The OFFICIAL January NO-SPEND & PANTRY Challenges!!! anyone can join, come on in! - Page 2

[2busy2clean]

I'm in! (for the pantry challenge)
my rules:
only spend $20/week on produce/meat/dairy

[michelle524]

1

[Jennisee]

I am definitely in for both challenges. We put some unexpected expenses on the credit cards, and even though it's only 1% APR, we would like to pay them off by the end of February and save some money for a trip to visit friends in Las Vegas. My goals (I prefer "goals" to "rules" ):

--Spend less than $100 on groceries for the month. I need to stay on top of meal planning, use up what is in the freezer and pantry, and not buy more produce and dairy than we can eat.

--I do have a list of clothes and household items we need, but I will only buy them secondhand or at my pricebook lowest price, and I will use our Christmas gift cards whenever possible.

--I will only eat out on movie night (we were given a movie theater season pass for Christmas) and on Mom's Night Out, but I will keep it simple and frugal. Probably water to drink, a small entree or split an appetizer with a friend, and a salad...and with a coupon.

--I'm also working this into a decluttering challenge. In 2007, we would like to finish getting our house decluttered and organized. We have a lot of things to sell for extra income or to donate and deduct. I need to hop over to that forum to see if anyone has started a January thread!

Good luck, everyone! I'm really looking forward to this.

[Jennisee]

Oh, I do have a quick question for everyone. I need some ideas for using up five gallons of shredded zucchini and summer squash in the freezer. My garden was extra prolific this year. The thing is, I don't like the taste of squash, so it needs to be more along the lines of "filler" recipes. I'm planning to make zucchini bread and to add a little bit to meatloaf, meatballs, and spaghetti sauce, but I need more ideas. TIA!

[gothnurse3]

Count me in for both.I will only buy milk and produce. Today is my birthday and I got some money. I plan to spend it on fruit trees. My mom gave me gardening tools.....way cool. I plan to save for the supplies I need to start a garden. Cool

[Softmama]

Alright, I have some dried tomatoes, pasta, and chicken. What else do you put in that to make a good dish??? I have tons of stuff like olives, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, etc...just not sure how to use the dried tomatoes (not even really sure why we have them???)
Thanks!

[mamablair]

Okay, Here we Go!!

I'm in and here are my rules!!

1-$40 budget for the month for groceries and bathroom items (which I think we're stocked up on)

2-One meal out for DH and I for a date night.

3-I need a dress for a formal wedding I'm going to on Saturday so I need something for that.

4-Can spen on bills, gas, and maybe a haircut for me

I think that's it, I'm ready and hoping you ladies are willing to help with recipes!!

Let the games begin!!

[leomom]

Originally Posted by Softmama

Alright, I have some dried tomatoes, pasta, and chicken. What else do you put in that to make a good dish??? I have tons of stuff like olives, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, etc...just not sure how to use the dried tomatoes (not even really sure why we have them???)
Thanks!

I'd just throw the dried tomatoes in your dish like you would any other tomatoes. Maybe add one of the canned tomatoes, too, for liquid. Or add chicken broth. I'd toss the ingedients with olive oil and seasonings. Or, you could make something like this:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basil-C...ir/Detail.aspx

At allrecipes.com you can search for recipes with the ingredients you want...

[Synchro246]

Originally Posted by greenlace

me too!! last night i actually wrote in a notebook my goal of no buying anything for myself in jan.

:

Originally Posted by KnittingKara

Hubby and I have decided to Compact in '07 and a January no spend challenge sounds like a good (but slightly scary! Yikes!) way to kick that off
. . .
Okay, mamas, I'm a little nervous, but I think I can do this! (I hope)

Not only can you, you WILL unless you forget (which is my problem-- "oh, yeah. I'm not spending $$" always comes out of my mouth in one of these months)

Originally Posted by SunflowerMommy

As for the no-spend challenge, that'll be a tough one for us as we both love to treat ourselves to new gear. We're going to try really hard though. We want to get our debt paid off asap and start planning our move to the country.

Luckily dh is on board so we can keep each other in check.

My rules:

1. Only buy dairy, produce and bread.
2. No eating out with the kids. We have a few gift certificates to various restaurants for $20-$30 each so we'll use those for our date nights.
3. Absolutely no spending on anything else unless something breaks and we can't live without it for the month of January.

