12/31/2009

Eat From the Pantry Challenge - Count Me In!


So I've been debating for several days now if I wanted to participate in Life as Mom and Money Saving Mom's Eat From the Pantry Challenge. Then I began looking around my house. I have a deep freezer that's stocked full. A regular freezer that's stocked full. And my pantry shelves are full to the brim with food. So why am I still nervous about doing this challenge? :)

I guess it's such a habit to just go to the store each week and load up on the groceries and savings that breaking away from that habit is...well, a little scary. But I have shelves full of recipe books, other great blogger's recipes to use and online tools such as Super Cook to help me in coming up with recipes. I think it might be fun! And anything that forces me to be creative is thumbs up in my book.

Since I'm going to Blissdom in February, I'm hoping that the time I save on shopping will help me find the time to get in a freezer cooking session. I'd love to have some great meals ready for my hubby to feed to the kids for the few days that I am gone.

I haven't got all of my "rules" squared away yet but here's my initial plan:

1) Stop by the store for only "perishable" items such as dairy, eggs, produce and sandwich bread. More than likely, my hubby will just pick these up on his way home from work, saving us $$ on gas.

2) Try to use whatever is on hand to create great meals for my family.

3) Use up our FREE pizza coupons. I got several free coupons in some board games I bought at Target several months ago. We also have several "tabs" from prior pizza boxes at a local chain that will also get us a FREE pizza. So once a week, we'll have a pizza/movie night with the kids.

The one diversion I have is that my son has a birthday at the end of January so I'll have to get extra food for the party. The savings I acquire throughout the month should more than pay for his party!

I'll keep you posted on how well I'm doing with sticking to the plan. If you have an overflowing pantry, you may want to consider trying the challenge out for yourself.

Thanks to Life As Mom and Money Saving Mom for hosting such a fun challenge!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing this. I too, have a deep freezer, 2 refrigerator freezers, and a pantry full of food, but still find myself going for groceries. Hopefully this will keep me focused on using what I have on hand. Thanks for a wonderful blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it is time to take an inventory of what I have in "The Pantry". I don't actually have a pantry, shelves down stairs, extra fridge/freezer(or The Fridger as my 3 yr old calls it) and a deep freezer! All full to the brim! So here goes going to make a meal plan for the next two weeks and see how it goes. Two weeks seems less overwhelming than the whole month! I'll do it in 2 and 2, tee hee!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks so much for posting this! My husband actually found your site and I've hopped on board too. So I'm taking up the challenge along with so many others. :)
    Happy new year!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can honestly say I did this most of December. Between kids being sick & a blizzard, I did not go to the grocery over 2 weeks and only this past week did I go to pick up just fresh produce & dairy. When you "stockpile" it is amazing what you can create without ever leaving the house (and also how much you save!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. i'm in the same position - we have an absolutely crammed full refrigerator freezer, a very full upright freezer, a jam-packed pantry and also a stand-alone cupboard that is overflowing! all this despite my frequently donating lots of stuff and helping out several related families. so i'm definite in on the challenge. i've already made out my menu plan for the next two and a half weeks!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by Coupon Geek! I value my readers and their advice, tips and comments. Please remember that Coupon Geek is a positive, family-friendly and upbeat site when leaving your comments.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you again soon!

Blessings to You All!
~Jaycie

 

Blog Design By Sour Apple Studio © All Rights Reserved.