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Home > Uber Frugal Month Challenge: Eating All The Food

Uber Frugal Month Challenge: Eating All The Food

January 8th, 2018 at 02:16 pm

Yesterday before I made our grocery list and meal plan I wrote down everything we have in our pantry, fridge and freezer. It was actually quite a bit of stuff! I would list it all but it really is too much.

I then got quite overwhelmed (yes, a few tears) trying to make my meal list. I was trying to balance what we need to use up with what my husband and I would prefer to eat on our diet and with my daughter's food preferences. I was also overwhelmed with the amount of leftovers that I feel are only mine to take care of. My husband and daughter rarely eat them. Although without saying anything my husband did eat a leftover stuffed pepper and a chicken sausage dog after grocery shopping. Hooray!

I finally decided my overwhelm was trying to get it perfect. I let that perfection go. I know there may still be some food waste. But we will do our best.

We spent $88.42 on food for the week yesterday. Had to go to two stores as the commissary was out of salad greens! I'm sure a weather issue getting produce to the store.

Last night we used up five hard taco shells, a tomato and some lettuce. We used up half a can of refried beans. I froze the rest.

This morning for breakfast, I ate the last stuffed pepper with two eggs. For lunch, I will likely eat the chicken sausage dog and make a salad. I have romaine, a cucumber, fresh broccoli some sliced mushrooms and diced tomatoes to use. For dinner we will have fried rice (using veggies from the freezer and the last of the rice) and tilapia that I bought at the store. My husband and I are increasing our protein during our diet.

I'm hoping to use up more things as the week goes on, so will try to remember to share. I expect maybe next week grocery planning will be easier with less things in the pantry, fridge and freezer to use. At least I will have a little more time to think about it than I did on Sunday.

Are you eating all the food? Are you making sure to buy only what you will eat?

Posted in Saving, Budget, Low Spend Month | 11 Comments »

11 Responses to “Uber Frugal Month Challenge: Eating All The Food”

  1. MonkeyMama Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 02:26 pm 1515421571
    1515421571

    We only buy what we eat, in general. Is the plus side of small living I guess. (Not "small living" now, but just unwilling to expand our food storage for this temporary time in our life. Over time, have come to prefer the simplicity of not managing food overflow.
    & is with everything, is probably also a benefit of living in a mild climate. We'd not have to stock up for winter or anything like that).

    Thanks for your post though! It reminds me I had bought 1 pound sausage for a 1/2 pound recipe a while ago, and I noticed it when I put away the 1 pound hamburger from 2-pound purchase. (Would have bought the sizes I was using, if I could. This is starting to frustrate me!).

    Anyway, I pondered pulling out the sausage last night and cooking up for lunch today, but wasn't sure it would thaw before I went to bed. I just took it out to thaw, when I saw your post. Will get that cooked up today. I know hubby will use the hamburger meat, so I won't worry about that. Phew!

  2. scottish girl Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 02:35 pm 1515422120
    1515422120

    Yes, I'm definitely trying to! And I made sure that I didn't plan meals for every day thus week so we'll eat the leftovers. I don't know if you've watched PenniestoPearls on YouTube? I only found her after you mentioned watching YouTube. Anyway, she videos her meal planning, and then her monthly shopping trip. She's really enthusiastic.

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 02:38 pm 1515422303
    1515422303

    Last night I purposely didn't make the entire pound of ground beef for tacos because I knew there would be leftover taco meat that I would then have to eat. There is still about 1/4 cup to use, but not a full two cups as usual. This is more common when we are really watching our portions. The remaining ground beef will be used on pasta later in the week.

  4. creditcardfree Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 02:40 pm 1515422434
    1515422434

    I haven't watched PenniestoPearls, but I've heard of her. I think a leftover night or nights is a really good idea. I should have been doing this for years. I usually just make leftovers be my lunch, therefore no one else has to eat the leftovers. Not really fair that I'm the only one doing it.

  5. CB in the City Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 02:46 pm 1515422812
    1515422812

    Yep, I eat it all. It's very rare for me to have to throw out food. But I live alone, so I don't have to deal with picky eaters or special diets.

  6. ceejay74 Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 03:54 pm 1515426898
    1515426898

    I so know your feeling! I've tried to avoid food waste for a long time but especially since last summer, when we were trying to reduce our spending deficit and eat EVERYthing in the cupboard. I was soo good, we barely threw anything away for months! But over the holidays I cooked way too much food and we bought more snacks than we could eat (some of them perishable) so, yeah, there was food waste. I just lost track of some leftovers, the fridge was so stuffed!

    We just have to accept that throwing more food away is sometimes a symptom of the holidays. Now we're back on track and I'm determined to eat everything again! Big Grin

  7. snafu Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 05:12 pm 1515431552
    1515431552

    I think many of us are products of childhood experiences. Our grandmother was horrified when we threw out food, her generation fought hungry during the war years. I find it efficient to use a site like www.allrecipes.com and add the ingredient in the fridge I wish to use up, their search box. It's easy to combine with something from ingredients at hand. I wonder if you'd find it more cost efficient to cook the entire package of ground meat or sausage, freezing the un-needed portion in a labelled zip bag. I keep a small box in fridge freezer of cooked portions, easily added to salad, appetizer, soup, stew, sauce, or Pita/Taco/Steam bun or even topping for a naked, baked potato.

  8. crazyliblady Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 05:34 pm 1515432877
    1515432877

    Leftovers are my favorite kind of meal. Just a couple of ideas to use up leftover sausage. If it is already cooked, you could add it to an omelet or stir it into scrambled eggs. If is raw, I like it mixed into meatloaf, chili, or spaghetti sauce.

  9. My English Castle Says:
    January 8th, 2018 at 06:22 pm 1515435738
    1515435738

    Oh CCF, we have SO much food in the house right now. I'm trying to use the fresh stuff wisely with one or two items from the freezer or pantry with every meal. Last night my daughter suggested quinoa salad rather than sandwiches for her lunch this week, and my cupboard was so heaving with stuff, I couldn't find the quinoa w/o a 10-minute search. I did manage to throw in a can of garbanzo beans from the pantry into the salad with much triumph. My daughter is less than enthusiastic about leftovers, but my DH will eat anything. However, I feel your pain as I had a very odd salad for lunch on Saturday. I need to make pumpkin bread today as we seem to have four or five (How?) cans of pumpkin. And the dog got the scrambled egg remains. Let's not talk about that damn turkey in the freezer. This will take me more than January. One meal at a time.

  10. kashi Says:
    January 9th, 2018 at 03:15 pm 1515510950
    1515510950

    Your posts and the Frugalwoods daily updates are inspiring me to use up what I have in the pantry and freezer and not go grocery shopping. My struggle is to eat what I have diligently prepped in advance, unless it's something that freezes well (soup, enchiladas, lasagna). I never feel like eating it later!

  11. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    January 10th, 2018 at 03:00 am 1515553220
    1515553220

    Just do the best you can. Really, is it good to ask more than that of ourselves? Why are you the only one eating leftovers? (Most of my meals during the week are leftovers - make a big pot of simians eat on it all week. Or freeze it in serving portions to eat later. )

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