Food Challenge - 2011

Last year, Jessica (Life as MOM) and Crystal (Money Saving Mom) challenged bloggers everywhere to "Eat from the Pantry" during the month of January. People joined up for various reasons and I even participated a bit to see how I could do. This year Jessica is at it again - with a twist. This time it's not about depleting your cupboards or raiding your freezer so that on February 1st you have to go spend $400 to refill (and some people did just that last year). This time around, Jessica says:

"You get to decide what best fits your family and your life. Shop till you drop or work toward using what you’ve got. This isn’t a “no spend” month — unless you want it to be. It’s a “be mindful about what you have and what you need” month. We’re working on our kitchen pantries to make the most of the resources at our disposal." (Source: Life as MOM)

I love her choice of words - "be mindful" of having vs. needing. This is something I am hitting full-on in 2011. On Monday I shared that one of our big goals this year is to get our house paid off. We're currently a one-income household, but I'm hoping to change that this year and am on the hunt for a job. Whatever I make will go straight towards the principle owed on our home - but until I get a job, I need to squeeze every dime I can out of our one paycheck. I know I can do better and food is one area I can work on.

One minor complication is that we are eating South Beach-friendly (again) after picking up a bit too much weight over the holidays, which means no carbs (i.e. the cheap food) and make the most of my meat stash. However, I'm starting out well stocked with three turkeys in the freezer and a plethora of ground turkey, turkey bacon, turkey sausage, and off-brand V-8 (all of which I got on super sale). So with all that said, my personal goals for Jessica's January 2011 Pantry Challenge are:

Spend no more than $25/week on food (mostly food for Peter's fresh lunches) and use cash

Eat from the freezer (using turkey meat for soups and healthy-enchiladas)

Organize the pantry (it's such a mess, I'm not even sure what all I have)

Cut out the pop and start choosing water

I think this is do-able, but like everything else in my life, it's going to take self-control and discipline. But it's also a fresh start and a new year and I'm excited to see what happens! Make sure you head over to Life as MOM to see Jessica's plans as well as the other link-ups to get more ideas and input.

Two of the tukeys I hope to cook up this month