Eat From The Pantry Challenge: my goals

Here are more goals for the Eat From The Pantry Challenge!  I’m liking reading everyone’s plans and goals and seeing how different they are.

1. Spend $40 per week on groceries.

I need a pantry challenge to bring my grocery budget average down.  I really think it’s a good strategy to average out your grocery budget over time, so that on weeks or months where there are major sales I am free to spend $200 one week and stock up big time.  But, that means I need to spend a lot less a few weeks to keep my budget under control (I shoot for a $100-or-less per week budget).

I just checked and I spent an average of $114 per week December.  Last quarter (October through December), I spent an average of exactly $100 per week, which I’m really happy with.  I would have been OK with spending more so I could have stocked up more, but the budget was tight.  I’d like to bring that average down with this month’s $40/week goal.  That will also give me the freedom to spend more when there are good sales down the road.

2. Use up some of the neglected items in my pantry.

I have a tendency to buy things thinking I want to learn what to do with them and stuffing them in the cabinet, along with the motivation to learn how to cook them.  Like Asian noodles… I have a couple of different kinds that I WILL be using this month.  And I’ll be using the meat in my freezer first, before it gets too freezer burned.

3. Make one and only one trip to the store.

Hahahahahaha… So I am not the best at planning my trips to the store.  I’ve gone crazy lately with forgetting this or that, and having to run to the store a second time, and maybe a third or fourth time.  That’s maybe OK when I’m stocking up on good deals, but it’s a budget buster when I do it just because I forgot something.  Not to mention that it’s exhausting.

So, I plan to choose one store per week to pick up what we need for the week or the rock-bottom deals I need to re-stock my pantry.  I’ll be asking Jeremy to stop by Sunflower Market a few times, probably, since that is often where the best produce deals are, but they don’t often have deals on much else.

4. Cook ahead.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with eating from the pantry, but I do hope to cook ahead and have several meals ready in the frig or freezer – like a mini Once A Month Cooking day each week.  I have enough food in my freezer and pantry that I can do this, and it will just save me a lot of stress trying to get dinner on the table every night.

So, those are my goals.  Be sure to write out yours and link them up to the official Eat From The Pantry Challenge goals page!  I’ll attempt to keep you posted as to what we’re eating and what I’m spending this month, at least!