Organizing a meal making co-op will save you loads of money every month. There are several different “types” of co-ops that can be organized, however I have already share one earlier. I will now explain how to create a meal making co-op with neighbors, friends or family.
Meal Co-Op
A meal co-op has several ways it can work.
The best way I have found is for each family to create a list of their families favorite meals. Provide this list to each member of the co-op. A vote is taken on each meal, from each list as to whether all present would enjoy it.
At the end of the voting process EACH family should have at least five meals that they can prepare that are different than other families.
For one week, each family will prepare that dinner for their OWN family and in addition make enough extras to freeze for each participating family (might be smart to make an extra set of each for your OWN family for later, as well!).
It is best to keep your co-op small. Two to three families participating is perfect. It is also imperative that you own a freezer to keep these meals for each family.
At the end of the week, you will get together and each family should receive five meals from each participating family.
For instance, Peggy, Samantha and Jolene all start a co-op.
Peggy chooses five meals to create.
Starting on Monday night, she creates a Chicken Spaghetti Casserole for her own family, and in addition one for both Samantha and Jolene’s family. She then freezes Jolene and Samantha’s, after first carefully marking what the meal is on the container it is placed in, and quick, and easy, directions for the meal.
Meanwhile, Monday night at Jolene and Samantha’s houses, they should be doing the same. Each girl is preparing a meal for their family, and one for each other family. This continues through out the entire week, with a different meal chosen each night.
Saturday afternoon, or Sunday afternoon, Jolene, Samantha and Peggy, get together to exchange the frozen meals they have prepared for each other. Peggy will give five meals to Jolene and five meals to Samantha. Each lady will leave with ten meals.
And if each lady was smart, they prepared an extra meal each night for their OWN family and stored it already in their freezer. So this would require the families to meet again at the end of three weeks, to repeat the process.
It is actually a lot of fun, and we’ve done it at holiday time for cookies, and other goodies.
I hope this helps you save a little money, and time.
See my article, Save Money By Starting a Meal Making Co-Op for more ways to save time and money!
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