New Year Pantry Challenge

And once again a blog post to start out the year. I had so many good intentions for blogging at the beginning of 2017, and I do again, but I confess that Instagram (@myprairiecorner) has my heart and that is where most of my social media time is spent. However, it is a new year, with a fresh start, so let's see where this blogging adventure can go, shall we?

As is becoming the custom, January 1 marks the beginning of a freezer/pantry challenge at our house. When I began a pantry challenge in January, I can't even tell you - maybe five years ago? The idea was inspired by Jessica Fisher at GoodCheapEats.com and I enjoy her tips and seeing what she feeds her family and how she shops during this time.

Each family can tweak this challenge to suit their needs. I have three rules that I follow:

1. Take written inventory of all of the food in the house and in the freezers in the garage.

2. Make a list of meals using those items first. Incorporate that list into the weekly meal plans.

3. Grocery shopping is for fresh produce and dairy items only. 

These are my rules, therefore are as bendable as I like. Greg doesn't always like to follow this challenge, so he's allowed a bit of leeway during the month. The goal is to clear out pantry/freezer items to make way for fresh, new things, not to punish ourselves by not being able to have fun with our meals. 

Since we're post-holiday season and we entertained a few times, the pantry is overflowing with leftover and extra snack and baking items. We also purchased half a beef last summer and a whole hog in the fall, so along with the chickens we get every spring that last the year, the freezers are full. There will be no problem with eating well during this challenge month. 

I know myself (and Greg), and when we're tired or feeling overwhelmed, it's very easy to run to town for Chinese food or pizza instead of cooking for ourselves. Prepping meals and/or recipe ingredients ahead of time keeps us on track with the challenge as well as saving time and our budget. 

So what about the budget? In the past few years, we haven't had a set food budget. Since I do a lot of freezer cooking, I tend to buy in bulk every 4 or 6 weeks and work from that. My weekly shopping tends to be fresh produce and dairy, with the occasional stock-up purchase of a few basic canned goods. For the purpose of this challenge, I have taken a peek at the USDA Food Costs lists to determine my goal grocery budget each week. 

Using the Thrifty plan for a two-person family in our age range allots us $83.60 per week for groceries. That is way more than we usually need, even with feeding the grandkids a few times a week, so my intention is to halve that and try to keep my grocery spending to around $40 a week. I don't even plan to shop every week, so that's even better. 

We'll look at each of the three rules later this week and see what kind of inventory we have and the plan to use it up, and how I prep some of the basics ahead of time.

Also, I have a test menu to cook for Once A Month Meals, so will have to do a bit of shopping for that, but it will be included in the weekly budget goal, and we'll have meals in the freezer for those days when this Grammy is just too pooped to putter in the kitchen by suppertime. 

There are a couple of hours before I head to work, so there's time to get through the kitchen cupboards for that inventory. Freezers will wait a day or two - it's way too cold to have to stand out there for long today. 

If you're enjoying a pantry/freezer challenge this month, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe we can inspire each other. 

If you're not, that's okay too. Tell me what you cook to get through these cold gray winter months. 

Okay - I'm heading to the kitchen!