The HH went to Standard Baking bright and early on February 1st and bought me my all time favorite pastry, the pear frangipane tart. It was glorious!!! 🙂 Tea and pastries, they’re my favorite things to eat and drink on the planet earth.
As I was lounging and enjoying my breakfast, I had an idea.
Why not keep the one hundred dollar a month grocery budget thing going? But this time have it be more of an “eating down the pantry challenge”.
With two caveats: I have $100 to buy groceries and eating out {not excessively} is allowed.
If it was just me, I’d have no problem with just eating from our pantry for the entire month.
But I wanted the HH to play along because we both missed sitting down and eating together and going on our date days and well. This version just makes life less complicated.
Also, it appears that my husband, without someone to put a plate in front of him everyday, or someone to give him a grocery list, had fun grocery shopping for himself while I was rendering lard and drinking apple peel tea last month.
He bought creatine!? And sacks of chips, a bucket of pickles {!!}, a case of candy bars, Cocoa Puffs, Nilla wafers, salsa and weenies too.
I also found a head of broccoli {I’ve never seen him even cook broccoli before!} HA HA HA. Husbands. They’re interesting, that’s for sure.
My Plan Is Simple
- Use anything from the fridge, freezer and pantry
- $100 to spend on groceries in February
- Show you what meals we made/ate
If you ask me, this seems like a pretty easy challenge. Especially since last month I only had one hundred dollars to spend on groceries for the entire month and started with an empty pantry.
This month, the end goal isn’t so much to spend as little as possible on groceries as it is to whittle down and use up what we already have in the cupboards/fridge/freezer.
While I was walking around the kitchen snapping pictures on Sunday morning of what was in the cupboards, I found an expired sack of coconut. Whoops!
I wonder if there are any other foodstuffs in our midst that have expired?
We have a tiny pantry {and store the overflow in the cupboard under the stairs} but still some things get missed.
Also, I’m sure you can tell from the pictures that I DO NOT organize anything before taking my pictures.
Real life! Imagine that. 😉
Below Are The Main Meals We Ate This Past Week
Day 1 – I slept in, drank REAL TEA with milk and sugar and it was glorious!
Linner – Mel’s Drunken Beans with Cornbread
Side note: I’m not taking pictures of breakfast {toast/oatmeal or eggs} because we typically don’t eat breakfast together {unless it’s something exciting}.
Nor am I stopping to snap the HH’s snacks {ie: CHIPS, nuts, fruit, whatever because I am not the snack police.
Day 2 – Tuna Salad / Sandwich
The way I see it, why waste your calories on bread when you can eat a cookie instead?
Day 3 – Leftover Drunken Beans
Day 4 – Grilled cheese and tomato soup {from the freezer section}.
Day 5 – Chicken curry and rice {from the freezer}.
So there you have it. What we’ve been eating this past week on our eating down the pantry challenge. 🙂
We went to Costco and spent $56.13
And Market Basket. $11.97
This means we only have $31.90 left for the month. Yikes! I guess I better start cooking. 😉
So that’s what I’ll be doing this month, eating down the pantry.
I hope you have a great weekend, I plan on making a loaf of Dutch oven cinnamon raisin bread and a batch of my favorite cookies.
Peace Out.
~Mavis
P.S. We are down one sleeve of crackers thanks to Lucy. That will teach me to leave a box of crackers on the ground and go upstairs to fold laundry!!
Brianna says
Rosemary, red chili, or garlic? Which cracker flavor did Lucy prefer?
Sounds like a fun and easy challenge. I find myself since 2020 tending to buy more/store more food than usual. The walk-in pantry we have is huge and with all the excess room I tend to buy multiples of items. My house also has two separate fully equipped kitchens (kosher), so 2 fridges and freezers. I do have 3 teenagers who eat a lot, but I bet I could find something forgotten or expired. I have plans to paint the pantry in a few months and I hope to eat it down before then so I don’t have to move too much food stuff out of it.
Mavis Butterfield says
Red chili!!
Tracey says
thumbs up on todays’ content, as usual, but I’m just LOVING the pantry pics!! so fun having a peek!
Mavis Butterfield says
What a mess they are. 🙂
Paula says
Great Challenge! This is month 2 of eating down our pantry and freezers. We are buying fresh items. I made a turkey yesterday. We will get a lot of meals out of it. I made stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. I did not make any sweet potatoes. (I ran out of energy). We don’t eat out often, but we do plan to meal our good friends for dinner soon. We really like eating at home.
