Cutting Food Costs - 3 Ways to Save on Dinner

As I may have mentioned once or twice (couple of dozen) times before, I love the Grocery Game. It has made my life so much easier in the grocery shopping department. But that is only half of the equation. It doesn't matter if your freezer is filled to the top and your pantry is stocked if you don't eat at home. If you're on your way home from work, or the soccer game, or scouts, etc. it's really easy to decide you're too tired to cook and head for the nearest restaurant or fast food drive thru.

Here are a few simple ways to keep feeding your family nutritious meals on those days when you're too tired, mentally exhausted, or just plain not in the mood to cook.

1) Instead of going for fast food, spend less money and get a nutritious meal in no time by stopping by the nearest grocery store for a rotisserie chicken, bag of salad, and loaf of italian bread. This costs less than 1/2 of a delivered pizza, and roughly 2/3 the cost of a meal for one person at a sit down restaurant.

2) Cook Twice, Eat Once. On the days you have time, cook double portions of dinners. Immediately separate half to be frozen and microwaved at a later time. This way, you'll always have a homemade meal waiting for you, even when you're short on time and not up to cooking.

3) Leftover Night! I love it because we never fail to have enough leftovers for one or two servings of things but not enough to contribute to an entire meal. Leftover night allows everyone to have different foods and keeps us from wasting money on throwing things out that have gone bad waiting for someone to finish them off.

What are your best tips for dinners on the nights you're just not feeling it? I'm taking notes!