Dinners and feeding your family probably takes a huge chunk out of your budget every month. There are some ways that you can cut back on the amount of money that you spend when shopping. Some people find that cooking once a month, then freezing everything helps them save money, others find that shopping only once a month works wells also. These are some ways that you can save money by cooking once a month, or shopping once a month.
Why these methods work?
Cooking and shopping once a month will force you to make menus for the entire month. You will have to have a list when you go to the store to know exactly what you will have to purchase for the month. As opposed when you are shopping for the week for the family, you will usually not take a list with you, as it’s easy to pick up meals for a week. You probably will overbuy when shopping once a week.
When you shop once a month, you will want that list with you. Since you won’t be going to the store, you will have to know what you will be cooking for an entire month, and have your meals planned out for you. This will help you cut back on grocery shopping bills by not buying more than you need.
How to shop once a month:
Make your menu for the month. You will want to consider what your families eat for lunches, and breakfast on weekends if they eat at home on weekends. You will want to also keep a list of the meats that you will need, the vegetables, and the side dishes. Once you have your menus made up for the month, and then you will want to see what you have in the pantry and the freezer so that you don’t over buy with things that you already have.
Make your list and head off to the store. Usually if you are purchasing once a month, you will want to find a co-op store like Sam’s club or Costco. These stores are great for purchasing in bulk and will save you money over the month.
What you will need to shop once a month:
A freezer – you will have to have room to store the items that you purchase. A freezer will allow you to stock up with bulk items.
Freezer Bags and other Ziploc Bags.
How to Budget for once a month shopping:
First you will want to figure out how much you spend per month shopping the way you do now. If you spend $150 a month now, expect to cut that bill by 20% or more. While shopping once a month may seem expensive at first, because you are spending so much money at once, it will actually save you money over the month.
Cooking once a month:
You can cook all your meals once a month and freeze them having them ready to eat just by cooking or heating them up.
Have everything that you need for your meals ready. Pick a day that you can cook many meals at once. Have your menus ready for the month.
You will find that you can cook chicken once and have it used for several different recipes. We cook chicken, and then use it for chicken pot pies, bbq chicken, and for the main part of the meals. We bake it, and then add what we need to it depending on the meals. Ground meat can be used in many different recipes by cooking once. You can make meat balls and meatloaf by using the basic ingredients.
Once you have your menus and your meals cooked you will want to wrap them and label them and put them in the freezer so that each day for the next month you will be able to pull something out and heat it up for dinners. This is great if you have children in sports and you work all day. Every night you can have a good meal prepared in a short amount of time and it will give you more time you can devote to your family or to yourself.
While cooking all day long may not sound like fun, it really goes by pretty quick. Most meats can cook at once with the same temperature in the oven. There may be some nights that it’s just as quick to make burgers, or hotdogs, but for the most part cooking once a month will save you time.
Many things can be frozen for a month at a time without any problems.
Cooking once a month, and shopping once a month can save you time and money and cut down the amount of money you spend on groceries every month.S
