January: Eat From the Pantry Challenge

For the month of January, two of my favorite blogs are hosting a challege to us frugal-minded folks.  The challenge is to eat from your pantry/freezer/cupboards for the whole month, drastically cutting down on trips to and expenses at the grocery store.  I've tried to do this before, but usually only for a week at a time, so when I read about their idea to do it for a whole month, I was intrigued.  You see, I'm a bit of a food hoarder.

Here is one area of my basement:

Here is another:

And another...

And then there is the huge freezer!

I have the best of intentions... I cook double-triple-quadruple batches of recipes to freeze and eat later.  I freeze garden produce in the summer to be enjoyed throughout the cold, long winter.  I get great deals on food by matching sales with coupons.  I don't know what I'm preparing for... the day when I don't want to cook?  The day I break a leg and can't cook?  Who knows.  What I do know is that we have LOTS of food in our house right now, and a challenge to make a dent in it sounded right up my alley.

Not to mention we might actually save some money by not spending so much at the grocery store.  I've been doing quite a bit of shopping lately.  Before Christmas sales, after Christmas sales, I do love a good bargain.  But even bargains add up. 

One of the nice things about this Eat From the Pantry Challenge, is that it is up to each family to come up with their own ground rules since everyone's situation is different.  Since we are busting at the seams with food, here is our list of "rules" for our family:

     1.  We will continue to get our twice-per-month box of organic produce delivered.  I'll have to do a separate posting about this sometime, but basically it's exactly as it sounds:  we get a box of organic fruit and vegetables delivered to our doorstep every other week from this company, and this takes care of the bulk of our fresh produce needs, when combined with what we have stored in our freezer and refrigerator.  Our box is $23, so this works out to $46 for the month.

     2.  I will focus on cooking at least one meal each week of beef, pork, chicken and beans and will also make two pots of soup/stew each week.  We have lots of beef and pork in the deep freezer from the 1/8 cow and 1/4 pig we bought... awhile ago.  Also, I recently made a bunch of chicken and pork freezer meals that I talk about here and here.  Then... there's the 25 pounds of black beans I bought that I could stand to get more creative with. 

     3.  I will still buy staples like milk, eggs and bananas.  Yes, not-even-close-to-local bananas are a staple in our house with a 17 month old.  And, until we get our own cows or chickens, I will need to buy milk and eggs.

     4.  Since there will continue to be great deals to be had in the month of January, I allotted $10 per week to snatch up any hard-to-pass-up deals where I can get items free or almost free.  I will focus on staying on top of cutting coupons and putting them in my coupon binder so that in February, I will be organized and ready to go.

So, I'm not really a purist.  Everyone's got their limits.  In fact, just this morning I already went against the Eat from the Pantry Challenge when I was lucky enough to visit a farmers market an hour away from home, where I bought red cabbage, turnips, parsnips, carrots, greenhouse tomatoes and eggs.  To me, it was more important to support the farmers out there braving the frigid weather, thus having the treat of some locally grown winter produce than to be super rigid about this challenge.  After all, we're all just trying to do the right thing, right??

So there you have it. I can't wait to see how we do!  One week is pretty doable for most people and may help get the creative juices flowing.  A month? Oh boy.  Hopefully there will be no peanut butter and mustard sandwiches.... ha ha, no chance.  Eat well and enjoy your day!