Comments on: Ready or not, our Eat From The Pantry Challenge is beginning!

By: Rebecca Harrison

Rebecca Harrison — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:14:09 +0000

I’m in and loving it! We have done it for 3 days and it is going great. Last night I took inventory of what I have and it is amazing! I didn’t know I had so much food! Can’t wait to see how this goes for the rest of the month!

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:10:34 +0000

I considered this challenge….then decided I’d do it, half heartily . But now it looks like I will be fully participating. A torn meniscus and surgery next week – with 7 days off work and on crutches. My hubby did some shopping this week, but I am so thankful to have a stockpile to fall back on so he doesn’t have to worry about it. So, I’m in, all the way now.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 17:10:33 +0000

By: Organic and Thrifty

Organic and Thrifty — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:10:31 +0000

I’m LOVIN this!!! I decided to do this (on my own) and one of my readers enlightened me that you were doing this too!

I find that:

1) I waste much less.
2) Make meals stretch longer than I would have ever thought.
3)Appreciate leftovers more.
4)Thing of creative ways of using “scraps”.

I actually had a LOT of “equity” in my fridge, freezers, pantry, and storage shed, so this is going to be pretty easy for me. I also get a weekly delivery of farm-fresh produce, which we prepaid for, so I don’t factor that in.

I think this is also helping me realize what’s truly essential to have on hand in the pantry, and what really isn’t!

Carrie@Organic and Thrifty
This has been so fun and inspiring!

By: Kristi

Kristi — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:58:22 +0000

I love your site and congratulate you on your goals and accomplishments. We started the challenge last weekend and I made a menu based on what we had and ran to the store for the fill in things, other than the basics that most of us will be running for think I am set until at least February. I wish I had taken before pics of my freezer, because it was awful and now I can literally “see the light”, although I hate to admit that!! We had lots of fun on Saturday night using up some odd and ends from the freezer and had a kick off appetizer supper, my DS 6 & 4 thought is was great. Maybe not the most nutritious, but very exciting to start with a bang!! Can’t wait to see everyones ideas too.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:35:18 +0000

I am so excited for this challenge (although we also started a couple days late). It hasn’t been that hard for me to jump on board since we are hunkered down for our third winter storm in three weeks! I can’t wait until we get towards the end of the month to see some SERIOUS creativity come into play!!

By: Martianne

Martianne — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:23:25 +0000

When our chicken didn't defrost in time to cook for dinner last night, I was so tempted to ask Hubby to grab a pizza on the way home, but as we only have $2 and change lest in our food budget for the week, I did not. I checked our Stock List and was able to whip something simple, appetizing and newly-purchased free up. Yay! Thank you for the encouragement. I have just posted my first EFTP Challenge post on my blog at http://wonderandwill.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/eat-from-the-pantry-challenge-step-one/

By: Patti

Patti — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:47:52 +0000

We started Jan. 1. Our meals have been:
Country ribs (slow cooker), rice, black-eyed peas, succatash, texas toast
Black bean soup from scratch, texas toast (leftover)
turkey tetrazzini (made my own white sauce),broccoli
Big breakfast
Vegetable soup (homemade), party pitas (from Taste of Home web site)
We seem to be eating a lot of soup but it is freezing cold here and that is what we all want! A great book I use often is called “The Use It Up Cookbook” by Lois Carlson Willard which is out of print but can be found on eBay or amazon.com. Similar to allrecipes.com, it is very inspiring to read and think of new dishes to try with on hand ingredients!

By: April

April — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:55:04 +0000

I started this in December for the purpose of saving money from running back and forth to the store. It worked great too. Then at the end of the month, last week, I went to the store and went crazy! But everything I got was for a menu item to get me through January. At the end of the month I will head back to the store for another run to get through February. This is the first time that I have successfully stuck with my menu for longer then a week, I went for 5 weeks and still have another two weeks before I have to make another one! I am so excited. Actually using the cookbooks instead of looking at them. Adding vegetarian meals to the menu has helped a lot as well with keeping costs down. We only meat on the weekends and we haven’t gotten bored yet. Amazing in and of itself.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 23:10:14 +0000

I have done really well, but just found out we are having my friends kids stay with us for the weekend so that will require a few special groceries for them (shouldn’t go over my $30 budget though!).

I have so much stuff to use up so I know I can easily make this challenge (plus I just did a big freezer cooking day) . .. my only concern was my son’s snack items, but I decided to rotate my large stock of cereal and make some snack mixes with it to stretch the pretzels, etc! Hooray!

