When you shop your kitchen before heading to the store, you use what you have and save money. Not only that, but you learn better shopping habits. Shopping your kitchen and using what you have informs your grocery shopping going forward so you buy more of what you like and less of what you don’t.
Join this month’s Pantry Challenge to learn how to make the most of food you have on hand so you can save time and money.
It’s that time again! Time for our yearly Pantry Challenge here at Good Cheap Eats. This is our 14th year of shopping the kitchen in a big way.
My family might groan a little bit, but trust me when I say they will eat fantastically well this month — and we save money!
Saving money on food costs is one of my big life pursuits and also the driving force behind the Good Cheap Eats System. I know that saving money on groceries frees those funds up for bigger and better things, like saving for retirement, helping the kids with college costs, traveling the world, and more.
Over the last 14 years, making an effort to save money on groceries has allowed us to pay off debt, build a large emergency fund, spend two months in European, replace our vehicles, and contribute to our kids’ college educations.
The first step in the System is to shop the kitchen first, basically what we do — on steroids — during a pantry challenge.
Why Shop Your Kitchen?
When you shop your kitchen, you’re doing several things:
You avoid overbuying.
When we head to the store without really knowing what’s already on hand in the kitchen, we’re more likely to buy extras of things we already have. Conversely, by shopping the kitchen first, you use what you have and only buy what you actually need.
You avoid food waste when you shop your kitchen.
Many of us buy ingredients with the full intention of making this recipe or that. Life happens, though, and sometimes the recipe doesn’t get made. The ingredients are forgotten and languish in the pantry, fridge, or freezer. If long-forgotten, they end up getting tossed because we didn’t use them in time.
By shopping the kitchen, you make sure you use what you have before it goes bad.
You learn to be more creative in the kitchen.
Whether you make more things from scratch, like pantry staples you’ve run out of, or simply play a real live game of Chopped, when you shop your kitchen first this allows you/forces you to get more creative in the kitchen.
You expand your cooking skills. You are able to avoid pricier restaurant fare because you can make just as good — or better — at home! This gives you so many more options in how to spend your food dollar.
You adjust your shopping habits to save more money in the future.
When you shop your kitchen, you start to see patterns in your shopping habits that might be costing you money. Surprisingly, you may notice that your family isn’t really eating the same things they always did. Huh. You find out what eating habits are changing.
Once you notice these, you can shift gears and adjust your shopping to be more in line with how you really live. In turn, you save money.
You save money when you shop your kitchen!
Folks will argue with me that a pantry challenge doesn’t save money since you eventually buy more food to replace what you’ve used up. To those people, can I direct you to points #1 and #2. And #3. And #4.
Spending focused time in your kitchen helps you enjoy more great meals for less money.
You use up things you acquired over the last few months.
I’ve talked to plenty of people who, for one reason or another, acquired a lot of different foods during the pandemic. Whether it was a panic buy of things you never buy (hello, canned soup) or the fact that grocery pickup substituted things you wouldn’t normally purchase, chances are you, too, have some things that need using up.
For me, I’ve got some self-rising flour that I grabbed when flour was scarce. It’s not a regular in my shopping list, so time to use some up.
Out with the old as far as I’m concerned! Let’s use up these things during the pantry challenge.
Note: during this month’s challenge, I do recommend that you keep an emergency supply separate from what you want to eat down.
I store my 14-day supply in waterproof tubs in the cupboard under the stairs. It’s there in case of an emergency, so I don’t worry about using what’s in the kitchen already.
How to Shop Your Kitchen
This month is a great time to learn how to shop your kitchen. The process is pretty simple.
Take inventory of what you have.
Pull things out of cupboards, fridge, and freezer to see what you really have on hand. It’s best if you write this down and consult it frequently.
Read: Freezer Inventory: How To Keep Track of What You’ve Got
Generate some meal ideas based on what you have.
Once you’ve got your inventory, create a master list of meals you can make. This will help you plan.
Read: The Easy Meals You Need to Make When There’s “Nothing” to Eat
Set aside some time for meal prep.
After years of shopping the kitchen during the month of January, I’ve learned how important meal prep is. You will get tired. You will want something to eat.
