Frugal with a Flourish: Eat from the Pantry Challenge!

So Jen over at Beauty and Bedlam first made me aware of this idea! The original post is actually from Crystal at Money Saving Mom. The concept? It is easy to get into the idea that you HAVE to go to the grocery store every week. However, most of us have lots of pantry and freezer food that we could use instead.

How much money would this save you? For our little household, I typically spend around $100 a week on groceries. However, over the last couple of weeks I haven’t been to the grocery store at all. Part of this is due to our crazy holiday travel schedule, and the other part is that I have been creating meals to eat based on my stash of freezer meals and pantry stuff.

So the question is, once we are back in town and back to our regular routine can I still do this? Now I am not going to skip the basics like milk, but I think I can make it through! The best part is that you can make up your own individual goals for your family.

Here are my goals.

1.) Do one normal sized trip when we first get back from vacay in January since I have depleted some of my stash.

2.) Only shop at the store another two times in January and those 2 times will just be to by milk, eggs, cheese, deli and salad stuff. My limit on those two trips will be $30 per trip. (Though I am going to see if I can do it all with just a $20 in my purse!)

3.) Take the savings of $240 and put it into savings (to help write the check that is going to sell our home!)

Are you with me? How much money do you think this could save you? For more inspiration check out the full party link up here!

5 frugal friends said ...

karen@fitnessjourney said... @ December 30, 2009 at 8:59 AM: Sounds like a good plan to me. I'm so guilty of running to the grocery store when I could make do with what is already in the house. I've also been known to throw out produce that I didn't use.
Shell said... @ December 30, 2009 at 9:03 AM: I want to do this. My goal is not to go to the grocery store until the middle of the month...though it would be nice if it could be longer, except for things like bread, milk, and eggs.

Have you seen the site supercook.com? You put in the ingredients that you have and it gives you recipes that you can make with those things. I plan to use this to help me with my pantry, since I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do with these random items.
Amy@TheLemonCottage said... @ December 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM: Sounds like a great plan. I am a coupon clipping, sale shopping mom. LOL Sometimes, I send my husband to the grocery store... he's in and out... never anything extra in the cart... that works better for me. :)
Good luck with this project.

~Amy
Jessica Jones said... @ December 30, 2009 at 4:15 PM: I keep seeing this and am so tempted to try it...but honestly it makes me nervous! I had been REALLY stocked up before the holidays but then with christmas i stopped grocery shopping and pretty much lived out of the pantry so now I pantry is on the empty side...kinda...
Queenie Jeannie said... @ December 31, 2009 at 2:26 PM: That's a really interesting idea!!!

Happy New Year and thank you for visiting on my special SITS day!!