By: Tammy's GoodPlans

Tammy's GoodPlans — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:10:53 +0000

Last week went really well, even though I was $1.24 over my budget of $30. I was able to stockpile 8 bags of Starbucks, though, so I was pleased with that! This week is a busy one, and I’m trying to be diligent to keep up with the menu. Thank you for the challenge, and for being an inspiration!

By: Jenn

Jenn — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:15:53 +0000

My husband and I decided that this would be a fun challenge for the month- especially considering all of the random odds and ends we have in the cupboards. We started off and are doing well. It should prove to be a lot of fun and use some creativity too

By: Chris Jones

Chris Jones — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:01:43 +0000

Well, I’m off to an excellent start! But the funny thing is, I actually think I’m jumping out of the starting gate a little TOO fast. I’m so eager to use up the old stuff that I’m making meals that are too large and filling up my fridge with leftovers! I need to remember this is a month long race, not a week long sprint, and pace myself. Depending on what’s left on January 31, I may even try to extend the challenge through at least part of February.

By: Megan

Megan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:56:49 +0000

I’m loving this challenge & I’m so happy that so many people are in on it. I allotted $50 for the month so that I don’t have to miss every deal but I have to make some serious decisions. My son and husband drink atleast a gallon of milk a week so I made sure to account for that. Today we got Costco coupons in the mail that expire before the challenge does so if I have $10 left in my budget I’ll get to use one coupon….I’m actually loving having to decide what I can buy instead of just running out and buying all the deals; makes me thankful for the things I choose.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:54:19 +0000

I thought the first week would be pretty easy but it hasn’t been. I have been very encouraged by everyone that is trying this challenge.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:44:13 +0000

The whole fam is on board – so we are full steam ahead. I’ve put together a menu for the next five weeks – which will clean out my meat freezer (a little bit) and some of my canned goods (a little bit). My goal is to spend $15 a week on whatever we need – this week it was dishwasher detergent and carrots. Thank goodness for the Electrosol coupon! Next week, who knows? It is making me start to see things differently – like buying breadcrumbs vs. using the heels of the bread that no one eats anyway. And it really feels good to eat up some of the food that has been hanging around for awhile. Can’t wait to see how everyone else is doing too.

By: Mar

Mar — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:55:30 +0000

We’re doing good with this so far! I’ve even made my lunch for tomorrow by chopping up lots of fresh veggies (which we had as an appetizer for dinner tonight as well) and putting everything I need in containers (salad, dressing, veggies, cheese, raisin – seriously, raisins are good on a salad – and even roasting almonds as a topping). It’s all in a bag waiting to go tomorrow.

I’ll be interested in seeing how we are doing the last third of the month and if we can avoid temptation to run out and get something just to complete a meal. I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way, but I’m kind of looking at that time period as a little bit of what families on food stamps or welfare do during the last few days of the month before their benefits come through. Believe me, we are no where near needing food stamps or government assistance, but you read about the difficulties these families go through and how they have to be creative with what they have. I want to see if I can also be creative and live up to this type of hardship. With the food we have on hand, we may have to do this in February to get to that point.

I hope that last paragraph doesn’t sound condescending or something. It’s not meant that way at all…

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:05:29 +0000

I’m so excited to take this challenge! I’m hoping to limit myself to $20/week for my family of 5 (including an 11 yo boy and hubby with very hearty appetites.) Thanks for your great ideas!

By: Trilogymom

Trilogymom — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:43:05 +0000

I hope I can meet this challenge or at least clear some of my overstocked pantry out. I should have bought some beans to get ready for this, but now it’s even more interesting! Good luck to all and thanks for the challenge!

By: Heidi

Heidi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:29:53 +0000

Hi-
I am in on this. I am a single person and read the post from ‘Kelly’ and about cracked up. I can make a meal and eat off of it like 5 times (lunch and dinner but not in the same day). I also included no going out to eat what so ever including coffee stops, fast food, bagel stops or dining out. It’s day 5 and this monring I wanted to stop for a coffee. I didn’t. I could have made it at home but didn’t this morning.

I plan to make a list of what I have in my pantry and take pictures. Who knows how long I can do this. Perhaps into February.

I will be going to the grocery store though for produce needed, anything fresh dairy and perhaps bread. I also decided if a recipe is lacking one thing I might purchase it just to help with removing the other items in my pantry for dinner. I am going to really think about that though because I want to be creative. Thank you for the insperation. I goal is to put the extra $$ i save to a credit card I a paying off.

God Bless!