It is here. It is hot and I am happy! My family has enough and that makes my heart sing. We don't take vacations to Disneyland. We don't drive fancy cars. We don't eat exotic food. We do sit around the dinner table each night and talk about our day. We do ride bikes down the block to pick up pizza from our favorite mexican pizzeria. We do kneel in prayer together each night to thank the Lord. We have enough.
I am stoked Pantry Living has started for me again. If you're new to this or just need a refresher "Previously on BeachBroughsBlog" Pantry Living is a self imposed grocery shopping fast. I choose to primarily use only cash on hand for any purchases and I stop grocery shopping for non-perishable foods for the time between last day of school until first day of school. My darling hubby is a teacher and is only paid for the 10 months of the year he is in his special education self contained behavior classroom. Unfortunately, our family still gets hungry in July and August. I am uber blessed to have a large walk-in pantry to store our food. I take a pic weekly to show the changes and track what new foods we opened and specifically how much cereal we eat. This year I'm starting off with 60 boxes/bags of cereal. Let's see if we can make it through!
I allow myself to buy milk, eggs, bread, dairy products and produce. I can use cash or a card for these. No meat, no cookies, no flour, no new shoes, no batteries, no toys... unless I use cash. I continue filling my tank with my credit card but I try not to shop for anything. I teach dance and am able to squirrel away some money for us to use all summer long. It pays for our funnel cake on the boardwalk. It buys ice cream cones and pizza. It keeps us going.
I also grow a garden. This year I built a second raised bed. We had an unusually cool May and early June. I've already killed my blueberry bush (crossing my fingers it resurrects itself). But my 2 zucchini plants, 3 tomato plants and peas and green beans are growing.... but seem behind schedule.
My kids go through 6 gallons of milk a week and usually 5 cereals a week. We'll see what their habits prove to be this year. I believe it is important to be prepared. I try to keep my pantry this well stocked all year long. I don't want to stress if we lose a job. I don't want to stress if we get horribly sick. If we are stuck in a snow storm we'll still be eating well. I inventoried my pantry, freezer and two fridges.
Disclaimer: I do not go to the store and buy 60 boxes of cereal at full price just to do this experience. When a brand goes on sale instead of buying 2 boxes I buy 4. When I find a screaming deal, like I did last week: 10 oz bag of wanna be Apple Jacks for $1 each, same thing at shoprite would be $2.50 at least, I bought 10 of them. It takes a good knowledge of regular priced items so you know when something is a deal or not. That is my specialty. I grocery shop every week. This past year I've typically spent between $80 and $100 a week. So think of all the money I will save us by staying home.
So today was Day 1 of Pantry Living Take 4. My kids understand what its all about. My daughter said she hates it cause I won't buy her stuff. My son says he loves it "cause we get to shop for cereal in the pantry!"
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| Pantry Living Day 1 |
Hooray for Summer! Hooray for food!
Hooray for Pantry Living!
