creator/DavidSchwimmer, Creator/JonStewart, and Creator/DrewBarrymore. He didn't.
* ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'' holds the world record for budget-to-box office performance. The cost to create the film itself has been listed as between $25,000 to $750,000. It went on to make $250 million. However, it did receive a $25 million advertising budget.
* ''Film/TheMission1999'' costs 2.5 million HK dollars, or 320K USD. Most of the money probably goes to the slick black suits worn by the six main characters throughout the movie.
* ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'' was made for $400K. Half of it was for the after-the-credits scene. Said scene (depicting [[spoiler:Kip and [=LaFawndah's=] wedding, and Napoleon taming a wild stallion]]) wasn't even part of the original release; it was added for the wide release after the film's explosive popularity at Sundance.
** ''Film/UpstreamColor'' was made for about $50,000 and manages to both look and sound fantastic.
* ''Film/{{Ink}}'' was made for $250K.
* ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' was shot on a budget of $200K, bringing in $35M (today equal to over $100M). Creator/JohnCarpenter spent most of the budget on getting anamorphic lenses (to hide its low budget), so they didn't even have enough money to make a mask. Instead they just painted an [[OffTheShelfFX off-the-shelf]] Captain Kirk mask white.
** Creator/JohnCarpenter's cinematic debut ''Film/DarkStar'' was made on a shoestring budget of $60,000. And it shows.
* ''Film/MadMax1'' was made for $400K. The director ''donated his own car'' to get smashed up in a chase scene.
* Producer Jason Blum is famous for his low budgets and the high returns he gets off of them, which has earned him comparisons to Corman. His strategy is to give filmmakers a few million dollars (Blumhouse Productions had never made a non-sequel film with a budget exceeding $5 million) and near-complete creative freedom, and let them go wild. He's best known for his involvement in the horror genre; he made his name by producing the ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' series, and was also behind a number of other major horror films starting in the late '00s.
** Speaking of ''Film/ParanormalActivity'', the first film cost $15,000 to make (and that's after Creator/StevenSpielberg gave money for writer/director Oren Peli to shoot another ending!) and grossed $193 million worldwide. This success allowed the filmmakers to do a sequel with the comparatively high budget of $3 million.
** ''Film/{{Insidious}}'' cost $1.5 million and grossed $92 million worldwide. Notably, it was written and directed by Creator/JamesWan and Leigh Whannell, the people behind ''Saw'' (described below), and co-produced by Oren Peli, the maker of the aforementioned ''Paranormal Activity''.
** ''Film/TheGallows'', another film that Blumhouse picked up, was made for only $100,000. Since they didn't have the money for stuntmen, all of the actors had to do their own stunts.
* ''Film/AfterLastSeason'' is a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion: despite looking cheaper than [[strike:most]] every single damn last one of the films on this list, it was made with a $5M budget ($40,000 which was dedicated to produc-er, renting a warehouse and a crappy video camera, the rest to post-er, hiring an editor whose services they apparently didn't use, and a college kid with a rudimentary knowledge of Blender to make the special effects).
* According to [[Website/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]], ''Film/SawI'' was made for $1.2M and grossed over $103M worldwide. ''Film/SawII'' was made for $4M, and grossed over $147M. After that, they started getting an actual budget (roughly $10M per film), which probably accounts for the amped up {{gor|n}}e in the later sequels (more money for special effects = more gore).
* Since Creator/UnitedArtists wanted a famous protagonist in ''Film/{{Rocky}}'' but Creator/SylvesterStallone sold his script on the condition of being the star, the studio only lent $1M for production. The producers had to mortgage their houses in order to get an extra $100,000 and finish the movie. It ended up grossing $225M worldwide, winning three UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (including Best Picture), and became one of the most famous movie franchises ever.
* In 1962, ''Film/DrNo'' was made for just $1M, before the effects team asked for an extra 100K to do the climactic explosion. Film/JamesBond's watch was producer Cubby Broccoli's own, and when an art director found out his name wasn't in the credits, Broccoli gave him a golden pen, saying he didn't want to spend money fixing them. This results in the most subdued Bond movie.
* ''Film/BenAndArthur'' is practically the ''Birdemic'' of gay romance movies. Despite a budget of $40,000 (4 times that of Birdemic), it somehow manages to accomplish even less in scope.
** The diner Ben and Arthur work in is represented by a fast food chain restaurant.
** One of the pistols used in the film is obviously a water pistol painted black. The many gunshots have no special effects except for a stock "gunshot" sound effect and cutting back to the victim with a bloody injury.
** The church set includes a "stained glass" window that looks like it was made of thin paper.
** Shots of Ben and Arthur taking an airline were apparently made by going to an airport and filming the first plane to pass close overhead. The two planes used are a [=FedEx=] cargo plane and an Alaska Airlines plane (flying from California to Vermont).
** All of the music that isn't royalty-free is composed by Sam Mraovich, the star, director, writer, and overall creator of the film.
** A Sony [=VX2000=] camcorder with a tripod was seemingly the only camera setup used, making the film resemble a home movie. Two of the actors in the film were also credited as "cinematographers", suggesting that they hung around when not being shot to help manipulate the camera. The lack of a proper stabilizing rig makes any shots in motion very shaky and nauseating. All lighting is apparently whatever natural light was available, with one scene of Ben in a dark bedroom waking up being almost pitch black because of it.
* ''Film/HardCandy'' was made for $950K, mainly to avoid ExecutiveMeddling due to the controversial topic. It was filmed in 18 days, in chronological order, in the director's own house, and used a bare minimum of takes.
