Cooking Once a Month (Carole)

The title says it all.   This is a method of cooking that I've done off and on over the years.  It can also be done on a weekly basis quite successfully.

List out 28 meals that your family likes and that you're comfortable cooking.  Make up a shopping list so you make sure you have all your ingredients.  Then spend most of one day getting each main dish as close to the cooking stage as you can:

1.  All basic/raw ingredients mixed together and frozen in the baking dish
2.  All canned and/or dry ingredients assembled in a ziplock bag ready to be quickly assembled on the day you need them.
3.  A combination of #1 and #2

Take some time and figure out how much of each recipe can safely be prepared ahead of time, so that on the day you want to fix it, most of the work is done.  The goal is to have 28 recipes READY TO GO.  Just like last week's meal idea, this system allows you to buy items in bulk and use them up quickly.

Try doing it with a week's worth of recipes first, to get the hang of it.  I remember the first time I did this, it took me about 7 hours to assemble everything for one month's worth of meals.  The second time (using the exact same recipes), I did it in a little over 2 hours.  You do get the hang of it, and you'll figure out some speedy tricks.  I also simplified many of the recipes.

If choosing  your own month's worth of recipes seems like too much effort, you can get the book, Once-a-Month Cooking, that gives you all the info you need -- that's what I did in the beginning.  She has good recipes and many good tips.

Check to see if your library has it in stock.  I bet they do!  You'll love yourself night after night when you quickly feed your family another healthy, home cooked meal.

Balancing Your Life (Merrick)

With the start of the new year, I'm sure you all have many new years resolutions. This year, I decided to tone down my usual new years resolutions craziness and focus on the essentials. My main goals are to simplify and balance my life. I never want to be one of those women who is doing the laundry or cleaning every day of the week, or going to the grocery store every other day to pick up a few things. I want each day to feel individual and special, and be able to have time to do the important things, like playing cars with my little boy.

So let me tell you about a few things I'm doing this year, although not all of them specifically deal with saving money (but I'm saving my sanity here, and that is worth something!!):

I make bread every Tuesday -- I bake it, cut it up, put it in a bread bag, and it's ready for sandwiches and toast all week.

I clean the house every Thursday -- this includes cleaning both bathrooms, dusting, mopping, sanitizing doorknobs and countertops, and any small organizing jobs that need to be done.

I do the laundry every Friday -- this includes sorting, washing, drying, folding, ironing, and putting away ($$ saved by not running the washer/dryer every day!)

I go grocery shopping every Saturday -- this includes planning my weekly menu, clipping coupons, and then going to my regular grocery store (Smiths), Sam's Club for bulk items, Rite Aid for toiletry items, and Sunflower Market for specialty items. ($$ saved by not running to the store every day!)

In the interest of full disclosure, I babysit my neighbor and have art class on Monday's and Wednesdays, which keeps me busy all day. So I keep those days free of house duties.

Also, we do many small household chores on a daily basis -- take out the garbage, run the dishwasher, clean the counter tops, pick up toys, etc.

By dividing up my week in this way, my life is suddenly more balanced than it ever has been. My laundry basket is full, but I'm not stressed about it because I know it will all be washed and put away today. We are running out of milk, but tomorrow is shopping day so why waste my time by running to the store today (especially when I'll probably come home with $20 worth of groceries!) -- we'll just have toast for breakfast. And each of these daily duties only takes me an hour or two of hands on time, so I have plenty of time for other things during the day.

When you have specific days dedicated to your various duties, you can better commit to each of them and perform better at each of them. You're probably not going to save much more money if you spend hours clipping coupons every day -- you're just going to hate couponing.

So do yourself a favor and bring a little balance into your life this year. Everyone, including your wallet, will be thanking you.

Price Adjustments (Janssen)

I am floored that I have not mentioned this before. In fact, I just spent about 25 minutes searching the blog to be sure I haven't posted about this before, but both Google Reader and the search feature on the blog are swearing I have not. So, stop me if you've heard this one . . .

Is there anything more painful than buying something at full-price and then seeing it go on sale immediately afterward?

Did you know that if you buy something and the price goes down with a week or two of your purchase, many stores will refund you the difference?

All you need is your receipt - march up to the checkout desk, and ask if you can get it price adjusted. If you paid by credit card, often the difference will just go right back on your card.

Last week, I bought quite a number of baby clothes for my little girl because Old Navy was having a really excellent 40% off the clearance price sale. I stopped in today when I was going to another store near Old Navy and noticed that all the clearance items were now FIFTY percent off the clearance price. Plus, most of the items had been marked down even further. No problem - all the items I'd bought last week now were priced at the new lower price. Two quick seconds at the register.

Most stores have their price adjustment policy on the back of their receipts or on their website.

It's probably not worth an extra trip, most of the time, but if it's a store you frequent a lot, keep your receipts in your purse or wallet and have them rescan them the next time you're in.

Neighborhood Meal Group (Carole)

I have two really easy and fun ideas for saving both time and money on your family dinners.  Today I'll tell you about one of them.  Next Monday, I'll post the 2nd.

Find 3 - 4 friends who have similar sized families (and similar cooking styles, I might add).  Make up a plan for each of you to make dinner for all of the other families once a week.  You will take Monday, Brittany takes Tuesday, Cheri takes Wednesday. . .  every week.  This is SO EASY.  On Monday you cook all afternoon making dinner for yourself and the other families, but all the other days of the week dinner magically arrives at your door while you never stepped into your kitchen.  Wow.

A few guidelines are helpful:
1.  Set a standard time when dinner will be delivered
2.  Dinner should include 1 main dish and 2 side dishes
3.  MINIMAL  or no cooking should be required when the food arrives at your house.  It should basically be ready to set on the table.
4.  We bought matching sets of storage containers to transport food in, so you never had to return anything.
5.  No weird foods
6.  No Pizza Hut because you were too busy/tired to cook on your day-- you are expected to deliver a home cooked meal on your assigned day.

Just a few of the benefits:
*The $ savings at the grocery store is incredible.  When you're only buying supplies for one meal during the week (even though it's to feed 4 or 5 families) you buy a whole lot less stuff.  And you can buy the big bulk size, knowing you will use it all up.
*Nearly every week you'll have enough leftovers so you won't have to cook on Saturday or Sunday either.
*You don't have to plan a week's menu anymore.  Freedom!!
*You'll never run the kids to McDonalds for dinner ever again.
*Your children will be exposed to food you've never served before.

I was involved with a group for about a year and it was probably the happiest time in my cooking life!  I know there are groups out there who have stayed together for a decade or more, so it is possible.  Our group fell apart because of differing cooking styles (we had one member who was very gourmet and delivered odd things that some children refused to eat, another family tended cook very cheaply and that bothered some -- so pay attention to those kinds of issues when putting your group together).  Now with just one child at home, I don't feel the need, but when I had a houseful of children and a very busy after school schedule, it was a god-send.

Where Are We??? (Carole)

I wish I could say that the girls and I are on some fabulous extended vacation or busy saving the world (one coupon at a time. . .), but sadly neither of those are true.  Speaking for myself, I've been both crazy busy and amazingly lazy for weeks now -- I bet you know just what I mean!

Janssen and Merrick most likely have more interesting reasons for not blogging lately.

That being said, I'll have my first post of the new year up on Monday!  See you then!

And thank you for reaching out and letting us know we've been missed.  It makes us feel good inside.