There have been a lot of good ideas out there on these subjects and I thought it would be nice to have a thread to bring them all together. As today is my big prep day I thought I'd give a few of mine . I've posted some of these before but I figured it might help some one out.

I very rarely eat out because:
1)too expensive
2)small town very few options for a vegan
3)BF in wheel chair and too much snow

I work full time and BF can't help out so I am always looking for short cuts, this gives me more time to look at vegweb :) So here are my best ideas. I hope it helps.

My first big help time saver is a shopping/prepping day. If you need something 4 times a week do it once. I try to make sure I have a complete list so I only have to shop once a week. This saves time and money, the less often you are at a store the less options you have to grab stuff you really don't need.
When I get home I immediately wash all my fresh veg. Any thing I can chop that will keep for a few days I go ahead and chop. things like cucumber and tomatoes you can only chop a day or two ahead but zucchini and other harder veg will keep chopped 4/5 days in the fridge.
On this day I also make up my salads for the week. I eat salad at every meal so I make up some big salads for meals at home w/ BF and some smaller ones to throw in my bag for lunch at work. I love to put grapes in my salads they are sweeter and cheaper then out of season tomatoes and they don't go slimy like a pre chopped tomato. If you put a dry paper towel in the container it helps keep the humidity right and the salad stays fresh longer.
I use onions and garlic in most meals so I chop this on Sundays and use it throughout the week. I take 5 med onions peeled and quartered and 2 or 3 heads of garlic peeled. I throw all of this in the food processor and pulse until I get the chop I want and then throw it in a glass jar in the fridge. This is much easier than chopping onion and garlic each night. You just scoop out the amount needed. The glass jar is important though plastic leaks smells and everything in you fridge will have a faint onion taste. (not so good in soymilk)

Another big time and money saver is making you own convenience mixes. pancakes, cornbread, ricepilafs,soup mixes, etc. these are all so easy to grab in the store but most are at a cost premium and have all sorts of questionable chemicals. So make you own. It's also nice because you can control the size to suit your family size. I like to use glass jars,especially for pancakes because you can add your liquids and then just shake and pour. it doesn't get any easier than that. When you are making something just set out your jars or baggies etc. and measure out the dry ingredients into  each container and then close up and label w/ any wet ingredients that will need to be added. Then stick it on the shelf and you have it the next time you want a quick cornbread. My BF has fallen in love w/ the coconut pancakes from VwaV and now I mix up 4or 5 patches at a time and they ready for me on sat mornings and it's not so tedious. You can do this w/ just about any recipe but if you want some ideas there is a book series out there called gifts from a jar all of the recipes can be veganized easily and there ideas from muffins to full meals. If you have a larger family to serve (7) they also make 2quart jars.

Freezing is another time/money saver. I don't have a freezer that freezes right now but when I did I used this quite a bit. You can cook up big batches of soups etc and then freeze them in the appropriate size container. This works well for beans and some casseroles as well. Just make sure you label things well.

I'm sure that I have more ideas but these are the ones that I can think of now.

Oh and I forgot the meal planner and grocerlist on this sight are great tools too. If you have a plan for what you are going to make for the week its easier to do big prep days. I usually plan out 5 days and this gives my some leeway for spur of the moment ideas or cravings.