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How to Use up Food in a Pantry Stockpile
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Danelle Ice - Home Ever After |
March 2nd, 2009 |
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Pantry stockpiles are the best- especially when they’re filled with free and nearly-free food. I have to admit I get a strange happiness out of being resourceful, and watching my grocery bill dwindle as I fill up the pantry makes me ecstatic. However – this month I spent only $20 on groceries for an ENTIRE MONTH, which makes me even more ecstatic! Want to know how? Keep reading.
Like many frugal homemakers, I use coupons and combine them with items on sale to buy them for $0 or almost nothing. Sometimes, there are just too many good deals. Then the unthinkable happens – *gasp* – you run out of room to store your free food!
Of course, this doesn’t apply only to food. Stockpiles for household goods and other products can expand as well. Are you nodding your head? Example: I haven’t bought toothpaste since June 2008 (yes, that’s 9 months ago) and I STILL have unopened packages. I got so many toothpaste samples, then purchased tons for 20 cents a tube, that I thought I’d never need to buy toothpaste again. My storage area was overflowing – a little too overflowing.
At a certain point, you have to stop stockpiling, no matter how good the deals, and make a determined vow to use up the food in your pantry stockpile. This is exactly what I’m doing right now.
How Do You Use Up a Stockpile?
When my husband and I were hardcore into frugal grocery (we’ve been a bit more lax lately), I would make a game out of seeing how long I could go without going to the grocery store. The goal is to use up the food you have in your cupboards, freezer, pantry, cabinets, etc. as much as possible. (Not expired foods! Please, if they’re past their prime, just trash them and vow to do better at watching expiration dates in the future.)
- Take everything out of the cabinets. Foods get pushed to the back, hide behind bigger packages, and attempt to disguise themselves in the shadows to avoid being consumed. Don’t let the food pull one over on you! Pull out all items from cabinets, shelves, lazy Susans, and put them out on a table or countertop.
- Take inventory of your food. Make a list of what ingredients you have and the quantity of each, then put them away.
- Put the food away in reverse order. You know the drill, newest foods in the back, oldest foods in the front. The strategy is to use the oldest food up first, before it expires.
- Make a menu plan without looking at anything in the kitchen. You’ve already seen all the food, so you should have a pretty good idea of what’s in there. This is the point where you use your inventory papers and plan meals to use up those specific ingredients. Plan your menu, day by day, by writing down a meal then crossing off the ingredients it will use.
- Don’t buy any more food! Try to not purchase anything from the grocery store except for perishable items that you need for the week (milk, produce, baby supplies, etc.- you need those).
Keep in mind that while you are in the using-it-up phase, you’ll probably be using the same inventory sheet for more than one week’s worth of meal planning. Just keep crossing food off as you use it up. When planning your meals, don’t think about what sounds good for dinner. Instead, think of what meals can be made with the ingredients you are trying to use. A free tool I use to help with this is Recipe Matcher; you type in the ingredients you want to use up and it gives you recipes that use those ingredients.
Huge Savings
Use it Up phase around my house forces me to get more creative with the foods I’m cooking, and really challenges me to stick to the menu plan. The benefits are many:
- Older foods get eaten because they’re not being pushed to the back of the cabinet by new groceries.
- You’ll clear out little-used foods and know not to buy them again, even if there’s a really good sale.
- You’ll spend next to NOTHING on groceries during this time, since you’re using food you’ve already paid for (in some cases a long, long time ago!).
- You get a clean kitchen and pantry with lots of room so you can start bargain hunting again. What’s not to love?!
I have been using up my stockpile for close to 3 weeks now, and during that time have spent only $20 on milk, fruits and veggies. There are still about 3 weeks to go in my case, so I’ll be steadfast in my goal to use up the stockpile. You can do the challenge right along with me and cut down your spending as you Use It Up! In the meantime, are any of you using up your pantry contents? Do you periodically go on a grocery shopping fast? Let us know your methods in the comments.
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Pantry photo by evelynishere.
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When I was living in Utah, we used to donate a lot of our overstock items that we weren’t using fast enough to think we’d get through them before they expired to the humanitarian packages that the church put together.
I like to try to use the stuff myself first, but if I can’t I try to pass it along to someone who CAN use it so it doesn’t go to waste before I get to it!
All great tips!
[...] Homemaker Barbi has this post How to use up food in a pantry stockpile. [...]
Great post! I’m going to make this the week I use some of my stockpiles!!!
Like you, I find bargains hard to pass up. At the moment, my pantry piles are threatening to ooze out into the hallway. Lol! Truth be told, I have no idea what’s back in there! Could be scary!!!
Thanks for the nudge.
