lets talk about spending less on food.

[eden/averymum]

we don't meal plan. I hate cooking. we don't eat much meat, maybe fish once a week and something else once a week. beef is rare and pork is never.

we don't buy alot of convenience food I don't think....but I'm interested to see what else I could not buy I heard of making your own granola for instance?

and I hope to gather some sauce recipes and figure out what to put on salads so as condimenst run out we aren't replacing them. I assume it's less expensive to make your own.

we need glass jars or bottles for them I guess....

I know meal planning is meant to be a great tool I tired it a few weeks but couldn't keep it up because I hate cooking and even thinking about cooking and got stuck making the same stuff over and over which is what I do anyhow...

I should give it another try I gues...

what else? what can I make that I probably now buy?

[mightymoo]

Consider once a month cooking. It's a lot of work for that day (and really the planning the day before) - one day a month dedicated entirely to cooking, but once that day is over everything is done, dinner is easy as regular convenience food, generally throwing something in the oven for a few minutes. It works best if you do it with someone - one person cooks and the other cleans the pots and pans over and over.

Frozen Assets is a great book for that, and there are a few others.

[BetsyS]

What do you eat now? Maybe try listing out your 10 most frequent meals, then go from there.

I remember that in The Tightwad Gazette, she talked about a continuim--if you are eating out at a sit down restaurant, it's cheaper to eat fast food, then cheaper to get convenience foods for home, and on down the line.

Maybe if you hate cooking so much, you could look at just one step or two down the continuim.