Eating from the freezer/pantry

My husband has been nudging me to use up our bountiful supply of food in our freezer instead of grocery shopping, and part of me has been stocking up on food in anticipation of the new baby.

I remember how exhausted I was when the last one was born and I had two to take care of, and I can only imagine how much more tired I will be with three little ones. I've been emotionally stocking up on food to make me feel better prepared, but I have a ton of food and even in the freezer, it doesn't last forever! SOOOOOOOOO when Moneysavingmom and Lifeasmom posted that they were going to be hosting an eating from your pantry challenge this month, I (reluctantly) decided to jump on board.

As they both wrote about, this will work differently for every person, and I am still going to be grocery shopping to some extent and stocking up on a few select deals (TRYING!), but mostly I'll stick to buying only essential things like milk, fresh fruit (which we eat all day long), bread, etc.

I started this week, so I'll be posting about what we ate, what was from my stock, and maybe even prices. We'll see. Here is the menu that I've worked up for this week:

Sunday:
pancakes (I made 6x the recipe last time I made these, so I have plenty left over and the cost for the amount we ate was probably about $.05 total)
sandwiches, canned peaches, and carrots ($.40 sandwiches, $.20 peaches, $.40 carrots = $1.00)


Monday:
cranberry orange muffins ($.65)
bean and cheese burritos and peaches ($.50 burrito stuff, $.35 peaches = $.85)
eat out (I was at the dr's office for about 5 hours, so it was an un-planned food run)

Tuesday:
cereal and yogurt ($.05 cereal, $.25 yogurt = $.30)
bologna sandwiches, strawberries, pound cake ($1.25 sandwiches, $.50 strawberries, FREE pound cake-courtesy of my MIL = $1.75)
beef stroganoff (hamburger helper, hey, it was easy and cheap!), salad, strawberries ($.55 HH, $.55 meat, $.75 salad, $1.00 strawberries= $2.85)

Wednesday:
pancakes ($.05)
been and cheese burritos, strawberries, and apples ($.50 burritos, $.50 strawberries, $.40 apples = $1.40)
pork chops, salad, mashed potatoes, peaches, and rolls ($4.00 pork chops, $.50 salad, $.35 mashed potatoes, $.20 peaches, $1.00 rolls = $6.05)

Thursday:
cereal and yogurt ($.30)
sandwiches, peaches, cookies ($.50 sandwiches, $.20 peaches, $.10 cookies = $.80)
breaded pork chops, mac and cheese, salad, cantalope ($3.00 pork chops, $.80 mac & cheese, $.75 salad, $.50 cantalope = $5.05)

Friday:
cereal and peaches ($.25)
leftovers (FREE)
????????????????? (sorry, but I honestly don't know!)

Saturday:
bacon, eggs, toast ($1.50 bacon, $.50 eggs, $.20 toast = $2.20)
pizza $1.90
jaeger schnitzel, noodles, steamed veggies and cantalope ($3.00 schnitzel, $1.00 noodles, $1.00 veggies, $.50 cantalope = $5.50)

Of the meals that I made this week, only about $6.00 was spent at the store, the rest of the ingredients were all from my freezer/pantry. I didn't think this would be fun, but it kind of is!