When you shop your kitchen before heading to the store, you use what you have and save money. Join this month’s Pantry Challenge to learn how.
It’s that time again! Time for our yearly Pantry Challenge here at Good Cheap Eats. While we continue on with stay-at-home orders here in California, I find that keeping up with my regular routines and yearly rituals is very grounding.
It also helps us eat well and save money, so the Pantry Challenge continues — despite what’s happening in the outside world.
Saving Money on Groceries
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 13 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.
Plus, we’ve been able to splurge on the occasional treat.
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 those things you acquired during the first quarantine.
I’ve talked to plenty of people who, for one reason or another, acquired a lot of different foods during the first quarantine/lockdown last March. 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. As part of the 2021 Grocery Savings Challenges, we’re working through each step of the Good Cheap Eats System, starting with — you guessed it — a pantry challenge, aka shop your kitchen first.
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 a dozen years. Each year takes a slightly different turn because each year my family has grown and changed.
Here are some of the circumstances we’re working with:
- There are currently seven of us in our household, six omnivores and one who prefers to eat vegan.
- We are currently “on lockdown” as they say, with all five kids doing school online and my husband working most days from home.
- Our beloved 4-door refrigerator has become an albatross around my neck. It started to fail in late September, was deemed irreparable in mid November, and here we are still waiting for the refund check from Samsung. It died for good in mid-December, so we’ve been carting food from the smaller garage fridge; the new WHIRLPOOL arrives on Saturday. Hallelujah!
- Since I’ve been refrigerant-challenged, I haven’t done shopping as normal, so we’re not going into this with as much food as we might normally.
- We still have a lot of food, just not a lot of veg.
- Which brings me to my last “challenge” in that several of us really want to eat more veg on a regular basis, so I will likely be buying a lot of that during the month. No apologies, I make the rules.
Of course, I hope we all 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.
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’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.
- I’m definitely going to Costco on the 3rd because I will have a fully operational, 25-cubit feet fridge and I haven’t been since November! There are lots of our regular buys that we are running low on and I’ve been hoarding my rebate check so hopefully, I won’t spend much.
- We will still get the occasional take-away. We made a decision to support local restaurants who we want to make sure will still be around when all the dust settles. So, yes, we’ll probably have one meal a week not cooked at home. We haven’t done a proper date night in almost six months due to restaurants no longer being fun, but if the opportunity arises, who knows?
- I’m going to aim for half our regular budget. I’ve been able to do it in the past. Not sure how it will go this month, but we’ll see. Our regular monthly budget for the seven of us is $1200. (Do the math here and see that it’s a food stamp budget for a family of seven.) I’m going to try to get by on $600.
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 tomorrow!
Jenny says
I’m going to try for all meals made at home unless I have a gift card/certificate to spend (so no cash spent on eating out). Fresh veggies are a big priority for us as well so we will definitely be restocking on produce throughout the month. Otherwise I’m going to do my best to dig in and use what I have. I’m excited!
Julie Smith says
Our house rules, sorta copied you!
1) Start 1/1, go as long as I can
2) Keep meals balanced with fruit/veg as much as possible, grocery store green light =anything fresh or freezable clearance
3) Eat out once a week
4) Use up what’s on closet/under bed (quarantine stash)
5)Savings goal: 1/3 to 1/2 usual budget . Hubby already spent this weeks grocery budget yesterday before I realized how close it was to January (what day is it, again?!) but I’m cool with that. But we have no room in our pantry so we HAVE to use some stuff up. Plus, we refinanced our mortgage yesterday and won’t owe in January-so any money we can add to our “mortgage payment” savings would be good.
Jessica Fisher says
Great job on the refi – and GREAT MOVE to give your savings goal a specific name. That will be a good motivator.
Lily says
I hear you on having some quarantine items to use up! I’m going to shop the kitchen first and supplement with fresh items we need. Not willing to forgo fresh veggies and fruit! What a blessing to have all this food to use up.
Jessica Fisher says
Indeed! Curious what funny things you might have to use up. We all have them.
Angie says
So glad I saw this post because I almost forgot about the January pantry challenge!
I need to clean out my upright freezer so it can be defrosted. I’m going to work hard on that this month.
I try to meal prep weekly based on what I have, but I don’t like to pass up a clearance item we will use. I will work better on balance.