Great rules, and it's awesome that DH is on board. That makes it easier. My dh is just tolerant of this, though he professes often about how much the pantry challenge months "suck".

Originally Posted by Amys1st

subbing, I will decide what I will be doing. But I am doing a frontier coop so does that count??

It's counts if you want it to count

Originally Posted by lisa2976

Everything is out the window for Feb. though, and I'm aware of that, which is why we will save the extra cash this month. I remember when dd was born we had a lot of take out and premade meals, which cost tons more than cooking.

I'm really hoping to make it thru February and then take March and April to figure out how to freeze meals (I've never done it before) so that in May I can avoid some of the take out that comes with a new baby. I'm sure there will be a bunch of eating out reguardless. :

Originally Posted by Softmama

I spent the day baking and have pancakes, waffles, and a batch of muffins in the freezer so DH can grab breakfast before he leaves for work. This will help ALOT as he likes to go buy stuff for that with the excuse that he just gets bored with cereal.
This is going to be so much fun

Can you tell me about frezing pancakes and how to re-heat them? My dh loves the frozen waffles and stuff for breakfast, and I want to try to do it myself to see if it's significantly cheaper/healthier/yummier.

I like the attitude BTW

Originally Posted by phatchristy

Wow, I have some things I know I NEED to use up in my pantry that are getting old...including some canned soups/canned fish and I think this would be a good chance for me to get motivated and creative.

So, I am totally in. I think I could very well spend < $100 this month on food doing it!

I have a ton of soups and a tond of canned fish too. I haven't decided about the soups, but I found some recipes I'm planning on using for all the canned Salmon. They look easy and like they won't take much that's not already lurking in the pantry.
I'll post em some time.
I hope to spend <$100 too

Originally Posted by Jennisee

--I'm also working this into a decluttering challenge. In 2007, we would like to finish getting our house decluttered and organized. We have a lot of things to sell for extra income or to donate and deduct. I need to hop over to that forum to see if anyone has started a January thread!

Good luck, everyone! I'm really looking forward to this.

If you find a de-clutter thread post it here too. I'd like to dabble with it too this month, though I have a lot on my plate so I'm not up for a whole challenge.
Another on the attitude

Originally Posted by Jennisee

Oh, I do have a quick question for everyone. I need some ideas for using up five gallons of shredded zucchini and summer squash in the freezer. My garden was extra prolific this year. The thing is, I don't like the taste of squash, so it needs to be more along the lines of "filler" recipes. I'm planning to make zucchini bread and to add a little bit to meatloaf, meatballs, and spaghetti sauce, but I need more ideas. TIA!

I like zuccini in lasagna. It's hardly noticible. Put it under and on top of the cheese layer.
I'd be a good addition to pasta sauce too.
Or baked mac and cheese
Sounds yummy! I want a garden one day.





I have to say I'm super proud of myself. I did a rough inventory of the pantry and freezer. I know I missed some stuff, but I got most of it (I have 26 boxes of mac & cheese!!!)
I even came up with my first ever meal plan. I have dinners planned for every night in January. They are all realistic and they use up all sorts of stuff I haven't known how until now. ~pats self of back~.
When January is over I should have rice, quinoa, a bag of 15 bean soup, possibly canned green beans and corn, possibly some soups, possibly some canned fruits, and a few other things left over.
I am HAPPY

[Softmama]

Synchro246, we usually freeze wrap stuff with some machine Dh bought years ago, not sure what it's called.
But, he wasn't around and I didn't know how to use it, so I just wrapped the pancakes in bunches of four in tin foil. Then put all the little tin foil packets into a giant zip lock bag and stuck that in the freezer. this way we can pull out a packet at a time. This morning, I pulled out one packet for my son and just put the four pancakes on a plate in the microwave for 20 seconds. worked great. the waffles I freeze the same way and usually put them in the toaster to heat them through.
I am so impressed you did a meal plan for the entire month. If my kiddos go to sleep early enough tonight, I'm going to give that a try!! Well, maybe one week to start with

[leomom]

Synchro, I just throw my pancakes and waffles in a freezer bag, sandwiched b/w two pieces of wax paper so they don't touch the plastic. We don't have a microwave, so I just stick the pancakes/waffles in the toaster oven and they come out perfectly.

