Are you like me and dread coming up with meals for the week? Do you end up eating basically the same 7 meals over and over again because you know your kids will eat them and its just easier than trying to add new meals into the mix? Do you end up eating out WAY more often than is fiscally responsible because by the time you have finished with homework and practice and cleaning, cooking is the last thing you want to do?
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This is where I found myself all the time. Then my family and I moved into a new house and with that came the need for a tighter budget, so I KNEW that we needed to drastically change how much money we spent on food and eating out.
That led me to my search to find a way to plan out our meals but also save money, and find a way to cut the cooking time down in order to make sure we didn’t have any excuses but the eat the food that was in our house. On this search I stumbled across a Facebook page called Eating on a Dime, that is run by a mom from Oklahoma who strives to provide easy meals that do not cost an arm and a leg. She uses her crockpot and instapot for all of the meals and goes live almost every day sharing new recipes or tips to use your leftovers without feeling like your eating leftovers. In addition to the Facebook page and website she runs a monthly meal plan service, for $9.99 a month she will email you 20 detailed recipes that include a shopping guide. (These are split into two emails, 10 at the beginning of the month and 10 more midway through)
In September I decided to give the “Lazy Day Cooking Club” as it is called a chance, signed up and got my first 10 recipes. I looked through the list and most of them sounded like things that my family would eat. I got the shopping list added a few snacks and things we needed around the house and went to the store. All in all, our total was around $300.00 which was enough food for 10 meals plus snacks. And since we planned on doing a few left-over nights this should get us 2 weeks’ worth of meals. Considering before this I was spending $250.00 a WEEK on food plus eating out this was already saving us money.
The best part of this meal planning subscription is that she shows you how to do all your cooking and mess making in one day, place the prepped meals in the freezer until you are ready to place them in the crockpot/instapot. I spent a little over an hour one Saturday afternoon while my kids were playing to put together 8 meals. Then through the week when I was ready to cook I would check the times needed on the individual recipes and plan accordingly in the morning. Then at the end of the day I could be present with the kids and play outside or work on flash cards with my son and not worry about stopping to make dinner, and once dinner was over all I had to worry about cleaning was my crockpot. I found that my stress level at the end of the day was so much less, and that I was spending less time at night cleaning the kitchen once everyone had gone to bed.
I’m not going to lie, it still takes a little work and planning, but it is so worth it to me. My family has enjoyed all but one of the recipes, since I have super picky eaters I call that a huge win. Disclaimer, this is not a sponsored post, I just really love this service so much I wanted to share my WORTH IT WEDNESDAY find. If you are interested in looking into the service for yourself you can check out all the details here!
Share your budget saving tips with us, or if you make one of the Eating on a Dime recipes share it with us using #CCMBMOMS
