Category Archives: Pantry Challenge

Pantry Challenge vs No Spending

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This is a subject that I have been thinking and working out in my head for the last 24 hours or so.  These are my thoughts and how I worked it all out.

A pantry challenge is a way to reduce your grocery spending, use up items that you have had for any length of time in your freezer and pantry.   Another purpose or rationale would be to determine how much food do I really need to store?  My one solid rule for this year’s pantry challenge was to only buy what we were completely out of.  My thought was also that if I don’t go to the store, I am less likely to spend money as well.   I don’t mind stopping at the grocery store on the way home from work to grab an item but usually what happens is I look at meat for markdowns and also take a look at the clearance section.   Knowing in my head that I don’t/should not be doing that is actually very freeing and has given me a chance to avoid extra spending on groceries.  Another benefit for me is being able to say to my family “We are doing a pantry challenge this month so if we don’t have it then we can’t make it.”   Because of this I am currently keeping a list of meals that we enjoyed and have enough supplies for in February.  I will again do the same for March. My goal is that we really eat out of the pantry and freezer until after our Disney trip. Which leads me to a random question and struggle.  How much do I restock?  For example, I used the last of the pork and beans in a recipe on Saturday. Since I am completely out, I could restock but do I buy 2 cans (what I used) or 6 cans which is what I would typically grab because that fills my can shelf.   Currently my decision is to wait, we use those beans once a month maybe so they are something that I can wait to restock.   This may be my overall decision about most foods except Diet Coke, and creamer. It also does depend on what we end up eating as well.  I chose to continue my subscribe and save items at Amazon.  I am very consistent in checking prices to make sure that they are still at a good deal.   I also make sure we don’t have an abundance of the item. This month’s subscription is mainly lunch foods.  We all take lunches at least 4 days a week.  I will count this toward our grocery spending.   I will admit that I have also been trying to limit the number of items we are ordering from Amazon as well. This month so far we have paid for toothpaste. The other items have been free with points and/or gift cards earned.   I should be able to reduce the amount of Amazon spending for both February and March as my plan is to get our small tax refund on an Amazon gift card to help reduce cost.   A pantry challenge in my mind does not affect our other spending such as going out to eat or purchasing non-food items.

A no-spend challenge means that you do not spend any money except on bills and gas for the month. This would include eating out, purchasing snacks at ballgames or other events and also any other purchase.  This would be extremely difficult for us or even just me to do during this session of our lives. Since May of 2022, we have had at least one kid involved in an extracurricular activity. This means paying for admission for an event and usually these events happen around the dinner hour.  Including our drive time, it is just impossible to eat at home some days.  We also enjoy eating out with friends after church on most Sundays. I have in fact incorporated this into our budget.  I have in the past tried a no spend month except for budgeted items but this is my goal for every month so that does not work either.

So now that I have gotten all my thoughts out on paper, Why does it matter?  Currently we are in a pantry challenge and our washer completely died yesterday. Matt and I talked about it and decided to go ahead and order a new washer.  So, my debate was doing this just ruin our pantry challenge?  The answer is no and I don’t have an excuse to buy additional groceries or other items.

 

Monday Menu Planning

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Week 3 of the Pantry Challenge and I have two exciting things to share. First my children have decided to stalk my blog to figure out what we are eating!  Second we don’t have any night events this week!  And finally, we have managed a three day weekend with only our scheduled meal out!  We will be using up left-over sides for most meals this week.

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon, sausage, eggs and toast, Sunday-left-overs Monday- pancakes and sausage, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes. Thursday- homemade bagels or baked oatmeal.

Lunch- Saturday-Everything pigs in blanket and cucumbers Sunday-Panda Panda, Monday- Quesadilla and Mexican street corn, Tuesday Beef liver and onions, Wednesday- sandwich or roll up, Thursday- taco soup Friday- out to eat

Dinner- Saturday-Beef ribs, baked beans, 7-layer salad green beans and corn bread.  Sunday- Potato Sausage Soup from Freezer, Monday-Broiled Fish, and green beans Tuesday- Shake and Bake Pork Chops   Wednesday- Hamburger Helper, Thursday- Kielbasa and Rice Friday-Grilled chicken and pasta salad.

 

Weekend Wrap Up

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This was a rare weekend at our house for a couple of reasons. First it is a long weekend, with Monday being MLK day!  Second other than Kendall’s swim meet on Friday night we do not have any major plans or projects that need to be completed. My goal for Saturday was not to go outside of the house!

I did manage to meet my goal for Saturday. I spent part of the day, organizing and inputting the information into a tax program.  This also allows me to organize and declutter my office. As part of my office declutter, we went through all of the extra cords and things in on a shelf and placed everything in bags that are labeled.

