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Once-a-Month Shopping and Cooking Update
It has been a week since we tried our hand at once-a-month shopping and cooking and so far the results have been great. Before last week, I discussed how we were going to make an attempt at grocery shopping and cooking only once a month and then followed that up with the results of our first weekend of it .
Once-a-month Shopping
Ok, so I must sheepishly admit that we have already been to the store again…well, sorta. Neither my wife nor I have actually stepped into a grocery store, but we did have my mother-in-law pick up some milk for us when she was out shopping the other day. In fact, we asked her to pick up four gallons of skim milk and another gallon of whole. If you add that to what we bought last weekend, that’s eight gallons of skim milk and 2 gallons of whole that we’ve bought so far this month. That seems like a lot to me – my wife and daughter drink a tremendous amount of it each day.
When we did our first big shop, I was nervous about how well the milk would freeze so I purposely did not buy enough for the month. So far we have been happy with the frozen milk (after it defrosts, at least) so I will be more comfortable with buying more next month. Of course, at this pace I am not sure we’d be able to fit a month’s worth of milk in our freezer anyway.
Other than that, we do have a list started up of things we are already running out of and will probably have to replenish before the month is up. So far it is not huge so that’s good. We are treating it as a learning experience as I think it will take a few months before we get a good feel for how much of everything we need to buy to last a month. Fortunately, we are not out in the jungles of Brazil (like some of our friends) so if we do run out of something, we can make a quick jaunt to the store. That being said (besides having my mother-in-law pick up some milk), we will probably try to make one more trip to the store about half-way through the month. We don’t want to fall back into making frequent store trips and the wasted time and impulse buys that accompany them.
It’s actually a pretty nice feeling to not have been in grocery store in a week. And an even nicer feeling knowing that I probably will only venture into a grocery store one more time this month.
Once-a-month Cooking
Oh, I have eaten very well this week. Actually, I usually eat very well every week as my wife (who does most of the cooking) is a very good cook and she takes time to plan out tasty meals for us. So, I guess the big change would be whether it was easier to prepare these tasty meals.
My wife is happy with the time that it takes to prepare the meal each evening. It is definitely less time consuming that cooking a normal meal. And these are real meals here, too, not macaroni and cheese from a box. An unanticipated bonus is that meal cleanup is faster as well. Instead of using multiple bowls and measuring spoons/cups and pots/pans, all of that is already done and usually a single skillet is used to heat up the meal (with maybe pasta cooked up in another pot). The verdict thus far is less time cooking and less time cleaning up.
So far we have eaten Mrs. Ringle’s Brisket (phenomenal), Spaghetti with homemade sauce (excellent), some strange ham and cheese thing in a pie crust (so-so), barbecue chicken (excellent flavor), and taco pie (very good). All but one of the meals this week were really, really good. Through one week, the once-a-month cooking is a winner!
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6 Responses to “Once-a-Month Shopping and Cooking Update”
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You are really tempting to me to try this! Glad it is going good for you and your family!
D´s latest blog post…Shopping this week
Good for you guys! My wife and I both tons of milk, so it wouldn’t be easy for us either!
I found you via Wisebread’s top 100 pf blogs. Good for you and congrats for making the list. I starting blogging about the same time you did.
Nice to meet you!
Trevor @ Financial Nut´s latest blog post…Redbox Vs Blockbuster Video – Which Is A Better Cheap Date?
Oops! I posted a big long comment on your original Once-a-Month Shopping post, and didn’t realize you already had an update!
I just wanted to add, don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it perfect the first month! Our first month it seemed like we ran out of stuff every 2nd day! (Originally I didn’t do my 4-week meal plan, I thought I could stock up on staples and “wing” it – not a good idea!). The 2nd month was better, the 3rd month was even better. I just keep tweaking the quantities on my list each time I run out of something early in the month.
Glad to hear it went so well! All that cooking sounds exhausting though!!! I think that’s more than I could handle in one day!
Alissa MacPhee´s latest blog post…Still here.
@D – go for it! It actually feels kinda weird that I haven’t been to a grocery store in almost two weeks but also very good thinking about not having to waste time (and hopefully money too) there.
@Trevor – I can not believe the amount of milk we go through in a week. I usually freeze entire gallons and they take an entire day or so to defrost all the way. I feel like as soon as I get one defrosted, it’s time to start defrosting another one! I guess it’s better than drinking a lot of soda though. Thanks for the kind words and very nice to meet you too!
@Alissa – Thanks for the words or encouragement. It is a work in progress and hopefully we will continue to improve on it like you did when you first started. I do really appreciate hearing from someone for whom this actually works!
Recently found your website. Congrats on jumping in with the OAMC! There is an incredible amount of really excellent information out there about meal planning, storage, etc. “Frozen Assets” is an older book with good advice about food storage techniques. Sounds like you prepared well, and Alissa is absolutely right. Also, if you continue to do this for 3-4 months, you could just rotate the monthly menus and not even have to come up with a new plan each month.
BTW, a side (albeit small) benefit of the frozen/thawing milk will be less energy required to chill the fridge
Also curious how you’re tracking expenses: now vs then?
Congrats, again.
I’ve always heard this was the best way of shopping, cooking and planning meals. I wasn’t so sure it was really that feasibly until I read your blog, it seems like you guys are handling it pretty well. Maybe I will try this method, however I am a bit uncertain about drinking defrosted milk.