One of the things I do that saves me a ton of money and time is that I only cook once a month. When I tell people that, they think I'm crazy. Actually, I eat at home almost every day and we go out to eat 2-3 times a month. My friend Eunice introduced me to Once a month cooking about a year or two ago and I love it. First of all I save a huge amount on my grocery bill (I typically spend only $150-200/month). I save a huge amount of time because I don't have to go to the grocery store every week, which is awesome because I don't like going to the grocery store.
Here's how it works. One day a month I prepare a shopping list of everything I need for the big cooking day, based on flipping through the 3-4 once a month cooking books that I have. The night before the big cooking day, I go shopping for everything on my list. I usually go to 4 stores (Big Lots, the 99 cent store, Smart and Final and Food for Less). It's amazing how many bargains you can find there. Then on the big cooking day you assemble all the meals into one gallon freezer bags. Most of the stuff isn't cooked at all, you just make your marinades and put your meats into the bags, zip them up and then freeze them. You are basically making your own convience foods without the expense.
Today was my cooking day. It went a lot faster than usual for some reason. I made 11 meals. That will feed me and my husband dinner and we'll eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. If you think about it that 22 meals for $150 and I think that a huge savings. Actually that's how I can afford more scrapbooking materials. j/k :)
Tommorrow when it is time for dinner, I'll take one down thaw it out and dinner will be done with no fuss and no wondering what I'm gonna make, or having to go to the store because I have everything I need right in the bag. Most of the recipes are in the oven for 15minutes on each side. So while their cooking in the oven, I can go scrapbook while that's cooking and I'm waiting for my husband to get home.
Well I'm gonna go make some more stuff so I can show you what I've been working on. I need to make some more stuff for the show next month. Have a great week and happy crafting!!!