ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Save Time and Money! Prepare Nutritious Meals in Advance

Updated on September 1, 2011

One day I stumbled upon a blog called the Once A Month Mom. As a working mom of three busy active kids I was intrigued. The whole idea of the Once A Month Mom is to take one day to prepare all of your family’s meals for the month. One day? One month’s worth of meals? Like I said, I was intrigued.

I’m already a huge fan of stock piling food and saving time and money. Could this be another addition to my frugal routine? Could this create a stock pile of food in my freezer so that I always had a meal on hand for my family or an impromptu guest or a neighbor in need? Would this system allow me to come home and enjoy a quiet cup of coffee with my husband while the meal that has already been prepared is simply placed in the oven?

My mind swam around with this idea while I read all of the instructions, recipes, and shopping lists for the upcoming menu that had been published. Determined to give it a shot, I planned my big cooking day two weeks in advance.

Once A Month Mom cooking even works with a small freezer like mine!
Once A Month Mom cooking even works with a small freezer like mine!

Once the actual cooking day arrived, I was very excited. My daughter and I had done all of the prep work that was necessary the night before. I only had one last minute run to the grocery store that morning before I was ready to start my entire day of cooking. This is what I found.

  1.  I completely underestimated how much work this would be. Once a Month Mom cooking is NOT the lazy mom’s system. It’s a lot of work and since I did it alone there were times when it was overwhelming. I decided then that the next time I would make it a big cooking weekend and break it down between two days.
  2. Even though it’s a lot of work, the feeling of accomplishment was incredible. Packaging the last of the meals and stuffing my freezer full felt wonderful. The clean up isn’t so fun… but once it’s done, it’s done!

My experience is one thing, but if you’re anything like me, you want to know the answers to questions like: Did it save time? Did the system save money? Is the food any good? Would this work for me? Is the Once A Month Mom system worthwhile?

Suggestions

Here are some suggestions from my own experiences. The blog has many more tips as well:

  • Clean out your freezer and your refrigerator before you start.
  • Do kitchen clean up throughout the day
  • Do as much of the recommended prep work the night before as possible.
  • Clear your schedule. You will not want to have to leave to pick someone up or run to an appointment.
  • If you have small kids, find a sitter or trade some babysitting for the day. My kids are older, but I can’t imagine doing this with little ones running around!
  • If you can have someone on hand who could do quick grocery runs for you that would be great. The last time, I read the shopping list wrong and I kept running out of shredded cheese. I sent my teenage son to the store twice to get more. (Which brings me to my next suggestion…)
  • Read the shopping list carefully! If they say 21 eggs, they mean 21 eggs.
  • Learn how to adapt to your family. If you know they don’t like onions, you can adapt the recipes and use less. If you have a similar recipe, you can substitute it (just be sure to double it). If there’s one that I KNOW won’t go over well, I just skip it entirely.
  • Use programs like Coupon Sense or Savings Angel to find great deals on the items you need. Use the stockpile system so you will have many of the staples needed already on hand.
  • If you have a question, ask them. I posted a question before I tried it and had a response later that morning. They are very, very helpful.
  • Make sure you have all the supplies you need beforehand. Often the instructions call for two crock pots, several foil baking dishes, and different sizes of freezer bags. Other items such as sharp knives and food processors would be useful as well.

Yes! This Saves Time

  • Every meal you prepare makes enough for two meals. Doubling a recipe doesn’t take any more time than a single recipe. By that fact alone, you’ve cut your cooking time in half.
  • Once the food is prepared, packaged and frozen, it takes little to no time or effort to put it on your table for your family. Some meals are complete; others are only entrees that you can add fresh vegetables and rice or pasta to finish.
  • On busy weeknights when everyone needs to be someplace, it was a huge time saver to
  • Using this system has freed up my evening time to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee with my husband, talk to my children, run errands, do housework, the freedom is incredible.  

Yes! This Saves Money!

  • Because I already use grocery store sales and coupons to my advantage, the stockpile I have in my pantry came in handy. However, there were still additional items that I needed to purchase. Because they provide a shopping list with everything you need, I was able to pick up items on sale in advance. Now they even provide a checklist of commonly used staples that I can purchase anytime.
  • I did notice that I my grocery bill was significantly higher the week or two before the first big cooking day. I wasn’t sure how the money saving aspect was going to pan out. However, I noticed an incredible decrease in my grocery spending the rest of the month. All I had to purchase were items such as milk, lunch meat, bread, and cereal. Everything for our family meals was already purchased.
  • I also noticed that when the second big cooking day rolled around, I already had many of the needed items, so the cost was quite a bit less.
  • The greatest savings came about, however, because I did not spend anything on convenience meals such as frozen dinners or pizza. Nor did our family eat out, order pizza, or run through the fast food drive-through nearly as much as we normally did.

Yes! The Food is Incredible!

  • This was honestly my biggest concern. There’s no saving time or money if the food prepared isn’t worth eating. Thankfully, my concerns were quickly put to rest. Not only are these meals are delicious! While not every dinner was a hit with every family member, there is enough variety to please my pickiest eater.
  • I am proud to put these meals on my table. I’m proud that I prepared them. I’m proud that they are healthy and I know what’s in them. I’m grateful that I can share meals with family and friends as well.

Yes! This Can Work for You!

  • One of my favorite things about this blog is the fact that it is so adaptable. It doesn’t matter what your family situation is, you can adapt their recipes and shopping lists to work for you. They even have diet menus and baby food menus. You can use these menus for a family of five like mine, or a family of one.
  • If you have a freezer and are tired of wondering what to fix for dinner each and every day, then this system can work for you.

Is This Worthwhile?

It is for me. I love the concept and I appreciate the time and effort they put into their menus and their big cooking day instructions. I have become a Once A Month Mom!

If you are a Once A Month Mom or if you’re interested in trying it out, check out the blog! Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below. If you enjoyed this Hub, please be sure to vote it up! Thanks!

(Lisa Beaman has no affiliation with the Once A Month Mom Blog. She is simply a fan and wanted to share her experiences.)

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)