The Notable Blogger

The Eat-From-the-Pantry Challenge has ended. How did you do?

This family of eight stuck it out, but seriously folks, we hardly suffered. We had salmon three…no, four times. We ate lasagna, homemade pizza, fresh granola, strawberry shortcake, and some pretty tasty soup. We celebrated a birthday with an amazing dinner and ice cream cake. We had pork tenderloin and tacos and…oh boy! Thanks to my mother’s frozen Christmas cookie stash, we ended the month with a bang. Did we ever eat well!

We also learned a few lessons.

I learned that I can whip out granola on cold cereal day with no effort at all. I’d kiss the boxed cereals goodbye in a heartbeat if I was the only one voting. All boxed cereal does is add sugar to small bodies, weight to big bodies, and heft to the grocery bill.

I learned that when you’re eating from the pantry and not buying bread, it is a waste of effort to put the bread maker away. It is now once again a permanent resident on the counter.

I learned that I love waffles made from fresh oat flour. I love anything made from fresh flour.

I learned that even people who are spoiled with fresh-baked goodness every day get a hankerin’ for bread made of something akin to glue.

I learned that if the battery in the van does not hold a charge, I am less inclined to go to the store at all, and more inclined to stay home, bake bread, and stick to the budget.

Most importantly, I learned that the efforts we have made over the past year or so to stock our home with the necessary supplies to get this family through a few months of…anything, has really worked. We could literally do the pantry challenge for two more months with a cheerful countenance, and a couple more after that with moderate to considerable grumbling.

All told I stayed well within my $250 budget by spending $178.82. Divide that by eight people for a total per capita expenditure of $22.36. Let’s divide that by six people instead, since two of ours are rather small (4 and 1), giving us $29.97 per person.

Cha-ching!

There’s more.

One of the biggest changes I noticed during the month is that we used half a garbage bag or less a day as opposed to nearly a full bag. Sweet!

I also noticed my hubby is looking pretty good. Somewhere during the challenge he sent five pounds packing. The weight loss is either from not having any munchies around at night, such as the evil boxed cereal, or from locking himself away to record vocals for his next album. Two (okay, three) of those pounds relocated in my general vicinity. Did I mention we (as in I) ate a lot of popcorn this month?

Being a good steward is an excellent feeling. The extra attention I paid to our shopping, usage, and financial responsibility will definitely benefit this family, as we have commited to eliminating our debt this year.

If you are interested in feeding your family for less, stick around. Two ebooks are in the works on just this topic. (Less does not mean $30 a head. It just means less.)

If you are interested in stocking your pantry and home in a manner similar to ours, sign up for Notable Blogger emails. We will be setting monthly preparedness goals to continue to babystep our way toward reasonable preparedness in uncertain times.

Uncertain times–as if life has ever been anything else!

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