JANUARY EAT FROM THE PANTRY CHALLENGE

I have been inspired to join up with an Eat From the Pantry challenge. If you would like to join along here are some basics for getting started:

1. Take stock of what you have on hand and make meals with what you have.

2. Limit the number of times you go to the grocery store for the month of January

3. Make up your menu's from what you have on hand.

4. Set a budget for the month of January for grocery shopping.

5. Use the money saved for something special, such as an emergency cash fund, donate to a charity, or save up for something special.{Note: I have copy and pasted these 5 steps from my daughter Maria's blog over at Rainy Day Farm}

Here is a picture of my food pantry. As you can see I do have quite a bit of things on hand so going for a month without going full on grocery shopping shouldn't be too hard. I am fortunate to have been taught by my church leaders to keep a plentiful supply of food on hand for emergencies or natural disasters. If you would like to know more about starting your own food storage go here and click on Family Home Storage for some basic information about getting started.

Here I have posted a few pictures of my three freezers (two of which are in refrigerators). We have been fortunate enough to have bought a half of a pig, one-third of a beef and the hunters got and elk this year. Those three things have filled up the freezers quite nicely. Not to mention the trips to Costco for stocking up.





My goals for the month are:

1. Inventory all three freezers.

2. Create a menu from inventory list.

3. Cook small enough amounts so that it will be eaten within 1-2 days. (I have a hard time cooking for just two and find that I throw a lot of food out because we just can't eat it befor it goes bad.)

4. Use more whole wheat in cooking and baking.

5. Make all desserts from scratch, no store bought cookies.

6. Limit myself to $25 a week for fresh fruits and vegetable, milk and eggs.

7. Do not eat out at all this month. (This is a personal challenge because I like to take Friday nights off from cooking and go eat out.)

8. Put money saved into saving account.