Jessica Fisher says
I am a sucker for clearance items, too. While waiting for the fridge, though, I’m stymied for space. Saw great deals at Ralphs today on fresh produce, but no room until Sunday.
Pat says
The Pantry Challenge is my favorite time of year!! I can’t believe how many of these I’ve done.
Our rules are–
Start tomorrow and eat what we have already have.
Support the Knights of Columbus biweekly meals and one other restaurant once a week.
My green lights are fruits and vegetables.
Shooting for $100 or less this month-for 3 adults with pretty full freezers.
Jessica Fisher says
You are a queen at this, Pat. I know you’ll do well.
Michelle S. in California says
I’m definitely doing it a little differently this year. I, too, am newly dealing with thyroid issues, higher BP than normal and increased cholesterol, which all seemed to hit at once this year! I will be continuing our weekly produce box from a local farm and will supplement with extra produce as needed to keep our meals as healthy as possible.
We’re also committed to supporting our local restaurants through Covid, so we’re planning on having one takeout meal per week and l’ll continue to get some bread or pastries from our local bakery to keep them going.
My goal is to cut our grocery shopping budget in half and put that money away in savings. My best friend Amy is going to join us for the first time this year so l’m excited to have her doing it, too!
Thanks, Jessica!
Jessica Fisher says
Yay! Glad you’re going to join us. Welcome to Amy, too.
Sherry says
First time doing this with a group! Here are my thoughts:
1) 5 people home currently, 2 will leave for college over the next month. Our normal budget is $650 for everything including vitamins and pet supplies, also paper products. I’m planning to go down to $400, as I do have a freezer that is well stocked with meat due to an anniversary check that we put towards food . Exciting huh?
2) I will stock fruits and veggies.
3) $125 was already spent on replenishing staples after the Christmas holiday when we shopped in strange patterns. Tight for sure.
4) I’m excited for new ideas so love all the posts and comments.
5) Only eating out will be using some gift cards we received for Christmas.
Jessica Fisher says
Welcome to the Pantry Challenge, Sherry! Glad you’re jumping in!
Carol B. says
I’m in. Trying to eat what we have.
Rules: go as long as I can before shipping again. Okay to get: milk, veggies, salad stuff
and husband’s lunch food.
Work especially on food in freezer.
Cindy W says
Hi Jessica – I’ve been following you off and on for a while, and I bought NYM Make Ahead and Freeze book about a year ago. Batch cooking got me through quarantine(s) and lockdowns – mostly because feeding my family (6 adults at home) was something I could control in an otherwise completely mad world. Thanks for that – you helped save my sanity. And MAN, is it NICE to not cook every single day! Anyway, I was just doing up a grocery order for a batch cooking storm session when I saw this – I didn’t know you did this, it’s brilliant, and I’m in. Our regular budget is 2K/month (we are in Canada). I’ll see if I can cut that in half – and throw the money at the mortgage. Fresh veg and dairy will be all that’s allowed – well, and toilet paper, if we can FIND any! Sheesh! Thanks for all you do, I’m off to print the inventory pages!
Jessica Fisher says
So glad you found us, Cindy. Welcome!
Kelly Cook says
I’m going to do some sort of challenge with you in January and have some food related goals for the year that will apply more when fresh produce is in abundance – like recognizing it has a short life, and processing it ahead of other tasks. I need to restock some of my spices (so I can keep using your recipes for onion dip and ranch dressing) and I will probably eat lunch out every Monday. My daughter has 2 weekly appointments that are an hour away from home and there’s a 90 minute break between them right at lunch time. I MIGHT get to the point of packing a lunch, but it’s not high on my list right now. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
PS – I like that you are trying to support your local restaurants!
Jessica Fisher says
Well, if you’re going to PV, we really liked Colt BBQ on a recent visit. Yum!
Kelly Cook says
That is where we go, thanks for the suggestion!
Lynn from NC Outer Banks says
Count me in! I think I “lurked” on these challenges for several years before finally going public with my challenge ~4 years ago, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I look forward to reconnecting with old virtual friends here, and in meeting others.
