You’ve got a short window of time to get food on the table after a long day with the kids or at work, but a big freezer. Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting author Sarah Deveau has the solution for you! In this three part series on Freezer Meal Planning, she’ll teach you everything you need to know about cooking for the freezer.
Being prepared with the right tools is critical to enjoying the process of a freezer meal cooking day. Here’s what you need.
Great Recipes
It’s so disheartening to dig into a freezer meal you put a lot of effort into making on a freezer meal day, only to discover no one in your family likes it. It’s even worse when you remember you made six of those meals! After suffering through four of the most awful pizza casseroles that no amount of added cheese could liven up, I now test drive a single family serving of each meal before I commit to adding it to my next freezer meal plan.
Whenever possible, I use Ziploc freezer bags, as they’re sturdier than no name brands for meals. It’s easy enough to place them in a large bowl to stand it up to fill, them lay them flat on cookie sheets to freeze. Some things are easier to freeze in the pan, but there’s a trick to not sacrificing your pan to the freezer until you’re ready to eat that meal. Simply wrap the pan or casserole dish in aluminum foil before assembling the meal inside. Freeze, then pop out the meal and wrap tightly in another layer of foil. When you’re ready to bake that meal, just remove it from the freezer, drop it into the correct size dish, and bake! When freezing individual lunches, I usually use the small square Ziploc containers – though I do find leaving them frozen for more than a month or two invites freezer burn.
You can freeze in glass – just don’t forget to let the dish cool before popping it in the freezer, or warm up before placing in the oven.
Label it!
Regardless of the container you’ve used, you’ll want to ensure everything is labelled. Don’t trick yourself into thinking you’ll remember what’s in a specific container – trust me, three months later you’ll barely be able to name any of the recipes you made. Be sure to include cooking instructions.
If you’re super keen you can print adorable labels from Martha Stewart but the truly frugal will simply write on the bag or foil with a sharpie, or slap a plain label on the bag or container.
Sarah Deveau is the author of Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting. She blogs about money at Yummy Mummy Club.
You’ve got a short window of time to get food on the table after a long day with the kids or at work, but a big freezer. Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting author Sarah Deveau has the solution for you! In this three part series on Freezer Meal Planning, she’ll teach you everything you need to know about cooking for the freezer.
I love to cook. I love browsing through boutique kitchen stores, and not much thrills me more than selecting a gorgeous new cookbook and burrowing into a comfy chair with it at home, dreaming of dinner parties. I have invested in fantastic tools over the years, sometimes discovered at thrift stores and garage sales – vintage Le Crueset dishes, my wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer, and perfectly sharpened Global knives.
So you’d think getting dinner on a table every night would be a snap, right? Not so much. I work full time at my day job and for myself from home 10 to 20 hours a week. And of course, I’ve got a few kids too – three girls under the age of six.
After having my first daughter, I took up meal planning after my husband and I were guests on the Food Network Television show Fixing Dinner. It helped me add structure to my day to ensure I had great food on the table every night. However, as my schedule got busier, I often found I didn’t have time even when I tried to stick with my tried and true meal planning routine.
I turned to freezer meal planning. What a difference! For the past few years, I’ve used freezer meal planning to handle feeding the crowd in our house.
There are two main ways I’ll handle making our family’s freezer meals.
Super Prepared
This method involves being, well, super prepared! I look at my schedule and choose two days when I’ll have a lot of time to prepare. The first night I’ll set aside three hours to browse flyers for sale items, select recipes, write out the plan for how many times I might double or triple the recipe, and write a grocery list. Then I’ll head to the grocery store, bring everything home, and sort it on the kitchen table and in the fridge by recipe.The next day, I’ll follow my notes of what to prepare when, to ensure there are no long waits in the process wile meat is cooking or the oven is full. By the time I’ve put in five or six hours, I’ll usually have between 20 – 30 meals prepped and ready to freeze. Some meals are made big for sharing with guests, others might be small – just enough for my husband for dinner and his lunch the next day. My kids are still pretty picky, and I keep a container of grilled chicken and plain pasta in the fridge at all times in case they’re not interested in more than the obligatory bite of the main meal.
Slacker Method
If I just don’t have the time to set aside for a big cook, I’ll use the slacker method. A few nights each week I’ll double or triple the meal I’m making that night, and freezer the others. After a month of doing this, I might have 10 – 12 meal stashed away in the freezer.
Regardless of the method you choose, even the busiest parent can fill your freezer with fantastic meals that will save you money by taking advantage of buying items while on sale, and save you even more money over ordering take out in desperation.
Sarah Deveau is the author of Money Smart Mom: Financially Fit Parenting. She blogs about money at Yummy Mummy Club and at Money Smart Mom.
As we all know, Valentine's day is that wonderful time of year when flowers triple in price and if you don't celebrate your love, you'll pay for your mistake all year. Right? 😉 Can you tell I've never really been big into the occasion?
If you're anything like my husband and I, you don't typically do anything out of the ordinary for Valentine's Day. But it is nice to have an excuse to spend some planned time together.
