In case you’re not familiar, the Pantry Challenge is when you make a concentrated effort to stay out of the grocery store, and to use up what you have on hand. The idea is to force yourself to use up the random things lingering in your cabinets and freezer, to get a little more creative in the kitchen, and to save money.Good Cheap Eats hosts one every January. You can read more about it here, and it’s not too late to join in. It’s fun to interact with other people, and you can usually learn something; a new way of preparing something, creative uses for leftovers, etc. Honestly, it’s kind of fun just to get a little (virtual) peek into other people’s kitchens.
We’ve decided to make January a Pantry Challenge month. It seems like a great way to save some money this month. And I have a tendency to seriously over shop (and overspend) at the grocery store. I love grocery shopping. I seem to use grocery shopping as a sort of retail therapy. Shoe shopping is no temptation for me, but show me a great sale ad for any of our local grocery stores, and I tend to go way overboard. The picture is the one cabinet I’m willing to show you.
I’m trying to develop better habits, so a Pantry Challenge seemed like a good idea. My goal is to keep the grocery spending this month between $50.00 and $60.00. Based on what we have on hand, it seems doable. I’m only planning to buy produce and dairy since we’re very well stocked on basically everything else.
I went to Wal-Mart during lunch on Tuesday to buy some cold medicine. Nick has a terrible cold of some sort, and I’ve been teetering on the edge of coming down with it, so we needed the cold medicine. It was the first time I’ve been to a store this month. I know it was only the 9th, but for me to go over a week without grocery shopping is progress. Anyway, we needed milk and eggs, and a few vegetables so I decided to get them while I was there.
Aldi would have been a cheaper option, but I really didn’t feel good, and just wanted to get everything in one stop so I wouldn’t have to stop at a second store after work. I’m not counting the cold medicine or tissues in the food total since those aren’t groceries. I spent $18.49 on actual groceries which included milk, eggs, bread, some produce, and apple juice.
I think that puts us mostly on track so stay in the $50.00 - $60.00 range for the month, so we’ll see how the rest of the month goes.
So what about you? Do you tend to go overboard in the grocery store? Are you doing a Pantry Challenge this month?
This is a great idea...i don't think I could do it.
ReplyDeleteThis time of year I limit myself to shopping every two weeks. If I go more often, I always buy beyond the list.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your challenge. It’s a great idea.
I usually hate any kind of shopping that doesn't involve pet supplies or books, but I do have a bad habit of going a bit overboard when it comes to buying food. Not as bad as some people, but still. I have a "leftovers week" once a month where I can only buy fresh produce I need to get, so it helps keep my leftovers and random pantry/freezer contents under control. The other thing that helps is that I don't have a large amount of space for storing extra food, and I hate throwing food away, so tend to use that to help me manage not to go too overboard.
ReplyDeleteHa! Well, I too am putty in the paws of a good grocery store sale. I sorta went off the deep end with it last year after freaking out about climate change, and nuclear war, and Russians, and well... just everything, so I decided to try to stockpile a year's worth of groceries. Mostly I bought stuff designed for long term storage, with a shelf life of 30 years, but I also tried to buy a year's worth of canned goods and dry goods. My goal is to eat from the stockpile and shop (hopefully on sale) to replenish. It is an interesting new approach, and to keep from wasting things, I've marked every item with its "best by" date.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's sort of the opposite of a pantry challenge, but in a funny way it kinda works out the same, because each month I check to see if there's anything that's expiring soon, and I make a concerted effort to use those things up.
Anyhow, good luck with your challenge. It should be an enlightening experience if nothing else!
I love grocery shopping, too. (Also, I don't have a shoe addiction. It helps to have a weirdly sized foot. No one has my size, so I can only get shoes through specific retailers.)
ReplyDeleteBut I have virtually no storage space in the kitchen, so I can only buy what I'm going to eat. In fact, I need to go and buy a bunch of cans of stuff as I have gone though all of my backups...
I don't go overboard and plan my meals for a week so by the end of the week I'm like Old Mother Hubbard. This is a great idea though for the less miserly shoppers than me.
ReplyDeleteJolly good for you! I try to do that but I often fail and I suspect having it as an official, accountable challenge would help me no end! Keep at it!
ReplyDeletesounds like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI am a terrible grocery shopper. I rarely plan ahead and feel like I am there every other day!
ReplyDeletehttps://westofthefifthmeridian.blogspot.ca/
I've done that before. I went like 3 months with only buying fresh veggies/dairy. It's fun seeing what you can come up with. Good luck with the second half of the month!
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