Meal Planning

There are several new things I am trying to be more frugal. Sending my husband out of town with a company credit card and no cash was a big start, but seriously there are lots of things that I am doing to save a bit more here and there. It is all of these little savings that are starting to add up.

I have started meal planning. This has been huge for my family’s budget!

Being the princess that I am, anytime I didn’t want to cook, my hubby would take us out to dinner or run and pick up take out. Well, with hubby out of town, taking our five kids to a restaurant on my own just does seem appealing to me. So, I started meal planning.
Just by cutting out the eating out we are already saving tons, but it gets better.
I plan my menus around my stockpile and the weekly sales to maximize savings.
I also use the C.O.S.T. cooking method. I Cook Once to Serve Twice. Well, I actually cook once and serve lots of time. Yesterday, I cooked 20 lbs of chicken thighs that I had bought on sale with coupons and gotten for free. I de-boned and packaged in 1lb packages for the freezer. I used 1lb plus the chicken stock from boiling the chicken to make chicken and dumplings last night. For the dumplings I used free Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits. It was an awesome free meal, and we have leftovers tonight. So two free meals, and I have 10 more packages of cooked chicken in the freezer.