Do yourself a favor and prep some foods in advance so you don’t have to cook every meal every day. Trust me!
What my challenge will look like this year…
I’ve been doing this every January for over a dozen years. Each year takes a slightly different turn because each year my family has grown and changed — in age as well as food preferences and restrictions.
Here are some of the circumstances we’re working with:
- There are currently seven of us in our household, six omnivores and one who is in the process of a full diagnosis for celiac disease. One of my daughters has a life-threatening peanut and walnut allergy that we accommodate for.
- Two of my kids are in college, but live at home, eating or packing most meals from my kitchen. My husband works at a local university and packs his meals from home as well. I work from home along with my three homeschooled teens so we’re eating all day from home most days, particularly in January.
- The most recent USDA food cost reports (November 2021) estimate that it costs $1492.65 for a family of our make-up to eat all meals at home. My budget has hovered around $1200 these last few years, so this is a huge increase. I plan to beat the feds’ estimates.
- I am currently fighting high cholesterol and some wicked anemia (in my mind, two competing conditions), so my food this month is going to need to cater to both issues as my February meeting with my cardiologist approaches.
- We have two refrigerators, an upright freezer, and a walk-in pantry. All are full to the gills and I don’t have a great idea of what’s there, though I suspect a lot of tortilla chips and sweets.
Of course, I recognize what a blessing it is to have excess food and that it’s a “good” problem to have when we have so much food we need to spend a month using it up. Here’s to using it up and clearing the kitchen clutter.
Are there rules to shop your kitchen?
As always, I encourage you to make your own rules. It’s your kitchen, your food, your mouths to feed. That said, I do encourage you to make some rules. It’s a challenge and you want to see it through.
Ask yourself these questions as you craft your shop your kitchen rules:
- Want to save money?
- Do you need to clear space?
- Are there excess panic buys in your cupboards to use up?
- Is there food on hand that you wouldn’t normally buy that would be good to use up?
- Do you need to get a grip on shopping and spending and just be content with what you have? (This is a huge psychological benefit to shopping your kitchen!)
- Can you make it a full month or would a week suffice?
- Will you shop sales, do grocery pick-up, change your approach?
- Are you still getting take-out to support local businesses during a pandemic?
Here are my rules this year:
- I’m starting January 1 and will try to make it through to the end. I’ll post a round up of our meals here on the blog every night. I won’t reply to every comment because there are just so many hours in the day. Regulars, help newbies out and answer questions if I haven’t gotten to it yet.
- Should we get sick or a zombie apocalypse occur, I get an out. Just saying. I will buy what we need.
- I’m going to focus on using what we have, especially in the pantry, but try to keep meals balanced. In the past, I’ve done a lot of carbo-loading (ie bread and cheese) in January. Good for the under-40 crowd, not good for those of us who are dealing with high cholesterol and thyroid issues.
- We will still get the occasional restaurant meal. We don’t typically eat out a lot, but we have our seasons where it gets crazy. My husband and I do a weekly date night, and we get one family meal a week on average.
- My goal is to spend no more than $700 on groceries this month, down from a USDA estimate of $1493 for a family of my size. I’m not sure what’s crazier? The estimated food cost or the goal to spend less than half.
- I’m cashing out my rebates. While my Costco rebate check is pretty low — we shop ALDI more often than Costco these days — I do have a sizeable Ibotta balance that I’ve been saving for the Pantry Challenge. Since I don’t take those rebates into account when I track my monthly spending, it’s a bit like “free money”. I’ve been letting it add up for the last year and have accrued $343.22 in Ibotta earnings. That will go toward my grocery spending this month in addition to my Costco rebate check of $54.36, almost $400 total. Here’s hoping groceries aren’t more than $300 out of pocket this month!
(If you’re interested in trying Ibotta, you can get an extra $5 back on your first purchase when you use my referral link.)
Ready to get started?
Let me know in the comments what guidelines you’ll set for yourself during the Shop Your Kitchen Pantry Challenge in January!
Feel free to grab the image above and share on social so your friends and family can join us.
See ya tonight!
