If you have a restaurant depot you can get a box of 120 plates and lids for $35. Or Webstaurant has them for $30

6 cups is pretty big?

I use re-purposed glass jars from pasta sauce and peanut butter and such but they’re not that big

Mason jars would work well if it’s for soups or stews

Otherwise costco sells multi sized glass snapware options usually

Are you in the US? Do you have an IKEA within driving distance, or willing to order online? Most of our food storage containers (we’ve been using glass for a LONG time) are from IKEA, they have sizes that big and prices are reasonable!

HomeGoods, TJMaxx or Marshall’s all have glass containers with lids and they are super affordable

Consider checking bulk retailers like Costco or Amazon for packs of plastic meal prep containers.

Go scout out estate sales. You can find cheap kitchen items all the time.

Honestly the easiest approach is to keep a bunch of stuff from food you buy. Salsa jars are great for salads and yogurt parfaits. Hummus tubs are great for fruit or sliced veggies. Take-out trays are good for entire meals - just put them in the dishwasher. I didn’t buy a bunch of glass ones all at once until I’d done enough meal prep to know what type of container I’d need. I like the round 4-cup Anchor Hocking bowls with a plastic/silicon/whatever lid. You can cook in them, store food in the fridge in them, eat from them, and they do well in the dishwasher. Perfect for the one-pot meals I usually eat. If I am carrying the food with me out of the house, I stick mostly with the assortment of generic plastic containers I’ve accumulated.

Go to Home Goods. I paid $5.99 for 10 containers with lids.

Go to a restaurant supply warehouse and buy a box of disposable plastic containers. They will have a variety of sizes and shapes. The ones I get are quality enough that they can be reused a dozen times if not more. I bought a box of 240 containers for $50 two years ago and I’m not even halfway though them. I use them constantly and they have been an absolute game changer for meal prep, especially making soups/stews for freezing.

6 cups is pretty big

We like this set of 3 cup containers. Going on 3 or 4 years with them now

If you insist on 6 cups, here is an option from pyrex. You could get 10 for under $100

I work at thrift store and have had tons of perfectly new, clean glass Tupperware-type containers with sturdy snap-on plastic lids come through our donations. Enough that nearly every employee bought some and don’t need any more, plenty go out on the shelves regularly - they get snatched up fast tho! Good to go early in the day when you can.

I suggest you purchase whatever you really need to start, but keep checking in your local thrifts occasionally to supplement! Sometimes you might find stainless steel ones, and lunchbox kits with glass insert tubs, great for on-the-go prep meals.

We switched from plastic containers because of the news about heated plastics giving off microplastic particles. We only use plastic containers for cold only foods. We bought 50 of these: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Anchor-Hocking-Glass-Food-Storage-Containers-with-Lids-3-Cup-Rectangular-Set-of-2/784258874?athbdg=L1102&from=/search . If you want 6 cup containers they have them but they are $19 a piece. Or you could take 2 of these.

Glass is heavier. But it doesn’t stain and washes clean every time. We have been using them for a year now and are happy with them

I’ve seen them at Walmart and local grocery stores, the glass bowls are usually like $5 when I got them. So unless you’re getting 20+ idk how your spending more than $100.

I’ve seen packs of the small ~1 cup each sell like 3 per $10-$15.

I’ve used the bowls and rectangular boxes for years, well worth it and as long as the lids hold out I don’t think I’ll ever need to re-buy

Mason jars come in so many sizes, have a multitude of uses, last forever, lids and rings are replaceable, and you can use as cups/glasses.

i use a large pyrex to store it in and just take what i need every day at lunch.