Teri’s Tip #1: Once-a-Month Cooking. Change. Your. Life.

More hours in the day to Do It!, save $$.

Here’s something that not only makes more free hours in your day, it saves money too. At least it did for us this month.

About 30 years ago when I had a young child at home and a working husband (she’s grown, he’s retired), I bought a book called Once-a-Month Cooking: a proven system for spending  less time in the kitchen and enjoying delicious, homemade meals every day. I don’t remember how many months-worth of meals I made back then, but it was at least several.

The goal then (as now) was to create more time in the day for doing other things. If I was willing to spend a few rugged days doing prep, assembling multiple meals, and freezing them to eat later, I learned cooking could be a lot less demanding. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it.

On the cusp of 2024, I had two big goals:

1.       Save money on our grocery bill, and

2.       Only spend time cooking when we want to.

So we did it! Here’s how it works. The book has multiple meal cycles (2 and 4-weeks), menu calendars for each, shopping lists, menus, and detailed instructions and hints. And there’s a secret to things.