Using the Pantry Principle

While the picture quality isn't great, I am hoping to give you a look at what I do when I get ready to head to the store.

• The first thing I do is look at the list of items on my clipboard that I need to buy. These are items that I need to replace in my pantry (ie. brown sugar and sugar). If those items are on sale I'll stock my pantry. If they are regular price I'll buy one.
• Then I look at the flyers (I can look online or if I happen to be in the area and need to kill some time while dropping off a kid/picking a kid up I'll grab a flyer from the store).
• I look at the loss leaders, check my pantry and determine how much/many I need to buy. For example, whole chicken is on sale at Safeway this week for $.69/lb. I know from looking at my price book that is a good price for chicken.
• Now, I look at our week to see what is going on. I know that this weekend we're going to be away from home for two lunches. We're planning on using a gift certificate that we got at Christmas for dinner on Saturday night. I know that I need to have food on hand for these two lunches or we'll end up wasting money on junk food and feeling miserable from eating the junk food.
• I write down what I need on my list and how much that item will cost. I always have to guess for fresh fruits and veggies. After a while you get a feel for the amount of money you'll spend. Then I add up how much I plan to spend at the grocery store versus how much cash I have.
• This time I had to cross some things off of my list. When you take cash it's very embarrassing if you don't have enough money! With the debit card/credit card it doesn't matter! Again, that's why cash is so important.
• I crossed round steak off of my list. I found some ground turkey in the freezer so we'll have that in our chili instead. I also decided not to buy the Italian Sausage. It's not on sale and we'll have spaghetti another time.
• I don't have to worry about buying fresh veggies because I have a ton in the freezer.

I think I spent about 30 - 40 minutes working on this (last year I probably spent 1-2 hours). Since I started using the pantry principle in our home, my grocery budget has gone from $400 to $260 per month. The time it takes me to do this is obviously worth the savings!

Pantry Principle to the Rescue!

I've posted about the pantry principle before, where you buy items on sale and then eat those things. I don't usually cook things that I feel like cooking, I cook what I have in my pantry. This is one of the many ways I can keep my grocery budget for our family of four at $260. When I bought what I wanted to eat we easily spent three times this amount.

I'm finding myself in a busy season of life - Mom taxi life that is. Even though I find it's very beneficial to have a menu plan so we have more variety in our diet, sometimes in life it's just not going to happen! Apparently this is one of those times!


Today I went to the store and spent about $21.00 for groceries. For the month of February I've spent $105 so far. I have no idea what our menu plan is, but I'm confident that we have enough food to make it until next week when I will shop again. The reason I can be confident in this is because I shop ahead for our food. For example:

•  A few weeks ago at Sam's Club I bought pork chops. I used half for one meal and I have the other half in my freezer.
• I have the fixins' to make pizza.
• I have beans and rice.
• I have some hamburger.
• I have soup stuff.
• I have spaghetti making stuff
• I have....a lot of food!

It has taken months to build up my pantry to the point where it's at now. I don't want months and months of food in there; my goal is to save money and time! Everyone has to feed their family...if you want to save money while doing this then try the PANTRY PRINCIPLE!!!

Grocery Planning...a new plan AGAIN

Menu planning, grocery store planning, feeding my family, annoying me to no end, constantly needing to cook....what do these things have in common??? I don't know either. I'm babbling. I think everyone should babble once a day just to get it out of their system. Don't babble to your husband, it's annoying to listen to.

So my grocery store plan last year at this time was to go to the grocery store on the same day each week and spend $75. Once a month I'd go to the neighboring town and pick up some dented canned goods and spend about $20. In August I decided to join Sam's Club and I've been changing the way I grocery shop since then.

Over the past year I was able to whittle my grocery bill down to about $60 per week. This number does not include any supplies, school lunches, meals out (about once a month if that) and it doesn't include what we spend for Christmas meals (that is in our Christmas budget). I decided in December that I'd save even more money if I went to the store every other week. Having tried that now for the past few months, I've decided it probably saves me money, but causes too much stress. I'm going back to once a week shopping. The trick for me is figuring out how Sam's is going to fit into this plan. My husband is changing jobs so starting in March I'm taking $260 per month. I'll divide out the money and try to keep some separate for my Sam's trip. Who knows, maybe I'll decide that Sam's isn't worth the hassle.

This week I'm shopping at the dented can food store on Thursday and then on Friday I'll hit Safeway and Leuders. I've been spending about $20 for items that we need for that week and the other $40 is either saved or spent on "pantry" food. This is food that I don't need for the week, but is at my stock up sale price and something we will want in the future (ie. chicken, sausages, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mayo, etc).

In summary, I'm glad I tried something new and learned from it. If I continued doing the same thing over and over again I never would have found out how little I can spend to feed my family!

Back to weekly shopping, until I try something new again!

Menu Plan Monday: The Pantry

You know the saying...when you fail to plan, you plan to fail? Well in this case, I'm not making a menu plan, but I'm planning to use my pantry.

Clear as mud isn't it?!!

Oh how I love the pantry principle. I've got meat to cook, veggies in the freezer and everything I could possibly need to bake a few things. I don't have to worry if I don't have an exact plan to follow. I'm more comfortable with a plan, but I truly don't need to have one.

The only plan I have for the next few days is to cook food at home! I have a big chicken that I will roast today and some beans for bean soup. As long as I have a tentative plan in the morning then we don't go out to eat.

No food in the pantry and no plan in the morning means we go out to eat!