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!