Pantry Living Week 2 (sort of)

Since I didn't really keep track of anything for the first few weeks I'm not really counting them. Pantry Living started on June 22, but I'm keeping track of the inventory from July 6.

For the past 2 weeks my awesome brother and his adorable family were in town. They have 7 beautiful children! My amazing parents hosted them but we sure were together a lot! We ate over there, we ate over here. We played on the beach, in the pool, in the basement, in the yard, had a bonfire, a sleepover, went to the boardwalk, watched fireworks, ate and ate and ate some more! They were sweet and tried hard not to use up my pantry but I plan on feeding others so I am happy to host. I even donate to food drives if they occur during pantry living. "Because I have been given much I too must give."  I cooked Sunday dinner and made Thanksgiving in July. We had a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green bean casserole, salad, and pie. Why is this a November tradition only? Uhmmm, this needs to be a regular occurrence because it was dang good! We hosted the BBQ on July 4th, hot dogs and hamburgers and everything you can imagine to go with it. My parents supplied all the meat for both big meals because they are fantastic humans who love me. My parents drop off a little extra after every trip to the grocery store. While typing this my father walked in and set a jar of peanut butter on my counter and walked out again, just cause he's nice.

Also I am still in the midst of my summer of theater. That all ends in one more week. My dear hubby has been awesome with cooking random things from the freezer. Between beach trips and rehearsal I keep forgetting to prep dinner. He doesn't even complain. He is dreamy.

 Here we go:

Unopened boxes of cereal at week 1: 59
Unopened boxes of cereal after week 2: 51(actually 49 but I bought 2 boxes of Honeycombs with cash) Somehow we ate 10 boxes of cereal this week!
Jars/cans/bottles/packages opened: green beans, cream of mushroom soup, chicken broth, peanut butter, jam, nutella, goldfish (family pack and they already finished it), toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, dog food, juice boxes, rice krispy packs, oreos, chips, cake mix, brownies, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, microwave popcorn, 3 different sizes of ziplock bags, soap, shampoo, alfredo sauce,
Items we ran out of: wax paper, fruit roll ups,
Cash purchases: bread, pencils, notebooks, paper, lemonade packets for individual water bottles, tums, blush, card, rash shirt for hubby(gift card), pizza family deal at Sam's (soda, pizza, bread sticks and cookies), ice cream, hot dog buns, hamburger buns, 4 jars of spaghetti sauce,
Yard sale finds(cash purchases): loads of books for my kids, shorts and pjs for my son, a baseball bat,
Gifts of food: peanut butter, box of cereal, milk, pancakes
Allowable credit card purchases: gas, milk, watermelon, bread strawberries, (I made 3 containers of strawberry freezer jam.)
Cheats: I ordered myself a swimsuit online and had no other way to pay for it, but it was on clearance.( I spent $30.), a pack of night diapers for my 3yr old who still struggles to stay dry at night. I didn't run out, but they were on clearance so I took the plunge($12). I didn't have enough cash on me or I would have paid cash.
Garden: 4 cucumbers, 3 cherry tomatoes, 1 green pepper ( I have one zucchini but I haven't picked it yet)

BONUS: received the official word my student loans are PAID IN FULL! I only graduated 12.5 yrs ago. Feels so good!

Bad news: The AC went out in my van and we haven't decided whether or not to repair it. My van has a 145,000 miles on it, a broken windshield, no AC, an array of christmas lights on the dash board(don't worry the mechanic said I wont die by ignoring them), and the suspension in the trunk door is shot. Basically, I worry about putting any money into it. we shall see.

Summer is hot and we are having fun! 

Happy Pantry Living!