Operation: Clean Out Pantry
Friday, April 23, 2010 at 8:01AM Today’s blog isn’t a recipe, but it’s still about food. Since April 9th I have been trying to only purchase necessities from the grocery sto
re and minimize eating out in an effort to save money and ultimately clean out my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. The main items I have purchased include staple items like butter, milk, eggs, bread, fresh produce etc.
Even though I didn’t start this until the 9th, I have only spent 28% on food compared to March. This will mean I can make an extra payment on something this month! I suggest you also try this!
Several other things have been discovered from this experience so far:
1) I had 2 bottles of BBQ sauce that expired in 2008 and one in 2009. I’m really not sure how that happened because we use BBQ sauce a lot!
2) It’s forcing me to find creative meals from what just looks like a bunch of food parts.
3) I happened to watch Food, Inc. on the 11th and since then I absolutely cannot eat a burger from McDonalds. I tried twice and almost threw up so it's much easier to not eat out these days.
4) I am eating more fresh produce, which is good and I think a lot of us find it hard to keep it in our diets.
Will you try this challenge?
Reader Comments (2)
Angela, I just watched Food Inc too a while back and are trying very similar things to you. The one addition I am doing is being a part of Community Supported Agriculture group. We pick up our vegetables once a week. They are from farms that are in an area close to us and are certified organic. That means I am not buying produce at the store except a couple of items like Morgan's loved apples. It is also saving me money. I am not going to extra stores to get the best price. It seemed like I ended up buying things even though I was trying to be careful. And it is saving time at the grocery store. No more looking over produce while the kids are hanging around.
What are you doing regarding purchasing meat and saving money?
We have a local butcher that we trust and get quality meat from but we don't eat red meat too often anymore, mostly chicken. We have a big bag of chicken breasts from Costco that helps but once that is gone we'll be getting it from the local butcher too.
I need to find a good local fruit/vegetable stand to get local produce from... Chris bought a head of lettuce yesterday from Albertson's and it was from out of state! We would both much rather support the local farmers.
~Angela