Creating a shopping list for freezer cooking seems daunting, and there are many things to consider. Some of the things I try to balance when making a shopping list are:
Creating a variety of food that you can actually store:
1) Find about 12 recipes (your mileage will vary depending on your family and freezer size, but leave room to add 2 recipes at the end to use up your extra ingredients). So for us, we select 12 recipes that we plan to double, and plan to have at least 2 more we make at the end.
2) Select recipes with a variety of meats. I'll usually select more chicken recipes than anything else, in order to use up a bag of thighs and a bag of breasts from Costco. However, I try to have a few beef recipes, a few pork, a couple of seafood, and a few vegetarian recipes. If you're not a vegetarian, I still recommend a few vegetarian recipes. That way, you can add in extra meat in those if you end up with some at the end.
3) Select a variety of final products. I want a few soups, a few curries, a few "slabs o' meat" (i.e. whole chicken breasts with a marinade), a few burgers, a few wraps for lunch, and maybe a few casseroles or lasagnas.
4) Consider what you have containers for. Some recipes go easily into Ziploc or freezer bags, but some require a container, such as lasagna, stuffed shells, layered casseroles. Those are your limiting recipes.
Being Economical
In terms of being economical, there are sort of two approaches: making smart purchasing decisions, and wasting less food.
Saving Money at the Purchasing Stage:
1) At the list stage, if you notice an unusual ingredient in a small amount in some recipe, see if you can find another recipe that uses that same ingredient. We did this with sun-dried tomatoes once. While this may classify as wasting less food, it is a decision to make up front.
2) Select recipes with ingredients that are on sale or seasonal.
3) Explore different groceries in your area, including "ethnic" markets. We have an Asian market near us with incredible deals on produce (e.g., instead of paying $3 for a bit of mint, you pay $1 for a huge handful of mint). Consider it an adventure for a day, and check out some places in your area that you might not have!
4) Buy in bulk. Not only are foods often cheaper in bulk, but you can buy EXACTLY how much you need.
Wasting Less Food:
1) Make a big stone soup at the end. Throw everything in. Be creative. All you really need is a grain/bean, a meat, some veggies, broth, and tomato something (sauce, paste, diced). You always have some spices around, so add those in, too.
2) Along the same lines, use up leftover ingredients in wraps, calzones, pitas, etc. Another interesting solution is to use http://www.supercook.com/ to use up your ingredients. You select a few ingredients, and Supercook will pull up recipes you can make. It will make some assumptions about staples you might have in your kitchen. Alternatively, be prepared to go back to the store at the end to buy one or two more ingredients to make a final recipe with your leftovers.
3) Learn how to store leftover ingredients. The most brilliant example of this is something I saw on Pinterest. You know how recipes always call for ONE chipotle pepper? Well, the rest of the can always goes bad. However, you can puree the can of peppers in a blender, portion it into ice cube trays, and VOILA, you now have individual chipotle pepper servings for the next recipe. No waste!
(http://ourbestbites.com/2011/04/how-to-work-with-canned-chipotle-peppers-in-adobo-sauce/) Here is another tip for tomato paste: http://www.marthastewart.com/273278/tomato-paste-saver
