Weeks1-6 Pantry living

So I'm the worst at blogging this summer.
Here is my updated for weeks 1-6.

Ok so I'm not going to be as detailed as usual because no one cares that much 😂

Pantry after week 6

Cereal before week 1: 38
Cereal after week 6: 23

Bags of flour before week 1: 13

Flour after week 6: 7
Bags of sugar before week 1: 5

Sugar after week 6: -1 ( had to buy one)

Nutella before week 1: 3
Nutella after week 6: 0
Bags of tortilla chips before week 1: 7

Tortilla chips after week 6: 3
Graham crackers before week 1: 4

Graham crackers after week 6: 1
Boxed drinks before week 1: 5

Boxed drinks after week 6: 3

Items opened: peanut butter, jam, spaghetti sauce, salsa, nacho cheese, flour, flour, and more flour, sugar, popcorn, pretzels, chips, tortilla chips, crackers, vanilla wafers, cookies, granola bars, fruit snacks, hand soap, chicken broth, juice boxes, dog food, ramen noodles, Tikka masala sauce, ketchup, mustard, pickles, sauerkraut, soda, ranch dressing, bbq sauce, veg oil, olive oil, brown sugar, powdered sugar, chocolate chips, marshmallows, pineapple, Nutella, apple sauce, corn, green beans, tuna, sweet and condensed milk, evaporated milk, rice a roni, white chocolate chips, cake mixes, brownie mixes, candy candy candy, graham crackers, ziplock bags, plastic wrap, foil, wax paper, plastic cups, plastic utensils, paper towels, toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, diapers,

Items I ran out of: sugar, butter, margarine, powdered sugar, semi sweet chocolate chips,

Items I'm nearly out of: potato chips, milk chocolate chips, graham crackers, Nutella

Gifts: cereals, veggies and herbs from friends' gardens, paper napkins

Cash purchases: quite a few but I've been good. Got my kids new shoes for school, some Christmas gifts stashed away, GREW conditioner, produce,  so many stores are clearancing their entire store to make way for their new arrivals. Go shop now! Kohl's, Gabe's, TJ Maxx, Burlington, 

Cheats: so I had a handful of cheats on my first two weeks when I wasn't in the habit of carrying enough cash with me. But overall there have been very few times I used my credit card when I shouldn't have.

Allowable credit card purchases: urgent care co-pay, dentist 😭, gas, oil change, dairy products

Garden: so this year my garden is dreamy! Seriously have an amazing yield so far. Lots of cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and lunchbox peppers. my sister is an amateur expert at wild edibles and she identified the weeds in my garden. I'm growing loads of wild spinach. We aren't each much because wild spinach will absorb the nitrates in your fertilizer. I used bags of soil that were full of miracle grow and I'm just not sure if those would be ok. My sister are some and she said in small quantities if you aren't sure about the nitrate level it is ok. But I don't actually have to weed the wild spinach out of the garden. It isn't affecting my plants growth so huzzah!

This is two days worth of tomatoes, my peppers last week and a week worth of cucumbers and zucchini. Well, this is what we haven't eaten in the last week. We eat a cucumber a day, a few peppers a week, one or two zucchini a week and with my homemade salsa I'm going through loads of tomatoes.

I love to bake and I enjoy cooking. To me food is a language of love. I love to gift my treats to my dearest friends and family. A few of our favorite bakes and goodies include: salsa, invisible zucchini lasagna roll ups, doughnuts, Nutella stuffed chocolate chip cookies, banana chocolate chip bread, tunnel of coconut cake, double chocolate zucchini cake, cinnamon rolls with brown butter frosting, cheesecake, avalanche bars, s'mores cookies, gooey Brownie pie, Boston cream cake, German chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake trifle, fudge, ice cream cake, zucchini bread, bagels, challah, rocky road bars, if you want any of my recipes just give me a shout. And be sure to follow me on Instagram @strollerblader.

This summer of 2020 has been weird for everyone. Thankfully I can still go to the beach and we have our 3 foot above ground pool for us to cool off in.

For now let's all be kind, wear a mask and have a happy summer on purpose!!

Pantry Living Year 8!!!

Pantry living part 8
Get this party started!!

My last grocery shopping trip! I
included a big pink pool floaties.

June 12th was my handsome hubby's last date of "teaching" for the school year. Way too much happened and yet very little happened during this pandemic. It has been hard to prep for pantry living because stores have not been fully stocked. Living solidly at home for three months has used a lot of our food storage. My stress baking has used a lot of flour. And my of for the past 3 months will make this summer especially difficult. But here we go ...

