Preparation: Inventory, menu and shopping list

Preparation: 

Inventory, Menu and Shopping List

This picture is before I took inventory of the cupboard. The very top shelf is part of our 30 day supply of food. That is food we don't touch unless there is an emergency situation. Eating from the pantry does not fall into that category so, I won't be using any of that food to prepare meals this month.

This is a picture after I reorganized the cupboard and threw out old stuff that had expired the 'best buy' date. I don't know if you can tell the difference but it went from looking pretty well stocked to pretty bare. It was actually scary how old some of the stuff from the very back was. If we were to eat only on what was in there we would be eating a lot of pumpkin muffins and pumpkin bread, pancakes and maybe a meal of kidney beans prepared somehow. Other than that, there was nothing else. Baking staples like flour and sugar but no rice, noodles or sauces.

The freezer is also empty and, except for about a dozen eggs and a couple bags of shredded cheddar cheese, the fridge is pretty bare as well. I desperately need to go grocery shopping. That's on my agenda tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the last day we'll be spending money for at least 2 weeks.

So, you might be thinking....how is this participating in the Eating from the Pantry Challenge? Well, they said to do what works for your family. Since we dont have a cupboard, fridge and freezer bursting with food I am going to fill it up. Once I've been shopping that's it for the first 2 weeks and except for things like bread, milk and fresh produce that will be it for the month. I figure with the Spending Free 2 weeks we had already decided to do on our own the Eating From The Pantry Challenge would be a fun addition to our own plan!

After I figured out exactly what we have don't have in the food department I sat down and made our menu out for the next 2 weeks.

First, I listed all the meals my family enjoys.

Then, I chose 14 of them to prepare for dinner for the next 2 weeks. Some people choose less and have left-over nights. Derek usually takes all of the left-overs to work the next day for lunch. If there is even more left the girls and I will eat it for lunch as well.

After the menu I made out my shopping list of everything I need to prepare meals along with snacks and drinks.

I'm going to be buying more then usually because I want to make sure we have enough snacky type food one hand so we're not tempted to make a Sonic run during happy hour. Also, this will alow me to pack snacks for when we're away from home.

So, after my shopping trip tomorrow we should be pretty well prepared for the next 2 weeks and the majority of the next month.

Edited to add: I wanted to add that the reason my cupboards are currently so low is because I didn't do much grocery shopping over the past month. We ate a lot of meals away, at other peoples homes, or on the go during the holidays. I also relied a lot on leftovers from family functions to feed us over the past couple weeks. So, this is not how our cupboards, freezer and fridge normally look.This is how they look after a month of not doing much grocery shopping and eating up everything we've had available here.