i’ve come a long way grocery-budget wise. just about one year ago, i was routinely spending $80 dollars a week on designer groceries and random produce that rotted quietly away in my fridge while i went out to eat instead of cooking. now, i’ve whittled my grocery budget down to $30ish a week, plan a weeks worth of meals in advance, cook often, and generally eat dinner out no more than twice a week. if i never got any better at food management/economics, i could probably still be pretty satisfied, but i demand more! one of the great things about having a blog is using it as an excuse/inspiration to experiment with my life. thus, baking day.
i first heard tell of such things from one of my favorite websites, money saving mom, although it seems like everybody (like her, her, and her) is doing it. basically, plan the majority of your meals a month in advance, and cook and freeze everything in one day. it seems like such a good idea, but she has a christian home school family of 5 to feed- would the same principals be able to apply to my heathen living-in-sin family of two? i think they can, and here’s why.
i’m always busy with something, and i’m not always in the mood to cook when i get home from work. this is why the produce goes bad- because i don’t make whatever it is i bought it for on the designated day, and then i just forget about it. oops.
you might ask (assuming that you are not someone who believes that it is the woman’s job to do the cooking), why can’t your boyfriend make dinner? well, that would be because my boyfriend is a shitty cook. he grew up with lousy food, and thus he only knows how to prepare lousy food. bland, mushy, overy sweet, crap food. and barely! usually when i leave him on his own for the evening, i come home and he has eaten something like “whiskey & granola bars” or “stale doritos and egg nog” (no foolin) for dinner. the truth is that he would cook more if i would let him, but he hates to cook and sucks at it. i love to cook and am good at it- i just need like 2 extra hours in my day to get it all in.
anyway, that’s where baking day comes in. i dedicate one entire weekend day to putting a bunch of meals in the freezer, and all i (or the epicurially challenged boyfriend) need to do is heat them up (and possibly prepare some vegetables). my goals for the month of january are simple:
1. prepare 16 dinner meals (4 per week).
2. go out to eat for dinner a maximum of twice per week.
3. eat convenience foods once per week or less.
i still plan on going shopping weekly, but just for perishables.
sometime between now and new year’s weekend, i just need to figure out what exactly it is i’m going to make, exactly what it is i’m going to buy, how i can pay as little as possible for those groceries, and how it’s all going to roll out.
all i know is that if these amazing people can live off $1 a day, i can certainly trim a little more out of my grocery budget.
broke 207 
That freezer looks so heavenly and neat. Is it yours??
lol at “whiskey and granola bars”. That combo doesn’t sound half bad to me.
I’m interested to see what you come up, as meal planning is one of my goals, too, along with setting a grocery day and a laundry day.
Now back to my eggnog daiquiri Christmas Eve dinner.. Happy Holidays to you!!
i wish that freezer was mine! i guess that’s what i aspire for my freezer to look like after my first baking day. but, it’s equally likely that it will be empty with me in the fetal position crying on the floor. only time will tell! an eggnog daiquiri sounds incredible- rum and frozen eggnog? share your secrets!
Oops, never came back to reply. Well, if I had the daiquiri secret, I would share, but one of the perks of living in New Orleans is that we have establishments dedicated to making this stuff for you. And then selling it to you through a drive-thru window! But they make a big point of handing the straw to you separately, not putting it through the cup lid hole, because, you know, that will keep you from drinking and driving. (Scout’s honor I do actually wait until I’m off the road.)
I’m sure eggnog, rum, and ice thrown into a blender would produce a satisfactory result, though. How could it not?!?
are you serious? drive-thru booze?! perhaps i should strongly consider rethinking to which state i am pledging my allegiance!
For serious! Most of them are converted fast food places. We’re also big on political scandal and natural disasters, though, so don’t jump ship just yet. Booze is just our official state coping mechanism.
I’ve been watching those ladies also and I don’t know is seems so mascacistic. 🙂 They always sound exhausted and the amount of dishes to wash, I couldn’t face it. I’ll be watching to see how you do before I even think of attempting it. Have a Happy Christmas!
yeah, it could very easily be a huge mistake, but i just have to try! luckily, i have a dishwasher and a boyfriend who makes up for his lack of cooking with cleaning. happy holidays to you too!