We are currently in a pantry challenge, so meals were important.  We had beef ribs for dinner and then make 10 pints, 2 quarts and 2 half pints of beef broth, which I canned and put in the cabinet.   This also means that I have used up all of my empty canning jar except for the 1/4 pints that I will fill on Monday with jelly! I also spent some time to inventory my freezers.  I am finding food that I thought was long gone such as fish that Zach and Matt caught two years ago and packet of grilled chicken.  I honestly and beginning to think that we can do a three-month pantry challenge buying only what we are out of and not have to purchase any meat during the entire three months.  Yes I understand that it will likely cost more to refill my freezers and pantry in the future but at this point it makes the most sense to try and use up what we have because who knows what the future holds?  I also strongly feel that we will be more financially comfortable in the future when these purchases have to be made!

Small but important chores that we have completed included cleaning the dryer vent, chicken coop duties, and cleaning cars.  I also wanted to get to more organization in the pantries including the shower room, but I also spent time just watching Youtube and tv!

 

5 Things Friday- Pantry Challenge Update

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  1.  One of the things that I had given myself prior to the pantry challenge was that if 2L Diet Cokes went on sale for under $1 I would plan to stock up.  If you have been around here for any length of time you know this is my drink of choice. Late Friday night I received a text from my Mom that Food Lion was having a one-day sale on coke products.  After a swim meet, we (Matt, Lily, Zach and I) went into Food Lion and each purchased the limit of 10. Matt actually purchased Dr. Pepper, so I have “only” 30 Diet Cokes.  This puts our grocery total up to $50.46.
  2. One of the reasons, I have heard several people use for participating in the Pantry Challenge is to discover where you have holes in your pantry.  The very first hole was toothpaste.  That is now on my Amazon subscribe and save list. Yes, I am paying for toothpaste for the first time in almost 10 years but hopefully we will not run out again. The awesome thing about subscribe and save is once I get stocked up I can cancel and restart if needed or simply skip for 6 months. The second items that we discovered needed to be on subscribe and save was liquid soap. The good news is that we had enough credits on Amazon that this was a no cost item!
  3. A pleasant and fugal surprise this week was discovering 9 eggs in our chicken coop. We decided to enjoy these on the day they were discovered. This meant we switched up our menu plan for the week and had breakfast for dinner!
  4. My master list of repeat dinners has grown to nine!  The goal is that after we have eaten a meal if everyone enjoys, we can add it to our master list, and these can become items/meals we repeat at least once per month.
  5. I went grocery shopping in the freezers today. We are doing excellent with eating and re-arranging. Zach is a little concerned, but I think we are doing well!  Second biggest accomplishment of the day/. No Amazon deliveries scheduled until the 28th!

Pantry Challenge – The Details and Week 1

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I first mention this challenge (#3RiversPantryChallenge). My goal is to share at least once a week about this challenge in order to help keep me accountable.

I stated that my only rule was that I would not buy anything until I was actually out of the item.   Unfortunately, I have already had to order/ buy toothpaste. I was going to try and use the ‘travel size ” tube I found but Lily came in and told me that she was out of toothpaste as well. So, $10.38 was spent on toothpaste for the next couple of months. I also added this to my subscribe and save list!

I have now re-done my budget and if I can survive and complete the challenge, I could possibly add around $1800 for the months of January and February!  This is a huge motivation for me. Along with the pantry challenge, I am also going to try and limit my spending for the month, especially from Amazon.  It has become so easy to just order from Amazon if we think about it.  So far, we are doing great with this part of the challenge, no Amazon deliveries in three days. Kendall ordered and received a new bible but that does not belong to me.  The one exception is that I am going to continue with my subscribe and save planned for the month. Most of these items are for lunches. Currently all five of us, take our lunch at least 4 days a week. If the kids had to switch to purchasing lunch that would be $30 a week. By keeping my Amazon subscription coming in I am actually probably saving money.

One thing that I feel like I need to share upfront is that I always take my mother grocery shopping because she reliant on a walker.  She also eats with us around 4 times a week.  She enjoys and insist that she treats my kids with certain items when I take her shopping. This week she purchased pickles, apples, raspberries, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies and strawberries. This makes the kids and my mom very happy so it will continue.  I honest think that it balances out because we share meals and meat with her on a regular basis.

One really positive that I have started this week is that I am making a list of dinners that we are currently enjoying in January that we can easily repeat in February. My goal is to make my life easier this way.

One other addendum is that Amanda brought over a case of chicken nuggets this week that she was given at work. She knows I never turn down free food so hey that should help with the pantry challenge as well.

