Why making the time to cook saves TIME and MONEY

We've all said it: "I don't have time to cook." With the "un"routine of summer I have been slacking in the meal planning and cooking department and I miss it. So for those who don't have the time think about this: How long does it take to go to a restaurant and eat a meal? How much does it cost? How many of us have run out for a bag of milk, come back an hour later with $40 worth of stuff we never intended on buying....and forgot the milk?

Today I wanted to take care of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the next couple of days so I didn't need to worry about it. At 5pm it is chaos at my house so no, I don't have time to cook then...so I started at 845am. In about an hour and a half (which included two fights over the toy cars, juice refills, phone calls and channel changes) I had a roast in the slow cooker, potatoes washed and wrapped in foil, banana loaves baked, egg salad sandwiches and tuna pasta salad made. This, combined with the fruit, yogurt, crackers, tomato cucumber salad and leftovers from last night, means I don't even think about feeding anyone til sometime Friday! So at 4:00 this afternoon I took the kids to the splash pad. And know what? We were the only ones there...guess everyone else was trying to figure out dinner!