Until recently, we were living on take-out. Then we decided to try to save money. So the last 3 Sundays we have been buying lots of produce, unprocessed. I couldn't believe I could get a huge head of escarole for only $1.70! That's a lot less than I was paying to buy my lettuce in a small bag for $3.99.
We spend a few hours shopping, washing, dicing and slicing up salad ingredients into individual bags. Nancy & Steve's salad bar has different kinds of lettuces, mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, red peppers, onions, red cabbage, green beans, cucumber and anything else that looks good. We also buy chicken and cut it up into bite-sized pieces and cook it. Then we eat at our very own salad bar all week long!
When I come home from work, I just open the bags and throw a little bit of everything into a big bowl, add a can of tuna, salmon or the cooked chicken, and my dinner is fast and still saves money. By doing all the work on Sunday, the rest of the week we are free from food preparation. Also, our food bills are going WAY down. My DH and I are SO thrilled with ourselves. We'll see how long it lasts.