Eat From The Pantry Challenge

Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom are hosting an Eat from the Pantry Challenge during the month of January. The idea is to eat mainly from your pantry, fridge and freezer for the month or less. The best thing is that you can create your own guidelines.

When I first read about this I was excited as our freezer is full and our pantry is pretty well stocked. However, I then found out our church was going to begin a Daniel's fast on the 3rd. I began to think participating in the challenge was no longer such a great idea. I thought I don't have enough in my pantry to feed us for 21 days, freezer yes, pantry not so much. The more I thought about it the more I began to realize that this only added to my challenge and I still had control over my "guidelines". Plus it would help clear out the pantry of processed foods. I'm hoping to move away from them and eat healthier in 2010. So, here are my guidelines for this challenge:

1. I will still shop for bread, produce and dairy. My budget is $35 a week.
2. Save the extra money in our food budget to pay off debt.
3. Should my pantry run dry during our Daniel's fast, I will shop, naturally. However, I will still stay in my allotted budget.
4. If there is a really great deal on an item we regularly use I will stock up, but again still stay within the budget.

I'm looking forward to the challenge and seeing how creative I can be with the food I have on hand. Plus, the savings will be awesome.