The Cow Fund

This is officially the last day of the month, and I still have food in the pantry! I was hesitant to even start the "Eating From The Pantry Challenge", but it ended up being easier than I expected. It really challenged me to come up with meals that were maybe a little different than the norm, since I couldn't just run to the store.

I had planned to spend around $20-25 a week, and I ended up spending just $58.31 total for the month! The crazy thing is that if you look at all four weeks...I got a ton of stuff for $58.31. The cow fund has grown from a whopping zero to $101.69 just this month! While I am filled with bliss, I am afraid my happy smiling cow is filled with deep sorrow...I'm just saying....

This month I came to the realization that something has to change.

A.) I need to either lower my grocery budget...we just don't need $40 a week. We could have fed a family of ten with all the food we had/have.

B.) We need to do this eating from the pantry thing more often.

I am leaning towards making the eating from the pantry a quarterly thing... buy for 3 months, and eat it all up in the 4th! Maybe I will do both? I will let you know when we decide...I know you will be sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting to find out...right????

How did you all do this month? Did you participate at all? If so what was your "cow" that you were saving for?

Packing the Pantry

In the home stretch I broke down and got me some chicken, some cheap chicken at least! All I needed was some cheese for my pizza and milk. My total for the week was....$14.86. So, I contributed $25.14 to the "cow fund" this week. I can't believe my eating from the pantry challenge is almost up...I will be back with a synopsis very soon!

Eating From The Pantry Challenge

Several day ago while reading Money Saving Mom's blog, I came across this new challenge. The challenge is to eat from your pantry for the month of January. At first I thought it was neat, but not what I would be interested in.

The more I thought about it, I realized this would be a great idea for me. After taking inventory of my pantry/freezer, I saw that I have enough food to feed a whole army for a month. So, here I go on this new challenge!

Now, I am setting my own rules, ones that work for us!
1. I will be going to the store primarily for milk and produce...things that you can't stockpile!

2. I will keep my weekly budget to $20-25 a week this month!

3. We will still be eating out 1-2 times a week (that comes from our entertainment budget)

Our normal grocery budget is $40 a week. If I follow as planned I should be able to save $60-80 minimum over the course of the month! I will tell you soon what we intend to do with that saved money!