Keli
Will be joining! Started yesterday but really these first two days has been eat all the leftovers as we had a lot. Mainly trying to eat down some of what we have and go to the stores less.
Linda B
I’m in. Cleaning out the pantry and main fridge today to do an inventory. If I find anything weird in the pantry…or anything nearing or past best by date…I’m pulling those into one bin so I can concentrate on getting those things used up first. I know there is plenty of meat in the freezer to make just about any meal we want, so we’ll be concentrating on pantry items this month and through mid-February. We have a few Groupons and free meal coupons and gift cards for local restaurants. We’ll use those, but otherwise no eating out for us!
Kathy in Denmark
I am in as well – it’s become a fun tradition to do the PC each January 🙂
I’m pretty well stocked, but it’s not too crazy!
I haven’t done my inventory yet, but I’m sure I’ll find some things I forgot about which I’ll want to use up.
We also had our entire first floor redone this year, so any money I can save will be a plus as we work on building our savings back up.
Kathy in Denmark
Oops – I meant last year, not this year! Our builders were good, but not THAT good 😀
Cindy
I’m in, although, I will be shopping the “loss leaders” at my local store when I need to do a vege/fruit/dairy run. I make most of my own bread and baked goods (only the hubby and I now) so we purchase very little bakery/bread items. I also will be on the lookout for any meat deals since it’s gotten so crazy expensive.
My pantry is in good shape, I have plenty of home canned pasta sauces, Roma tomatoes and chili base from our abundant garden last summer. We also have an ample stockpile of pastas, rice, and beans. In addition, my garden produce has filled a couple of shelves in the freezer with green beans, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash and pumpkin to be used up as well.
We’ve got a few holiday leftovers that will be part of the menu plan in the next couple of days.
I’m looking forward to the challenge!
Sue
Funny I told my hubs a little while ago we were going to eat all our food before buying more! He sort of went nuts when we were first shut down, insisting we would run out and not be able to get more. My walk in pantry looks like a small grocery store. I have successfully been able to get through all the meat in the freezer so that’ll be easy. I always shop sales, though living in the country I only have two local stores to shop. I see what’s on sale meat wise and that’s what we eat. But it’ll be a challenge for sure to pare down that pantry!
Jennifer
I do plan on joining, but I already ordered out for dinner due to lack of planning and being out at my sister’s later than I thought. Must do better!
I have 5 people at home – dh, myself, ds 23, ds 19 (for another week and then he goes back to college) and dd 17.
My boys are going hunting this week for hog so I am working on getting some of the bigger stuff out of my freezers in anticipation of getting a bunch of pork. Yesterday we ate some large packs of pierogies I had bought at the end of the farmers market season so that felt good.
It’s gymnastics season so we are going to be traveling quite a bit over the next 2 months. Other than that I am hoping to avoid eating out – unlike today.
Julie
I’m in for 2 months! I learned how to can this year (both water bath and pressure canning) had a big garden and just counted 533 jars of food I put up on the basement plus more in the kitchen (and we’ve eaten and given away lots) . So I budgeted 75 dollars Jan and Feb each for milk and a little fresh produce for my family of 6. I have 4 full freezers plus the 2 freezers on top of fridges and want to rotate the garden produce we froze. I’ve been doing this pantry challenge for years and it’s the highlight of my January.
Kari
Yes-wlll try the Pantry-Challenge, but link didn’t work as forgot my P-Word. We are Seniors+ live on very fixed income+ so enjoy your hints,tips+recipes. Also try to always buy Foods and include some long lasting Prod-items: as-Carrots/Spuds Rutabagas/Onions/Celery:so can always either round out a Meal- or make tasty Soups/Stews. Also search-bargain-bins & Reduce-Quick-Sale bruise Fruits/Veg to use immediate & Ditto as short-date Meat-items… as divvy-up in very SM-Size=eat very little meat also. Often have some Dried Lentils/Barley/Beans on hand to add-heartiness add up-ing Protein content:Meals. Occasionally get Quinoa too: but is >expensive. In our area Food-Prices jumped good 20-25% lately.. so are really pinching pennies.Happy YR-2022!
