First, find a friend to do it with. Look for someone who you can endure stressful situations with, you have about the same family sizes, and you sorta have the same tastes in food. (We learned from experience that it is way way cheaper and easier to do the same recipes!!!)
Third, make sure you have freezer space! Yes it is such a great thing to have 30 meals all ready and done for a month, but if you do not have the adiquate space to put them, then, well maybe a 2 week cooking plan works better!
Fourth, find a bulk food store! We started at Costco, but now are almost 100% shopping at Cash and Carry, a bulk store where a lot of resturants and caterers get their foods. You will be buying a huge can of tomatoes for a lot less, where as Costco is many smaller cans at yes, cheaper than the grocery store, but still more expensive than the Cash and Carry.
Fifth, funding! This is a big one. Especially if you are set up to shop once a week. {My husband gets paid weekly so this was something that we have to work on...} The first months expenses will be tougher than say the next month because you will have saved for the following months... The first time we were able to do it was after taxes... When we quit for a while, it was hard to put aside that little bit each week while buying groceries... {I hope this makes sense}. But once you get going, you will save more and stress less!
Sixth, plan ahead! This is a huge one! Go through your freezer and your pantry, see what you have and what you don't. There is nothing like getting to cooking day to realize you don't have any chili powder or flour. I plan on one day, when I actually have a decent pantry, having an inventory list for the freezer, the pantry, the cupboards. So I know with a glance what I have and don't have! Take the time to go through cookbooks, make a calendar of meals and write out all the ingredients you will need! And yes you may need 30 onions! It does seem huge when you sit it all down, but you are cooking for a month, so it will be a big list!
OK, so now that you have done all that stuff, spend a few days looking at cookbooks, browsing blogs, search pinterest {I have a few pinned about freezer cooking}. Think about what your family likes to eat, how they eat, what the schedules allow for. Do you need meals that can be eaten quickly or do you have a little more time for dinner? Do you like elaborate step by step cooking or do you just want to throw everything in a crockpot and be done? If you enjoy cooking, don't worry! You can still do your monthly cooking, and enjoy making dinner every night! You will just do all the prep work ahead of time. If you don't like cooking, crockpot/casseroles can all be assembled ahead of time.
More in the next few days...
