Day 5: Compiling Favorite Family Recipes

Super Saver Activity
Favorite Family Recipes

1. The key to keeping prices low is a compiled list of our favorite family recipes (about 21).
2. From those I make weekly meal plans (I do not assign meals to certain days, I just have a list of meals to eat during the week, and then what I feel like having that night I make).
3. From the weekly meal plan I make a grocery list. I buy in bulk when I can, and that way I have things on hand and it cuts down on what I need to buy on a weekly basis. This works because I am not trying new recipes with strange ingredients. What we eat we will eat again in two or three weeks. Also I can keep my eyes open for good deals, because I know the things that I buy, and I will not be tricked into buying things that I do not need.
   
4. For a time saver I double recipes, and freeze half, that way when I am short on time I can pull something out of the freezer, and we are not so tempted to eat out. I label and date what I have frozen, or else it becomes something I am afraid to eat and takes up room in the freezer until I throw it out.

This is a really great system, but it can break down if I do not keep up with my weekly runs. Then I will do small runs that tempt me to buy things not on my list, or are in the more expensive convenient grocery store.

Making only our favorite recipes has turned out to be a hit with my whole family. I thought we would get tired of the same things, but I have about three weeks of recipes, so nothing gets repeated too often. Even my husband who loves change is giving me high praise, because I am no longer a hit-or-miss cook. I know what I am making is going to be good. I used to be addicted to trying out new recipes. If the food was just OK, no problem, I would move on to trying new things, but a bigger problem was if the food was great I still rarely served it again because I was too tempted to try out new recipes. Naturally the kids do not like every meal on the rotation, but they can be placated by this method too--they know their favorite will be coming soon.

Yikes, another grocery run. I am getting low on groceries. Pad Thai noodles, chopsticks, beansprouts, milk, soy milk, bananas, apples, nectarines, plums, bug spray, and formula $35
(I've never bought formula before, but my daughter is 11 months, and technically babies are not supposed to drink cow milk until they are a year).

We got two movies from Blockbuster (and a coke): $12
My husband owed a friend $20

Total $67