Pantry Challenge Goals

Back in early September, I cleaned out the pantry. I mean REALLY cleaned out the pantry. As in found stuff from early this decade. Scary stuff. It looked great when I was done. You can see it here. Then, we put the house on the market. And, everything that was in my big stash in the garage had to come into the house. It looked better in the garage that way. So, more stuff into the pantry. Then, I got some good deals with the coupons. More stuff into the pantry. Let’s just say the pantry no longer looks as good as it did.

Then, there are the freezers. They really aren’t that bad. However, there is stuff in there. Both the inside and the outside are about 3/4 full. And, I had said months ago that I wanted to get down to just buying what we were going to eat that week/month. Wouldn’t it be easier to move without having to move an entire pantry of food? I think so. However, I’ve never done it.

So, when I cam across the Eat from the Pantry Challenge hosted by Moneysavingmom.com and Lifeasamom.com, I was in. It will be great to have some accountability and to see what others are doing in order to clean out their pantries and freezers.  You can follow the tweet thread for the challenge by using #pantry. There are already over 100 ladies signed up! I’m so excited – three of my favorite things – cooking, blogging, and meeting new people. Wahoo!!!!

Every person’s goals are different, just like each one of is coming from different circumstances. One lady has like a third of a pig in her freezer – she’s not gonna need any meat. However, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna need some meat near the end of the month – either that or have a serious revolt by my husband. And, I’ve got to feed the Princess of Picky, the Mags. She looked at the list of what was in the freezer and said, “Mom, there’s nothing there that I’ll eat.” So true, so true. She may be living on mac & cheese!

Here are my goals for the challenge:

1. Only buy produce, milk, eggs, and Princess Picky’s specifics for the first two weeks of January. By week three, I’m gonna need to add meat and maybe pasta.

2. Meal plan each week of January using what’s already in my pantry, realizing I may need to add meat by the end of the month.

3. Buy things not on the meal plan ONLY if they are an amazing deal – like less than $1 with coupons.

4. Stick to fast food budget (we have one – I can never stick to it – I’m a sucker for the drive-thru).

5. Take breakfast and lunch items to work more consistently to help with #4. Sweet hubby already does this. I heart him for that.

I’m really looking forward to the challenge, and think it will save us a TON of our grocery budget this January. I’m not going to try to put a dollar amount – I have no idea. If it’s less than December, (well, it couldn’t be any more than December – ya, we had a lot of folks over to eat) then I’m very excited. If it makes me more disciplined – especially in the breakfast and lunch category – I’d be THRILLED!

So, you wanna play?

Let’s do it together!

We can swap recipes and stories!