Pantry Living: Weeks 1 & 2

 Whoa Nelly! Summer is flying by us. We are having so much fun lately and with that goes my $ and food. We are hitting the beach, the river, the lake, the boardwalk, a Phillies game, NYC.......busy busy busy!

Pantry After Week 1

Now for the real deal.
Before week 1 unopened boxes of cereal: 60
After week 1 unopened boxes of cereal: 54
After week 2 unopened boxes of cereal: 52 (we were gifted 2 boxes this week!)
Cash purchases: chips, oj, soda, lunch in NYC at a waffle truck, parking at Phillies game, tiki masala sauce, can of tomatoes, burger king, pizza, new swimsuit for Lily and one for me, flip flops for Max and Katy, birthday cards, doughnuts
Allowable Credit Card purchases: gas, strawberries, bananas, cilantro, bread, yogurt, milk, parking in NYC (this was planned for), Phillies tickets for my dad, my hubby and my son (this was planned for)
Cheats: diapers (amazing sale and I ran out of cash. It was 3 packs for $10.)
Jars/boxes opened: 2 jars of peanut butter, bbq sauce, flour, rice, yeast, toilet paper, water bottles, 2 boxes of fruit snacks, cashews, nutella, pineapple, marshmallows, graham crackers, chicken broth, syrup, alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce, sandwich bags, snack bags, chips, nacho cheese barrel,
Garden: still in the growing phase. More on that later.

Pantry After week 2

Happy Summer!

Order....Order in the House

Summertime and the living is .......not as easy as it used to be. My 8yr old and 6yr old say they are excited to be out of school but all they really want is a firm routine with trackable goals. At first I thought I should swab their cheeks and wait for the results, these can't be my kids. My kid summers were spent playing outdoors rain or shine and avoiding chores and books. Upon closer inspection I discovered all my "lists": to-do lists, to-make lists, to-buy lists, etc. Nevermind. they are my children.

Their last day of school as we awaited Daddy's car pulling in the driveway so we could begin our annual water fight I sat with them and we made goals for our summer. My daughter wants to read 3 books, study history, jog daily, and keep a journal. My son on the other hand "wants a job". If you find anyone hiring a 6yr old boy who is good at legos, skylanders and soccer let me know. His other goals involve reading, keeping a journal and improving his t-ball and soccer skillz. But here is the kicker.....both said they wanted a color chart. Their classrooms use a color chart to track your daily behavior. They also want "centers", meaning a way to track certain activities. Apparently when my kids say they are bored it is because they stare at the walls instead of the floor covered in toys and see nothing to do. To remedy this we made a Summer Centers chart. 

They roll a die and it tells them what to do.
#1 Read for 15 mins
#2 Exercise for 15 mins
#3 Write in your journal
#4 Arts and Crafts
#5 Learning on the computer
#6 Rainbow Writing (workbook, spelling lists etc)

Then they each have a space they can put a tally mark to track how often they do it. They go crazy for this chart. However, I was mean and said #5 could only happen once a day.

Their color chart is a Godsend as well. They move up their clip for good behavior, move down for poor. There are rewards when you go up and stay up and punishments for going down. These kids love having very clear limits and expectations. It took me awhile to sit down and make the charts. So the first week of break was very aggravating for us all. I let the kids help design the charts. And now these two charts are made our lives make sense again. My kids aren't bored and I like to be around them again. Win win!

Pantry Living Fourth Time Around

Summer, Summer, Summertime!

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!"

Pantry Living Day 1

Hooray for Summer! Hooray for food!

 Hooray for Pantry Living!

Lego Valentine Box (literally)

My son is a Lego fanatic. He made me keep several of the boxes his Legos came in just so he could look at them again. Today I decided to send them out with the recycling. Fast forward to me this evening scouring Pinterest for a Lego themed Valentine Box to make for his class party. Most looked like a tissue box with plastic cups attached. He wasn't sold on anything we saw, except for the random one that looks like a toilet. I refused. I turned to my hubby and said "I'm tempted to just take on of those Lego boxes from the recycling and cut a hole in it." He replied with "Why not?" That was it! I grabbed it from the bin and began recycling it sooner rather than later.

