January 2022 Pantry Challenge Introduction
Hello! Welcome back! I'm excited to start back on the blogging venture by bringing you a pantry challenge for the month of January. It seems like every blogger, YouTuber, and frugal-conscious person are embarking on January pantry challenges this year, so why not join in? Everyone has their own motivation, expectations, and goals for their pantry challenge, so I thought I'd share with you my take on the concept, how it relates to my current pantry strategy, and of course, what progress looks like.
January Pantry ChallengeWhat is a Pantry Challenge?
To start off, let's define what a "pantry challenge" is. In the simplest form, it means to eat the food you currently have at home, making only minimal grocery purchases to complete meals driven by those items you already have in your pantry. Some resolve to spend nothing to supplement, getting creative with what they already have to see how long they can really go without grocery shopping. The end goal for most is the same: use up excess food stores, or food that you've been avoiding for some reason, and saving some money - especially since the previous months may have involved heavy holiday spending for some.
My Pantry Challenge Motivation
I waffled for a bit on the idea of a pantry challenge - I enjoy having a well stocked pantry, and even with the affects of COVID on the supply chain, I've been able to find great deals to keep it stocked, which has kept us insulated for the most part from shortages or price shifts.
However... I have noticed that my pantry is getting a bit... too full recently. Especially with some of my couponed items from this year - cereals, taco shells, sour cream, etc. These items we are just not eating as fast as I thought, or I just overbought in general and stock is not being rotated through quickly enough.
In parallel to this pantry challenge idea, I've been working to sort through and pare down excess belonging - clothes, linens, beauty items, etc. Since we live in a small space, and all of my cabinet space is devoted to cooking equipment, all of our dry pantry items are out on open shelves. This creates a lot of visual clutter, which I am trying to reduce. Finally, we would like to purchase a house in the near future, and reducing now should hopefully save future work of having to move it all.
Finally, I'd like to rein in my grocery spending in the new year. While my goal was to spend $200 a month on groceries last year, my average month turned out to be closer to $300. I do not think this had much to do with prices rising, but simply overbuying sale items in fear of rising prices.
To be clear - my motivation is not to use up everything in my pantry, only to bring it in check. Having a well stocked pantry is the cornerstone to being able to maintain a low grocery budget!
My Pantry Challenge Goals
Reduce Dry Pantry Goods
I want to store the majority of back-stock of dry goods (cereal, granola bars, boxed mixes, rice, beans) on the small three-shelf bookshelf that resides behind out kitchen table. Currently these items live on top of our upper cabinets, tucked under the table in a box, and stacked behind our couch, in addition to the bookshelf. Most of these items are convenience items that we do not need to keep as much stock in based on our current eating habits.
Repurpose Freezer Space
I want to use the over-fridge freezer to store mostly frozen vegetables, items I plan to use in meals within the next week or two, and small miscellaneous items. The freezer is currently about half-way there thanks to the cleanout I did early in 2021. I need to use up some small items and move newer items down to our chest freezer where they belong.
Keep the Top Level of the Chest Freezer Clear
The biggest barrier to rotating or accessing items in our chest freezer are items sitting on top of the baskets that I use to sort items. This means I have to remove a layer of items if I want to access what's below, instead of just lifting a basket out, new items don't get rotated below older items sometimes for the same reason.
Food in our freezers tend to be higher value in terms of cost savings than dry pantry items, while the goal is to reduce some of what we have to make the space more usable, I am not looking to significantly deplete out stock of purchased on sale meat, cheese, and fruit.
Spend only $100 on Groceries
To help achieve the above goals, I intend to only purchase those items that we need to complete meals made from pantry items. This would be fresh vegetables, dairy, eggs, or exceptional deals for items that are low in our pantry.
Current State
Since we are already a week into January, we've already used up a few items, but here is what our main dry good pantry storage currently looks like:
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| Short Bookcase & Skinny Bookcase |
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| The Only Cabinet with Food - Mostly Open Items & Condiments |
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| On Top of Upper Cabinets - I'd Like to Eliminate Most Food Up Here |
This doesn't include our home-canned goods, some items stashed under the kitchen table, plus a few miscellaneous areas. Time to reduce visual clutter and inventory!
Final Thoughts
At the time of publication, we are already near the end of week one. So far we are on track with making meals around what we have, and keeping the spending in check.
To achieve some of the goals above, it will take longer than a month, as there is only so much food two can eat in a month, or one, in cases where it's something that only one of us enjoys (like cereal).
The current plan is to share in more detail what items we have excess of, ideas for how to use them up, and how those updates are being incorporated into our meal plan.
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