Here are some cheap date ideas that won't dent your pocket book too much and keep your love life on track for the entire year:
Celebrate on a day other than February 14
Pick any day in the month of February (other than February 14) and you'll save yourself a ton of cash. Flowers will be much cheaper, and maybe chocolates will be on clearance if you choose a day after February 14 🙂 Not to mention saving yourself the stress of finding some place that isn't booked up!
Take advantage of the Daily Deal sites
Now is the time to be watching those daily deal sites like Groupon, WagJag, and Living Social. I've been seeing a ton of offers for romantic getaways, restaurant deals and even gift ideas (jewelery, etc.) You'll save yourself a big chunk of money if you take advantage of a deal and intended on heading out on the town anyways!
Get back to your roots
Did you use to love playing a particular board game together in your younger dating/married years? Pull it out and play it once again. Or maybe you used to love browsing the thrift stores together? Or enjoyed the satisfaction of volunteering? Do something that takes you back to the early days!
Dinner at Home
Not a new idea at all, dinner at home, but how about calling up your date's mother to get the recipe to their favourite childhood meal? Or if you both enjoy a fancy meal, how about going all out at the grocery store to recreate your favourite fancy restaurant meals? The thought of a picnic on the floor might hit the spot as well! Maybe this year could be your first fondue?
What frugal Valentine's Day ideas do you have to share? For those of you with children, do you celebrate the day as a couple or as a family?
As I've been going though our house this month, I've come up with three good reasons decluttering and organizing will actually save you money. Yep, I think getting rid of the stuff that you paid hard earned money for will, in turn, save you money! Here are my reasons:
1. You'll know exactly what you have on hand
How many times have you come home from the grocery store to discover an item you purchased is already in your pantry? I've done this numerous times because things usually get pushed to the back never to be seen again. (or to be discovered once I've already bought a duplicate item!)
Take for example the cans of tomato soup we have. I stocked up a while ago during a good sale knowing they'd last until the next sale. Well what do you know, another sale came along sooner then I thought so I bought another flat forgetting how many I had in the first place. If I have been diligent in organizing my pantry, I would have known this and saved myself $5.00. That $5.00 that could have gone towards something that we actually needed that week.
2. You'll be astonished at how much money you've wasted
This one gets me every time! As I have been going through the closets and cabinets I've been finding so many small objects and project pieces that I know I'll never get around to using. When I put aside everything I no longer want to keep, I can't help but think about how much money I've spent on those items. It's pretty gross actually. That fact alone, keeps me from buying unnecessary stuff, therefore, keeping more money in my pocket. (Although, I'm still learning!)
3. You'll find unfinished projects
Every once in a while I get an urge to do something creative. When I take the opportunity to do a declutter, I usually discover a few unfinished projects.
Just yesterday, as I was going through my fabric stash, I found two unfinished projects. A purse, which only needs to have the handles sewn on, and material for a sweatshirt I've cut out for my husband. I now have two projects to finish to satisfy my creative urge without spending any more money!
Bonus: You'll save time in the long run and lose the guilt
Let's be honest, all that stuff can weigh a person down. Not only do you feel guilty about not using an item, but it can take you five times as long to get something finished! Like getting dressed for example. When you have to sort through all the clothes you don't like and the clothes you do like just to get a decent outfit put together, you're probably already running behind in your day.
By minimizing what doesn’t work for you in your home enables you to maximize the potential of what actually does! So say goodbye to the things that are weighing you down and breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe put your feet up for a few minutes too, since you've most likely got some new found time!
There you have it, my top three (4) reasons why decluttering your home will save you money! Sure, it can feel an awful lot like you're just throwing money out the window, but it will probably get you to stop spending unnecessarily. Or at least thinking twice about a possible purchase!
Remember, in the long run, decluttering and organizing now, will save you time and money in the future.
Brenda emailed a couple of her frugal tips that you might enjoy!
1. I totally agree with your one tip about buying the ‘good’ stuff first, and not spending loads of money rebuying crap.. I am a candle addict.. completely.. I DO spend good money on my candles, mostly because the cheap ones are just that.. cheap. They don’t burn nicely, they’re not a great scent. So quite often when I buy my ‘good’ candles I also want them to really last. I’ve bought a coffee warmer, the type that office workers will use to keep their coffee warm on their desk? Simple find at most thrift stores, because they of course take up costly desk space, and so they toss them. I place my 20 dollar candle on the warmer, and get just as nice of a scent from it, as I do when I burn it, however it will last a TON longer if you ‘warm’ it as opposed to burn it 🙂
2. To get rid of pesky fruit flies..
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup vinegar
one – two drops of dish soap
Place these in a small glass and set around your kitchen, the fruit flies will be attracted to it, dive in and drown. It will get rid of ALL fruit flies in your house.
I thought a post I found on Pinterest would interest some of you and encourage you to think creatively about the clothing you already own when it comes to creating outfits!
