Well.... for intended and unintended reasons, my pantry got a decent clean out this month! I guess that's what happens when you make a tuition payment, buy new tires, get a heating oil delivery, and celebrate Christmas, all within a 4 week period of time! YIKES! But we made it to a new pay month without starving!
The pantry/dry goods took a hit, but fortunately I got a few practical Christmas gifts (organic BPA-free canned tomatoes and organic soup anyone??) and had hit a few good sales in November/early December that helped us make it through. Plus being soup/stew weather helped (gotta love bean soup and lentil soup to help stttrrreeettcchhh the budget!). Many of our meals were VERY modest (baked potatoes with cheese, egg sandwiches, the aforementioned bean soup), but that certainly wasn't a problem. But the fresh stuff that I have NOT been able to buy has been VERY missed.... can't wait to hit the produce department today!! MMMM.... apples, bananas, grapefruit, spinach.
What's left? Well, with just a quick look I'll say (in the pantry... btw, I store most of my dry goods in large glass jars like the size of a large jar of mayo).... 5 boxes of whole wheat pasta (we don't eat it often), half large jar of brown rice, half jar of steel cut oats, 8 cans of various tomato products, 2 can of organic corn, 1 can of chipotle peppers, full jar of quinoa (plus a back-up bag), full jar of millet, half jar of pearl barley, half jar of yellow lentils, 1 box of taco shells, three containers of various organic soups, half a large canister of old-fashioned oats, half a container of raisins, half a container of dried apricots, a can of cranberry sauce (??... where did that come from??) and various cooking/baking supplies (whole wheat flour, a bit of sugar, bread crumbs, etc).
In the freezer I am down to one package of uncooked ground beef, one oven roast (I usually slice it up for things like stir-fry), two 3 lb. pork loins, one large container of homemade broccoli cheddar soup (will probably pull that out for a dinner over the weekend), a few containers of homemade rhubarb sauce (to add to things like muffins and greek yogurt), one pan of homemade layered ratatouille I made in the fall (will pull that out for another meal this weekend), about 3 5-cup containers of homemade vegetable stock, 2 5-cup containers of homemade chicken stock, 1 large jar of beef bone broth, 2 single-serve containers of homemade chicken soup, 1 single-serve container of homemade lentil soup, 3 large jars of homemade spaghetti sauce, a few various assorted bags of frozen fruits (store bought) and veggies (homegrown), one frozen pizza, two half-loaves of bread (one white, one wheat.... DS is the only one that eats it so I keep it frozen and only take out what he needs) one package of Boca burgers and a few "bits and pieces" of things that I've frozen along the way (2 Tb. of tomato paste, half package of cream cheese, bread crumbs and cracker crumbs to save for meatloaf).
Wowza.... in looking at that list it doesn't seem so pathetic! I suppose most folks who are living lean would consider that a pretty good food supply. Perhaps now that I"ve seen that I will challenge myself a bit more and only buy produce and dairy today. I think I'm feeling like I've been doing without because I'm used to eating 3-4 pieces of fruit daily PLUS fresh veggies with almost every meal and we haven't been able to do that. In fact, I've been rationing out the last of the apples and carrots just so that I would make it to February with at least an apple a day for my lunches.
I also need to consider using up some more of my freezer supplies so that I can get the downstairs freezer defrosted and cleaned before next summer when the fresh garden produce starts coming in again!
Time to take this list and make a PLAN to use up a bit more and THEN make my shopping list! TTY soon...............P