Save money on groceries

Our monthly food budget is $300.

This may seem like a small amount of money, but -despite a growing 4 year old, and Dad's neverending appetite-we've been able to easily make it work.

This category does not count eating out/take-out. Dad loves to eat out, but we try to keep it special. Special meaning that it is very rare. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

What we've discovered is "once a month cooking", or "freezer cooking." At the beginning of the month, I make a big grocery run, then cook for a couple hours and put the meals into freezer bags with labels.

The freezer bags are layered in a plastic storage tub with a paper towel in between each bag.

Free recipes abound all over the internet. I picked meals that would appeal to my family - healthy, tasty, meaty. I copied/pasted into M.Word.

I print this out and have it on the counter. Then I spread out the ziploc bags and put the listed ingredients on top of each ziploc.


Most of the recipes fall into these categories:

Meals with raw chicken

These meals will need to be cooked after thawing. These are the most simple to "make" on Cooking Day because I'm just putting raw meat into freezer bags with the marinade or other ingredients.

Meals with cooked chicken

The day before Cooking Day, I either boil or crockpot all my chicken breasts. Then I put them in the fridge to cool. The next day, I shred them with my hands. Even if the meal calls for "cubed chicken." I'm too lazy to cut up all that chicken.

Meals with ground beef

The day before Cooking Day, I crockpot all my ground beef. Then I put it into the fridge. Very easy to add to the freezer bags the next day.



Then I print out labels with all the meal names (and any additional or special instructions for each meal).


The labels are SO easy to make. I buy the 2"X4" sticker labels.



This "paperwork" takes about 2 hours to do completely. But I've used the same meals each month, adding/deleting a small few. For the most part, I use the exact same list each month.



Cooking Day usually takes a few hours. But all the "cooking" is pretty much done. I'm just mixing the ingredients to put into freezer bags.



The best part about this new venture is how it has affected our budget. This week, I went to Target for our October meals. I planned for 30 meals. The grand total was $176.96. This leaves us $124 for basic weekly staples (for us: milk, bread, fruit) and any unexpected food needs.

In the morning I throw one bag into the fridge to defrost. Around 4:00 or so, I start thinking about what I will need to do to get it ready for dinner - usually it's just reheating! A yummy dinner is a now easy AND cheap.