July Pantry Challenge! And Possibly August!

 

It’s that time again!  In the past few months I’ve stumbled upon a lot of great deals at the supermarkets and Costco allowing me to fill up both of my freezers, my pantry and my LTFS.  Now it is time to eat some of that wonderful stuff I have on hand.  I can’t think of a better way to really focus on what I have rather than buying more stuff and I want to make sure I stay on my set grocery budget this year so a pantry challenge it is!

 

I’ll be pulling food from my kitchen and garage freezers while I concentrate on using up anything that might have been sitting in there for awhile or otherwise could go to waste.  I’ll keep tabs too on anything that might be aging in the pantry or on the LTFS shelves.  After all, there is no point in stocking up on a good bargain if you allow it to go to waste.

 

My plan as far as shopping goes is to only buy fresh produce and dairy items and replace only the pantry items I run low or out of.  Even if I see a really good bargain on meat I’m going to have to pass on it because my deep freezer is full to capacity so I have no room to add anything else.  I also want to clear out the kitchen freezer so I can have the space back on the bottom section for meal prepping.  Right now it has been catching the overflow from the deep freezer, which is not its intended purpose.

 

Another area for me to work on is the frozen produce bin in the deep freezer as some of that is from last summer.  I’m not going to need to do as much canning this year as I did last year because the LTFS shelves are still well stocked and I’ve been using quite a bit of those jars this year so far.  It has been super handy having my own home canned soups and meats on the shelf to make a quick meal for myself, especially if I’m having a fun filled day working on projects or crafting.

 

So this is my plan for my July pantry challenge and to be perfectly honest I’m thinking it will likely extend on into August as well.  I’ve been very blessed to have been able to stock up quite a bit in the first five months of 2025, especially given the small grocery budget I work off of each month.  Watch for my post at the end of the month to see how I do.