The Great Pantry Challenge

My big goal these days is to cut my grocery bill.  In plotting out our budget I realized that our grocery bill was embarrassingly high.  There are a lot of lines in the budget that aren't negotiable but food costs seemed like a logical place to tackle.  If you have spent any time in my house you will know that my refrigerator and cupboards are full.  Like way too, jump out of the way when you open the door, full.  I have been working on becoming an extreme couponer to save money but the other angle I really need to address is why I want/need to have so much food in the house.  My justification has been that I don't have the kind of life where I can drop everything and run to the store if I am out of something, because Max and stores are not fun.  I also have a great fear of wanting to make something and not having an ingredient.  Why this is so important to me is a mystery.  I know that I like having choices and options.  When I go to a restaurant and they have some kind of sampler or combo meal I am all about that because I like options.  Maybe my food hoarding is like that.  I did not come from a home where we were underfed, we had plenty of food.  The only thing I can remotely link (read, blame) on my parents was that my Dad had a stockpile of food in the cellar.  It was stuff from Caswells (you know that liquidation center in Waterville with the questionable perishables and the cereal with foreign writing) like canned goods, staples etc.  I don't remember us eating much of it but we sure had a lot.

The problem with my largesse is the storage and the waste.  If you have so much food that you can't see what you have you end up buying multiples and food goes to waste if you exceed sell by dates or it gets gross before you uncover it.  So that is a long way of saying that I'm working on a "Pantry Challenge".  If I called it "Eat what you have on hand" I would not be into it but by calling it a "challenge" I can pretend it's a cool Food Network Show that I'm participating in.

Over the past few weeks as I've been extreme couponing (sort of) and doing the pantry challenge it has really changed the way I grocery shop.  In the past I paid no attention to what the total would be, I would see something and think, "oh I should get that because I might want to make ______ soon."  This is how I ended up with 7 cans of bread crumbs (seasoned, unseasoned and panko...you know, options).  So now I have a menu planned and I only buy things that are:

1. Needed for the menu THIS WEEK
2. A super good buy and/or something I have a coupon for that we regularly eat (cereal, yogurt etc)

It has been hard to go by things that I normally would throw in the cart and I find myself talking to myself (in my head, not out loud) and telling myself the "rules".  I do think I've spent less and there may actually be a few cupboards that aren't dangerous to open.  I think I need to do the pantry challenge for at least another month to see real progress.

Another thing that helped was that our refrigerator died and we lost a bunch of stuff and had to start over.  It's weird to only have one kind of mustard (which I don't even like), one of each thing, we had way too many condiments, sauces etc.but I'm learning to embrace it.

I'm proud of myself for paying attention to this and really think it will make a difference in both the organization of the kitchen, my ability to find things (and not buy duplicates) and save money.

Anyone who wants to join me on the Great Pantry Challenge come aboard!  Maybe you have hoarded something I can mix with all those bread crumbs.

Leave me a comment on your pantry issues or any tips that might help me.