Kimberly
I am excited for my second year of participating! I decided to start today, seeing how we are on COVID quarantine until Monday anyway?
Make homemade chicken noodle soup for the first time ever usually all pantry items and bits of fridge leftovers. My supply is definitely lower than last year though, so I will budget $500 (includes food and toiletries). I will try my hand at more homemade snacks and will force myself to use up everything in the freezer…including those baggies of pumpkin purée! One lunch and one dinner out per week.
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great plan! Welcome back!
Laura
I’ll be starting this today. I’m good to go. I’m going to try to stay under $200. I had trouble last year but I have a bigger pantry this time around.
Jessica Fisher
Sounds good! Can’t wait to hear how it goes for you!
Amy L
We’ll be starting the 4th (b/c hubs has been making lots of meals over break!). My freezer is busting at the seams from stocking up during pandemic/pre-holidays!
Goals are healthier, low prep, easy meals for during the week. One dinner out/week is reasonable. And I hope to enlist the kids to help making lunches & muffins/treats for breakfasts.
Heather M
A little late in getting this in, but I’m in too. My rules are a little flexible until jan. 17, when my younger child heads back to university; the older leaves on Thursday the 7th. It’s especially flexible until she leaves on the 7th because it’s also my birthday on the 6th. My general rules include buying fresh produce, and then anything else we consider a staple if we need it. And once the kids are both gone there will be no more takeout for the foreseeable future. We didn’t get any for months(highly unusual, but pandemic) and when we finally started, it still was only once or twice a month. Until both kids came home and the holidays hit. Since Christmas day I have cooked only one dinner. So yeah. Back to healthy and cooking are the big goals, along with eating down the stores, which are pretty full. Happy New Year everyone! Happy to be here and to see all the regulars and meet all the new people here. 🙂
Kathy in Denmark
I’m in!
Like many others, I have added extra to the pantry since march, simply because I wanted to be sure we had what we needed if we should need to isolate. That means I also have a few things in my pantry that I wouldn’t ususally have, and they need to go 🙂
I will still shop for staples and bargains, but I will focus on rotating things and staying under budget.
Jessica Fisher
Welcome back, Kathy. So glad you’re able to join us. I just finished a book about Denmark and have thought about you a lot lately. Hope all is well with you and yours.
Kathy in Denmark
Thanks, Jessica.
It’s been up and down, but we are doing well! Hope you are too.
I’m intrigued – what is the book called?
Jessica Fisher
The book is called “The Year of Living Danishly”, written by a British woman who relocated to Jutland when her husband got a job for Legoland. It seemed to really generalize about Danes, “all Danes are this way” and that bothered me. If there was a book about how Americans are (and I’m sure there are plenty! lol) I don’t think my family would fit the descriptions. So, as I read, I kept wondering, what would Kathy say about this? 🙂
Kathy in Denmark
I’m sure you’re right about the generalizations – one size doesn’t fit all.
I am also surprised that she found this out in just a year – Danes are notorious for being hard to get to know, so a year seems like a very short time for her to find us out LOL
Anyway, I ordered it at my local library and am looking forward to reading it 🙂
Jessica Fisher
She was a journalist before she moved, so she interviewed “experts” in many fields.
Maureen
I’m in. This year’s goals are healthier eating, minimize waste, and a complete clean out of the freezers and pantry. I’m hoping to really only purchase healthy food this month. We have quite a few treats already in the house. And we have a bunch of pantry and freezer items that no one wants anymore…so we’re going to suck it up and eat them. It will be a balancing act working those into snacks and meals. I really want to completely purge and rotate the pantry (then stock up for the rest of winter) and defrost the chest freezer. Pretty sure I won’t get to that until February.
Mary
I’m in, mostly because my freezer organization has fallen apart and I’m spending tomorrow getting it inventoried and roughly organized. That will make it much easier to eat what we have.
For inspiration about how to use odd ingredients, I’d like to recommend the website eatyourbooks.com. It is an online database of thousands of cookbooks and online recipe blogs. Membership is free for you to include up to five of your own cookbooks, and $30/year to have indexes of all your books, or at least the ones that have been indexed.
Jessica Fisher
Thanks for the rec, Mary.