Ta Da!

So here is our very literal Lego Valentine Box:

I cut a rectangular hole in the top of the box but I did not center it. He loves the pictures on the box and this way it kept most of the figures. Then I glued and taped the end shut.

 I used a second Lego box and blocked his name on it with a sharpie. I used our sharpest scissors to cut out his name.

 

I made the one and then traced it on to the second one so they would match. I left the bottom flap so I could attach it to the ends of the box to keep it from tipping.

Once cut I spray painted both sides of his name plates with gold spray paint (cause that was the color I had).

I added double sided tape to the flap and re-enforced it with hot glue. I poked two small holes and either side and used a twist tie to fasten it securely to the box.

We may add a few hearts later, we'll see.

This is such a win for us! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pantry Living Season Finale

It is over! We survived!  I went grocery shopping for the first real time last Tuesday and it was exhilarating. The experiment lasted just over 11 weeks and I am thrilled with my results. I cheated a few times. I used lots of my cash anytime I wanted to splurge and buy a needed item or doughnuts......I really like doughnuts. So here is my quick review of it all:

Pantry Living Take 3 beginning

 

Pantry at end of week 11

Unopened boxes of cereal before Week 1: 55
Unopened boxes of cereal after week 11: 4 (*note my dad gave me about 5 boxes of cereal throughout the summer. I probably wouldn't have bought any boxes myself, just forced a few other breakfast options other days.)
Items we were completely out of: fruit snacks, box drinks, gallon bags, quart bags, tin foil, minced garlic, water bottles, strawberry jam, strawberry applesauce, rice, ramen noodles, olives, raisins, frozen broccoli
Items I used my cash to buy more of since we were out: graham crackers, chocolate bars, marshmallows, brown sugar, paper plates, light bulbs, egg noodles, syrup
Items we had lots left of: mac and cheese, variety of salad dressing (except Italian), pickles, cake mixes, pudding mixes, pasta, spaghetti sauce, sauerkraut, beef broth, paper napkins, bathroom cleaner,  canned pineapple, frozen spinach, frozen ravioli

Lessons learned:

1. The small size water bottles are great for my kids in the car. I bought two big packs on a special clearance before the summer. That is about the right amount for them and they don't sully a big bottle I want to drink :) Don't think I'll pay full price for them though. Just have to wait for another screamin' deal.
2. I set the rules. I hold myself accountable. Others are interested in my progress but no one is shaming me when I cheat or screw up. I cheated a few times but I didn't take it so emotionally this year. Other years I've lost sleep over the matter. This year I tried to keep myself in check but I was more chill about it. I had to cut myself some slack when we'd have visitors and remember it wouldn't break the bank if I bought a few extra things to feed the masses. 
3. I started the summer with only a few packs of cookies and ended the summer with some still unopened. I keep them on the top shelf in the pantry and only bust them open occasionally. It is better for all of us. 
4. Indulgent Trail Mix is my Achilles heel. Cashews, almonds, peanuts, semi-sweet, white and peanut butter chips, craisins, golden raisins. I eat it too quickly, but it isn't a bad snack. I seldom buy it from Wal-mart (the only place who makes it) and when I do it is gone too quickly. I started making my own in small batches and it is way cheaper. Also my kiddos love it too, but they tend to pick out all the yummy chips. 
5. I hardly made beach burritos this summer. It is a three bean salad with Italian dressing and optional other ingredients (ie parm cheese, corn, olives, tomatoes) and you serve it cold in a tortilla at the beach. So I ended the summer with more canned beans than expected.
6. Levi loves applesauce and I would clip the corner of a ziplock bag and dump the applesauce into it. I could easily squeeze it into his mouth at the beach and it was way cheaper than buying those bags of baby food. 
7. My garden was great and I'm excited to try a second raised bed next year. I want my kids to be more involved in the planting and tending. I hope to grow zucchini, tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, and peas. I'm so sad my zucchini plant died so early this year. I only got three zucchinis. I read it was probably a vine burrowing bug that attacked it. Next year I hope for better!
8. I have amazing friends and family who support me in this. My parents, my in-laws, and several friends pitched in and helped make this project less painful. 

