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?
