Eating from the Pantry / Freezer Challenge
January 2, 2010 by christine
Filed under The Menu Mom Chit Chat
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year! I haven’t posted a ton on here lately, A.) Because I want to do a make-over on this blog, but I am so indecisive on what I want to do… and B.) Busy Busy!
I have done some posting through the holidays at www.dinewithoutwhine.com/blog if you want to take a look.
At any rate, I have challenged myself this month – in order to A.) Save money & B.) Use up some of the stuff I have… to eat as much as possible out of our freezer & pantry. Now, you have to keep in mind, that I have 3 very stocked freezers & 2 pantries… so this shouldn’t be too hard… My husband says we should try for 3 months to really make it a challenge… I’ll let you know after this month if I’m up for the 3 month challenge!
I’ll try to remember to share some after pictures too – come February…
Of course I am going to need to pick up milk, eggs, fresh fruits & veggies and maybe periodic butter, sour cream that type of thing… but other than that – I’m hoping to have very low grocery bills this month! (I just have to stay away from reading the sales flyers and stocking up on good buys – although really that is the best way to save on your grocery bill, so if something is REALLY on sale…) I think my biggest challenge is going to be quick and easy snacks. I rely way too much on convenience food when it comes to that, but I plan when I run out, to make homemade snacks. We’ll see how it goes! At any rate… I wanted to share with you – here on the blog – what we come up with – to maybe give you some ideas.
Anyone else want to join with me in the freezer/pantry challenge? If so, please enter your info. below so we can follow your posts too!
In my next post – coming very shortly, I will share what we had yesterday & today.
C-
Woo Hoo!! You go Girl!!!!
Best of luck Happy New Year!
-Amy
Whoa! Just took a look at your three freezers and pantries, you are not going to have any problem at all eating for three months like your hubby says. I thought I had a lot stocked up, but I’m nowhere near you. I bet you can do it, no problem. I am going on vacation next week so I can’t do the one month challenge this month, but I’d love to do it in February!
Best wishes!!
Robin
I am going to do the challange. For a number of reasons, but mostly because I put all that food up from the garden, and the store, and don’t want it to go to waste. There should be more coming as soon as spring hits. And if it makes you feel better I have 2 extra large freezers, a small one, and a refrigerator freezer…though there is a 1/2 beef there as well.
Great idea! I just joined the fun.
PS: I’m sooooo jealous of your pantries! My stock pile is in 4 different cabinets right now. But a spot for shelves is in progress…
Cara
I have a pantry & lazy susan stocked full, plus baking supplies in another pantry, the kitchen fridge/freezer is stocked, and an upright freezer in my dining room that looks just like yours. 3 deer (various cuts and grinds), 5 pounds of butter, 3 whole turkeys, 2 turkey carcasses, my own tomatoes and sauces, fish, pork chops & roasts we cut ourselves from a loin, beef steaks we cut our selves, chicken parts and 1 whole chicken (my $2.50 6 pound chicken!!), convenience foods like chicken nuggets and fish stix for my 4 y.o., plus 3 pounds of sliced Hatfield smoked ham courtesy of our neighbor’s donation. They were sick of ham after 2 days so we took it, put it on our meat slicer, and now we have sandwich meat. My hubby & I are up for the challenge too, like you!
I just picked up my 1/4 of a cow and whole pig on Saturday. Recently found out that my marriage is ending . I have been a stay at home mom due to illness/injury. I have 3 kids, 12, 9, 8mths. I feel very very blessed that despite my husband’s complaining I am stocked up. Due to his income we do not qualify for help and I have medical costs. So even if he decides to withhold his financial support temporarily (he’s military so only temporarily) we will be able to eat. This is a massive load off my mind. I will say though I am very jealous of the pantry! I thought mine was stocked!
Jaime, I’m saddened to hear this. Hang in there-wishing you all the best!
This is so cool! I feel inspired to do something similar! Thanks for sharing with us.
I do this about every 4 months in my house and actually will be writing about it in my next book! Great campaign!
Thanks for the money saving challenge. I’m in!
I was inspired, so I started today. I have 1 big freezer and 2 above the refrigerators. I also have a walk-in pantry. Today I took out 2 frozen bananas and made 2 loaves of banana bread. I also took out a hambone and made vegetable soup with frozen veggies. I also made a breakfast casserole from sausage, eggs(I raise chickens), milk, cheese, and bread. I will serve it tomorrow night for dinner.(Jan. 18th)
I was unofficially doing this before I saw your post! But, I’ll continue with it, just adding fresh produce, eggs, etc as needed. We can certainly eat for a long time on what we have!
I’ve done this before, too, just to reduce the amount of stuff in storage around here, and it’s amazing what you can come up with to feed your family from a stocked pantry!