Eat From the Pantry Challenge

There are a couple of blogs that I follow to help me be a more frugal mama and a better steward of the time and money that I have.  MoneySavingMom.com is one of my favorites.  She is co-hosting the Eat from the Pantry Challenge for the month of January.  It's not a contest or a competition, but rather an opportunity to challenge yourself to cut back and use up what you have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry.  Especially with a drop in our income (not to mention my husband spending most of 2009 unemployed) and even more so in this economic environment, the creativity to use what you have is a skill that I'd like to develop. 

While my pantry/fridge/freezer stockpiles aren't huge, I'm still going to give it my best shot.  My goal is to have meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks) for an entire week without having to shop for any ingredients.  My week will start on Sun, January 10th. Any longer I can go is a bonus. 

Here are my own 'rules' and caveats:

• I will still grocery shop during the challenge week, but only for essential dairy and produce (I do have an almost 2-year old in the house) as well as future food stockpiling.  
• I can't use any of the future stockpile stuff for challenge week meals.   
• No stockpiling purchases can be full price...they must be on sale, and preferably have coupons.
• I have a dinner commitment on Tuesday nights which I will keep; I have to make sure that my husband and daughter have ample leftovers to eat that evening.  
  

At least to me, this venture seems less intimidating when I'm doing it alongside other moms, even if they are online and I can't see them. I've felt inspired to continue to try to save money and have fun doing it.  MoneySavingMom has a FAQ's page with some leads on getting started saving  It's easier than you might think.

Being paid to shop

How fun is that?  I'd mentioned that I started couponing a number of posts ago, and it's really been saving us a lot of money.  Our grocery/household/personal care expense savings are hovering around 47% as of 2 months of couponing.

When I talk about it with friends who don't coupon, one of the questions I get the most is 'do you end up buying a lot of stuff you don't need?'  Here's my answer: I only buy stuff I don't need if it's either free and it's something I can give to a food pantry or other charity OR if I can make money by purchasing it.  Extra bonus if I can give it away.

One of my fave couponing and good-stewardship-of-your-finances websites is Money Saving Mom.  Here's her post giving readers a heads up on how to make $13 on Bayer meters at Walgreens as well as how to get free Lipton Tea and Theraflu.  I'm not diabetic, but I can certainly use $13 and give a glucose meter to charity so that someone who can't afford a meter can have one.  Everybody wins!

An essential for baby

I just helped throw a baby shower for one of my dear friends who is expecting her first child, a little girl, after over 3 years of trying to get pregnant. Just thinking about my friend and her husband and their joy over this new little one's upcoming arrival sometimes makes me tear up with gladness.

My sweet friend is a practical, fun-loving, stylish and down-to-earth mommy-to-be, who's seen my good, bad and ugly. She's also seen me parenting my daughter from the beginning, so I felt very honored that she's wanted to pick my brain about what I've felt is worth doing and buying for her baby girl.

It's been really rewarding to help her navigate the intimidating array of products out there from my experiences --both good and bad. I definitely got my jump start on finding the best baby gear from the book Baby Bargains. It's like Consumer Reports on steroids for all things pertaining to babies and toddlers. They do tons of research and you get the benefits in an easy-to-read format.

For example, the stroller section has detailed reviews on each company, model, and type of stroller. Then they organize the results by how you might want to use the stroller. Like if you live in say, New York City and ride on public transportation, you'd have much different stroller needs than someone who lives in the country or just wants to use their stroller for short outings.

You'll get the lowdown on price vs. quality for your baby needs, and there's also a section in the book for baby gear that you don't need to waste your money on. Let's face it, there's a large section of the baby gear industry (like the wedding industry) that is full of semi-useless items that you're made to think you need.

The book has a guarantee that it'll save you at least a couple hundred dollars if you follow its advice. They're not kidding. We saved that much on nursery furniture, let alone everything else. If you're having a baby, whether your first or your fifth, this book pays for itself over and over and over.