Cook up to save $$$

We've had to tighten our belts a bit around here, and one of the easiest ways for us to cut back on expenses is to not eat out to so much. I work in a place where there is only one cafe and they charge you $9 for pumpkin soup and a tiny piece of bread, so I always take lunch to work, usually leftovers (rarely sandwiches. 13 years of taking sandwiches to school kind of broke me). But Gib has now realised after several years of me persisting that buying lunch is expensive and he should take his own. So we did a big cook up of three dishes:

• Brunswick stew (I note that Curly Pops has her own, vintage Weight Watchers recipe for Brunswick stew! Hehehe)
• Jungle curry (I used a commercial curry base)
• Pasta bake (except ours was a vegetarian version).
  

The thing I love about doing batch cook ups is that it actually takes less time overall: I can chop up all the onions for all three dishes at the same time, all the carrots, all broccoli... etc, and put them into their respective pots at about the same time, and there are fewer chopping boards to wash.


Total cost per serve - and they are big serves for my hard working man - was $2.42 each!