Basic rules of pantry living. 8 years ago was the first summer we were living on our own in our beautiful home with three children. My husband is a teacher and earns steady paychecks 10 months of the year. Usually in the summer we each have jobs but they do not equal the same salary from the other 10 months. So I decided to start what I call "pantry living" to help us use credit cards less and become more frugal but still eat well.
So my rules are
1. I do not shop from Dave's last day of teaching until Dave's first day of teaching in September.
2. allowable credit card purchases include gas and car repairs, fruits, veggies, bread, all dairy, and eggs.
3. all other purchases must use cash that I've tucked away.
4. If I use a credit card I refer to that as a cheat and hold myself accountable on here.

My five-year-old helped me inventory our pantry. During the last two weeks I've gone grocery shopping looking like a crazy person with my clipboard checking things off the list and comparing what I have in stock. But I think we're finally ready.

Brief recap of my inventory-

Cereals: 38
Toilet paper: approximately 100 rolls
Peanut butter: 3
Strawberry jam (store bought): 3 strawberry freezer jam: 7
Bags of flour: 13
Bags of sugar: 5
Pasta sauce: 10
Tuna fish: 9
Nutella: 3
Bags of tortilla chips: 7
Graham cracker: 4
Boxed drinks: 5
Hand soap: 7
Pickles: 5
Pasta :13

I forgot to inventory my freezers(I have three). So the meat for the summer will be a bit of a surprise. I know I have breakfast sausage, Italian sausage, chicken breast, chicken legs, hamburger patties, seafood, pork roast. How much of each remains to be seen.

In our freezer there's also my homemade freezer jam😋,  ravioli, tater tots and hash browns, a large turkey and a large ham, popsicles, ice cream, frozen rolls and frozen veggies.

Our garden is growing like crazy!! Super excited to see the growth so far. Last year I only used one garden bed because the other had been depleted of all nutrients from over planting on my part. This year I cleared both out and gave them lots of vitamin rich soil. We are growing cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and grape tomatoes, lunchbox peppers, and zucchini. Plus our raspberry bush might give us some fruit again!

I bought each plant from Home Depot. This is after one month in the ground 👀

So about every other week I'll post an update with info such as weekly cereal count, jars/cans opened, items I'm out of, cash purchases, allowable credit card purchases, gifts(my parents love to drop off boxes of cereal), garden harvest,  cheats (if any), and screaming deals that I couldn't pass up. Cheats usually happen because I don't bring enough cash on an errand.

This summer will be hard. My children understand that money is tighter than ever. Neither of us have our usual summer employment and I've been out of work since March so our cash stash is significantly smaller. But God has never let us starve yet!! We can do this! So follow our pantry living journey and maybe you'll get motivated to build your own food storage and see how well you can survive.

Happy Summer and may the odds be ever in our favor!

Playground Picks

I'm a South Jersey mama and I thought I'd share a few of our favorite playgrounds. We all have that one playground closest to our house that we frequent, but perhaps you are up for a short drive to find a new fun place to play. This is a short list of ones we are willing to travel to for some fun! They are listed in no particular order.


1. Shark Park, Brigantine
Great place to play on a cool day. This playground is not a place we visit when it's hot. There isn't much shade. But it has a younger low key section and a more complex side. Definitely a fav of ours!

2. All Wars Memorial Park, Linwood
New equipment located at the center of the ball fields. Very fun and beautifully situated near trees.  Climbing equipment is definitely meant for older kids.

3. Cape May Zoo Playgrounds, Cape May Courthouse
Free zoo! Two fun playgrounds. One offers some shade and is intended for smaller ones. The other is large and has a group of swings. My kids of all ages enjoy both playgrounds. We typically park, enjoy the zoo for 90mins or so. Eat a picnic lunch at a pavilion and then play on the playgrounds for an hour. The zoo holds out a bucket asking for donations when you drive in. Feel free to give $1 or $20. They don't turn anyone away.


4. Veterans  Memorial Field, Galloway
A nice small playground surrounded by ball fields. Our favorite part about this one is you can take a short walk down to the bay. There is a nice path that takes you out with beautiful views of Atlantic City. We often see little crabs scurrying and birds flying.

5. Field of Dreams, Absecon
A nice handicap accessible playground with a great turf ballfield that is perfect for a family game of kickball.
 