* Creator/DarrenAronofsky's first feature ''Film/{{Pi}}'' had a budget of $60,000. He didn't pay to secure outdoor locations and had one member of the crew stand by to look out for cops.
* ''Film/SLCPunk'' cost just $600K to make, even after its cast of familiar names, soundtrack of classic punk tracks and the use of anamorphic lenses.
* ''Film/MarginCall'' was made on a $3M budget and made almost $20M. 90% of the film was shot on a single floor of a recently vacated trading firm. The AllStarCast actors apparently liked the script so much that they agreed to the Screen Actors Guild's minimum salaries.
* ''Film/TheEvilDead1981'' was shot for over a year with less than $375,000.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'' was made on a budget of $100K. The only reason they were able to afford the helicopter crash scene was because it was an unscripted accident, so the damages were covered by their insurance policy. The second movie had ''twenty times'' the budget of the first (which is still pretty small for a movie). It doesn't show (it also has a RunningGag of blatant product placements because they allegedly ran out of money partway through the film and needed an extra source of funding).
* The original ''Film/{{Cube}}'' was produced for $400K. All the CG was done for free as a DoingItForTheArt moment.
* ''Film/RepoChick'' was originally budgeted at $7M, which left one line producer wondering how (and where) they were going to secure a California Zephyr railroad car that was central to the plot. When the original financing fell through, director Alex Cox decided to shoot the actors almost entirely on green screen over 10 days, and composite in HO-scale model trains and sets in post-production. Final budget? $180,000.
* The original ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' was done on a budget of $114,000.
* According to Website/IMDb, ''WebVideo/DoomHouse'' was filmed on a meager shoestring budget of only [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496277/business $60,000 (estimated).]]
* For years, the "official" shooting budget of the original ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' was listed as $1.5 million. It wasn't until 2004, when the "Ultimate Edition' DVD box set was released, that producer Richard Rubenstein revealed (on one of the commentary tracks) that the real number was closer to $500,000; they'd inflated the cost to make the film seem more impressive while marketing it to potential distributors.
* ''Film/{{Monsters|2010}}'' was made on $500,000 in spite of the massive, Hollywood-quality CGI monsters that play a small but vital role in the film. The locations, including monster-smashed landscapes and various exotic South American locales, are also pretty impressive. The director, Creator/GarethEdwards, made all the CGI on his home computer, most of the locations were stolen, and many supporting characters were simply bystanders recruited to improvise scenes on the spot. The boats and trucks in trees were probably left there by previous hurricanes.
* Creator/AdamSandler's first film, ''Film/GoingOverboard'', [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this trope in the opening shot. "This is a No Budget flick. Not a low budget, but a no budget!"
* Any movie by Creator/TheAsylum typically doesn't go over the $1 million mark when it comes to budgets.
* ''Film/FrozenDays'' was made on a $25,000 budget, which the creators had to raise themselves.
* ''Film/{{Absentia}}'' was a project on Website/{{Kickstarter}}, resulting in a $70,000 budget - this led to liberal use of NothingIsScarier.
* ''Film/AnotherEarth'' was made for about $100,000. When they needed a scene of the protagonist getting out of jail, actress Creator/BritMarling simply walked into a local prison claiming to be a yoga instructor, and then walked out again before anyone had time to realize that she wasn't, while the director filmed it all from outside.
* ''Film/AllSuperheroesMustDie'' was made on a budget of $20,000. Several scenes were modified as the list of places they could affordably film shrank.
* ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'' cost only $650,000 to make and made $20 million at the box office.
* ''Film/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'' was made on a budget of US$14,000 (with inflation that's about $114,000 today). This is indicated by such things as a toy standing in for a death ray and an extended sequence featuring a lobster dangled in front of the camera to serve as a giant alien monster.
* 20th Century Fox initially only gave $8 million to do ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', and the TroubledProduction made it climb up to a still meager $11 million (for comparison, [[Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind the other big sci-fi movie of that year]] cost $20 million), which amounts to $45.5 million today. And yet it became the highest grossing movie ever upon release, and made Creator/GeorgeLucas enough money to finance [[Franchise/StarWars the following movies]] out of his own pocket ([[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the very next]] started at much more comfortable $18 million, though once things went awry again, Lucas had to [[NetworkToTheRescue ask the studio for some extra cash]]).
* ''Film/TheTerminator'' was made for $6.4 million, with workarounds like only filming in illuminated streets to not spend on artificial lighting, and the crew always on the lookout for the police given the lack of filming permits.
* The filmography for [[Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer]] qualifies under this. [[ShallowParody Due to the duo's habit of writing their "parody scripts" around trailers for unreleased movies]], and shooting their films within short deadlines, the end results are unsurprisingly less than you'd expect. There's a reason why these two are credited with [[GenreKiller killing the parody genre in theaters for a while]]. [[note]]Although with the success of ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'' among other titles, the parody genre [[GenreRelaunch seems to have been revived for the big screen to an extent]].[[/note]] Their filmography following ''Film/VampiresSuck'' takes this further as the duo has now resorted to producing their movies on even tighter budgets than their Hollywood titles, and don't even release them theatrically.
