Pre-holiday pantry challenge

[Kimkimba]

I have to go this week, but then I'm in at $50/week.

 

[kristinw3girls]

Count me in too! It is abserd to just keep buying these things and never seem to use them. I have 3 pantries full of things, not to mention my 2 freezers! Good Luck to all!!

 

[plummer925]

I'm in!

I am going to do it until the end of the year - the only excepetions will be that I'll buy a couple of turkeys at Thanksgiving (for the freezer for mid-winter) and a couple hams at Christmas (same idea).

We have laying hens that are older so we get 3-4 eggs/day (enough for the 2 of us though!).

We do not drink much dairy - we buy a 1/2 gallon and sometimes end up having to dump some because it goes bad. I just bought 2 gallons (fresh off a farm) that I'll skim the cream from - make butter with that - then freeze the milk in quart canning jars so not to waste it. This will probably last us until the end of the year.

We do not have a lot of canned veggies - have a bunch of canned fruit that we canned last year that we have to eat up, so we'll do that instead of much fresh fruit (an exception here would be apples since I'm in Maine and they are in season!! I'm going to buy some and make some applesauce).

I think we will be able to get away with $25 a week for groceries (plus the few exceptions listed above) PLUS another $30 (until the end of the year, not per week) for chicken food, which sort of goes in the grocery budget.

This will be interesting!!!!

Crystal

 

[Kitikat]

Oh i will be joining ya'll...We have 2 1/5 freezers busting. We could use the extra money since we have a trip to WDW in Dec, Thanksgiving & Christmas dinner at our house, plus a planned trip to go visit my mother in law 4hrs away. I know DH is going to love this. Plus with it geting colder it's stew & soup time. I will try to keep weekly trips to $50 for 6 of us.
thank you to the op. What a great idea..

 

[princessbride6205]

I'm in! We don't have a huge stockpile, but our freezer is always overflowing for sure. I need to rotate my pantry items so I even remember what I have!
My goal is to get through all of the frozen stuff.

 

[neatokimmo]

i'm in! We are moving and I am not going to haul food across town if I can hep it.

I have a big side by side in the kitchen, the freezer section is jam packed full. In the basement, I have another freezer half full. I also have a ton of cheese to use up.

My exceptions will be milk, fruit, bread (although I will try to make some bread items with flour/cornmeal to use it up) and eventually vegetables. The freezers are mostly stocked with meat and we do not eat a lot of canned veggies.

 

[Marymom]

I am soo in! I want to clear out my freezer and pantry before Thanksgiving. I will limit my grocery purchases to dairy, fresh food, bread and odds and ends. Now to get my family on board!

Mary

 

[TxRabbit]

I am IN!

Freezer too for me! DH is going hunting this weekend and I need to clear out the old to make way for the (hopefully) new! I also have hurricane supplies in the pantry that need to get cleared out before they expire. This is an excellent idea.

 

[PaulaSue]

Okay, bought milk and a pack of rolls (will not eat frozen rolls, they get funny IMO) while out to get our lunch (no left overs to pack ). $6.00 total

 

[wvjules]

I don't understand how this saves money. Instead of stocking up when things are on sale you use everything up then have to restock everything at once? How in the heck does that save anything?

 

[neatokimmo]

I don't understand how this saves money. Instead of stocking up when things are on sale you use everything up then have to restock everything at once? How in the heck does that save anything?

You save things from being freezer burned and going out of date.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I don't understand how this saves money. Instead of stocking up when things are on sale you use everything up then have to restock everything at once? How in the heck does that save anything?

It saves money because some of us tend to "stock pile" more than we "consume". Stocking up doesn't save ANY money if you don't use it. This type of *challange* gets people to actually USE things before they buy more. And I am also IN.
Between our Disney trip in Dec and the Holidays I am definately IN.

 

[tinkarooni]

Dinner for us was thawed Boboli personal size pizza shells I found in the back of the freezer, we made pizzas with leftover sauce and meatballs, antipasta salad and some leftover veggies.

Easy Peasy.

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

That was this week. Im down to"
2 cans of corn
3 boxes of hot coco
3 packs of oatmeal
a pack of rice
2 cans of tomato soup
3 tortillas
1/2 bag animal crackers
some grapes
and some boxed milk.

 

[minniebeth]

I just want to tell a cute quick anecdote about my DD tonight: She really wanted dessert (rare in our house) and did a great job trying and eating Asian stir fry vegetables and chicken (from the freezer) so I said ok but need to find something out of the freezer or pantry. She really wanted an ice cream cone, but we had no ice cream, so she put a cherry in the cone and you would have thought she was in heaven!
I guess family is easier to please than I think sometimes! I think we'll do ok with the challenge.

 

[neatokimmo]

We had "pizza" tonight. Flour tortillas, spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, cheese, green pepper and onion.

 

[TxRabbit]

I don't understand how this saves money. Instead of stocking up when things are on sale you use everything up then have to restock everything at once? How in the heck does that save anything?

What others have said, and also, it lets you know if you actually use the things you stock pile. If you actually HAVE a stock pile that never moves, it wasn't a good thing to stock pile in the first place. Best to figure out how to use it rather than not get any return on the money spent in the stock pile.

 

[NHWX]

I don't understand how this saves money. Instead of stocking up when things are on sale you use everything up then have to restock everything at once? How in the heck does that save anything?

For those of us who have a hunting spouse, or whose SILs say things like "Would you like to go in on a pig with us?", you need to have room for that kind of meat. We just split a beef steer with my SIL this month, and we're considering some pork. We didn't have the amazing garden bounty too much this year but I've already turned two pecks of apples into applesauce. This weekend I might turn another into apple pies if I can find the time to make one heck of a lot of pie crust. (That will dip into the flour and if I can sneak in some whole wheat flour, I can make a dent in the extra bag of that.)

Also, some items will be going on sale dramatically and it's a good idea to stock up when you can. The beef was the same price as last year and we went through an entire half last year. The only thing we had leftover was liver, and somehow that doesn't seem to count in the "did we eat it all?" question. Teenage boys can do that.

I'll give it a try, though it will be hard to resist the sales. My boys won't me mind making inroads on the stockpiled brownie mix though. But they will mind me not replacing their favorite cereal.

NHWX

 

[50sjayne]

God I just organized the pantry again. So..much..stuff.
I also cleaned out the fridge--cleaned out-- no actual cleaning. So starting new. Made me replan dinners for the next few days, instead of thawing steak for the bobolli, I'll use it for stirfry and slice the beef stick real thin to use on the bobolli I also found out that I did have raspberry dressing in the fridge so I now have 2 open bottles in there. Oh well, at least I have a huge thing of Costco spinache to use up and dried cranberries & feta to go with it all lol.

 

[belle41379]

Okay, I'm in. I may have to buy some things to make what I have work, but our grocery budget is only $60 wk/2wks normally for a family of 4. I too will do the fresh produce/milk/eggs. I'll go no cereal until we finish up the oatmeal and things. This is a great budget saver I've been wanting to do...but now I have the motivation (and the accountability). Good luck to all!