How is Your 2 Week Pantry Challenge Going?

Posted by Danelle Ice at 9:55 am

Apr 042011

It’s been nearly 2 weeks since we started the frugal 2 week pantry challenge. How are you doing on the challenge so far?

The point of the challenge was to live off your pantry stockpile for at least 2 weeks, making your menu plan to contain meals from all ingredients you already have on hand. However, this sounds a lot easier than it is.

A lot of us frugal shoppers and extreme couponers end up with pantries full of surpluses of condiments and deodorant, but a lot fewer cooking ingredients and meal items. When I go into my pantry right now, most of what is left is breakfast cereal and bbq sauce!

It was difficult, but I did my 2 weeks of menu plans using up the ingredients I had on hand. Some of the meals were odd combinations of food, but that’s okay. Plus, I’ve made sure everyone is taking leftovers for their lunches during these 2 weeks. This means that not only will the pantry get used up and cleared out, but the refrigerator will too.

A clear pantry is a great way to start off a new, fresh stockpile. If you have a little more inventory to clear out, feel free to keep the pantry challenge going until you use up more of your food stock on hand.

Remember to use up the food in your freezer too- yes, dig to the back to get out the roasts and other forgotten meats! My family was able to recover some pork ribs yesterday forgotten in our big freezer, and we had a great bbq ribs dinner cooked on the grill.

Let us know how you did with the pantry challenge in the comments below!