For the last three weeks or so, we have been eating from the pantry and freezer as much as possible….spending only about $100 at the grocery each week for basic perishables.
Day by day, the kitchen pantry looks a bit more empty. Then I refill it from the garage pantry, which is also dwindling down. I’m excited! Why?
There’s something wonderful about using up every last thing. I must admit that I’m fighting feelings of vulnerability. My stockpile is my good friend. However, it’s healthy for me to push the limits a little and just trust.
We’re probably not going to starve. Really.
As I open box after box and can after can, I glance at the expiration date and realize that I’m almost out of time on some of this food. What’s the point of a stockpile if the food expires and you have to pitch it?
Once everything is eaten up, I’ll start looking for sales again and re-stock. When I buy food, though, I don’t plan too far out, just a month or two. Otherwise, I’ll deal with the same problem of trying to eat everything up before it expires.
For me, this is balance.
Something else I’ve been thinking about this week…how many recipes do you really need?
You do it….I do it…admit it.
We all clip/rip out/print more recipes than we could ever find time to make. We buy more cookbooks than we’ll ever use.
I fight it, I really do. But especially around the holidays, the beautiful pictures of sugar-filled goodies draw me in as I visualize happy children enjoying making the treat with Mom.
Yet, I rarely get around to all the baking that I might hope to.
Am I alone here? Does anyone else have a stash of recipes stuck in your cookbook that you’ll likely never make? Tons of cookbooks you’ve yet to open? Yeah.
My philosophy is this…when I need a recipe, I’ll look for one. Cooking thematically like I do, I really only need two or three recipes per category or evening. I discuss this in my free eBook “Just Get ‘em Fed” if you’re interested.
On Monday, we enjoy casseroles. I have a few casserole recipes that my family loves. There currently isn’t a need to add more recipes to my repertoire. Nothing broken, nothing needs to be fixed.
Tuesdays we have beef or venison. I have a handful of recipes that my family loves. I don’t need anymore recipes right now. See what I mean?
When something isn’t working anymore or if my family lets me know that they are tired of a particular dish, then I’ll look for a replacement dish. Until then, I’m good.
The Simple Kitchen.
How do you keep your kitchen simple?
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Kelly-
I downloaded your free e-book last month. I am a horrible cook. I mean, I cook weel, but I hate to cook! I loved the simplicity of your system.
I too am working our stockpile of food down and cash up
. I am looking forward to putting your system into place in February. I will be blogging about my hopeful success!
Lisa
Hi Lisa!
Welcome! I hear you about the cooking and I hope you glean something you can use from “Just Get ‘em Fed”.
Sounds like we think alike!
Take care,
Kelly
Been thinking about this a lot over the last 8 weeks. I keep things really simple and really not much food in the pantry right now. I think some of the problem is if you have the space you think you need to fill it and I have a nice size pantry. Something about a full pantry that makes you feel safe (another reminder to self that my security needs to be in Christ). I decided I’m not packing out the pantry anymore. I also don’t have cookbooks. Only a small flat dollar store photo album for my all the time recipes I haven’t memorized. If I want to find some new I’ll check out a cookbook from the library or look up on the web. No need to pay for it.
Also have really pared down my clothes too. How many can I really wear?!?
Melissa,
I agree with you, perhaps we are all a little uncomfortable with unfilled space. Never thought about it that way.
The clothes I own are ones that I wear frequently, I got rid of all my “someday” clothes a while back. What’s the point?
I truly believe that if all Moms would pull out of their pockets the genious of creative thinking how to make over,blend in pantry surplus,more money could be saved than all of the coupons that could be saved in a month.
When we really,really think of how much we throw away,it all comes together in thought.But we honestly have to do that.
I can definitely relate to having recipes stuffed in my cookbook that I’ll never use…even moreso now that my family is making changes in the things we eat. And I can also relate to things expiring in my stockpile. Ugh. I hate it when that happens!
I’m going to make strides at having those things happen a lot less often, though.
Hey Sandra,
Great to hear from you! Sounds like you had an “A-ha” moment and that you’ve got a plan. That’s great!
Take care!
I smiled when I read the part about more recipes than we have time to make. I had a huge piles of clipped recipes that I had to honestly weed through and throw away. It felt good! I normally just use allrecipes.com or food.com along with the cookbooks I already have. Great post!
Hey LSA,
I’m happy for your simplifying success! Good for you!
Thanks so much for stopping by!