Last January, I did great-only spending $37. I continued into February and made additional progress, uncovering more white space while curtailing expenditures. Same with March-I limited my purchases and whittled down my stockpile, slowly but surely. I even took pictures and sent them to my mother of my progress. 🙂 And then, mid March happened. At first I was a bit anxious since I no longer had my big stockpile. But, like others, I continued to use up what I had (and did a lot of scratch baking for bread, made Jessica’s buns etc). I finally felt like I had exhausted my options after about 3 more weeks and ultimately did a big shopping run the first of April. And, then-as many of us found, the “hunting” for food began as shortages occurred. I went back to check my total from the archives and Heather’s comment last year from the end of January was (Hi Heather) foretelling. She said “i do like to keep a decent stock on hand in the cupboards and freezer, just because. we have good friends who live in Beijing and are basically stuck at home for the foreseeable future. They do run out to shop, but that’s about all that’s happening. If we were to have some sort of emergency that way, we’d be ok to stay in for a while. We’d probably miss our fresh veg and fruit once it was gone, but we’d still be good for a while with frozen and pantry items.”
My rules this year? I’m just going to shop my kitchen and eat what we have, but if I run across good sales, I’ll be buying. I found staying on budget last year (after the challenge, during the pandemic) quite difficult, what with the increasing prices of food, the lack of sales and unavailability of items (still). Consequently, I’m out of a few staples (peanut butter for one) and will need to purchase them. Any money I save will go towards unexpected household maintenance:( (The price of living in “paradise”). As usual, my proteins are a bit limited in variety, but we should have enough. (For my birthday, we went shrimping and caught a LOT of fresh shrimp, so I’m not complaining about having excess of that!) I’m still harvesting lettuce and spinach so will enjoy these fresh greens as long as possible. I’m anticipating a frugal January and lots of camaraderie with like minded people. Thanks Jessica, for hosting the challenge again!
Heather M says
Hi Lynn!! OK WOW you remembered/resurrected that comment! Thank you… I had forgotten. It’s been a doozy of a year and I am now remembering I said that. Who knew we’d be in the same boat?! I am back, even if my challenge will be a mixed bag while kids are home from school and my birthday this week. But, my rules, right? 😉 Happy to be back and to interact with you. Happy New Year!
Heather M says
And Also?? you went shrimping?? so cool! and what a nice benefit having all that shrimp available!
Jessica Fisher says
How young and innocent we all were last January. LOL! My hair stylist agreed I’ve got more white hairs than I did earlier in the year. So glad you’re back, Lynn!
Tasty says
Glad to see the return of the Pantry Challenge! I’ve done it, like others here, for years and enjoy the challenge of it. During than pandemic I have kept our freezers and pantry well-stocked. Here in Ontario we are in a lockdown situation for at least the next 3 weeks. Grocery shopping is considered essential but even so I will cut back where we sensibly can. Fresh fruit, veggies and dairy are non-negotiable and real bargains I will not say no to but my aim is still to use what we have already. It takes a long time for 2 old folks to eat their way thru 2 freezers full!
Tasty says
Should have said we are starting today!
Sandi says
Happy to join in again. I need to re-org the freezer again and find the things that have been languishing in corners. I always remember the more recent purchases when I am thinking of what to cook. I have lost my freezer inventory list and need to make a new one.
I don’t think I bought any crazy things when things started shutting down – I didn’t need to, I still had too much food at home to use up! – but I have had a few general splurges during the year. The whole “things are tough, we deserve this” thing resulted in an average of 15% more than planned. That’s ridiculous. Time to reign it back in. I have actually done a fair bit of freezer cooking which could make this a lot easier. I just have to be careful since the desserts called our names a lot this year, and in an attempt to hold onto at least a LITTLE control, I froze portions of those pies/cakes/cheesecakes/cookies and of course ice cream… We can’t have that be the only thing we clear out!
Jessica Fisher says
My freezer is full of dessert, I’m sad to say. Clearly I bake too much every December.
Harriet says
We started several days ago. We had leftover Christmas ham and turkey. We’ve had turkey sandwiches, turkey salad, turkey pot pie, pasta ham salad, scalloped potatoes with ham and ham salad. Sick of turkey and ham, but it is all gone now. Tonight we used up 80% of the leftovers. Son, 20, said “we always have leftovers”. I reminded him that we have to cook to have leftovers. (In his defense, he works for the sheriff’s office and takes one or two meals from home per 12 hour shift so technically he does eat a lot of left overs.) I’ve printed off several of your meal planners and I am ready! I think this makes year #8?!