Way to go only spending $20 on groceries. I like having pantry challenges like this myself, but still end up spending about $100 a month on milk and produce while doing it. Better than not doing it, but $20 is great.
@Mub – absolutely! Food banks and soup kitchens can use food much faster than a single family. Thanks for the great reminder!
Barbi
@Raise Them Up: Glad I could push you in the right direction! Mine has been long overdue as well. I like to think of this as the part where I get to enjoy the monetary savings I worked so hard to get during the stockup! Let us know how your Use-it-Up goes.
Barbi
@Jennifer: Good for you! The $20 vs $100 depends greatly on how many people are in your family. I’m only feeding a family of 4 right now.
Also, I have TONS of canned and frozen fruits and veggies, as well as a huge stockpile of dried boxed milk (Milkman) that I’m trying to clear out. This keeps me from buying a lot of produce and milk now, but that isn’t always the case. Thanks for the comment!
Barbi
This is a fantastic article, thanks for sharing it! We keep a sizable stockpile and love it — money in the (food)bank.
Still, $20? That’s great. I could do it if I had to, but it would put a healthy dent in my stockpile. Thanks again for this!
@FrugalWorld: Thanks, and you’re welcome! I’ll be starting over with an almost all-new stockpile, and a fresh slate for my menu plan. Thanks for coming over!
Barbi
Fantastic suggestions in your post. I used to call this “eating out of the cabinets,” but the idea is the same. Most people don’t realize how much they really have. And, BTW, great looking site and articles!
Harry
We are doing this very same thing right now. Although I think our pantry could literally feed us for over 6 months if it had too. Check it out.
@Katie: 6 months is quite an impressive stockpile. My space would never allow that- you must have an awesome pantry! *jealous* Checked out your blog- you’re after deals just like me- good for you! Keep at it!
Barbi
Hi! I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a million years!!! It REALLY works!!!! The other thing I do during this point is to make “freezer” meals……..kitchen sink soup for instance…..canned and fresh items…just starting to show a “little” bit of freezer burn, meat or veggies….etc. cook soups and freeze them for individual mealsdon’t forget to label them (p.s. don’t freeze with thourghly cooked pasta, rice or potatoes, finish cooking during reheating) This plan works……….just think OUTSIDE the BOX!!!! Have fun and be creative…………garlic and other spices always fix everything………..Terre
@Terre: Great tips! I love freezer cooking too, and my husband calls our soups “kitchen sink soups”! Very wise point about freezing potatoes; it’s a lesson we all learn at some point ( I know I did!).
Barbi
Hey all….I have been doing this for so long, I cant remember??? LOL
I have saved tons of money and keep saving since I only buy sale items, and I also use any coupons, as well as freebies. I have a huge stock-pile of canned items. The overflow is in bags:-S….On the floor of the cabinet, and Yes…..I rotate stock…I always have food to give to my Parents, and friends, if someone needs something.
I also have a very large well stocked freezer full of sale meat, which I am so thrilled with, as I feel like I am at my own store when I “shop out of it” I would like to stress to others the Importance of buying a freezer, as you will save so much $$$. It will pay for itself in 6 months or so. I like to think that mine paid for itself in well under a Month, due to huge sales on meats.
We eat well, and I am THRILLED on beating the grocery stores at their own game!!!!
Please also watch the loss leaders, at your local grocery stores, as you can save a ton of $$$!!!
Sunny
@Sunny- Great reminder about loss leaders. As many people still don’t know what they are, we’ll be covering that in the Grocery Department soon. Good for you on the freezer! People should absolutely look on a purchase like that as an investment into their own family security. I’m so glad you came by!
Barbi
I love this! We definitely don’t have a lot of room in our pantry as we’re a big family of 8 but I do try to keep a stash of some stuff .
Hubby lost his job last week so we’re going back to coupons and needing to go on a financial diet BIGTIME. Do you do coupon sense or a free service? I can’t spend ANY extra money but definitely plan to start clipping and matching things up to ads to get us through the tough times.
I’m SO glad I have my wheat and powdered milk and a few other long term food storage items because now we’ll be using them!
Great post, I love it!
@Rhonda: I’m so sorry to hear about your layoff news. I use printable coupons and coupons from the newspaper inserts. I also get a lot of coupons in the mail from requesting samples. Don’t forget to ask friends/family to save them for you if they’re not using coupons.
My biggest advice is to buy the largest quantities of the cheapest ingredients possible for now, and watch for ALL the free/nearly free coupon and sale matchups. You can find those at Money Saving Mom. Good luck – use your family strength to get through this difficult time, and focus on the prosperous times ahead!
Barbi