Cooking in Bulk--This Afternoons Project Chili and Gluten-free Goulash

Becca is gone to Minneapolis for the week and when I asked Detamara what she wanted to do...
Make Chili???

We headed off to Piggly Wiggly and Walmart and I turned the trip into a Hands-on Math lesson.
But most of all, I planned to cook big and save money by buying and cooking in bulk. Normally when we had 10 at home I cooked like this everyday for every meal, but I am returning to my roots to save money and now begin to cook ahead to save time.

We found that 112 ounces of Kidney Beans was $4.40 at Piggly Wiggly and 120 oz. of Tomato Sauce was $4.56. Compared with $.98 for Bushs Kidney Beans 16 oz. per can (7) (the $.78 off brand were made in a factory which processed Wheat) and $1.46 for (6) 20 oz of Tomato Sauce. Buy buying the huge can of kidney beans we saved $2.46 and $4.20 for buying in bulk.

We found the 10 lb tubes of 85% hamburger was $2.89 but the 90% lean was $2.79 in 3.5 lb packages and we bought 2 for the chilli and goulash which we browned with a fresh onions bought in a $1.99/3 lb bag. We saved $7.70 on the hamburger with it being on sale and got the 90% lean. We added in 4 cans of stewed tomatoes bought at Aldees for $.59= $2.19. Savings on the tomatoes over Walmart and Piggly Wiggly $1.60 for generic.

Total Savings today on our Chilli $15.96 by buying in bulk and sale
Total Cost of the Turkey Roaster filled with Chilli $16.86
6 Meals of Chilli for 4 @ $2.81 each. We will be freezing the other 5 for easy meals.

Gluten-free Goulash
1 3/4 lbs. of browned ground beef $3.75
2 packages Glutenfree Noodles @ $2.69 = $5.38
2 jars Ragu Spaghetti Sauce @ $.79 = $1.59 (last Walgreens unilever deal)
1 Green Pepper $.50 from farmers market
Total $11.22 for 4 Gluten-free Goulash meals for Becca and Myself for lunch ($1.87 each) Freezing our lunches in my FREE double coupon Ziploc Freezer Bags.
Savings on Goulash $7.53 + $.80 for freezer bags

Total savings today on 12 meals $24.63
Total cost $28.08 for 12 meals a 46% savings.

Plus factor in the time savings of not having to cook chilli 6 different times x 30 minutes
and 6 goulash casseroles x 20 minutes: Time Savings 4 hours minutes buy cooking in bulk.
It took Dee and I just under 40 minutes of cooking and 10 minutes to put in freezer containers and bags.