Cindy says
I’m looking forward to joining the challenge, thank you Jessica!
I believe my rules will be much the same as most of those joining – fresh veges and fruit won’t be sacrificed and that great deal that cannot be passed up nor the items that I have had a difficult time finding in our area since the pandemic came upon us.
Since the holidays were pretty low key and large and small gatherings were discouraged, I did very little baking so the leftover goodies are nonexistent. I’ll be baking some breads and cookies as we go through the month, sadly there will be no complaining about a freezer stuffed with goodies this year.
On with the 2021 pantry challenge!
Susan clark says
Happy NEW YEAR.
I started our pantry challenge Dec. 31. We are 2 older folks. I’m retired and my sweetie is still working remote.
We meal plan and pantry shop but we need to do better.
Aldi is our main store. We spent $89.03 fruit, veg and dairy.
Breakfast: oatmeal with fruit, bagels with fruit, smoothies, toast and jam. The occasional bacon or sausage patties. Eggs some way….
Lunch: Some kind of veg salad such as broccoli and feta with pasta, or Lentil salad with veg or roasted veg quesadilla or nachos!
Dinner this coming week: Pantry creamy tomato soup with Ham and cheese sliders, Pho – Chicken, French Bread Pizza, Grilled ham steals with 3 cup roasted veg, Pam’s Black Bean soup with Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla, Turkey Hoppin John and slaw, Garden Pasta toss.
We have a frig and 2 small freezer in our garage. We freeze, can and purchase meat in bulk from local folks.
It imperative that we eat from our pantry during these winter months so we can restock during the growing season.
Blessings to all. Susan from Durham North Carolina
Jessica Fisher says
Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla sounds amazing!
Karen J says
Welcome 2021!
Previously my pantry challenge rules were..
Spend NO money!
DO NOT go into stores!
My new rules are I’ll continue shopping what’s needed-fresh food basically-during senior groceries hours. Going to the grocery store is the only public place I go to during this pandemic and I don’t want to give that up. Another goal is to try to use those odd things that are sitting on the top shelf of the pantry.
I’ve done my inventory and we have a lot of food for two retired people. (Hello 25 bags of various dried beans!) Also it seems I have an abundance of chicken in the freezer so I’m seeing lots of chicken/bean dinners.
It’s nice to see all the familiar names in the comment section. I think I’ve been doing this pantry challenge maybe ten years? A long time and it’s always fun.
Alice E says
I’ll be doing the challenge, sorta, but since I just stocked up and didn’t really plan to do any shopping for weeks I feel a bit like I cheated. Weather and the virus depending I may shop for dairy and limited produce. However, I am stocked up on meat, frozen veg and fruit, starches and most things. Since the new year started today with about 4 – 5 inches of snow it’s a good feeling not to need to go out.
Since my husband’s death from a massive heart attack, I’m only cooking for myself and life has quite a few leftovers, lots of which get stored in the freezer so I can have more variety in my diet. If the weather is bad, I do have canned and powdered milk and can get by without shopping unless I really want to go shopping.
My pantry and freezers are full, but they were always well stocked and the pandemic shortages didn’t cause us too much trouble looking for anything but hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes. I was lucky and had stocked up on TP about a month before the rush. I will probably always keep the pantry fairly well stocked, I learned to cook when my folks lived ‘twenty miles from everywhere’ and feel more comfortable shopping the pantry and keeping it restocked and rotated.
Like others, my expense for food has been higher due to shortages and the lack of sales for so many months.
Looking forward to hearing how everyone is doing.
Maureen says
I am so sorry to hear about your husband. I’m glad that you’ll be joining us. I look forward to hearing from new and returning participants. Most of us need a little extra community this year.
Lynn from NC Outer Banks says
Oh Alice, I’m so very sorry to hear of the loss of your husband. Glad you are joining in with this community.
Jessica Fisher says
I’m so sorry for your loss, Alice. I’m so glad you’re able to join us again!
tasty says
Alice, please accept my condolences. How are you doing?
Tasty
Mary says
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 says
Thanks for the rec, Mary.
Maureen says
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.
Kathy in Denmark says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
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 says
She was a journalist before she moved, so she interviewed “experts” in many fields.
Heather M says
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. 🙂
Amy L says
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.