First, let me say I know it's been forever since I've posted anything! Lots has happened since my last post in... um... April, 8 months ago! Let's break it down:
April-May - finishing up the school year, spending as much time with Baby Boy and Hubby as possible
June - relaxing and enjoying a break from work
July-August - we found out we were PREGNANT with baby #2!! This was very exciting for us, as we'd talked about wanting our kids to be close in age... We're due April 28, 2012, and found out in November we're having a GIRL!
September - Baby Boy's first birthday!!
October-December - craziness of the Birthday/Holiday season in our house. We've got six immediate family birthdays during that time, plus a couple extended family ones, our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Whew!
We all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to what 2012 will bring, which is what brings me to the "challenge" portion of the post... here's the background info: I'm kind-of a food hoarder. I know. Crazy, right? What exactly does that mean? My pantry shelves and freezer (and most of the time the fridge, too) are always full. When I go to the store, I don't check to see what I already have on hand, I just go and buy what I think I might need. If I have a specific recipe I'll be using that week, I usually buy double on the pantry items needed, and there's no real justification as to why. For example, if I'm making something that calls for 2 cans of crushed tomatoes and a can of chicken broth, I'll more than likely buy 4 cans of tomatoes and 2 cans of chicken broth. I'll usually add in a can of tomato sauce and tomato paste, too, in case I need to alter the recipe... or just to have them in the pantry... Needless to say, because of this, every shelf (and the floor) of the pantry are full. They're usually really organized, so it's not like I can't find anything, but the lower shelves are a bit messy these days with the Boy running around and wanting to dig around in the pantry. I think I have 6 boxes of pasta in there (and that's a modest guess)... I've decided this is ridiculous. I can't really figure out why I'm this way about buying food, and probably don't want to get into the psychotherapy aspect of it. I'm not afraid of running out of food, I'm not preparing for some disaster where we have to survive on what we've got, I just.... I don't know... buy too much stuff. Same thing with the freezer, and the fridge. When I walk through the produce section, I always buy tomatoes. We may already have them at home, but I always buy some. I always buy lettuce, with the intention of having a salad with our dinners... does it happen? Not usually. The Hubby (rightfully) gets upset at all the perishable things that get thrown out, because unlike cans of chicken broth, the lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and cottage cheese all go bad pretty quickly. The second part of the problem, other than the hoarding, is that we don't cook at home enough, and spend WAY too much money eating out or grabbing fast food. Honestly, I think I've cooked at home maybe 5 times this month. Sad.
Here's the challenge, then. We have decided starting January 2 (not the 1st, because Hubby is working and I'm having dinner at my parents' for "New Year's Food"), we are eating strictly from our pantry and freezers. Yes, I said freezers... there are 2, the main one attached to the fridge in the kitchen, and a very full deep freezer in the garage. No picking up fast food, no going out to eat while we're out running errands, no ordering pizza because we're hungry NOW and there's nothing cooked. Eat what we've got. We (and by "we" I mostly mean "I") have to be really creative, not so much at first while there's tons of stuff in there, but later, when I'm out of easy meals and I'm actually having to think up ways to put all these ingredients together. I'm actually pretty excited about it.
Here's the payoff (other than cleaning out the pantry and then reforming my shopping habits when I do start grocery shopping again)... for every day we make it without eating out, Hubby and I each get a dollar. At the end of the month, we put our 30ish dollars in our spending accounts and go on a date together, out to eat somewhere, to celebrate. Honestly, we may be extending the challenge to February, too, because I think I probably have enough food stored up for 2 months (or more?). If that happens, same rules apply ($1 each per day, date night at the end of the month).
The only exceptions to the "no grocery shopping" rule are for the Boy and the fridge. I refuse to ruin his diet (and he's had pretty much all homemade food since he started eating) by having him eat packaged and frozen stuff... he's going to have to have fresh fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs, yogurt, etc. Granted, he's eating lots of table food these days, and will definitely eat what we're having a lot of the time (spaghetti, casseroles, chicken, etc.), but he'll still have to be supplemented with fresh stuff, too. Also, we'll have to keep some perishable, refrigerated items on hand for us, some of the same things the Boy will be eating - I have to keep eating healthy during (and after) my pregnancy, so there's no way around that. But absolutely no pantry items and no meats (we have many pounds of meat in the freezer).
So, here we go! I have a couple of days to get the pantry organized (and, knowing me, I'll probably inventory it, too), and get some meal ideas floating around, and I'll post pictures of the pantry and freezer starting out, then progressively as we go throughout the challenge, and I'll try to post each day what we ate and how it turned out!
Yay!
-Wifeypie
