Waste Not

This past weekend, I hosted a party where I made several appetizers. I ended up spending more than my weekly "allowance" when I bought all of my ingredients. So I have decided to not grocery shop this week.

I went to the store on Sunday and purchased milk and bread. I have plenty of food in the pantry and freezer. Because I have practiced "stockpiling" for over a year now, I am able to skip a week or two of grocery shopping. The only thing that I am low on for the week is fresh veggies. But I have plenty of leftover carrots, radishes, and peppers that I can use. I also have plenty of frozen and canned vegetables that I can add to my meals.

I reviewed my menus from weeks past and was surprised at the quality of the meals I will be able to prepare. There are a few things on sale that I'd like to get at the store, but will keep away for the week to save a little money. Now all I have to do is make sure I do not spend double next week!

Buy Once Cook Twice

Lately I have been on a roll with recipes and cooking. I have been meal planning and adding new recipes to our family meals. Because of this, I have purchased ingredients for the recipes. And since I have been cutting recipes in half, I have ended up with leftovers of these ingredients.

After I use the ingredient, I search for recipes and ways to use the remainder. I have found some really great recipes! For instance, after one particularly exciting day of reorganizing my pantry. (no really) I realized that I had too many cans of creamed corn. So after searching the internet for recipe ideas that used creamed corn as an ingredient, I found a great recipe for corn/chicken chowder. And the added bonus was that it was easy to make! Now of course, I keep finding recipes for creamed corn and have used it all!

One week at the grocery store, I had a coupon for pesto sauce and it was on sale. So we had a meal with pesto, polenta, and shrimp. This week I will use the remainder to make pesto pizzas. Is it wrong to become excited about these things?

Make Plans Make Dinner

My husband takes for granted my planning and shopping for meals and food. He is always surprised to find that other people do not plan or shop in the manner in which I do. Every week, I decide on 4-6 meals that I will prepare for the week. I try to have a couple chicken, a "beef", a fish or seafood, and a vegetarian one. From the recipes, I draw up a list of what I need to make each meal and then add the other items we need onto the list. I then consult the Internet sites to see what good coupon match-ups are at the grocery store as well as at the drug stores.

This is nice because I don't have to worry "what's for dinner?" I just choose from the list, this makes it a lot easier especially if it happens to be a day that I am working. Another way I save time preparing dinner is I have cooked, sliced chicken in the freezer that I can pull out that morning for any recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

I guess I am a planner, I mean I am a planner. If you want to save money- you have to be able to plan your shopping and meals otherwise you can't save money.