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| Pantry Living Before |
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| Pantry Living After |
I began with 31 unopened boxes of cereal.
I ended with 4 unopened boxes of cereal.
I had the pleasure of grocery shopping with just the baby. I spent an hour going aisle by aisle picking and choosing things we may need, things that we might like. It was nice. I may have gone a bit overboard with on sale cereals though. I bought 13 boxes :)
Anyway, I've learned much during this experiment. Here are a few:
- I can't do it alone. Without the help of my mom and dad I would've struggled tons. They are so good to me.
- My husband and children are super supportive. My family rocks! David even helped with the cooking. He makes amazing crepes, homemade pancakes, stuffed manicotti, and pizza.
- We don't eat as much BBQ sauce as I thought.
- We eat oodles and gobs of peanut butter.
- We eat approx 3 boxes of cereal a week.
- We eat more canned green beans than canned corn.
- Keeping extra loaves of bread in the freezer is a must for us.
- Sam's has the best and cheapest toilet paper. And it lasted all summer!
- We make a lot of pancakes and syrup...I think in efforts to use less cereal.
- If you cheat a rule once (which I did) its so tempting to cheat again (which I did NOT). Hold strong to your principles.
- WANTS vs NEEDS This is the ultimate lesson for me. If we didn't have it I had to figure out a way to make it work. Most of the time I could do it. This lesson was demonstrated best with my goal of Cash Only, and credit cards just for gas and perishable foods.
- I am a good shopper and saver. During the winter and spring months I was able to put away cash here and there for my summer spending. Yesterday I pulled out the last $20 from it. I believe I started in June with about $400. Yeah, I'm that good.
- SUCCESS! I label the experiment a success. I loved it so much I may make it a summer tradition. Its a great way to work through food storage to ensure no food is being left too long on the shelf as well as to test our preparedness and resourcefulness. I would love to compare my current results with future results. If Max eats 2 bowls of cereal now....how much will he eat at age 15????
