31 Days of Living Well Spending Less – Pantry Inventory

Well looking through the #31daysLWSZ hashtag was motivating so I set to my pantry inventory.

Realizing as I went that I’m in kind of a strange spot. I just moved into a home that belongs to my grandparents (in-law) while we await a new home. I inherited quite a few pantry items. This is great because since I had moved our of our home in April I didn’t have any of my own. But that also means an inventory came at a great time. I had no idea what was in there and I still have no idea how I’ll use some of the items. 🙂 But it’s a great challenge as I love to cook!
Empty pantry – felt good to clean the shelves and know what I have!

So I took lots of photos and filled out my inventory form. I had to add a few categories for us (and this inherited pantry).

I added:

1. Snacks/cookies

2. Soup

3. Baking

4. Desserts

5. Breakfast (this is one that I wouldn’t need in my own pantry as we usually make these things from scratch)

I have lots of food but not a lot for complete recipes/meals – at least yet… I’m going to set to creating a month long dinner meal plan next and try to use what is here! Fun challenge for sure.

These items may give me a bit of a challenge – not things I usually have in my pantry. Well I do usually have bread crumbs or panko but I shy away from these rice mixes. BUT the goal is to use what I have. So… we’ll see!
 
Lots of dry beans and I plan to contact my friend Danielle,
I want to try her pinto bean (refried and whole) recipes!
 
Pasta!

Snacks.

Thankfully we have lots of popcorn kernels.

I have a feeling this may be the area where we “hurt” the most.
Cookies. Yes we like cookies.
Breakfast items – this is a category I inherited. We usually make our waffles and pancakes from scratch so we are committing to using these mixes up this month. Then back to business as usual.
 
A few more snacks and breakfast items.
Baking – I love Baking. Mostly from scratch. Again I inherited a few things in this category.
 
but I’m thankful I did “stock up” (but not for the challenge) just in anticipate of the rainy weather and the “baking mood” that usually hits this time of year.
Soups – again I usually make from scratch so it may be a bit of a stretch to want to use these items but I’m committed. For sure grilled cheese and tomato soup will be on the docket a couple times this month.
 
These gravy/sauces are going to stump me. I want to find some creative ideas so let me know if you have any. I always make my own so I don’t have a clue what to do with 5-6 jars/cans of gravy…. eeek!
 
Lots of green beans and the back up mac & cheese may come in handy.

I also have one shelf on a lazy susan that has “snack bins” for easy access. That includes Nu-Go bars for my husband, organic granola bars and pouches for the kids and little on the go bags of Annie’s Bunny cracker/cookies. But otherwise that’s it! One month – here goes!

 

Still to do… Freezer Inventory and Month-long dinner meal plan

We do have an okay to buy list that includes eggs, bread, cheese, milk (soy milk for the son who is intolerant) and some produce. I think we said $25? I’ll have to really think on that one. Apples, bananas, and lettuce for sure.
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2 Comments

  1. Just curious….what about meat? Can you buy that for your challenge and is that part of the $25?
    Christy Palmer

    1. Next up is a freezer inventory. I have quite a bit of meat in there so the plan is to not buy. However, all of this is a bit of an experiment. 🙂 We'll see how long we can make it all stretch.

      I think I have a whole chicken, 1 lb of sausage, 1 lb of ground beef (a couple packs of ground beef from the grandparents that I'm not sure if it's just ground beef or if they are already hamburger patties), 6 chicken breasts, 2 lbs. of ground turkey, and a few tilapia filets. Plus I think I have two or three steaks in my cousin's freezer I left there at a party recently. 🙂 We'll use that all up first and then play it by ear if we really can't do without. I also have a large turkey breast we will use to slice for lunch meat but I think that might be the hardest to go without.

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