5 Meal Planning and Shopping Tips To Make The Holidays Easier

It is hard to believe but Holiday Season is here! We are here to help you not only save money this holiday season but also to save you time and take the stress out of the holidays by planning ahead! Soon our calendar will be full of holiday engagements, parties and school functions. Now is the time to start planning and prepping so that you can enjoy this season.

5 Meal Planning and Shopping Tips To Make The Holidays Easier:

1. Consider Freezer Cooking. Spend 1-2 days bulk cooking for your family during the busy holiday season. By preparing recipes that you can freeze, thaw and cook throughout the holiday's you will remove stress and help save your budget.  We have a 20 Freezer Meals in 4 hours plan and a 8 Freezer Meals in 2 hours plan that can help you get started.

2.  Utilize the Crockpot:  We like to use a slow cooker to prepare our meals during the holiday season because it allows us more time to spend with our kids, get our errands run and be on the go and still provide a hot dinner at the end of the busy day.  Check out our crockpot recipes when creating your menu plan.

3.  Consider One Dish Meals:  Add one dish meals to your menu plan and you will not only save time in preparation but also during cleanup.  This is a great way to feed your family and save time too!  One of my favorites is this Complete Steak Dinner in the Crockpot and Easy Italian Chicken Dinner Meal.

4.  Create a Menu Plan:  You are able to have flexibility in your menu by flipping the days if necessary or if something unexpected comes up in the week. We find that we rarely go out to eat when we menu plan because we know what is for dinner and by menu planning we save money because we know what we need to stockpile.

5.  Stockpile For The Holidays:  Start shopping now!  In fact we start shopping for next year on December 26th.  It is never too early to start stockpiling for the holidays and it is a great way to save money from your gift giving budget. Be sure to use coupons when possible!

Feeding America Promotion:

On November 2, 2014 there will be coupons in newspapers for Crisco and Pillsbury products that help you share the goodness this season and make every meal matter. For every Crisco and Pillsbury coupon redeemed, The J.M Smucker Company will donate the equivalent of three meals to Feeding America.

In fact every $1 helps provide 10 meals secured by Feeding America on behalf of local member food banks (so $1 = 10 meals). The J.M Smucker Company has committed to provide up to six million meals ($600,000 donation) to Feeding America and will make a minimum donation of 4.5 million meals (a $450,000 donation).

Follow Stockpiling Moms's board Every Meal Matters - Menu Planning on Pinterest.We hope that you will join us in saving money this holiday season by redeeming the Crisco and Pillsbury coupons from the 11/2/14 coupon insert and when you do you will help the J.M. Smucker Company provide up to six million meals to Feeding America by using the coupons! By using the coupons and our strategies it will help you to have an expensive Christmas for cheap. We have created an Every Meal Matters - Menu Planning Pinterest Board to help you too! Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post on behalf of the J.M. Smucker Company however all opinions are 100% our own.