Cooking in hard economic times

While on vacation I decided it was time to do some serious cooking.

In an attempted to get a jump on the coming school year, I spent all day Monday cooking casseroles. I was pretty productive making four chicken divan casseroles, four chicken tetrazzini casseroles, five containers of beef stroganoff and almost six gallons - yes, gallons - of albondigas (meatball soup). I figured I have about 20 meals for four ready to go. On top of that I decided I needed to figure out how much money each meal is costing and then further broke that down into a cost per meal, per person. I estimated each meal costs $1.40 per person. Not bad. Knowing this also helps keep a leash on that desire to eat out when we're all feeling a bit lazy at the end of a long school and work day.

With everything, and I mean everything, costing so much, my goal is not only to save time but money. Now I need to find other recipes (we're eating an awful lot of chicken) and continue the process of cooking to save. Share anything good with me please!

Some casserole cooking tips I've learned over time:
Dishes with mayo and/or sour cream work well if given time to defrost slowly
Make extra "sauce" for any dish that calls for it (like the Tetrazzini). When the casserole is cooked it won't end up too dry.
Skinless, boneless thighs are less expensive and have more flavor and work great in casseroles.
Freeze in aluminum pans so you can put your casserole right into the over. It makes the clean up that much easier.

I'm certain all of these "tips" can be found on Foodnetwork, but here they are just in case.