Yesterday I shared my goals and desire for the month to “Save Money on Groceries by Eating from my Pantry.”
The first goal stated was to only spend $200 on groceries for our family of seven (with teen boys). When I mentioned the challenge to my husband, he was all over it, but emphatically said, “$200, seriously? That’s not even a challenge. Let’s go for $100.” GULP!
So here it is, ladies. Let’s see if our family can do this. It sure will mean needing some great recipe ideas from you all every Tuesday. I am going to be digging deep into the archives and being diligent with my meal planning – something I have definitely let fall off the wagon as well as spending a lot of time training the children on some specific meal making (Goal #3).
Now off to inventory my regular freezer and deep freeze, as well as my two pantries. (This is NOT my favorite part. In face, this is torture, but well worth it in the long run.) 🙂
What about you? Do you have a big goal for January? Something with which I can cheer you on?
Do you care to join me in injecting new rejuvenation for Meal Planning and Kitchen Creativity in January? Start where you are and go from there. It’s all about the baby steps of organization.
I can’t wait to hear, and I can’t believe this is the last Tasty Tuesday of 2009. We’ll meet up here again in 2010. WOWZA!
I admit it …. $200 sounds crazy, but I will dig through my things and find my tightest budget recipes. Great idea!
I love that picture of you, Jen! What a great momma you are!!!
Merry Christmas (a little late) 😉
That’s a challenge for sure!
That’s a real challenge, but after everything we’ve spent on Christmas groceries in our house this year, it’s a really good one! Thanks for hosting and Happy New Year to you and your family!
When we decided to move last March, I knew we had to eat down our pantry and empty our two freezers. It was a four month adventure of eating out of our pantries. I got to the point that we only bought milk, eggs and butter. We ate canned veggies and fruit, frozen meats and homemade breads. I think I was spending less than $40 a month on food.
I usually do pretty well on groceries, shopping at Aldis is awesome! It’s just all the “other” stuff I have trouble with, toilet paper, dog food, cat food, toiletrees, etc. etc.
Thanks for the inspiration!
~Liz
Awesome challenge but I know you can do it!!!! I need to really get my frugal on with our grocery budget too. I am really going to be interested in hearing how much it will cost to replace all that. However, you’ll have saved so much money during the challenge it won’t be a problem to replace it.
However, do you think you’ll have to replenish your whole stockpile and how will you do it economically if the stuffs not on sale? I’d really like to know your thoughts on this because I’ve wanted to do a challenge like this too, but replacing it when it’s not on sale makes me think. What’s your plan?
That is a great question about replenishing. First of all, I am not too concerned about it because the challenge is only for 4 weeks and most manufacturers have a cycle of about 6-8 weeks, so I’ll have time to replenish. Plus I realize, what’s the point of my huge stockpile if I am not using it. Sometimes I have stockpiled too much of a good thing and need to go through those items. Again, if I have a great coupon and something goes on sale in January, I am not passing up “free or nearly” free so it won’t have much of an impact on my $100 amount. 🙂
Very true, good points! It does no good if you don’t eat it and it expires. My stockpile is alot smaller than it used to be. I’ll have to keep my eye out for some awesome sales!
I’m going to try the challenge as well and need to get busy with inventory. I wanted to let you know of a great website if you don’t already use it – supercook.com
You type in your ingredients that you have on hand and they give you many recipes that you can make. I’m going to need to use it for sure!
Also to momstheword, the coupon deals go in cycles and the rule of thumb that I’ve been told is when it is a smashing deal, you buy about 12 weeks worth and then that item will typically come around again on a good sale in about 12 weeks. It’s not an exact science, but using this system gives you a well rounded pantry, and you don’t restock the whole pantry at once.
I’m definately up to this challenge. My freezers are full and pantry is over stocked. I need to save money in January to pay off my Credit card bill. I think I’ll go for $200 for groceries for the monnth of January for 5 people ($50 a week)
GO JEN!! You can totally do this challenge 🙂 I am excited for you!!
I’ve been inspired by you to make my ’10 goal – to not buy clothes at a “normal” store (unless they are on clearance for thrift store prices.) Undergarments and swimsuits being the only exception – those will come from a regular store. 🙂 Some things aren’t a deal – no matter how inexpensive!!
In anticipation of my new years goals I took my sister (who is visiting for 5 months and has agreed to participate in this goal for the time she is living with me!) to the local thrift store. We spent 2 hours there and $60. We got a LOT of brand new with price tag still attached clothes. We came home, googled everything that didn’t have a price tag and the original total for everything (low balling it) was $1,240!!
That is a 95% savings on brand name clothes.
I plan on blogging about the goal soon, Just haven’t done it yet 🙂
Woo – hoo! Girl, you KNOW I love to hear this. I’m right there with you. For clothes, it’s no longer a goal, it’s just my norm and I know you’ll join me because you just won’t be able to go back to retail. 🙂
And I am with you on the undergarments…LOL…I made that statement emphatically and then our GW got a huge shipment of 2nds from Hanes…yes, I bought underwear at GW (but they were new…heehee).
$100??? Whoa! No matter if it’s $100 or $200, I can’t wait to see how this goes!
Jen, I’ve been meaning to ask you since I saw your last post several days ago–will you please, please take us along for the ride in January? I’d love to know EVERY detail of your $100 month–what you serve for dinner, what you buy at the store, etc. Wow! What a challenge.
On another note, I’m so glad to know you. I’m most definitely a Beauty and Bedlam fan–actually a Jen fan. You have blessed my year in many ways, and I look forward to getting to know you better in 2010!
Every blessing!
Love,
Richella
Funny, our local GW had Hanes socks, which I stocked up on for the school marching band (God forbid you flash anything but a white ankle with your stylishly high-water-y pants…). Alas, no undies.
Inspiring about the $100 thing. I do need to clean out some, but I would be very surprised to find enough of anything but meat to get us through. Still, a good concept, and I’m game. Looking forward to following your progress.
Wanted to offer this suggestion as a twist to your pantry challenge. How about a pantry exchange where families bring food together that no one will eat. I had a bag of food set aside to donate over the holidays that included all of these things:
Unopened package of Buckwheat pancake mix (We have one opened and several other regular pancake mixes)
1 can Campells Pepper Pot soup (I didn’t read the ingredients until I got home and now I will not eat it)
canned collard greens
various flavors of Jello pudding mix. (my kids don’t like pudding)
1 small container Hormel Kids mac n cheese.Unfortunately my bag was forgotten in the trunk so now the food is restocked on the shelves and there are more items than what I’ve listed. Even freezer items that no one here will eat. Just a thought because maybe someone else would like this stuff and I could take some things off someone else hands. Then whatever is left can go to the shelters.