Greeting, Dear Friends!
Well...here it is...the 3rd of the month and we're finally ready to kick-off our "Dollar-S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-Up-The-Food" project for January 2018 and I'm excited!!! Our goal this time is to spend as little money as possible on food this month and use the extra to go in on the final push towards debt freedom. The end is near!
On Tuesday my husband and I took a complete inventory of food on-hand. We recorded every single food item under the appropriate heading in a notebook: canned goods, pantry items, fresh foods, refrigerator, and freezer. Surprisingly what we found wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. We figured after the holidays we'd have a lot of junky-type stuff laying around, but we didn't!
What we discovered was that, compared to usual, we had very little meat (3 pounds of turkey burger, a pound of sliced deli turkey, a half dozen turkey sausages, and a bag of chicken tenders), a freezer mostly full of dried beans, frozen fruit and vegetables (peaches, blueberries, cherries, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and zucchini) and grains (oats, farina, cracked wheat, almond flour, oat bran, wheat germ, etc.), an ample supply of canned goods (fruits, vegetables, chili beans, black beans, chicken, tuna, and salmon), and fresh fruits and vegetables (apples, oranges, onions, cabbage, tomatoes, and cucumbers)...but no junk! Being careful through the holidays not to overspend or, for the most part, make more than was needed at any one point paid off. What holiday leftovers we did have ended up being shared with neighbors and/or eaten and cleaned up right away.
We've not been to the grocery store since the 26th of December and are out of a few staples that will be needed to turn what we do have into complete meals, so we will, most likely, do that tomorrow.
I did manage to get my menus planned out through Sunday and, for those that are interested, have updated them in this week's Happy Homemaker Monday post.
Well, Ladies, that's the kick-off report! My plan is to update our progress on a weekly basis. Pray for me to have wisdom, creativity, fortitude, and self-control in the days ahead. I really, REALLY want to have another successful
Dollar-S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-Up-The-Food Project!
Thank you all so much for joining me in this journey!
Until next time,
~Rebecca
Happy Homemaker Monday - January 1, 2018
