Once a Month Cooking

(aka Freezer Cooking)

I just read about this and I love the idea. Basically you cook a bunch of food in one day, freeze it, then eat it throughout the month. This should save you time and money.

Save time: Instead of spending an hour or two every evening preparing supper, you set aside a day (or two) to do LOTS of cooking, assembling, and freezing. (It's just as easy to cook two chickens as it is to cook one. The same principle applies to hamburger meat, pork chops, and many other things.) Then you can just grab a meal from your freezer, thaw it, and pop it in the oven. This should free up some time each evening for you to play with your kids, talk with your husband, or read a book.

Save money: Almost always the unit price is cheaper when you buy in bulk. But if you throw half of the food out because it went bad before you could eat it all, you haven't saved any money by buying the economy-size package. With OAMC (once a month cooking), you can buy that 10-lb package of hamburger meat, knowing it'll be used to make meatballs, meatloaf, and spaghetti. You also won't have to order pizza or swing by the drive-thru for supper when you know you've got supper thawing in the fridge.

Even if I never get to the point where I have 30 meals in my freezer, I can use these ideas on a small scale to make my life a little easier. I can make a double batch of lasagne (or soup or chicken casserole, etc.) and freeze half of it. I think I'll try cooking and freezing a week's worth of meals and work my way up to a month. I'll have to see how many freezer-friendly recipes I have. I'm sure I'll have to add some new ones to my collection. I'll share them with you if I find some good ones.

In the meantime, here are a few websites to help you get started.
Once a Month Cooking World
Freezer Cooking
Momsbudget.com