It’s spring time here so it’s the perfect time to shop from the pantry and not just to spring clean it but save money, too.
I’m a big believer in maintaining a well stocked pantry. Keeping plenty of supplies on hand enables you to better manage your grocery budget by buying when products are on sale, avoiding impulse shopping when you have to race off to the store to buy just one thing and come back with 10 and… it’s a great practical addition to your Emergency Fund.
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What’s the best way to shop from your pantry?
As you know from my post An Anarchist’s Guide to Meal Planning, I’m not big on planning the finer details of a menu. Shopping from my pantry is no different. I look at the core ingredients on hand. What meat is in the freezer? What vegetables are in either the freezer, refrigerator or pantry? What starches are available: flour, pasta, rice, potatoes. And, what extras are there for flavour, like herbs and spices, curry pastes, peanut butter, cheese?
Once you know what you’ve got, start brainstorming ways of putting them together to make a tasty meal. You can be as strict on this as you like or need to be. Sometimes, you’ll need to get an extra ingredient or two to add to the items from your existing stores. Try to stick to fresh milk and fruit and vegetables. It defeats the purpose of shopping from your pantry if you’re still spending the same amount at the store. The idea is to clean out your pantry and save a few dollars while you’re at it.
Related Posts
- How to Slash Your Grocery Bill by 50%
- An Anarchist’s Guide to Meal Planning
- 3 Tips to Banish Takeout Forever
- Investing in a Well Stocked Pantry
What are the benefits of shopping from your pantry?
Apart from saving money by seriously reducing your grocery shopping for a week or two, shopping from your pantry gives you a chance to:
- See what’s hiding in the dark corners
- Check use by and best before dates
- Rotate the stock to ensure the next pack or tin to be used has the shortest shelf life left
- Stocktake so you know what you need and when you’re likely to need it
- And… what to stop buying for a while.
Once you start looking closely at your pantry, you might get a few surprises like I did. I expected to see at least six tins of tuna but found just one. I also expected to find a lot more pureed tomatoes and a lot less Thai green curry paste and rice noodles. Not hard to see what we’ll be eating a lot of in the near future!
Can you challenge yourself to spend only $20 on groceries for the next week?
It’s impractical to think you can go for more than a week without replenishing fresh foods like milk and vegetables, especially if you have children. So, why not try to restrict yourself to spending just a fraction of your usual grocery spend for the time you’re shopping from your pantry? Whatever you don’t spend can go into your stockpile fund so you have the means to take advantage of great deals as they become available.
What does our shopping from the pantry meal plan look like?
There are plenty of chick peas (dry) so we’ll definitely be enjoying falafel and hummus.
Not to mention putting the tinned (canned) peaches to good use with simple yet delicious desserts like these peach cobbler bars from Sophistimom.
Plus, the cooked chicken in the freezer will be put to good use in a chicken pot pie or maybe if I’m feeling adventurous, a Chicken Pot Pie Crescent Braid (with homemade pastry).
Shopping from your pantry for a week or two is a great challenge for your ingenuity. You’ll soon discover, simple ingredients and a little imagination go a long way toward creating a nourishing and tasty menu.
Once the pantry spring clean is complete, I’ll be rearranging my kitchen. That job has to be a lot easier with less stuff to shuffle around! I’ll share the specifics of that particular adventure in the near future.
How’s your pantry looking? Could you benefit from a shop from your pantry challenge, too?Â
Image: Unsplash