 

Monday Menu Planning

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I know that in order for me to stay on top of the pantry challenge I have got to plan for all meals.  This week is fairly easy as we have a swim meet on Saturday so we can eat both before and after. I also wanted to make sure that I am using some of the “non-preferred” items up front.  In order to make lunches easier for me I have decided to try the following Leftover meal. salad meal, soup and either a sandwich or roll up.  This should keep me on track as long as I get lunch made the night before!

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon, sausage and pancakes   Sunday-toast.  Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes. Thursday- homemade bagels or baked oatmeal.

Lunch- Saturday-Nachos   Sunday-La Caretta, Monday- left-overs, Tuesday salad, Wednesday- sandwich or roll up, Thursday- taco soup Friday- out to eat

Dinner- Saturday-Snack feast for New Year Eve,  Sunday- Baked Ziti, Monday- Bacon/cheddar burgers and fries Tuesday- Chicken enchiladas- with a second pan to freeze for later, Wednesday- spaghetti and garlic bread   Thursday- Pork Fried Rice   Friday-Leftovers or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Everything has already been pulled from the freezer so it should be pretty simple and straight forward!

2022 in Review

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2022 was an interesting year. Matt started the year unemployed, and I ended the year with only one job. We have adjusted and continue to achieve the balance of enjoying life and making memories with debt management and saving. This year has been the most balanced so far. We can definitely do better but I am hoping for another nice balanced year.

Groceries– budget amount is $700 I was able to meet this goal 5/12 months. Inflation is hard and especially felt at the grocery store. We are currently averaging $975 a month. This is the largest amount ever, including the years I had 2 in diapers.  I am going to make a couple of changes for 2023. First, I am going to increase the grocery budget to $975. With 3 teenagers in the house, I need to be realistic about this goal. However, I am going to attempt to participate in the pantry challenge for the month of January and February.  I will only be purchasing items we are completely out of during these months.  I am going to estimate $100 for each month. But depending on Diet Coke sales this may vary.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. Again inflation and we did use the camper for 5 long trips this year including two trips to Florida.  The average was $619.85 a month. This is another category that I need to increase. I am setting the amount at $600 a month with a strong hope that gas stays at less than $3.  a gallon. I will re-adjust this in June if needed.

Cash Envelope system- Goal Met!  This is currently a way of life so I am actually not going to include it next year.

Blogging- 15 post per month.  I have consistently blogged 11 or more times a month 11 out of 12 months. I also exceed my goal in August with 17.  I am going to leave this goal for consistency.

Exercise days-   This continues to be a struggle but not really a strong priority.

No Spend Days-No idea! I am wondering if I should eliminate this as long as we are using cash?

2023 will bring change for sure but I am hopefully that we adjust to the change without a roller coaster ride!

#ThreeRivers Pantry Challenge

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I actually started watching YouTube regularly last February with “Three Rivers Pantry Challenge” begin one of the ways that I was able to find several of the channels that I now follow regularly!

Groceries remain one of our biggest expenses overall. In fact, this month in December I have spent $1085 in groceries. This did include feeding extra people around the holiday but man alive that is a lot. Our average grocery spending for 2022 was $975 a month. This is at least $100 more per month than other year.  After a bit of research, I have attempted pantry challenges several times in the past with limited to no success.  This is the year that I hope to change that. There are a couple of other things that should improve my overall success as well.
First is my electric pressure canner.  I am absolutely loving this appliance.  I have been able to do a couple of batches at a time and the goal is to use all the jars I have purchased. I am going to add and hopefully complete this goal this weekend after canning pinto beans and taco meat.  Yesterday I was able to can up some ham soup that will make for an easy lunch for me if needed.
Another reason is that we have about half the cow we purchased in the freezer still and the garden this year was very plentiful.  One of the goals I have made for myself is to fill the freezer this summer with “prepared meals” including casseroles and slow cooker options that for next school year, all I need to do is simply decided what we are eating for the week and pull it out.  In order to make this happen, I need an almost empty freezer to start with Currently all three of our dedicated freezers are about 3/4 of the way full.

Now to the specifics! I am giving myself only one rule to follow during the pantry challenge and that is that I can only buy things we are completely out of.  For example, we were completely out of cream yesterday so $22 later we should have cream for at least part of the month of January.   In my head, my plan is to stick to the pantry challenge for both the months of January and February.   We receive our “Costco check” in March which would make restocking fairly easy.

I have even made a new category, for this challenge!  I am very hopeful that is the “reset” we need around here in regards to food management.  I am also wondering if this becomes a yearly challenge in order for us to use the items we have! Today, I am getting a jump start on the challenge by assembling breakfast burritos which have become one of my favorite go to meals!