6. Birch Grove, Northfield
Plenty of equipment for a variety of tastes. Playground is spread  out so if there is a field trip attending you are not necessarily going to lose track of your child in the mix. Our favorite part is not the actual playground but the hiking trails to explore after we play.

 
7. Kennedy Park, Somers Point
Beautiful Bay front property. Playground is average size. There is lots of shade, beautiful scenery and a great spot for a picnic or bbq.

8. Tony Canale Park, EHT
Tricky to find. Definitely use your GPS. And even once you enter the sports area you will wonder if you made it to the right spot. Keep driving and you'll find it.


9. Ventnor Library, Ventnor
Such a great playground right on the beach. Perfect place to go to the beach and then take a playground break. Lots of fun equipment!



10. Margate Library, Margate
Fun playground next to the beach! Parking lot is limited but there is street parking. Great place to hang out after storytime Wednesday mornings.



11. Imagination Station, Galloway
 A huge structure with lots to do. Swings and smaller equipment around the border and lots of slides and places for playing levels of tag. This wasn't my favorite when I had a toddler because I could never sit and watch here. I had to be following closely because it is large enough they are quickly out of your sight line if you sit on a bench. But it is a favorite of my kids of all ages.






Note: we love playgrounds and trying out new places with new tricky equipment. I am not a helicopter parent. I allow my kids to try the new equipment and I encourage them to find a way to make it work. My two year old was a great climber but frequently other parents would try to stop him from climbing high equipment. He would run to me crying because he was told he couldn't do an activity meant for a 6 yr old. I would then come over and supervise him doing the difficult climb. Then the parent who had spoken to him would tell me "oh sorry. I thought he was too little and I didn't know who his parents were. " I told them thank you for looking out for him. I know his strengths and encourage the difficult tasks. I do think some parents find me too hands off at the playground. But in most cases my kids got themselves in tight spots they can usually finish the task or take themselves back to the starting line. The only time my child was injured was on our monkey bars at home and he was stubborn and made bad choices. So please know your children's limits and comfort level when using equipment. Don't assume it is always safe or that it is always dangerous either. Keep a simple first aid kit in your car, an old towel to dry off wet slides, water bottles, and baby wipes.

Be sure to leave a comment and tell us which are your favorites so we can check them out too!

         Have fun and happy Summer!!

Weeks 3 & 4

Wow! We are a full month into pantry Living and we are doing really well. I haven't been home much and I'm blessed with so many Wawa gift cards I've eaten out a lot. Ps- Wawa is the best convenience store ever.  Here are my stats.

After week 4

Week 3
Cereal: 29
Opened jars/bottles: spaghetti sauce, pasta, tikki masala sauce, green beans, cookies, mustard, yeast, Sprite, butter, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, goldfish crackers,
Cash purchases:apples, bananas, swimsuit for Lily, stamps, salsa
Gift cards used: visa gift card(2nd swimsuit for Lily, underwear for Levi in 2 different sizes(excellent deal), candy bars, crackers, cookies, pickles, stroopwafels, (awesome clearance deals))
Wawa gift cards (hoagiefest!!), Starbucks gift card (pink drink withno ice. Order cup of ice. It is like getting two of them!)
Cheat: kimono for me on clearance $9. I was using a self checkout machine that only took cards. Chickfila(free day if you dress like a cow. We all dressed up and got $34 worth of free food but I also ordered drinks and fries and the total was a little more than the cash I had so I had to use my credit card.)
Allowable purchases: milk, cheese,
Items out of:napkins and SALSA! ok so I frequently make a fresh homemade salsa that has to be eaten within a day. I've apparently made it often enough that I had no idea that my pantry contained none of the mediocre salsa. So imagine my disappointment while watching Stranger Things and needing a snack to discover there was no ingredients for fresh or canned salsa. Have no fear. The next morning I went to the store and used cash to rectify the situation. And wouldn't you know I haven't had the urge to eat it yet. Sigh.
And I accidentally dropped my ceramic napkin holder and since then we haven't had a storage place for napkins so I actually forgot we were out of them until now.
Garden harvest: a single cherry tomato. It was delicious and I did not share. But apparently a small animal indulged on two tomatoes before me.
Free gifts: juice, milk, and free slurpee day at 7/11 and dress like a cow day at Chick-fil-A.

More beach, family, and play rehearsals. But we booked our vacation to visit family next month so of course my four year old asks everyday if today is the day we go to the airport.

