Contributed by: FrankRyan owner of the website CookToSave.com

There are three popular methods of freezer cooking that can save a family money.  There are many benefits to freezer cooking.  Some benefits include preserving perishables and reducing waste, having ready-made meals in your freezer when you are tempted to order out, and maximizing time with the family by cooking less often.  Fully cooked meals can maintain their texture and taste in the freezer for up to three months.  Uncooked, ready to go meals, like marinated meat can be frozen without degradation for up to six months.  Different methods can optimize for busy schedules or tight budgets and any family can find benefits in one of the methods mentioned below.

Once a Month Cooking, also known as, OAMC is a way of making meals ahead of time and freezing them for later use.  There are several ways to adopt this system into your family.  The phrase once a month cooking was made famous by a book entitled Once-A-Month-Cooking by Lagerborg and Wilson.  Their book is worth a buy at Amazon for beginners, the information inside is valuable to anyone looking into getting involved in this type of cooking schedule.   OAMC, in its purest form, involves a family preparing 30 meals within one weekend each month, or mini-sessions where 14 meals are made in one day.  The benefits are having only one weekend of dirty pots to clean and a highly detailed dinner schedule.  For the family that eats take-out regularly or is rushed to find time for dinner, this is an excellent program.

Another method of freezer cooking is for seasoned deal seekers.  “Assembly Line” cooking, as seen on websites like www.cooktosave.com, takes perishable loss leaders from your local grocery store and assembles them into several meals in one day to be enjoyed or prepared for another day.  Assembly Line cooking turns your kitchen into a family assembly line.  Examples are finding over-ripe bananas at the store for less than $0.25 a pound and turning them into 30 chocolate covered frozen banana popsicles,  buying 20 pounds of pork loin at $1.67/lb and making breakfast sausage, burritos, kebobs, steaks, and Weiner schnitzel.    For the family that likes buying large quantities of loss leaders and getting the best price for their meals, this is their perfect match.

The third and easiest method of freezer cooking is called “Feed the Freezer”.  These ideas incorporate making double or triple the amount you usually make for dinner and putting the additional meals away in the freezer for a later date.  When planning to make lasagnas, stuffed shells, chili’s, or other easy to freeze casseroles, make two or three dinners instead of one and freeze the additional dinners.  Try searching any recipe site on the internet, like www.allrecipes.com for the keyword “OAMC”, to find recipes that are freezer friendly.   For the family that wants to make their food dollar stretch a little more than usual and have one of two meals in their freezer this is an easy adoptive plan.

However a family chooses to adopt a make ahead style of cooking, there are savings to be had.   An extra stand-alone freezer in your home can save $1,000 or more per year on a family food budget.

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Tags: Bulk Cooking, Bulk Shopping, Feed The Freezer, Freezer, Freezing, Frozen Food Month, March, Meal Planning, OAMC, Once A Month Cooking, Stockpile
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Did you know that the month of March is designated as “Frozen Food Month”? What this means for the frugal shopper is that this is a great time to be watching for deals and coupons on things like ice cream, pizza, frozen vegetables and other great items to fill your freezer.

Also be on the look out for deals offered by some grocery stores that will be running specials on freezers themselves with the purchase of certain amounts of frozen foods.

For more information on sales cycles check out Hotcouponworld’s Sales Cycles thread in our forums.

For more information on what items you can or cannot freeze check out Hotcouponworld’s Storage Guides: How to Buy, Store & Use Anything forum.

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Tags: Food Storage, Freezer, Freezing, Frozen Food Month, March, Sales Cycles, Stockpile, Storage
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Hotcouponworld’s very own mcatwood (Michelle) was interviewed on television for Atlanta Georgia’s 11 Alive News. Check out this segment done by another Hotcouponworld member Valerie$$.

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Tags: 11 Alive News, Coupon, Coupons, Frugal Living, Grocery Shopping, News, Stockpile
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I haven’t bought toilet paper in two years.  I haven’t bought dryer sheets or floor cleaners in five years.  It’s not that we don’t use these products, it’s just that once they were on sale at a price I couldn’t afford to pass up, I bought so many that I haven’t had to think about buying them since.

Since the economy began heading south year, the shopping advice from local and national media has been “try not to buy more than you need at one time” which makes me cringe every time I hear it.

While it may seem counter-intuitive to shop for something you don’t need and buy a boatload of it, if you’re buying an item at its rock bottom price and you can stock up on it, then you won’t have to buy it later at full price.

The key to this strategy? Add one or two sale items a week that weren’t on your list that you’ll likely use anyway.  Use coupons to sweeten the deal and buy as many as you can at that price.  Today at Target, 150-sheet lined notebook paper was on clearance for .12 cents each. Needless to say, at a savings of 88% off full retail, I bought enough paper for the kids that I won’t I won’t need to buy it again for several years.  I’ll toss it in a Rubbermaid tub and pull it out when we need it.

As you begin to shop this way, keep a few things in mind:

• How much can I budget on building my stockpile each week?  Take a percentage of what you currently spend and reallocate it to shopping for long-term-use deals.

• Will my family use up the product before it expires?  My kids go through one jar of peanut butter a week, so when I can get it for less than .50 cents per jar, I buy at least 52 jars to get me through a whole year.

