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My Pantry Challenge – Inspirational Reads Chapter 9

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Are you wondering what a pantry challenge is? If you are looking to save both time and money, this could be the very thing you have been looking for. And, did I mention it’s pretty easy?

A big part of feeding my family of nine on just $350 is because I keep a keep a pantry inventory, meaning, I know what’t in my pantry at all times, I keep it well stocked, and I utilize the things I have when creating my meal plan each week. After all, it is a very frugal tip to create your meals at least at times around what you already have on hand.

If this isn’t a frugal tip that you’ve already mastered, and if your pantry tends to be a bit of an unorganized mess, then this could be just what you need to really make a difference in your grocery budget.

When I started really taking stock of what I had in my pantry, It really was amazing what I found in there.

I started being more strategic with my pantry maybe five or six years ago, and it really was in an effort to waste less food and streamline my meal planning and meal making process.

One of the things I do to live a frugal life with a large family to feed is to really stock up when there are amazing sales to take advantage of. This means that at times I may have 130 boxes of cereal in my pantry, more than 60 cans of tuna, or so many boxes of pasta that there isn’t even room in my overflow area so I end up boxing them up.

Rest assured this all gets eaten, and it often doesn’t take too long at all since we go through things in such epic proportions.

In keeping with being intentional in all things, I challenged myself to a pantry challenge in being intentional in living frugally a few years back.

Today, I’m excited to share how my pantry challenge works and how it can work for you, too, and remember, it really is easy!

pantry

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Twice a week, I am required to make a meal completely from what I have in my pantry

This means that it would be a vegan meal, other than tuna, since that would be the only meat item I have in there.

We always eat a fruit and a vegetable at every meal, so that would also mean that these items come from my pantry. In general we prefer fresh, but sticking only with the pantry for my once a week pantry challenge ensures that things are getting rotated in and out much more efficiently and much more regularly.

My challenge is to do this twice a week, and I generally do it once for a dinner and once for a lunch (as a homeschooling family I’ve got everyone here for lunch every day)

My weekly menu plan in planned around this, and I have actually found this to be a fun challenge because it also requires me to get creative at times.

In fact, just the other day I discovered how many bags of lentils I had. This sent me on a quest to find a tasty looking recipe for lentil soup. As when making lentil soup, I have been forced to look a bit deeper in the pantry for ingredients and to look for new recipes to try, too.

In the case of making a new lentil soup, I did allow myself to use the fresh ingredients that the recipe called for, but trying a new recipe using an ingredient that I have a surplus in is the only exception I make in my pantry challenge.

I have actually found this pantry challenge to be quite fun over the years. There is something empowering in knowing that everything I have used to make the main course in a meal was something that was bought at a killer price since my pantry is usually filled with stockpiled items.

I am also debating about making a freezer challenge in the same way. You can stay tuned for details in that.

With a family of my size, I generally don’t have to worry about things going bad before I can use them, but it is easy to forget about all the great things I have in my pantry that may not be part of my regular repertoire.

This pantry challenge has demanded I pay more attention to what I already have and to discover new and different ways to morph the old standbys into something that just may become a family favorite.

Ready to take on the challenge? Here’s what you should do:

  • Start with pulling everything out of your pantry
  • Do a pantry inventory
  • Put everything back in, but in an organized way. Check out my pantry organizing post for some ideas and nifty tools
  • Create a system for meal planning whether you do it for the week or the month or fly by the seat of your pants that will incorporate a thorough look into your pantry
  • Designate a meal once or twice a week to use as your pantry challenge meal (I find it helpful to keep this consistent for the most part)
  • Start small. Maybe only designate a twice a month pantry challenge – or maybe even once a month if it seems overwhelming

Keeping good control of your pantry is one of the best frugal tips I share with people when it comes to maintaining a healthy grocery budget.

Accepting this pantry challenge is a great way to save some serious money…and get a little organized at the same time.

Here are some great tools to help you get the job done:

Here’s an inventory checklist that will not only help you create your initial inventory, but it will also help you create a grocery list in a flash!

[purchase_link id=”11490″ style=”button” color=”dark-gray” text=”Pantry Inventory Checklist” direct=”true”]

Here is a list of pantry staples I keep on hand to make meals in a flash to avoid running to the dive thru!

[purchase_link id=”11496″ style=”button” color=”dark-gray” text=”Pantry Staples” direct=”true”]

This post is reflection of the book we are reading as a book club community. This is the book we are reading.


Living Well Spending Less: 12 Secrets of the Good Life 

Here is a bit more about our book club…

inspirational reads

This book club is a way of encouraging others to carve out the time to read at a pace of just two chapters a week because I’ve learned that finding time to read never just happens on its own.

Generally, every Monday and Thursday there will be blog posts here with Monday’s Inspirational Reads somewhere in the title with my reaction to each of the two chapters for the week.

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