Eat From the Pantry Challenge

I follow several money-saving and couponing blogs written by women who inspire and motivate me to be a good steward of the resources God has blessed us with. Two of my favorites are taking the challenge to eat only from their pantries and freezers for the entire month of January. Of course they will still buy fresh produce, milk and eggs, but they are limiting their grocery shopping excursions to 3 times in the month and their spending to no more than $75 total! WOW!

Let me just say that when I first read about this idea, I was filled with trepidation for them. One of the bloggers has a family of 8! How could she do it, I thought?! But then after seeing pictures of her pantry and freezers (notice multiple freezers), I started to think about my own pantry (or rather cabinets) and freezer and realized I too could do it. Check it out!!









Since I first started aggressively couponing and stockpiling food about two months ago, we have been bursting at the seams with food. We gave away a good bit during the holidays, but as you can see we could probably live off all this for quite some time.

My goals for this challenge are slightly different from Money Saving Mom and LifeasMom's. You can see their goals here. However, I do intend, like they do, to purchase the perishables we need 3 times a month, spending less than $75 total.

My additional more personal goals are as follows:

1. To make creative use of the foods in my pantry and freezer
2. To decrease spending at the grocery store and therefore also my dependence on grocery shopping and deal-finding, which has become an obsession of sorts
3. To increase my faith that God will provide because it is easy for me to be self-reliant in this area
4. To simplify my life

My concerns are that I will miss out on good stockpiling opportunities in the month of January and that I will not be able to come up with creative AND yummy foods from what I have on hand. However, I do have an amazing husband and mom who are excellent and resourceful cooks, so the latter qualm should be easily rectified.

Pray for my family and me as we take on this challenge. We may not be able to last the entire month, but even if we can do it for 2 weeks, I would be thrilled and our family blessed. I will keep you posted as to how it goes!