Personal blog of christian
writer & fallible mom
Katy McKenna Raymond
in Kansas City, Missouri
Katy is represented by
Rachelle Gardner at
WordServe Literary
Read more Katy at
LateBoomer.net
Recent Posts
- Soul Train
- Live Out Your Dream And Discard The Box
- Tears In A Bottle
- From The Young Mom I Once Was, To You
- I Can’t Help Falling
- What A Difference Ten Years Makes
- The Next Best Thing To Robert Redford
- The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
- Where Have All The Years Gone
- Fun With Kiki Cullen
- Stuck On Mom
- Ten Years Later, Our Girls From Northern Ireland Remembered
- The Thrift of Grief
- Job Security
- The Party’s Over
Syndicate
E me at katy @ ngenius.com
The Pantry Challenge
Since the Raymonds have been hitting it on nearly every front in their effort to eliminate debt, raise funds for their son’s last year of college, trample waste, obliterate clutter, and vanquish fat, why not add a good old-fashioned pantry challenge to the cause?
I’d actually told Doug a couple of weeks ago that I’d be tackling this, since vowing to stay out of the stores unless absolutely necessary. But then I started reading on personal finance and frugality blogs about how others had done it, too, and got even more motivated.
So, here’s the challenge we’re taking on: Until Sept 1, we will only purchase in the grocery store those items needed for the sake of freshness, such as milk, eggs, fruit and veggies. Other than those few items, all meals will be made from items already contained in our pantry and freezers.
I’m thinking that just by using what we’ve got, we can pocket a couple hundred dollars. More, of course, if you count the meals we’re not eating out, which by now are legion. We’re not eating out at all, in other words.
This morning, I got a powerful hankering for an omelet from a local dive. With coffee and tip, it would have cost the two of us maybe $14 to get out of the place. Instead, Doug made me one of his beautiful omelets, with bacon bits and mozarella and onion. I figure with eggs costing ten cents each, we spent less than fifty cents per omelet. Including coffee.
We got the satisfaction of the omelets themselves, plus the joy of not spending another $13 to eat them.
Now, I’ll say up front that around mid-August, I plan to have a going-away party for my son, who will be gone the better part of a year in Switzerland. It goes without saying that I won’t be able to pull off a party for 50 people or so using just the ingredients in my pantry, but the rest of these six weeks?
Ah, yes. The Pantry Challenge has begun.
That’s a really good idea. =)
Hmm…mind emailing me some of those frugality blogs? Methinks I could use the inspiration.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/12/06 at 12:52 AMLynn—I haven’t settled on any particular faves yet. Kind of still cruising the frugality bricks online. If you google frugality or simplicity, you’ll come up with tons of sites! I like a personal finance blogs, too. Real people being transparent about their struggles and goals. Not a lot of pretense with these folks!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/13/06 at 11:46 AMI couldn’t find your comment, for some reason. Thanks for the suggestion - I’m doing so now. Finances has been on my mind lately, causing undue stress…
Perhaps I need a real blog of my own. *laughs*
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/17/06 at 02:09 AM
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