Monday, June 28, 2010

Eating out of my pantry/All You Challenge

I have been doing an annual pantry clean out for years! Even before I started couponing. It started one summer when my husband went from salary to corporation. That meant we had to go about 4-6 weeks without a steady income. I remember rolling change to get $100 and then using to buy only the things we absolutely needed (no coupons used) and buy them on sale! I then got creative and emptied out the cupboards/fridge/freezer for our meals. We actually ate very well and got to try a whole lot of new recipes. I decided to make it an annual thing, both to save money and get rid of the food before it goes bad! I usually do it sometime in the summer, it helps offset the cost of school clothes/supplies.

This year, I am doing it in conjunction with the All You Grocery Challenge! The challenge is to spend $25 of less per person in your family per week for four weeks. Week one just wrapped up and here it the breakdown.

Here is my pantry, it is quite spare right now, because we have supposed to have been moving in 4-6 weeks for 4-6 weeks and it still looks like 4-6 weeks, so I haven't been doing a lot of stockpile shopping. I want to move less and this is one way to cut easily.

Sunday: (Father's Day)
  • Breakfast: oatmeal, juice
  • Lunch: homemade lasagna, cheese bread, green beans, milk
  • Dinner: leftover pizza (from night before), broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, peas with ranch dipping sauce, water

Monday:

  • Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, juice
  • Lunch: turkey/cheese sandwiches on honey wheat bread, yogurt, veggies, milk
  • Dinner: Leftover lasagna, water

Tuesday:

  • Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, pineapple juice
  • Lunch: ravioli/leftovers, water
  • Dinner: homemade chicken pot pie, milk
  • Spent: $10.53 for milk, juice, and yogurt

Wednesday:

  • Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, pineapple juice
  • Lunch: leftover tacos my husband brought home, yogurt, water
  • Dinner: homemade veggies lasagna, wheat bread & butter, milk
  • Spent: $5.67 for tacos from Taco Bell

Thursday:

  • Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, orange juice
  • Lunch: tuna fish sandwiches (my husband caught and canned the tuna!), oranges, water
  • Dinner: chicken strip baskets and slushes from Dairy Queen, picnic at our new house!
  • Spent: $22.07 at Dairy Queen

Friday:

  • Breakfast: oatmeal/cereal, water
  • Lunch: leftover tuna fish sandwiches, green beans, water
  • Dinner: hamburgers, homemade bean dip with chips, milk
  • Spent: $15.98 on milk, cheese, bread, and juice also spent $4.15 for cookie treat at the mall.

Saturday:

  • Breakfast: pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns, bacon, orange juice (My husband made a fantastic breakfast for us and 6 guests!)
  • Lunch: turkey/cheese sandwiches, yogurt, juice
  • Dinner: Leftovers, milk
  • Spent: $32 on groceries for breakfast

Total for the week: $90.40 for the week, well under our allotted $125!

This week is going to be harder as we have my daughter's 2nd birthday and the 4th of July! Have to get creative!!

3 comments:

  1. So I read your post a few days ago and have been thinking a lot it and have decided to follow your lead. For the month of July, I am only allowed to buy milk, yogurt, fresh fruits and veggies and yogurt from the store. My only problem is that I have two +Up reward to use at Rite Aid that will expire next week. I don't want them to go to waste - I guess they sell milk . . .

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  2. Oh wait - I said yogurt twice - one of them was supposed to be eggs. :)

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  3. I still do my Rite Aid shopping, but it very little or no out of pocket, so it is not a big deal.

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