Taking the pantry challenge

I have decided to take the "eat from the pantry challenge". Some bloggers over at moneysavingmom blog are doing a thirty day challenge of eating only from the pantry. I have been wanting to clear through my pantry and freezer. Both are full and why not pocket the savings this month. I will be allowing a $100.00 budget (hopefully less) for milk, eggs, and fresh produce for the month.

My children eat a lot of fresh fruit. I begin the challenge with (produce) three and a half bags of apples, a cantaloupe, eight oranges, and two bags of baby carrots, ten lbs. potatoes, three lbs. sweet onions. My freezer is pretty stocked with meats. One turkey, one spiral ham, several packages of boneless and bone in pork chops, ground beef, several packs of bacon, two whole chickens, frozen shrimp, boneless chicken breast, pack of turkey lunch meat, and ten or so bags of frozen vegetables. There is also two containers of Breyers and frozen butter. The dry goods are equally stocked. About ten boxes of cereal (not there favorite kinds though...owell), five boxes of instant Quaker oatmeal (my fav), two boxes of pancake mix, 5lbs. of sugar, 4 jars Bertolli sauces, many boxes of dry pasta, peanut butter and jelly, 5 cans chx & tuna, etc... It's full! My cabinets are equally as full of groceries. I just have to get creative with the menu. The trick is gonna be, getting them to eat turkey five days straight. LOL... it has been done before and it can be done again.

We could probably make it two months eating from the pantry, now that I take inventory of the freezer and pantry. I might extend the challenge to two months. Just thinking of all that savings we can pocket and save. I am all about saving money! I enjoy the challenge every month of seeing how little we are able to live on. December being the exception, of course. I still did really good on the budget last month even with buying Christmas gifts. It helped that my husband saved a little each week of the last six months, and we were smart spenders this year.

I'll be posting some of the things I cook and the menu plans for this endeavor. Anybody out there, want to give it a go with me?





BTW, the Bible journey is on day 4/365 and we are in Genesis. Basically, it is how the world populated and the lineage leading up to Jesus. Folks sure did live a long time back then. Some 700 or 800+ hundred years. That's a LONG time to work and walk this earth. I'm finding it hard to not keep going, as I love to read. I am being disciplined and following along with each days reading.

Happy Day....Brandi