Great Deals and Freezer Cooking Coming Up!

I kind-of disappeared for a while there!  Sorry about that.  We've been pretty busy around here.  I'd like to say things are slowing down a bit, but they're just getting started.  June is crazy busy with all kinds of fun!

It's been a great start to the week already, though.

These are all of the great deals I got at CVS and Publix today!  Would you believe it if I told you I paid under $50.00 for ALL of that?  It's true! 

You're looking at free floss, bleach, toilet paper, batteries, Shedd's Spread, q-tips, snack cheese and more!  I only wish I could have gotten a clearer shot so you could really see everything.

It's the first of the month (well, tomorrow is) and that means it's time for another freezer cooking!  This one is going to be a little different.  Due to an excess of meals from last month still in the freezer (over half of the meals are still in there) and a HUGE lack of good deals on meat, I'm going to primarily be baking this month.

We'll be doing a variety of muffins, biscuits, pancake and bread mixes, hamburger and hot dog buns, and maybe something a few things sweet.

Freezer Cooking - Another Great Success!

I still have about 4-5 more meals to add to all of this, but we are pretty well stocked for the next month (or two)!  I started at about 8 am Sunday morning hoping that doing this on a weekend (when my hubby could help watch the kids) would save some time.  Didn't quite work out that way.  I finished 21 meals on Sunday, fixed a few more on Monday and I'm about to finish up the rest tonight.  Here's the list of what we have so far (what you see in the freezer):

1 Jambalaya Bake

2 Chicken Tetrazzini

2 Hamburger dinners

1 French Stuffed Potatoes

1 Chicken Pot Pie

1 Chicken Broccoli Casserole

2 Barbecued Chicken

2 Creamy Enchiladas

1 Smothered Burritos

1 Beef Stroganoff

1 Meatloaf

1 Caraway Pot Roast

2 French Bread Pizzas

1 Taco Pie

2 Chicken Supreme

2 Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

1 Chicken Scampi

2 Upside-Down Fettuccine Bake

3 Barbecued Chicken for Sandwiches

2 Chinese Chicken

Total = 31 meals

I got most of these recipes from two new cookbooks that I just bought:  Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites and Once-A-Month Cooking both by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg.  Many of these are fairly large meals and will last our family 2+ nights each.  Once I'm done tonight, we should have at least 40 meals that will last us two months!

I did have to spend about $180 at the store to get all of the ingredients I needed.  That definitely is a large chunk of our budget.  Since I already have most breakfasts taken care of, though, that only leave produce, a few lunch and snack items and milk on my grocery list!  We're shooting for a $250 grocery budget this month and I'm aiming for $200 next month!

I still plan on doing a freezer cooking day at the beginning of June to add a few more dinners to the stock, but I plan on focusing on breakfast, lunch and snack freezer items.  I'm excited to see what I can come up with!

Freezing Meals Experiment Results

March is over and our freezer is much less full than when we began. Was my little experiment successful or a complete failure? Here are my results:

Did we save money?
Yes and no. We were still around $300 for the month, but only because I went crazy stocking up on cleaning supplies and Tide laundry detergent and Downy fabric softner (this is the first time EVER that we've been able to afford to use fabric softner!) I think I counted 7 bottles of Tide this morning! However, we did save money by not eating out nearly as much as we were before. If I didn't feel like cooking, I didn't have to! There was already something waiting.

Did it save time? YES!!!!
My kitchen has never been easier to keep clean. I ran the dishwasher every 2-3 days (sometimes still have empty). My counters and floors were cleaner because I wasn't pulling out ingredients to cook every day and night.

Over all, I feel like it was a great success. I did find a couple of recipes that I wouldn't use for freezing again (Tacos in Pasta Shells). We still have about four meals left and even got to share some with others during the month.

I'm getting ready to whip up some more meals next week and shooting to stay under budget for April!

Once A Month Cooking: Does it work and is it worth it?

At the beginning of the year I decided to raise our grocery budget from $200 to $300 per month - a little splurge after Matt got a a new job. After just a couple of months spending that much, it makes me cringe looking at our final expenses. We're not really eating better food - just more junk. So, I decided to cut the budget back down to $200. Then I started think about cutting it back even more - just for fun (yeah, I know I'm slightly nuts).

I've been following two of my favorite blogs, Money Saving Mom (who feeds a family a 5 for only $40/week) and Life as Mom, for over a year now. They both regularly post about stocking their freezer with meals to eat over the next month. This month I decided to give it a try to see if it saved us any money.

Sunday, I made my grocery list. I picked some of our family's favorite dishes and a couple of new ones.

Monday, I went to the store. Luckily, I got to go alone. It would have been a quick trip if it hadn't taken me 30 minutes (literally) to check out. Long story... Anyway, I spent $87 on everything.

Tuesday, I got down to business. I put a movie on for the kids with a giant bowl of popcorn hoping that would keep them out of my hair and out of trouble for a little while. No such luck. They were under my feet the whole time. I had hoped to finish all of my cooking in 4 hours. It ended up taking 5.

I ended up with all of this:

1 Chicken Spaghetti
2 Chicken Pot Pies
2 Tacos in Pasta Shells (recipe to follow)
1 Chicken and Spinach Enchilada (new one - I'll let you know how this one is)
4 Chicken Salad (we like to eat this on yummy butter croissants with cucumbers)
1 Chicken Fajita
1 Pizza Casserole
1 Buffalo Chicken Pizza
2 Red Beans and Rice

I was hoping to add some hamburger patties and Brown Bag Burritos (for lunches) to the mix. I'll have to work on those next week, though.

So, was it worth it? I think so! I made all of that in just 5 hours. I was spending about an hour each day thinking about and preparing for dinner then I had to spend 30 minutes cleaning up afterwards (at least). Even if I had my menu planned, there were days that I just wouldn't get around to making dinner in time. So we were eating out at least twice every week (probably more). Now, all I have to do is grab something out of the freezer and pop it in the oven! AND (as if that wasn't enough already) all my clean up is already done! I only had to get the cutting board, knives, bowls, pots and pans out once! I'd say it is going to save me an enormous amount of time and money!

We have $113 left for our monthly budget and all I have to think about is milk and lunches! With some careful planning, I'm hoping we can get our budget down to $160 per month and eat just as well or better than we were before!

I'm going to do a big Baking Day next week to work on adding some breakfasts to the mix (tried doing that yesterday, but the kiddos needed some attention after being so neglected the day before). I'm hoping to eventually pre-make some lunches, too.