[Softmama]

leomom, thanks for the allrecipes link. I've heard of the site and never actually used it! But i just went through and printed off two recipes for sundried tomaotes that look great

[instant coffee]

I am in for both!

Money can be spent on rent, car, electric, heat, auto gas, cc bill, cat food, litter, new ssn card, half and half, eggs, bananas, apples, meds, and laundry.

Anything else is off limits unless it truly fits the need catagory and I missed naming it above.

[hlkm2e]

Yippee!

My rules are:
1.) shop only 1x per week
2.) buy only produce and milk
3.) buy only whats on the list from the meal plan

I did my weekly shopping today. Here is my list, I added ricotta cheese to it because I saw that I had 2 boxes of lasagna noodles, lots of sauce, cheese, and ground turkey in my pantry/freezer. All I needed was ricotta to make lasagna's

lettuce
asparagus
bananas
apples
grapes
raspberries
strawberries
broccoli
tomatoes
ricotta

I got everything on the list except raspberries became blueberries and broccoli became broccolini. Then I came home and made 2 pans of lasagna for the freezer. Here is our meal plan for the week:

Monday - eating at IL's

Tuesday
breakfast - scrambled eggs, toast, apples
lunch - grilled cheese, strawberries, sunflower/pumpkin seeds
dinner - hamburgers, fries, corn, salad, blueberries, apples

Wednesday
breakfast - oatmeal, blueberries
lunch - pizza, apples
dinner - alfredo noodles with chicken breast, broccolini, and asparagus. salad

Thursday
breakfast - egg sandwiches
lunch - pasta salad with veggies and chicken, apples
dinner - tacos, salsa, fruit salad

Friday
breakfast - pancakes, apples, oranges
lunch - taco salad
dinner - leftovers

We usually have smoothies, fruit, seeds, crackers and peanut butter, or cheese for snacks.

[scrapadoozer]

I need to do this (both). We have a whole bunch of things coming at us this month and we need to save all the money we can.

Will be back with my rules etc.

[crunchy_mama]

I'm in for both! Dh and I have been talking about tightening the budget again as it is, things have gotten lax around here- especially when I got prego, we got lazy and although we have been doing better as I have had more energy lately there is still room for improvement.

Let's see my goals:
1) no spending on anything except groceries (or something with a gift cert)
2) grocery spending no more than $30 a week- I have freezer space that I need to clear out to make meals to prepare for the baby- right now it is full of half a hog and chicken (grassfed), deer meat, wild salmon and various veggies from the garden and the store I need to be using up some things
3) will make sure to plan a menu weekly-making sure 2 nights are veggie, shoping weekly as well
4) one meal out this month , and maybe a movie as well as we got passes for Christmas
5) Keep track of all money spent this month

Oh, and I forget dh is wanting to take a trip to the museum with our neice and nephew (and Luke of course), so this will result in a meal out, as dh had already planned that, and of course admission price for us all ($36), however I am very psyched about it as it is something we have never done.

[Softmama]

Ok, Dh is not totally on board so I have to tweak my rules. I am adding cheerios and crackers to the list of things I can buy. Dh is insisting. So..I will buy produce, dairy, meat, cheerios, and crackers....

[snuggly mama]

I'm in for both challenges. I went grocery shopping today after being sick over the weekend, and I should have enough to make quite a few meals when added to what we already have. I'll still need to grocery shop for:

*milk/diary products
*fresh produce
*meats
*bread

The no-spend part will be a little harder as we are in the process of buying a new sofa to replace the disgusting set we have now. So, while it's a big purchase for a no-spend month, it is a planned one : We are going to hold off on the extra stuff, though, and try to use what we already have (entertainment center, desk, etc). Dh is a bit leary of this no-spending thing, but hopefully I can get him on board!!

[aprildawn]

I want to try the pantry challenge. It'll be my first time. I guess I'll have to try it out and see how things go before I can say what my "rules" are. So, my rules are no rules! Just see how it all works out. It'll be fun. And I know it'll make DH happy.

How does this work? Do we check in all month? Fess up if we buy stuff?

[Synchro246]

Originally Posted by aprildawn

.

How does this work? Do we check in all month? Fess up if we buy stuff?

I need to check in or I forget to keep going
Fessing up generally happens frequenly and is encouraged
Also talking about what you've done to keep going and asking how to use up such and such or how to avoid spending $ on a present or a date.
Good luck with your first challenge