Grocery Budget Tips: Tip 6 – I Cook in Bulk

Welcome to our grocery budget series.  I am in the midst of sharing the top 20 ways we keep our grocery budget affordable for my large family of 9.  To learn why and see the rest of the tips in this series, read our introduction. 

Here is tip #6:

We cook in bulk. If I am going to cook a meal, and I know it will freeze well, why not make enough to store in the freezer for another meal or two?  It takes the same amount of time to prep and cook the meal (in general), so it makes sense to try and cook for the freezer whenever I can.  Then in the future when I am too busy to cook or sick, or just want a night off, I can pull out a meal from the freezer instead of ordering a pizza.  When I find myself in an abundance of a certain ingredient I typically find as many ways as I can to use it – and store some for later in the freezer.

Some meals don’t require cooking.  Sometimes we throw chicken in a bag with a marinade, then freeze it.  Or, I dump ingredients for a crockpot meal in a freezer bag.  When I want to make the meal I pull the bag out the night before and dump it into the crockpot the next morning.  I like to freeze burger patties in shape so I can pull them out as needed.  I also grill up chicken breasts and freeze what we don’t use.  Same thing with shredded meat, ground beef (browned and raw).  Sometimes I mix up batches of spaghetti sauce or taco meat to freeze.  Anything I can do to cut down on time when I have an abundance of ingredients on hand and am able to put time towards another meal without sacrificing too much time!

I also cook ingredient items in bulk if they freeze well.  Items like sauces, soups, condensed soups, batters, etc.  We like to roast and freeze pumpkins and squash of all sorts, potatoes, etc.

Meal prep can be done in bulk as well.  Chop veggies, store in fridge or freezer, mix bulk seasonings for the pantry, etc.

Look at your upcoming week.  What is on your meal plan?  What can you prepare tonight to make tomorrows cooking easier?  What can  you do for any meal this week to make cooking or preparing it easier?

33 comments to Grocery Budget Tips: Tip 6 – I Cook in Bulk

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