* Donald G. Jackson isn't called ''The Creator/EdWood of the Video Age'' for nothing.
** Don initially planned to produce his first movie, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GfMZPrUwI4 The Demon Lover]]'', for $6,000 which was raised by co-director Jerry Younkins [[BodyHorror cutting his own finger off]] at the auto factory they worked at. But by the time pre-production was finished Jerry had already spent the money, leaving the film in DevelopmentHell for four years until its completion in 1977, by which point they had both lost their jobs and declared bankruptcy. Thankfully the movie managed to turn in a profit in the drive-in market... [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown none of which they ever saw from the distributors]].
** For the wrestling documentary ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T3uwu26FlE I Like to Hurt People]]'', Donald initially wanted to follow Wrestling/HulkHogan during his rise to fame in the industry, but later settled for Wrestling/TheIronSheik since he was willing to be documented for free. Even then the movie still had to be shelved since Donald couldn't cover the post-production costs, and it remained as such until 1985 when Creator/RogerCorman paid for the process along with the film's distribution rights.
* ''Film/OpenWater'' was produced for $500,000, with an additional 2.5 million spent by Lions Gate Entertainment to acquire the rights and another $8 million to promote and distribute it. It made $55 million worldwide.
* The 1991 indie comedy ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdXEXFw4GIM High Strung]]'' was mostly filmed on an apartment set-piece for only 13 days with a budget of $300,000.
* ''Film/KungPowEnterTheFist'' (2002) was made on a budget of $10 million by writer, producer, director [[AscendedCreator and star]] Steve Oedekerk who made the film using re dubbed StockFootage from the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts feature, ''Tiger and Crane Fist''.
* ''Film/MurderParty'', the first film by the director of ''Film/BlueRuin'' and ''Film/GreenRoom'', takes this trope ''literally''. Yes, as in "this movie was made for absolutely no money whatsoever". The cast and crew worked for free, most of the film's special effects were scrapped partway into production, and the creators even saved money by injecting themselves with actual needles filled with saline for a truth serum-centric sequence.
* ''Film/{{Coherence}}'' is a sci-fi drama about overlapping parallel universes. The budget is undisclosed, but it was filmed over five nights at the director's own house, and the producer says that the cast outnumbered the crew.
* ''Film/AngryVideoGameNerdTheMovie'' was produced for about $325,000, which certainly isn't pocket change for a crowd-funded indie movie. However, the film itself is massively ambitious given that budget, featuring a huge cast, many different locations, several major VFX sequences including a full-blown {{Kaiju}} rampage through downtown Las Vegas, and a major character portrayed by Creator/JimHenson-style puppetry. Many of the props and sets have a homemade, ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''-esque quality to them because after paying the cast and crew, transportation fees, catering and other "normal" costs, there simply wasn't money left to do the "weird" stuff Hollywood-style.
* ''Silent Night, Bloody Night'' was made on a $295,000 budget; a portion of which was provided by Creator/LloydKaufman two years before he went on to form Creator/{{Troma}}.
* ''Film/MeganIsMissing'' was shot on a incredibly low budget of $35,000 (most viewers theorize half the budget was spent on [[spoiler:the torture photos and the rape scenes]]) with a small crew of only 5 people using little-to-no professional equipment and with a cast of unknown actors. Numerous production mistakes were left in (for example several scenes have a VisibleBoomMic and director Michael Goi can be heard yelling "Action!" during one scene).
* ''Film/GorillaInterrupted'': The movie was shot over the course of seven days by amateur filmmakers just doing it for fun. The purchase of a shop light and some Halloween-style costumes represented as much money as they invested.
* ''Film/TalesOfAnAncientEmpire'' definitely suffers from this, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLELNdcgKBw&t=803s just watch the movie:]]
** There are no crowd scenes because they couldn't hire too many extras.
** A cavern serves as an ancient tomb, adding rugs on the walls turns it into a palace.
** Has pretty awful and notoriously cheap special effects, especially in the shipwreck scene.
* ''Film/{{Wanda}}'' was made for $100,000 with a crew of 4 including director and lead actor Barbara Loden (the DP also edited the film). Apart from Loden and co-lead Michael Higgins (whose costumes were borrowed from Loden's husband's personal wardrobe) all the actors were amateurs.
* Most of the films Creator/JohnSayles has made fall into this category, starting with his directorial debut, ''Film/ReturnOfTheSecaucusSeven'', which was made for $40,000, with few locations, very little camera movement, and the cast using their own costumes and makeup.
* ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'': Most of the $70 million that were allocated to Creator/ZackSnyder were used to finish the special effects of scenes he shot in 2016. The extra scenes he added (the BadFuture with Batman meeting the Joker, most notably) on the other hand had a shoestring budget and were filmed in Snyder's own backyard in 2020 (also accounting for UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic times logistics), hence why they don't look as polished as the rest of the film.
* ''Film/{{Hellbender}}'' was made mostly by a family of three with some help of their extended family. [[RealLifeRelative Real life mother Toby Poser and daughter Zelda Adams play mother and daughter in the film]].
* ''Film/{{The Texas Chain Saw Massacre|1974}}'' was produced on a budget of $140,000. Director Creator/TobeHooper hired friends or local actors who acted in commercials and the like to star in the film. Because of the exorbitant film equipment rentals, they had to film seven days a week for up to 16 hours a day, on a hot Texas summer, with no air conditioning of any kind. They only used a couple pints of fake blood, leading to liberal use of [[GoryDiscretionShot cutaways]] for the kill scenes.
