Thursday, April 30, 2009

May Goals ~ Eat From the Pantry Challenge

So I did very bad at staying under grocery budget for the month of April. I found way too many deals to stock up on. I am officially going to state it here...MY GOAL FOR MAY IS TO CUT MY GROCERY BILL IN HALF! I have a very well stocked pantry and freezer so I am going to have an Eat From the Pantry Challenge.

My grocery budget is $500 for my family of 6. This includes everything from food, cleaning supplies, bathroom necessities to diapers and wipes. I am hoping to spend about $250 for the month of May or less is possible. I am going to try and stay OUT of the grocery store unless it is for dairy, bread or produce. What do you say? Care to join in?

It is time to use up all that meat in the back of your freezer. What are you saving all those trial size samples of shampoo, deodorant and laundry soap for? Let's save some money this month and use up what we have. It is almost time for gardening again. This means those jars of pickles and tomatoes have been on the shelf for almost 1 year and need to be used up.

I would love to have you join in the "Eat From the Pantry Challenge". Leave a link to your post below. Make sure your link goes directly to your post about this challenge. Link back to my page so others can see how we are doing! I will be having weekly updates every Friday through May!

This post is linked to Finding Freedom at Cents to Get Debt Free and Frugal Friday at Life as Mom.


14 comments:

  1. I am up for this challenge since we are trying to get things together for an exchange student in the fall. I have several items that need to be purchased for that so saving money at the grocery would help counteract those extra expenses. I'll keep in touch with how things are going.

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  2. Funny that you did this now---DH and I are on a challenge with ourselves to not eat out, and to finish up our home canned goods and what not. Great idea also, to use up those samples and what nots. They're just collecting up space.

    Good Luck--I know you can do it!!

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  3. I know what you mean about all those samples! If we don't use them, they're just clutter.

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  4. It really isn't a bad thing to stock up on deals to keep your pantry full. That is the whole point of a pantry. Keeping it full. I think you did just fine. Deals are hard to come by.

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  5. My cousin that shops with me every week and I had already decided to do this in May so I'll join your challenge as soon as I find time to post about it. Blogging about it may keep me more accountable!

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  6. I plan to join your challenge. I just need time to write up a post about it. I tried to do this in April, but didn't make it. Now that you're offering a challenge for May maybe I'll have better luck.

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  7. Stocking up is a great idea--to a point. I do it myself. But we all need to stop once in a while and take inventory! Really, you are right--how many tubes of toothpaste or bottles of shampoo do you need? I think it is a good idea to think maybe three months in advance. If you have enough to last the next three months, don't even look at it until at least 2 months have gone by. (Except if it's free--at the very least, it's good for charity.)
    And you are right about that meat in the freezer. Time to check out what you have and use it! "Supercook.com" and "Allrecipes.com" are great sites to search by ingredients.

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  8. I started doing something like this last month and I am carrying it into May! I gotta get and keep the grocery budget low so it doesn't get too far out of whack! :)

    Good luck in your endeavors this month! :)

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  9. Here we go everyone! Thank you for joining in! I am excited to use up some of the items that have been sitting on my shelves and in my freezer for quite some time! Good luck to everyone and be sure to check back in on Fridays to give us an update on how your doing!

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  10. I wish I could join, we have used up a lot of our pantry items. And our freezer is almost empty. I will concentrate on stocking my shelves so I can join in next time. This time I'll just cheer from the sidelines.

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  11. I wish I could join you, but with numerous family visiting in May, I have to wait until June to eat from the pantry. Good luck and let us know how you do.

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  12. I need to do this too! I have a bit of an obsession with stocking the cabinets, and now it's time to eat up what we have. I just painted the kitchen cabinets a couple weeks ago (and to do that, I had to empty them). I realized just how much I have to use up when it was spread out over the entire living room floor!

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  13. I'm late but count me in for the remainder of the month. :)

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