Week 4:
Cereal:30 (should be 26 see cheats)
Opened bottles/jars/bags/boxes: Mac and cheese, yeast, chips, Oreos,
Allowable purchases: milk
Gifts: milk, chicken sandwiches, ice cream at the beach, ice cream cake,
Gift card purchases: (Wawa) hoagies, (Starbucks) pink drink, breakfast sandwich and lemon loaf,
Cash purchases: Dickey's BBQ, taco Bell,  Chido Burrito, Bocca ($155 in restaurant bills this week 🤦)
Cheats: cereal 2 packs(Sam's had a screaming deal for $2 for a 2 pack of cereal so I bought two and was in a credit card only lane for check out.) Clearance towels for the family, quilt batting for gifts, clearance clothes for the kids at Sam's.

Garden harvest: lots of cherry tomatoes

Big news: we booked a cruise to the Bahamas for Nov!!! My handsome hubby and I are celebrating our 15 yr anniversary. We were way too busy back in May so now is our time to sneak away. This could be counted as a cheat but we set aside the money a while ago so I don't think it really is a cheat.

Last show week! That's why we ate out so much. Ugh. This next week my goal is no eating out! I was careful not to cheat when we ate out but that was a lot of cash from my stash.

Happy Summer!

Weeks 1 & 2

Busy Busy Busy! In my head summer is chill. Summer is a time to sit on the beach and relax. 
In reality, I’m running all over creation, thanking Heaven for my A/C, and occasionally, making it
 to the beach. I am a dancer, dance teacher and choreographer. I also assist with costumes, 
props and sets. Between January and the end of July I will have assisted/been a part of 8 
productions of one kind or another. I am spent. 

A few items seem to have slipped through the cracks before Pantry Living. I’ve been trying hard
 these last few weeks to only use cash to make up for my carelessness. And I should rename my 
produce drawer in my fridge the morgue because that is where fresh veggies go to die. We eat a 
lot of carrot sticks and fresh fruits on my counter lately but I’ve killed an awful lot of cucumbers, 
lettuce, and cilantro. 

Best part of my life lately is having family in town! My brother, Andy and his wife and their son came 
to visit. Plus my other sister in law and her daughter. Plus my sister and four of her kids. 
SO much fun! So much sun! So much food! My parents fed most of them so I actually got the
leftover food they couldn’t travel home with. Win Win!

Here are my stats: 

Week1:

Cereal after week 1: 35

Opened: spaghetti sauce, Italian dressing, chips, Oreos, bag of sugar, pasta, box of cheez-its, 

Allowable purchases: watermelon, gas

Cash purchases: candy and pretzels for gifts, Bocca (pizza place), flowers,  

Gift cards used: Starbucks (pink drink, lemon pound cake), visa gift card(two fancy dresses from JCP). 

Garden harvest: handful of raspberries everyday, one green pepper

Pantry After week 1

Pantry after week 1

Week 2

Cereal: 32

Opened: peanut butter, Nutella, Oreos, pasta, brownies, candy, pretzels, dog food, pepperoni, cool
 whip, tin foil, paper towels, Italian dressing, sodas, hot dogs, 

Allowable purchases: gas, oil change, costumes that I will be reimbursed for, milk, eggs(7.5 dozen), 
bread, English muffins, bananas

Gift cards used: Starbucks (pink drink, lemon loaf), Wawa(hoagies), ShopRite(diapers)

Cash purchases: ice cream at beach(technically I left beach and bought 25 ice cream bars at Dollar
 tree for my mini family reunion.) Costumes, 

Cheats: pizza for family dinner. My dad actually paid me back with cash but then I spent the cash on
 ice cream so it made it a cheat.

Gifts: cereal(sister brought a few boxes to share while she stayed with us.) A ShopRite gift card, a 
Wawa gift card, bag of little boy clothes from neighbor, hot dog and hamburger buns

Garden: a handful of raspberries

Holiday: I hosted July 4th but my parents supplied most of the food. All I supplied was some soda,
 paper products, a few burgers, cheese, brownies, onion, condiments, pasta salad and deviled eggs. 
My parents supplied hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, soda, ice cream, cake, potato salad, green salad, 
watermelon, chips, ice. They are awesome! We had 18 people and everyone left well fed! 

Pantry after week 2

Pantry after week 2

A few photos of our fun these last few weeks.

Plus Favorite beach treats: watermelon, pretzels and a cup of peanut butter, Oreos, honey roasted 
peanuts, snapple flavored lemonades.

And a few bonus photos of headpieces I made for our next show "Once on This Island Jr"

 Let me know if you've taken up the challenge. I would love to hear your experience!
 Happy Pantry Living!