I’m always trying to be more productive, efficient, and simplify my life. For some reason, I’ve had difficulty with meal preparation. I am usually very good with planning ahead and saving money, but for some reason this doesn’t translate to making meals in advance.
I’m good with a slow cooker and can set up something in the morning, which usually has a couple of days of left-overs. My wife loves her Instant Pot (see review), which is perfect for when I don’t plan 7-8 hours ahead.
We have a chest freezer full of uncooked food. I buy in bulk when the grocery store has deals on meat. It saves us money… if I actually plan ahead and defrost something… or have enough time to cook it.
Feed Your Freezer First
The other day, I had an epiphany. If I use my Foodsaver with this wide-mouth jar sealer attachment and these wide-mouth mason jars, I can freeze meals for later. It only takes a couple of minutes to defrost under some hot water and microwave it.
That’s not the real epiphany. The epiphany is that I can use the personal finance axiom of “Pay Yourself First” to ensure that I build up a “savings” of meals.
So the first meal of everything that I make in the slow cooker is going in the freezer as my food emergency fund. This can save us money because we won’t be tempted to go to the restaurant simply because “There’s nothing to eat.”
What do you think? Do you have a food emergency fund?