I love being self sufficient. We are so blessed with enough. I find myself with an immature mindset sometimes thinking "I don't want enough. I want more." (one of my children actually said that one day. It was such an eye opening experience.) I am grateful for enough. I love enough. And this year we had enough. Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my family. He is mindful of you. It is my prayer you will see His hand in your life.

Until next year..........Happy Autumn!

Weeks 8 & 9

Two more weeks down and summer is slipping by me. The weeks are starting to blend together so let's see how good my memory is.

Pantry after week 8

Pantry after week 9

Boxes of unopened cereal after week 7:18
Boxes of unopened cereal after week 8: 16
Boxes of unopened cereal after week 9: 16 *my dad gifted us 3 boxes on the last day to up it from 13.

Cash purchases: clothes, shoes, tacos, bananas, apples, cucumbers, oranges, burgers and fries,  gifts for bday party, school supplies, trail mix,
Allowable purchases: gas, veggies and fruit, milk
Cheats: my new cell phone(This was a very necessary purchase plus new phone and first month payment was only $60 because of a rockin' promotion). hubby's new sneakers (another necessary purchase), a few small christmas gifts for extended relatives, and light bulbs, dry erase markers. NOTE: I deposited a large sum of cash to make up for most of this.
Jars/bags opened: Spaghetti sauce, chips, cookies, jam, flour, pop tarts, strawberry applesauce, nutella
Items we are totally out of: fruit snacks,

My poor dead zucchini plant

our garden

Only two more weeks left. WOW!

Happy Summer!

Weeks 6 & 7

Family time is the best! We've had a month of visitors and it was dreamy. My sweet niece that stayed with us for July just left and her place was quickly filled with more family that we haven't seen in years. We spent a few fantastic days together hitting the beach and rides and loving life. We are so blessed.

Pantry after week 6

Pantry after week 7

Quick pantry recap:
Unopened boxes of cereal after week 5: 29
Unopened boxes of cereal after week 6: 22
Unopened boxes of cereal after week 7: 18

Allowable purchases: gas,
Cash purchases: ham, bread, pepperoni, cheese, raspberries, blueberries, apples, bananas, grapes, potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, graham crackers, chocolate bars, marshmallows, root beer, ice cream, pencils, contact solution, curtain rod, bug zapper, clothes, flip-flops,
Gifts purchased with cash: board games (christmas presents), toys(christmas presents), pillows & wash cloths (wedding gift), play-doh (b-day gift)
Cheats: originally my amazing deals for christmas were done with a credit card but I put my cash in the bank the next day so it forgave the cheat. These were the most amazing deals at Target! I spent $113 and saved over $156. Seriously so good!
Jars/bottles opened: ranch dressing, graham crackers, choc bars, marshmallows, root beer, sprite, sandwich bags, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, rice, applesauce, chips, vanilla wafers, cookies, pudding mix,
Food gifts: cereal, milk

Garden update: my zuchini plant is dead. I am so sad. I only got three beautiful zucchinis from it this year. Last year I got 8. It suddenly died in a matter of days. Everything I reseached says it was probably a vine burrowing bug that killed it. My tomatoes are unaffected.  They are flourishing. My green beans have been plentiful but are starting to turn yellow and aren't looking so good. We've been very dry lately and I'm not the best at watering them because it usually rains every few days to help me out. I need to improve for their sake.

Exactly one more month of pantry living. Wow! Time is flying by.

Happy Summer!