• Do I have room to store these items in a way that makes sense?  An investment in storage totes, shelving and a deep freezer can help you save in the long term.

If you can incorporate this tactic into your personal shopping routine, you might spend a little more at first, but ultimately, it will reduce your groceries costs more each month.  A few years of shopping this way, I’ve cut our grocery bill down to about $200 a month. My family could live off the products stored in the garage for several months if we ever came on tough times. And best of all, I can take the money we save and use it somewhere else.

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Tags: Budget, Budgeting, Clearance, Economy, Freezer, Grocery Sales, Grocery Shopping, Grocery Store, Product Expiration, Sales, Shelving, Stockpile, Stockpiling, Storage, Storage Totes, Target
Posted in Articles, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | 3 Comments »

If you’re a mom, you’re probably reading this and enjoying a few moments of peace now that the kids are back in school.  Mine have been back for two weeks now and even with all the craziness of getting their lunches sacked and checking off the homework, it’s like heaven knowing they are safely ensconced back in the classroom.   That’s why it’s so hard to believe that it’s time to go back-to-school shopping….again!  No, I’m not crazy, but my best suggestion for saving money this week is to get you back in the store to shop for next year’s school supplies.  Here’s why….

The supply lists for the next grade up are still easily accessible.  If  you’re child just started 3rd grade, go back into the school and get the 4th grade list.  You’ll find in the next week all the things your student needs on that list are at least 50%-75% off.  A backpack at stores like Target and Kmart can be had for $5-$8 versus the $25 you just spent.  This time last year, I bought six lunchboxes for $2 each.  Safeway had lunchboxes marked at 75% off last night.

Office supply stores had less than stellar sales this fall which means they are sitting on extras of common supplies needed for all grade levels.  One word of advice as you shop next year’s list….don’t buy glue sticks ahead – they’ll be dried out before next fall!  Your average savings if you shop now for next year will be $50-$70 per student.  Think of all the great ways you can spend that money instead next summer!

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Tags: Office Depot, School, School Supplies, Shopping, Stockpile, Stockpiling
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If you feel like there’s a little nip in the air and fall breezes are stirring, you wouldn’t be alone. It’s getting downright chilly in my neck of the woods. But my favorite thing about fall isn’t the turning leaves…it’s the crazy sales at the grocery store where the top name brands don’t hold anything back.  If you have the room to stock up, now’s the time.

Leading off with September is the General Mills family of brands. Watch for 10 for $10 type sales. With the higher ingredient costs, many brands are willing to spend money on marketing to continue developing brand awareness, particularly as consumers are being driven to generics by the media as a cost-saving strategy at the store.

In the next two weeks, watch for the Quaker family of brands to be on sale.  Not only does this include oatmeal and chewy granola bars, but Quaker also owns Aunt Jemima pancake mixes and syrups.  This sale has already hit my area and these items are 10 for $15.  But with coupons from last Sunday’s newspapers and high value “peelie” coupons you might find in-store on the boxes, you can score these items for .50 cents each.  I bought 70 assorted boxes of breakfast bars, oatmeal and granola bars for $40 yesterday morning.  And with long shelf lives, that will keep us in oatmeal long after the price has jumped back up to $4.29 a box. It’s an even better deal on the pancake fixings, for which there are rarely coupons on the Aunt Jemima brand.  At $1.50 a box versus $4 or more, this is a great deal for stocking up.

The last of my favorite fall deals is the Campbell’s family of brands which include Prego, all the soup lines, and Gold Fish crackers to name a few.  Hints of soup sales are already happening – 10 cans of tomato and chicken noodle could be found last week for .50 cents a can - a teaser of the sales to come.  And this is the month that Campbell’s makes their coupons the most available.  There were coupons in last week’s paper and watch for more as we get closer to October.  Soups have a long shelf life, so buy what you can for the year while the prices are at their best.  It’s why I love fall – the real fall harvest isn’t in the garden….it’s in the pantry aisles at the grocery stores!

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Tags: Aunt Jemima, Breakfast Bars, Campbell's, Cereal, Coupon, Coupons, Gold Fish, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Oatmeal, Pancake Mix, Pepperidge Farm, Prego, Quaker, Sales Cycles, Soup, Stockpile, Syrup
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This is my favorite shopping season. I actually put aside money the rest of the year so that I’ll have extra to spend during the next few weeks. The reason? I know that last year’s clothes are marked down to their final clearance to make room for new fall fashions. I also know that loss leader school supplies are being offered now. And outdoor summer items—like patio furniture, plastic margarita stemware and barbecue tools—are now on sale for 60 percent off the regular price.

There’s a sales cycle for every month and every season. Members at Hotcouponworld.com have been tracking them for years. We know that January is the best time to stock up on cheap oatmeal; new skis are better bought in March; and October is one of the best months to buy a new car. Timing is everything: Knowing when to buy can yield incredible savings if you can hold off on your purchases and buy when the item is “in season.”

You can read more here to learn about sales cycles so you never miss a deal!

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Tags: Coupon, Groceries, Grocery, Grocery Shopping, Loss Leader, Sales, Sales Cycles, Stockpile
Posted in Articles, Frugal Living, Grocery Shopping, Stockpiling | No Comments »