Did you know the way you are cooking could be costing you more money than just the cost of ingredients? It’s true! With a few simple changes in the way you cook, you can save hundreds of dollars! These tips are so simple, and it all started when I sat down and was going over everything in our house to find ways to save money. We started with the kitchen because it seems to be the most used! See how cook to save money.

Change How You Cook to Save Money

First, you need to get into the mindset of planning meals what you have in the house. Use up what you have. You have heard of stocking up when items are on sale, and you can do that and then make menus based on what you have. Doing this will save you money. To expand on this, one a month we try to do a week of a pantry challenge. If not once a month then every six months for an entire month.

What is a Pantry Challenge? It's basically a freezing spend on groceries. We don't buy groceries expect milk, bread, eggs, and some produce. We make ALL our meals based on what we have on hand. This has forced us to get creative and has produced some of our favorite meals that are SUPER budget friendly! You can read more on my Pantry Challenges here.

Leftovers. Another great tip is to purposely cook for leftovers. Leftovers are much cheaper for lunches. They also make great easy lunches to grab and take to work. It's very easy to cook two boxes of pasta instead of 1, and it only costs $1 more.

Freezer Cooking. Set 1 day a month or every few months a do a day of freezer cooking. Take chicken and put it in a Ziploc bag with a marinade and a few things to just dump in a crockpot. Pre-make your taco meat and some shredded chicken that make it easy to do chicken tacos or add BBQ sauce for BBQ Sandwiches. This will save you for more buzzy days, pull the chicken out in the morning and grill it that night, or dump a bag into the crock pot and dinner is ready when you get home.

Related: 5 Painless Ways to Save Money & Save $25 TODAY!

Rice and Beans. Stretch your meals with beans and rice or have a meal of beans and rice. Adding beans to taco meat and sloppy joes allows you to use half the meat to feed the same amount of people. This make your pocketbook happy! Rice is another great way to stretch meals. Use it as a side, and it will fill your family up faster than more expensive foods.

Cooking Whole. Cooking things like a whole chicken, or whole turkey. I can pick up a whole chicken for around $5, and it will feed my family of 6, for three meals. We have roast chicken with cornbread and veggies and a salad the first night, shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches on night 2 and night three we do chicken, rice and beans for dinner. Three meals for $5 or $1.66 a meal!

Check out my top 10 favorite budget meal cookbooks to stretch your money even further.

What cooking techniques do you use to save money?