* The original ''[[Film/FridayThe13th1980 Friday the 13th]]'' had a budget of $500,000. Compared to later films, it has a very independent, grindhouse-film feel to it, thanks to the usage of handheld cameras and long takes.
* ''Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974'' was made on a $150,000 budget, and many of the cast members were actor/director H. B. Halicki's friends and relatives. Emergency service workers (i.e. police, firefighters and paramedics) were ''actual'' police officers, firemen, or paramedics, and the bulk of the bystanders in the film were ordinary civilians milling about their daily routines (although there were indeed a few cast extras). In addition, filming had to be interrupted for several days so that Halicki could repair cars and thus earn funds to continue production. It does help that Halicki owned a scrapyard where many of the cars were sourced from, including the iconic "Eleanor" Mustang.
* ''Film/ZyzzyxRoad'' had a meager budget of $1.2 million. Despite its very low budget, it infamously became a BoxOfficeBomb anyway, grossing '''''$30''''' (yes, you read that right) on its opening run due to its extremely limited release (technically $20, due to one of the lead actors refunding tickets purchased by the movie's make-up artist).
* ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' was meant to have a $36 million budget, but days before production began, Creator/TheCannonGroup slashed the film's budget to $17 million, and it shows ''everywhere'', e.g. the reused shots of Superman and Nuclear Man flying over different backgrounds, to say nothing about [[SpecialEffectsFailure the shoddy green-screening of such shots]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* A common trend with pilot episodes. They tend to be made on extremely limited budgets, with no one being paid in the most extreme cases. This often results in a noticeable increase in quality from the second episode on.
* Creator/USANetwork tried to [[NetworkToTheRescue rescue]] ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' without accounting for the price tag. They had to use [[StockFootageFailure painfully obvious stock footage]] to cover up the fact that they didn't actually have the helicopter. They couldn't afford the actors, either.
* ''Series/{{Animorphs}}'' had no budget whatsoever, and it shows, particularly when they're showing any sort of Andalite (not that they did this very often). It's just one of the many reasons most fans of [[Literature/{{Animorphs}} the books]] hated it.
* UsefulNotes/NewZealand-produced TV show ''Back Of The Y'' made up for its ultra-low budget by taking pure RefugeInAudacity.
* Said to be the reason for the strange shape of sheets of paper in ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''. When the pilot was made, they were apparently told to "cut every corner" as far as the budget went, and so cut the corners off the paper as a bit of a joke. Once the series was picked up and given rather more of a budget, the paper was subjected to FridgeLogic and just looks a bit silly, and a continuity nightmare for the props department.
* In general, this applied to many shows on Creator/TheBBC in the 1960s-80s. As the ''YMMV/DoctorWho'' [[YMMV/DoctorWho YMMV page]] puts it: "Creator/TheBBC was somewhat notorious for giving the set and costume designers of ''Series/DoctorWho'' a shoestring budget; that is, a bundle of shoe strings that they were expected to make fifteen monsters out of." Creator/TomBaker, who played the Fourth Doctor, claimed that ''nobody'' liked the bad effects the show had during this period and you just bore with them. Anyone who says otherwise is looking through the [[NostalgiaFilter nostalgia-glasses]].
-->'''Creator/StephenFry''': ''[holding bubble wrap]'' [[Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway Look, erm, Vince, either the BBC believes in]] ''Series/DoctorWho'' or it doesn't, but how am I going to make seventeen monsters out of ''[[OffTheShelfFX this]]''?
** While not quite as bad as it was in the seventies, budget constraints occasionally hold the show back even today.
** The most austere eras for ''Doctor Who'' were:
*** The very first season, where the BBC's unwillingness to risk too much on such an experimental show had caused it to be consigned to a tiny sound stage with minimal props;
*** the parts of the Tom Baker era produced during the 70s' "stagflation" recession and especially the parts produced during the [[UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan "Winter of Discontent"]];
*** the period towards the mid-to-late 80s where the BBC's Controller Michael Grade cut the show's budget to purposefully unsustainable levels in an intent to kill it;
*** the first series of the 2005 revival, due to an initially tiny budget compounded by Creator/RussellTDavies not having ever budgeted a science fiction show before and blowing all of the money on the second episode.
** One episode of ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' had Creator/TheBBC run out of money. The credits were written on scraps of paper, and the heat turned off in the flat they were renting as a studio. The "Mr Neutron Is Missing" episode ends with an announcer saying that the studio ran out of money, so instead of filming the ending, he's just going to tell everyone what would have happened in the final scenes. And then the episode ends before he could finish.
** Fans of many BBC shows have a common saying that goes similar to "BBC: 15 ACTORS, 8 PROPS, 3 SHOOTING AREAS, AND ONE STORYLINE".
** This persisted well into the eighties where children's programming was concerned. The ExcitedKidsShowHost and their NonHumanSidekick (usually TheVoiceless, probably also to keep costs down) would actually have to do their thing in the booth where the {{Continuity Announcement}}s were made, even having to personally press the button to cue up the next cartoon. This booth was nicknamed "The Broom Cupboard", and with good reason (most people old enough to remember this might have been surprised to learn that it wasn't an ''actual'' cupboard), which is probably why [=CBBC=]'s presenters tended not to be ''quite'' as [[NoIndoorVoice loud]] and [[LargeHam hammy]] back then; there wasn't space.
* Belgian television is notorious for being very low-budget, which is why [[AudienceAlienatingPremise it turns a lot of people off]]. The highest viewer rating ever seen on Belgian TV however was 1,9 million, so it's not really unexpected. The biggest budget ever put in a Belgian television show was ''De Kavijaks'' with 3,35 million dollars. Even so, there are a few cases that stand out.
