By Chuck Bentley

I recently read an article about a cooking co-op. Here is how it works, according to the author, Dee Sarton Bower:

Four families have gotten together to form a cooperative effort to cook for each other Monday through Thursday. They each have a designated day to prepare meals for the entire group.

Dee explains, “What makes our co-op work is that our families are about the same size and we have children with similar appetites. We also have similar lifestyles (busy!) and compatible tastes in food. Since we live on the same block, delivering meals is as easy as loading up the kids’ wagons.”

Dee says that her cooking co-op has helped her save between $200 and $250 a month. Here are some other benefits:

* She spends less time in the grocery store.

* Menus are set up weeks in advance.

* No more last minute expensive, unhealthy fast food meals.

* Your kitchen gets messy only once a week.

* Dinnertime stress is gone.

* Cooking is fun again because you make one special dinner a week instead of daily routine meals.

For those who think this is not possible, Dee says that two or three weeks into your cooking co-op and you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. Since it began, Dee says she has saved over $15,000 on her food expenses.

Want to learn more specifics? Check out Dee’s article at TheDollarStretcher.

Originally posted 5/26/2015.