What's For Dinner? It's Something Like Ghoulash or Lasagna

 I'm going to write another post about saving money on food. It is the easiest category for me to control and so it is the place where I have spent the most time being creative. You might ask what the grocery budget has to do with Vacation Education? The answer is everything. First, there are so many things you can teach your children in the kitchen, and second, until someone is willing to pay me to take my kids to see cool stuff, I have to find a way to pay for it, and every penny I don't spend is a penny I can use toward something else I want.

In Your Money Or Your Life, Robin teaches that money is all about trading. If it takes you one hour of your life to earn a $20 bill to trade, then you use that $20 to buy an admission ticket, then you have actually traded one hour of your life for that ticket. I read that book when I was about 20 years old and I have been evaluating trade value ever since. Even this week as I process apples into applesauce and pie filling, I am considering the time and wondering what are these jars of deliciousness actually costing me?

In the end, I trade a lot of hours in the kitchen for experiences. Sometimes, though, like today, my meal plan buys me time to do things like write this blog post instead of cooking something new. If you are not familiar with my meal plan system, you can see it HERE.

Tuesday is Taco Night - which really means anything in that general theme. So, I made rice in the rice cooker, and a chili/cowboy beans concoction in the crockpot.

Thursday is Pasta Night - which means anything with a pasta base. So, I put a jar of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of my crock pot, then layered noodles (I sent a kid for macaroni to make ghoulash, but he brought me a box of tiny shells instead, so I went with it. We can work on pasta names and shapes later.) After the noodles, I dumped in the leftover chili dish, then mozzarella cheese, more noodles, more sauce, and topped with mozzarella.

I often put together a dinner like this while we are all in the kitchen at lunchtime. This frees up time in my afternoon and space in my brain because I know that dinner is already taken care of. As I was putting this together, the kids were at the bar making sandwiches. This is endless free entertainment.

13yo tells a joke. "Do you know why it's called Miracle Whip?"

5yo: "Why?"

13yo: "Because while Jesus was being whipped, God was performing a miracle."

5yo: "Come on, Man."

I hope these posts are interesting and helpful. Keep coming back for more tips from this mom of nine who has over twenty years experience making a home, saving money, learning new things everywhere we go, and having fun inside and outside the house. Join me on this adventure in Vacation Education.

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