** Maurice De Wilde spent all of the budget he got for his documentaries on research. He still produces spectacular television though if you consider TalkingHeads to be spectacular. This was intentional however as he did not want to rely on special effects to tell what really happened, which makes all of his documentaries all the more informative.
** ''2013'' is perhaps the only show in television history to be deliberately filmed with amateur cameras. In this case to give the impression that it is all really happening. It works though.
* Canadian television is somewhat infamous for being this, with typical budgets usually being about that of the cheapest American productions. The reasons for this are varied and complex, but can be largely summed up as being generally related to Canadian content laws and how small Canada's entertainment industry is compared to that of the States. The proximity between Canada and the States, as well as the fact Canadians tend to consume more American media than domestically-made media, makes this very noticeable for many on both sides of the border, hence the stereotype that [[MadeInCountryX all Canadian television is crap.]]
* Public-access television is this, seeing how the shows that broadcast here are produced and aired locally for free. With the rise of the internet during the mid 2000's public-access shows have begun to post their episodes on sites like [=YouTube=] following their TV airings.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJcsB9a3Oq8XnAx4udaFPNvG-hC-GdcXK Sprinkler's Clubhouse]], which airs on Chandler Educational TV on channel 99 [[note]] or at least if you're using Cox cable system [[/note]], is mostly set against a flat 2D backdrop with low-quality puppets and stock audio; and that's not even getting to the green screen effects.
** Then there's New York-based talent show ''[[https://www.youtube.com/user/stairwaytostardom Stairway to Stardom]]'', which The A.V. Club once called "one of the greatest shows ever to be on television."
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'' was allocated the same budget by the BBC as the much cheaper cop show it was replacing. The per-episode effects budget, for example, was £50. Expect to see plenty of sets, costumes, and props nicked from ''Series/DoctorWho'', or perhaps some baking tins stuck on the walls. The special effects designer spent his budget for the ''entire series'' on the first episode to be filmed, "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E2SpaceFall Space Fall]]", because ''Film/ANewHope'' was debuting at around the same time. The actual first episode, "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E1TheWayBack The Way Back]]", went so far over budget it affected the rest of the season — and became one of the best stories in the series.
* ''Series/{{Cops}}'', which is "filmed on-location with the men and women of law enforcement," as it says at the beginning of every show. The show is completely unscripted, mostly because it follows real police officers making routine arrests and talking to people. What little budget there is goes into the cameras and editing.
* The first season of ''Series/DoubleTheFist'' (8 episodes) was made for $250k, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of CGI effects used.
* The long-extinct [[Creator/DuMont DuMont]] network's programs were produced on low budgets due to their constant troubles as the perennial fourth place network. This resulted in shows with wobbly sets, improvised props (such as the "communicator" in ''Series/CaptainVideo'' made out of a regular telephone handset) and a soundtrack provided by just an electric organ. To be fair, they often made up for these deficiencies with good writing and excellent actors.
* ''Series/TheEricAndreShow'' is a parody of low-rent, DIY public access shows. To help make it look authentic, [[http://splitsider.com/2012/07/talking-with-eric-andre-kitao-sakurai-and-andrew-barchilon-about-the-eric-andre-show-311-kombucha-and-more/ Adult Swim gave the creators $60 for the first season.]]
* The ShowWithinAShow on ''Series/GarthMarenghisDarkplace'' suffers from this, being funded mostly out-of-pocket by Marenghi and Dean Learner. This leads to some epic {{Special Effect Failure}}s such as a motorcycle chase done on bicycles with engine noised dubbed in. It's exaggerated considering the actual show does have a small but reasonable budget.
-->'''Dean Learner''': He had a very ambitious script. I said: "Garth, this is a very ambitious script for the money we've got. Seeing as we've got no money, it's extremely ambitious." We were filming it in my garage. I had a big garage, but still it was ambitious to film a TV show in a garage.
* Parodied in one episode of the Israeli sitcom ''[=HaPijamot=]'' featuring the same basic premise in various WhatIf scenarios. The last two were ‘The Story that Would Have Happened if We Had NoBudget’, featuring the eponymous band replaced by work immigrants from China, and ‘The Story that Would Have Happened if We Had NoBudget at All’, in which the apartment they live in was empty.
* One episode of ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'' had an InUniverse instance: Mr. Moore was directing ''Theatre/LittleShopOfHorrors'' as the SchoolPlay, for which he was given zero budget. He talks the principal into being in the show as Mr. Mushnick, then explains his concept for production. (Quote not guaranteed exact; we couldn't get someone to search it out.)
-->'''Mr. Moore''': You heard of Japanese [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh Noh]] theatre? No sets, no costumes, no props. Because, you know... [[{{Pun}} no money]].
* The novel ''Literature/IClaudius'', and its sequel, were big sprawling epics, with a few large battles, lots and ''lots'' of circuses and gladiatorial games, and the occasional riot. The [[Series/IClaudius TV adaptation]] manages to stage the whole thing without ever having a crowd larger than a meeting of the Roman Senate. (The battles all occur off-camera, with perhaps an aftermath scene in the general's tent; the gladiatorial games consist of a close-up camera on the Emperor's box.) Hey, the BBC ain't made of money.
