With the living costs increasing each week, many of us are uncertain how we will be able to cope with continual price hikes. On top of gas, electricity and petrol, grocery prices are also making a dent in the household budget, and Aussies are cutting back on groceries where they can.
But what if you had an opportunity to plan out a month’s worth of meals and lock in today’s grocery prices simultaneously? You will be able to freeze today’s grocery prices plus the cost of energy needed for cooking into a month’s worth of meals. Then, simply reheat the meals when you’re ready to eat them!
Simply follow these tips and lock today’s costs into delicious, hearty meals that will feed you and your family into the future.
Begin with a menu plan
Nothing is ever well-executed without a plan. Grab a pen and paper and choose the meals you will be cooking. Australia’s Best Recipes has over 16,000 recipes from home-cooks across the nation, so there are plenty of recipes for you enjoy. Gather the family and ask them what they’d like to eat for the month, then get to building your 30-day menu plan.
Beef stroganoff in the slow cooker
Slow cooker Asian-inspired glazed chicken fillets
Use up leftovers first
The old adage says waste not, want not, so using what you have first is the best way to ensure your first step is frugal. Cultivate a mindset of creativity and ingenuity so that you can see potential in everything, and you’ll soon be turning soft vegetables into soups or tinned beans into casseroles.
Leftover mashed potato doughnuts
Buy in bulk
Buying in bulk is one of the best ways to save money. Not only do you save money, but by making this simple, frugal decision, you will be locking in today’s grocery prices for at least a month. And since you’ll be cooking in bulk, the ingredients will be used immediately. They won’t disappear into your pantry only to be found months later when they could be past their use-by date.
Use the slow-cooking method
Not only does slow cooking help break down nutrients, so meals are easy for us to digest, but it’s a cost-saving exercise, too. Cooking low and slow, especially in a slow cooker, allows us to create big-batch meals using minimal energy. Most slow cookers can be left to cook your food for hours, even all day, using about the same amount of energy as a standard light bulb, or about 0.7kWh over the eight hours. Slow cooking will also give cheap meat enough time to break down and transform into delectable stews and casseroles. Choose a few days where you don’t have anything to do and cook a few meals at once.
Freeze your meals
Once the meals are cooled, pop them into freezable containers (or foodsaver bags), label them with the name of the dish and the date it was cooked, and place them into the freezer. When you’re ready to eat them, simply reheat them in a microwave or in the oven, and you’ll literally be eating for last month’s prices!
More cost-saving meals
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75 dinners you can prep and drop into your slow cooker
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