Mavis Butterfield says
Turkey is always a good idea!!
Joely says
Your pantry looks so full and abundant compared to your empty studio challenge kitchen from last month!
Mavis Butterfield says
Ha! Yes it does.
eliz says
Where do you buy your favorite Sue Terrill mugs? I don’t anywhere online they can be purchased.
Mavis Butterfield says
You have to get very, very lucky. She only offers them at shows and at galleries. And they sell out in minutes. You might want to sign up for her newsletter, but even that only comes out once a year or so it seems.
eliz says
Okay Thanks.
Do you pick them up at an art gallery in your town?
I see she is located in Montana. I will contact her and sign up for newsletter.
If you live near Dallas, she’ll be there in April. She does hold pots back so there is enough for each day. Although you’d want to be their early in the day. https://www.dallaspotteryinvitational.com/
Mavis Butterfield says
No. She sometimes shares when she will be dropping them off at galleries. If you look at her instagram page she shares there too sometimes.
Mona McGinnis says
I once challenged myself to eat down the freezer before adding any more protein. It took 6 months.
Margo says
I can relate. I needed to defrost my chest freezer, and thought we could just eat through the frozen food over a short time, but with only 2 of us in the household now, it took months!
Jody says
Love this! You have inspired me to at least stay within my monthly grocery budget.
And your Dutch oven bread recipes are great!
Mavis Butterfield says
They are all so good. I have to ration my flour though… I need enough for cookies! I should have enough for 2 loaves.
I know there is a bag of whole wheat flour in the pantry, I hope it’s still good.
Diana says
We are in the middle of a major remodel, so no kitchen or bathrooms! Luckily we have a camper. I have been using the instant pot and my Breville Smart oven. I do like that all of my food is organized and pared down. I checked dates on everything, and organized my freezer and fridge. We are eating mostly fresh food from the garden, so lots of soups, roasted veggies, and salads. Should be three more months until the remodel is complete!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks says
I thoroughly enjoyed your last month’s challenge and this month’s should be a snap for you.
I’ve been doing a freezer/pantry challenge myself since January. (That’s when and why I made your Costco chicken salad). I’ve made good progress and basically have the same rules as you. I spent $80 in January. But with just 2 of us now, it takes a long time! Can’t wait to follow along.
Honeybee says
This is exciting. It feels like an archaeological dig. Who knows what you will find.
Every January we eat from the freezer. Still working on it but I can see the shelves now.
Deborah says
We “celebrate “ February Freezer Month every year. The goal is to empty it and give it a good scrub, then start filling again in spring. Over the years, knowing that February is a focus we tend to not overload the freezer through the year.
Now I just have to do the same thing with our cold cellar…….sigh
Bonnie in GA says
Good morning Mavis!
I love your food challenges. It stirs me with recipes in the kitchen!
I got questions for the last post…about your grow lights and pods you use.
How often do you water your pods and do you have to move them around and how much height between them and the actual lights? I don’t have the water and light ratio right, I think.
Mavis Butterfield says
I water the pods once a week, mist every other day. I do not move them around. The lights are a few inches from the top of the dome. I’ll remove the dome once the seedlings reach the top. I Hope that helps. 🙂
Bonnie in GA says
Thank you so much! I haven’t had a lot of luck with it. Maybe i can try again.
Marcia says
lol, it’s funny when husbands go shopping. My husband does all the Costco shopping, and this weekend he took the 13 yo. Guys, they came home with a HUGE bag of kettle chips, and an equal-sized bag of flaming hot funyuns (for the kid). I’m like “I don’t eat chips”. Meaning, I try not to. He said “the last bag went fast!” Sure, cuz the 19 year old son was home from college for Xmas. Duh.
JulieP says
I’m just catching up with emails and had to just drop a note to say love the picture of your fridge mine is just the same rammed even more with bits of this and that! Normal pictures normal fridge
Love this months challenge, like a lot of others there are just two of us so it takes a while to get through the freezer/pantry etc we are on it again this month. Some recipe concoctions have been a bit weird but mostly we have eaten well and it’s made my brain work a bit harder to think what could I make with these ingredients that’s a bit different