* The pilot episode of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' was reportedly shot for $200, but Charlie Day has said they he has no idea where the number came from as there was no actual working budget at all.
** In a way the first season (and to a lesser extent the second season) were this for the series. The first season had a budget of roughly $400,000 an episode, when Danny Devito joined in season two the budget roughly doubled, and later seasons are closer to $1.5 million an episode.
* [[Series/TheKeepers The 1991 Soviet adaptation of Lord of the Rings]] dug up in 2021 is this trope incarnate. It's effectively a stage show broadcast as a movie (Russian has a special name for that type of work; ''telespectacl''' - a TV stage play), with things like Gandalf's fireworks represented by him opening his cloak and some brief colored flashes. That and other things are why some people call it an adaptation of the situation before the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar as much as one of Tolkien.
* ''Series/TheLateLateShow'': Although this is commonly joked about, Craig Ferguson has said in interviews that the reason they rarely do sketches is a lack of money for props. The show only purchased one puppet and got the rest for free from the company who made them, and when the show went to Paris, they couldn't afford to rent a studio (although this resulted in charming scenes of him and Creator/KristenBell wondering around Paris landmarks interviewing guests [[WalkAndTalk on the move]]). It got a little bit better when Ferguson's new contract with the accompanying new larger studio kicked in, though new no budget items such as the 'fireplace' with a still of a fire keep the show's cheap charm strong.
* ''Series/{{MANTIS}}'' didn't have much of a budget and it showed, featuring frequent use of old footage, including footage from the original TV movie and ended with [[spoiler:the hero and his LoveInterest killed while trying to stop an invisible dinosaur.]]
* ''Series/MiamiVice'': By the time the fifth and final season rolled around, the production budget had been significantly cut due to dwindling ratings (caused by a disastrous shift to Sunday evenings after seeing great ratings on its original Friday night slot). As a result, it became increasingly-clear that the show was on its way out. The show had already hit a snag going into production when a writers' strike chopped down the number of episodes from 22 to 21, and it became clear that the season would be its last[[note]]Creator/{{NBC}} initially only agreed to produce 13 episodes, but were eventually convinced to produce a full-season.[[/note]]. Showrunner Dick Wolf and composer Jan Hammer left, replaced by new composer Tim Truman and existing producers Robert Ward and Richard Brams (Creator/MichaelMann is still credited as an executive producer, but had no real involvement in the series by that point). The episodes had more in common with stage plays, with few-to-no extras in many scenes, scripts were rehashed from previous episodes, cast members were intermittently missing in various episodes (Crockett often appears at the very beginning of an episode and disappears for the remainder, likely a consequence of lowered salaries) and an attempt to make a PoorlyDisguisedPilot (following a group of younger Vice cops separate from Sonny and Ricardo) went nowhere. By the time the series finale rolled around, the climactic battles took place beside busy freeways in full view of the cameras -- a consequence of lowered production budgets leading to smaller sets.
* ''Series/TheMightyBoosh'' runs on a notoriously small budget, and as the show progressed the BBC actually cut the budget smaller and smaller as the poor quality of the costumes and sets only served to make the show funnier. During one early episode, Vince [[BreakingTheFourthWall draws attention]] to some serious SpecialEffectFailure and Howard quips "we spent the budget on your hair".
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' started with a tiny budget on its first (KTMA) season, which is what spawned its very homemade-looking props. Subsequent seasons actually had a decent budget, but they had to spend most of it on film rights, so the host segments continued to look very homemade.
* Early public access producer ''Paper Tiger Television'' used any camera they could get ahold of, often shooting shows in both color and black and white. Cameramen would also be shown in shots to show the community aspect of the programming. These shooting techniques were copied endlessly by outfits that did have a budget, including MTV for much of the 1990s.
* ''Series/PJKatiesFarm'' is defined by its utter lack of budget. Everything is done by the eponymous PJ Katie — the characters were made by her out of Crayola Model Magic, there are no writers (the scripts are all ad-libbed by PJ Katie), there is [[ManOfAThousandVoices only one voice actor]] and she is the same person as the puppeteer. The only other person on set was the cameraman. At one point a danish, which was obviously PJ Katie's lunch, was used as a prop to represent a flying saucer and you can see her eating it during the credits.
* The two ''[[Series/PowerRangersSamurai Power Rangers Super Samurai]]'' holiday specials [[HalloweenEpisode "Trickster Treat"]] and [[ChristmasEpisode "Stuck on Christmas"]] were done last-minute, allegedly due to a previously overlooked contractual obligation with Nickelodeon. With production of the series having already wrapped and the production of ''Series/PowerRangersMegaforce'' set to begin soon, those two episodes were made on a very low budget, with StockFootage running rampant. "Stuck on Christmas" mostly averts this by being a mixture of a BottleEpisode and a clip show, though it only includes a few secondary characters actually onscreen, with the main actors dubbing over original zord cockpit footage (and stock footage); however, "Trickster Treat" was almost entirely made up of stock footage, mostly from the ''Series/SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' DirectToVideo movie, unmorphed footage from previous episodes and some from an upcoming episode. Whatever little budget was available was spent on dubbing over the stock footage and editing the episodes.
