"That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed." Titus 2:4-5

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

More Benefits to a Stocked Pantry

I have posted more than once about how important it is to keep a well stocked pantry.  Usually my reasons are related to preparedness for uncertain events.  Today, I am grateful for my pantry because it is a tight food budget week!  Well, it's always tight, but I'm at the end of the month's food money.  I realized today that I have $45 to stretch for 9 days of meals.  I don't know how much you usually spend, or how much the cost of food is in your area, but around here that doesn't go very far!

However, I am very happy with the fact that I have come far with planning frugal meals and making my grocery money streeeettttcccchhhh.  I thought it might be tough to stretch that money, but....I sat down with my pen and paper, and in less that five minutes I had a list of 9 meals down.  AND....all I would have to spend in order to make these nine meals was 6 dollars!!  Wow!  Why???  Because of my well stocked pantry and freezer.

Here is the list of meals that I quickly came up with:

  • Whole chicken (need to buy: $3.50) with either potatoes or rice, veggie (all on hand)
  • Chicken rice soup with leftover chicken (rice in pantry, veggies and stock in freezer)
  • Ham and Bean soup with leftover ham from fridge (pantry FULL of beans)
  • Pork chops (in freezer) and potatoes (in pantry)
  • Steak (in freezer), baked potatoes
  • Beef stew (stew meat in freezer, potatoes, carrots, beef broth, etc. in pantry and fridge)
  • Beans and rice (pantry)
  • Pasta with marinara sauce (both stored in pantry)
  • Shepherd's pie (buy ground beef:$2.50)

Now, I will likely add bread and/or salad to some of these meals, as I'm not completely done planning them yet.  I can bake the bread or biscuits or whatever, and I have a lot of lettuce in my fridge.

So, with my measley little $45, I'll be picking up the ground beef and chicken that I need, then using the rest to stock the fridge with the basics: milk, yogurt, butter, juice, etc.

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