Most soups take time to cook only by boiling for a while. Preparation usually is quite fast.
My wife does this cheap and fast soup:
- Cut potatoes in big chunks
- Cut carrots in big chunks
- Onions the same way
- Add garlic by taste
- Meat in same big chunks, preferably beef
- add 2 bouillon cubes, salt and pepper by taste, bay leaves and cloves if you have any.
- boil for a while, maybe like 20-30 mins.
- Enjoy.
Big chunks as in approx 3cm by 3cm cubes. It doesn't make much time to cut veggies like this. I can do this soup alone in less than an hour.
Also, suggest to get rice cooker for a perfect side dish to any meat. Rice is healthy AF and with rice cooker is super easy to prepare to a perfect state. Also also, maybe get a slow cooker. You can throw food inside, set timer to start cooking and leave it til you need food to be done. Or pressure cooker if you want to speedup cooking.
In other words, invest in your kitchen gear. Cooking doesn't take much time and effort if you have gear and tools needed to cook food. Good knives and kitchenware will save you money in a long run.