Eat from the Pantry Challenge

This week officially concludes the January "Eat from the Pantry Challenge." Whew!! What a challenge it was, too! I did have a lot of fun being creative with what ingredients we had on hand and trying new recipes like the delicious Sweet & Sour Shrimp and Creole Pork Chops, both from the Southern Living cookbook. Plus, we now have a normal looking pantry and freezer. See!









I think we could have even used up more stuff in the pantry, but the freezer is pretty bare! We definitely need some meat this week!

I did a final calculation of our expenses for the month, and we did exceed the $75 goal I had set, spending a total of $111.31. While we were over by 48% (OOPS!), considering that our regular monthly grocery budget is about $275, we actually did pretty well! We saved $163.69! YEA!!!

I will definitely be doing this challenge again, but next time I will either have to set a more reasonable goal...say, $100 for the month...or I will have to work harder to stay closer to that goal than I did this time. This challenge was certainly a learning experience!