** The original pilot version of the first episode of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', "Day of the Dumpster", was obviously produced on a low budget, with cheaper-looking sets and primitive special effects. In addition, the U.S. footage was shot on videotape rather than on film as with the series, making for a huge contrast between the U.S.-shot footage and the ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' footage.
* ''Series/QuePasaUSA'': The show was made with a grant from the federal government for shows about minorities. Government money meant a very tight budget. When the grant ran out, so did the show.
** The cast and crew [[https://amp.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article190855869.html forfeited their rights to royalties so that the show would remain free for educational purposes.]]
** With no budget for sets, the executive producer used his personal belongings and shopped at thrift stores to decorate the Peña home.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' was deliberately written and designed to be as cheap as possible ''before'' they started scrimping on models (the first Starbug was made out of a discarded lawnmower).
* ''{{Series/Roundhouse}}'' functioned on a very small budget. It used recycled actors, about two boxes' worth of props (mostly cardboard), and two "sets" that were just wheelable walls loaded with random stuff that was probably bought from a garage sale. The only impressive thing they had was their motorized recliner. The simple "improv" look, combined with their humor, singing, and dancing skills, was a good deal of their charm.
* ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision'' was notorious for this, as they were given a far smaller budget than intended. ("We were given a shoestring budget, and someone else was wearing the shoe.") {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d, often--they even got a cheap song about it, once!
-->'''Host''': Hello, and welcome to ''Rutland Weekend Television''. We've got a really great show lined up for you... not that you can tell, mind you. I mean, for instance... look at this suit. It's ''rubbish''! Feel the quality of that, hm? It's not even theirs! Everything's hired.
* Nearly every show by Creator/SidAndMartyKrofftProductions was produced on a budget far lower than what the duo would asked from the networks. However these setbacks only added to [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs the bizarre and drug-induced charm of their shows]], seeing as how they went on to dominate [[note]]for live-action that is[[/note]] the Saturday morning TV market during the late 60s and early 70s.
* ''Series/SpaceCases'' was a sci-fi show filmed on almost no budget (it was both a cable show and a kid's show, two strikes against it money-wise). Aside from putting [=CDs=] on the sides of chairs and handheld video games for control panels, they had the one advantage of being on Nickelodeon: recycling props, most notably from ''Series/AreYouAfraidOfTheDark''. Fans tend to agree that this adds to its charm.
* The early 1970s science-fiction series ''Series/TheStarlost'' didn't have much of a budget to begin with, and most of it was blown trying to get a fancy special-effects camera to work. Most of the sets and special effects are terrible as a result.
* This is among the many things spoofed by the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode [[ShowWithinAShow "Wormhole X-Treme!"]]. The guy playing Jack O'Neill's {{expy}} asks Martin what color the beam from his blaster is. Martin tells him they can't afford a beam; they're just using sound effects.
* ''Series/SuperhumanSamuraiSyberSquad'': Low budget might as well be an excuse for reusing battle scenes with as much regularity as that show did. Also, there were a grand total of five sets (School cafeteria, school hallway, Sam's room, Malcolm's room, newsdesk.) Anything not in those locations is ''[[Series/DenkouChoujinGridman Gridman]]'' footage, right down to the overwhelmingly-black-haired factory workers and such, if the monster affects the outside world before it impacts anyone we know.
** Sadly, that is nothing compared to its sister series ''Series/{{Cake}}''. Despite the advantages of airing on an actual network (CBS) rather than syndication and being a US-produced series which did '''not''' require purchasing/dubbing stock footage, the show somehow ended up with less than half of even ''Syber-Squad's'' budget resulting in only four actors[[note]]For context, ''Syber-Squad's'' opening credits bill ''nine'' human actors and one voice actor.[[/note]] and three sets[[note]]Cake's backyard, garage, and Grandma Cyrstal's trailer.[[/note]] being used for all '''13''' episodes (compared to 53 for ''Syber-Squad'').
* Like most shows of the 1930s, ''Series/TheTelevisionGhost'' was filmed extremely cheaply, with [[MinimalistCast one actor]] monologuing at a camera [[TheOner for fifteen minutes]].
* ''Series/TopGear'' has episodes where presenters have to buy cars for a very low price, e.g. Porsches below £1500 or vans below £1000.
* ''Series/UltramanGinga'' came at a time when Creator/TsuburayaProductions had just lost an expensive legal battle, yet decided to splurge what money they did have on a miniseries for an ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' MilestoneCelebration. The series was set in an abandoned school and a nearby forest area, and the plot involved Ultramen and kaiju being turned into dolls so as to make use of OffTheShelfFX with the existing ''Ultraman'' toyline. It ended up doing well enough to help Tsuburaya pay off their debts and greenlight a second season for ''Ginga'' with a bigger budget, and then invest in further ''Ultraman'' series afterward.
* ''Series/{{V 1983}}'': The two mini-series shared impressive visuals, but for the TV series the quality plummeted. Sometimes this was rationalized in script; Diana elaborately explained the "improved" human food processing that is now just a guy standing on a platform. Sometimes the differences are ignored; The brainwashing process changes from an elaborate laser-and-smoke show to seating the human in front of some big TV screens. And in one case, a direct continuity error; In the mini series, the visitors can't pass for human because of a noticeable voice effect that was important to the plot. (The humans learn to simulate it.) In the regular series, the effect is forgotten about, and a visitor gets a girlfriend who thinks he is human.
[[/folder]]

