I've been trying to do that more often myself. I find that I'm pressed for time during the week and turn to convenience foods more often than I'd even like to admit. But when I cook a lot and save the leftovers, I still have control over what I'm eating and I save a lot of money compared to just going out for fast food.
Cooking, being one of my passions and hobbies is something I've always done. I like to be able to control the ingredients that go into my food that I feed my family. Not to mention portion control. I do agree cooking at home does save money, but every now and then it's nice to go out and have someone else do the cooking.
It never ceases to amaze me what people will spend on convenience foods. I go to Sam's Club once a month and spend $500 on everything my household will need to function for a month. I cook everything myself from scratch. Once every other week I will get a pizza, but I love pizza and so do my kids. I could totally make it myself, but the kids love the pizzas at a place close to us. I just don't see how people have money to waste on convenience foods.
My lady and I probably only going out once a month to restaurants, if that. Instead, we cook all the time; during the week we'll make stews and pasta salads to save us time and money and on the weekend we'll go all out. I don't understand why people would want to spend $50 a week at restaurants or convenience stores when they can cook a meal in less than 20 minutes and save a good amount of money. Most restaurants serve dishes you can cook yourself. I am guilty, though, I can't make sushi.
I love to cook but I don't necessarily find that I'm saving money doing it. I mean, I could make my own cashew chicken or order it from the local chinese takeout. But by the time I buy all the ingredients to make it, it's far more than ordering it there. I love making my own stock too, for example, but buying the carrots, celery, onion, and chicken to make it still costs more than just buying a box of it at the store.
I agree, home cooking is more cheaper than buying outside. Oh well, the only advantage I can see in buying convenient food is the convenience lol, but aside from that home cooking is the best, because you can have it the way you want it, you can save some money and you can share it to your families or friends since you know that they will love it to because you are the one who cooked it.
When money is tight i do that. But I tend to not like the pre-prepared dishes anyway, so less than 5% of my grocery money is spent on it. I think the raw ingredients taste better anyway. The "add-water-and-mix" stuff tastes like it's processed food. I'm not big on the taste of processed food.
In order for me to stay at home with our daughter, my husband and I had to come up with ways to cut costs. Making meals from scratch has been a huge component of our new budget plan. It saves money at the register as well as at the doctor's office. I love the sense of pride that comes with serving my family nutritious (and mostly delicious) meals. I would like to start cooking in large batches and freezing leftover portions to save me some time during the week.
Yes it's true. I've found the same thing. Especially finding food for lunch at work during the week. It's way cheaper to make lunch at home or buy a family pack of TV dinners for the price of 1 lunch in the city. I can buy a 6 pack of dinners for $11. At less than $2 a meal, I can't beat that. I now need to figure out how to prepare and freeze hot breakfast burritos.
I cook our own meals. I get to save money plus I know what's going in our food. I've learned mostly through experimenting with recipes I find on the internet. Plus home cooked meals are much more delicious that what you ca get from fast foods, and healthier too. Though I never really tried cooking then freezing it. I just usually cook in the morning after breakfast, and that's what we'll eat until dinner. I might try freezing cooked food so we get to eat a variety of food each meal.
I prefer to cook my own food. The main reason is that I know exactly what is going into the food, so I can control salt for instance. The other reason is that like you, I also freeze food for convenience during the week.
At the moment, I am slowly adding to my collection of one-pot-meal recipes. So far I have worked out how to cook chicken rice. In just one pot. I am still experimenting with anchovy and rice. For a snack, I have already got the right combination for a mixed bean broth.
There is an excellent book that addresses this: "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn. She sets out with a group of folks with all sorts of different food routines, and teaches some VERY basic cooking techniques that make it possible to save $$$$$ and time by preparing food that is much cheaper and more nutritious (and very tasty!) than the average frozen or fast food. It works great - and shows you how to expand on the basics that she demonstrates. Recipes and instructions included. BTW, she is a trained professional chef!
We cook almost everything from scratch. I spend time once a week cooking and stocking my freezer and refrigerator. I find that I save a lot of money but more importantly I know my kids are eating real foods and not a ton of processed things. We have even started baking our own bread and bagels.
Of course, cooking at home saves you a lot of money and you also know what you are putting in it to make it flavorful for your family. I try to cook chemical free food when I cook so it will be much healthier for all of us. So, if you can spare some time on the weekend to make those meals for the week, if you are working, that is the best thing you can do for your family.