!!Examples:

* Music/{{Nirvana}} recorded their debut album ''Bleach'' for barely over $600.

* Music/NineInchNails' first album, ''Pretty Hate Machine'', was solely recorded by frontman Trent Reznor who initially began developing the album during down times as an over-night janitor for Right Track Studio.

* One of the theories behind why ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeMe'' has such poor animation, as Carpediem Film and Television, the company that originally made the show, declared insolvency ''in the middle of its production''.

* Music/{{Nirvana}} recorded their debut album ''Bleach'' for barely over $606 ($1200 in 2015).

* Music/NineInchNails' first album, ''Pretty Hate Machine'', was solely recorded by front man Trent Reznor who initially began developing the album during down times as an over-night janitor for Right Track Studio.

* Music/{{Sloan}}'s debut album ''Smeared'' was recorded with only $1200 in 1992 (which now would only be a little more than $1900).

* Take away the licensing fees for the music video segments and ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' is left with LimitedAnimation, grade schooler-level backdrops that look to have been made with crayon and colored pencil, and [[TalkingToHimself almost everyone is voiced by]] creator Creator/MikeJudge. Which perfectly fits the wonderfully crude idiocy of the show.

* Joe Oriolo's made-for-TV WesternAnimation/FelixTheCat cartoons (the 1959-1961 Trans-Lux series) were made on very tight, shoestring budgets. The series only had a budget of $1,750,000 [[note]] which, despite what one would think, is '''not''' big money for a 260 episode animated series [[/note]] with $6,700 per episode, hence why there were rare instances of fully animated walk cycles and why many shots are background pans with stock music cues; there were even parts where they would slide the cels across the screen without any animation at all! To further limit costs, Jack Mercer [[TalkingToHimself had to voice every character in one take]] while enunciating his lines slowly to put less strain on the animators. Worse, they had to turn out three completed episodes per week with [[WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants mere hours to write the scripts for each one]]. [[note]] One animator was cranking out 150 feet--or close to two minutes worth of animation each week just to get the episodes done! [[/note]] John Canemaker's Felix book summed up just how frugal Joe Oriolo was forced to be on the show;

* ''WebAnimation/MightyMagiswords'' creator Kyle Carrozza admits the character designs for Nohyas and the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Mysterious Hooded Woman]] were chosen based on how cheap it was to animate them and that the budget restraints also led him and two other voice actors to voice [[TalkingToHimself half of the show's cast]].

* ''Literature/CliffordTheBigRedDog'' was pretty obviously made on a low budget, as if the heavy usage of TalkingToHimself for the voice actors, with some exceptions such as John Ritter as the titular character, and the music score, which is composed solely of synthesizers and an emulated clavinet, wasn't a big enough hint.

->'''Leafy:''' I was wondering, [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace how are we in space yet able to talk, paddle, breathe, and not explode]]?\\

** The budget was slashed big time for the final season of the Bergeron version. The change from self-contained to straddling wouldn't have been so bad if the amount for winning wasn't $2,000 tops without any bonus money for each captured square. In contrast, previous games rewarded $500 for each square win or lose and as much as $4,000 for a tic-tac-toe. Also, the Secret Square prizes were no longer rolled over if lost; said prize changed each game and was worth roughly the same value.

* ''Anime/KillLaKill'', in spite of the series' stellar AnimationBump and SugarWiki/AwesomeArt moments, was made on a rather tight budget compared to similar shows that premiered around the time, resulting in many LimitedAnimation moments (episode 4 and 22 being the biggest cases). Nui Harime actually uses this to show how ''[[UncannyValley inhuman]]'' she is.

** Endemol's ''Series/Brainteaser'' happened to have a budget far lower than ''100%''. The cost for the show went towards its phone-in segments. Channel 5 paid a maximum of £0.00 to air the show, and didn’t even control the time slot it aired on. This soon backfired after the 2007 Phone-In Scandal brought the show to an axing.

* ProfessionalWrestling as a whole was guilty of this in the territory days. Promoters often recycled tapes to save money, which is why many promotions have incomplete libraries or whatever does exist was recorded by fans. Promoters rarely filmed house shows for budgetary reasons. [[note]] Additionally, many of them failed to see the value in home video, believing that releasing their top matches on tape could hurt the gates of their live events. [[/note]] Since house shows were where most promoters made their money and concluded feuds, many great matches only exist in the memories of the fans who witnessed them live. Territory promoters often used the same title belts for ''decades'', to the point that they would literally be falling apart before someone bothered to have a new one made Wrestlers on smaller shows often worked more than one match so the promoter could put on a card with as few as six wrestlers. [[note]] Three singles matches and a six-man battle royal the three singles matches would come back to the ring for in the main event. Sometimes one of the matches would be a tag match for a total of eight wrestlers. [[/note]] And "outlaw" promoters ran on even less of a budget than the territories. An outlaw promoter might literally hold a show in someone's back yard in the days before BackyardWrestling was even a thing.

* ProfessionalWrestling as a whole was guilty of this in the territory days. Promoters often recycled tapes to save money, which is why many promotions have incomplete libraries or whatever does exist was recorded by fans. Promoters rarely filmed house shows for budgetary reasons. Since house shows were where most promoters made their money and concluded feuds, many great matches only exist in the memories of the fans who witnessed them live. Territory promoters often used the same title belts for ''decades'', to the point that they would literally be falling apart before someone bothered to have a new one made Wrestlers on smaller shows often worked more than one match so the promoter could put on a card with as few as six wrestlers. [[note]] Three singles matches and a six-man battle royal the three singles matches would come back to the ring for in the main event. Sometimes one of the matches would be a tag match for a total of eight wrestlers. [[/note]] And "outlaw" promoters ran on even less of a budget than the territories. An outlaw promoter might literally hold a show in someone's back yard in the days before BackyardWrestling was even a thing.