How did you do with last week's challenge?
It went like this ...
How many quarters do you currently have in your purse? That's right, it's time to go digging in your purse, dump it all out, look in all the crevices, pockets, wallets, zipper bags etc that you have in your purse. How many quarters did you find?
Add that many items to your pantry this week?
Didn't find any quarters? Pick a number between 1 and 5 and add that many items to your pantry instead!
When I went digging in my purse, this is what I found ...
count them ... 13 quarters!
Looks like it has been a while since I cleaned out my purse!
Here's how I met the challenge ...
My hubby needed to stop at a local chain store for an item and I went in with him as I'd not been in this store before. While he looked for his item, I browsed around the store and found the clearance section.
I found these 11 items and every one of them was $.50 each!!!
4 shampoos
2 boxes of soap (each box had 3 bars of soap in them)
5 containers of Bac'n pieces
Total for all these items was $5.50! Score!
That's 11 items, I still needed 2 more ...
I've been drying cayenne pepper in the greenhouse, so I went and got them and jarred them up!
These 2 plus the 11 items we purchased at the local chain store gave me the 13 items I needed to meet the challenge!
Last week we talked about utilizing the space under beds for pantry storage and this week we're going to look at another often overlooked place ... do you have any bookcases in your home? How about clearing out the bottom shelves and use them for shelving home-canned goods, home-jarred dry goods, etc. If your bookcase is sturdy enough, use the whole thing for displaying your hard work and efforts. Home-canned items look nice displayed this way.
Our challenge for next week has us thinking about basics as in beans ... yes, beans!
Any kind of bean will do, it can be dry beans, home canned beans, store bought beans, etc just as long as its beans. The amount is up to you! The goal is to get some beans in your pantry.
If you or your family doesn't eat beans, choose another 'basic' item as a substitute.
Until next time,
patsi
Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal living and pantry building (if you include my frugal childhood, well that would add a few more years to my experience!)
A Working Pantry
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
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My pantry is intentional, purposeful, simple, practical, frugal and what works for my family. It’s the food items and household supplies that keep my household running smoothly ready and available when they are needed. It’s my contribution to our family’s economy and my work-from-home ‘job.'
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I panicked when I heard on your blog last week that Walmart did not have any cough drops. Since I depend on one certain brand, I decided on Thursday I would not come home until I searched high and low and found Halls Mentholyptus cough drops. The first store was only out of that brand. CVS had them. I bought two packages. Since they get sticky as one of your commentors pointed out, I had a plan already in place. I always stuff the whole package in a quart Ball Canning Jar with a ring and used lid. The plastic storage lids won't keep air out or moisture. So, I have one bag in the jar plus half the other bag dumped in there. Tommy and I both have some in a bag at our chairs, plus some in my purse. I need to stay prepared as these clear my sinuses.
ReplyDeleteMy blog post today is about the 424% rise in price and the smaller bag with fewer drops, a double whammy. Go to moreparsimony@blogspot.com.
If a person displays any glass jars of food where light can get to it, the vitamins will be dissipated from their food they store. When I cannot store glass jars of food in the dark, I put it in a box or cover it.
I had no quarters in my purses or pockets.
DeleteI have dozens of jars of food that would not be affected by light as I am sure of most canners . I have a dozen jars of chicken broth and about four dozen jars of meat along with black beans that are in coal black liquid that light could not permeate that I would not worry about exposing to light. There are five jars of applesauce on my kitchen table that absolutely will not fit anywhere right now but as we open jars we will replace the spaces on our pantry shelves with the full jars. No worries because we open jars at least three days a week as I am sure others do as well.
DeleteYou can store cough drops in the freezer to keep them from getting sticky.
I only had one quarter but we stocked up on a lot of items because of salvage store shopping and other deals at the grocery stores. I think my most important purchase was a case of vegan butter for $2.99. We have been using this to make bread as butter has gotten more expensive and we have been looking for alternatives.
ReplyDeleteWe cleansed out a shelf in the linen closet in our bedroom for home canned foods and now Hubbly has it on his list to add a divider shelf because the shelves are so tall and waste so much space.
I am going to count the bean challenge done. We purchased a case at Aldi this week for donation to the crisis pregnancy center because they are collecting food for Christmas baskets. We are very well stocked on beans at home both in cans and home canned. A few weeks ago Ingles had Luck's beans 2/$1 and we filled up every gap on the shelves here and that is 18 cans of every variety that we use.
Lana, You scored big! Thank you for donating to the crisis pregnancy center. It's amazing the space you can discover when you have a pantry mindset, isn't it! We've done the very same thing that your hubby plans to do ... extra shelves mean more storage!
DeleteI had twelve quarters. We made a batch of salsa and have 15 containers in the freezer
ReplyDeleteNancy, salsa is so good and can be used several different ways! Yum!
DeleteI didn't have any quarters in my purse and it wasn't a shopping week, but I did add to my pantry. We harvested more sweet potatoes which has given us a total of 25 pounds, all grown in containers. They're now curing for long term storage. Our chard is still going strong a D more of that was harvested and 2quarts were added to the freezer. The stems were chopped and frozen to use is soups. so I will choose something else for next week.
ReplyDeleteCookie, You don't have to spend money in order to add to your pantry, do you! Great example!!!
DeleteI found 2 quarters in my purse and since I was making veggie beef soup, I got two containers of beef broth.
ReplyDeleteColeen
Coleen, Perfect! I bet the veggie beef soup is delicious! We have it during the winter months, and it just hits the spot!
DeleteI have 3 quarters in my purse but they will not be spent. They are being saved for the Aldi shopping carts.
ReplyDeleteI picked my winter squash this week and it was a disappointment. The plants are all leaves, vines and blooms - not much fruit! We decided to make an unplanned trip to the Amish. My husband said it would cost $17 in gas, waste most of a day so make the trip worth it. Tonight we will have our first frost (a week early) and I didn't want anything that had set outside and been frozen. My goal was to get any deals possible by buying whatever I could find; however, they too have experienced poor harvests. It was time consuming going from house to house but we were successful. We filled up the trunk of the car. What pleased me most was finding winter squash varieties that I can't grow due to vine borers. (The Amish rotate their crops from one huge field to another and are able to hide from the nasty bugs. I can't. They always find me.)
This evening I will be out harvesting things before the frost hits. Hopefully, it won't do much damage.
Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry
Jeannie, the last time we visited our favorite Mennonite area, we heard the same type thing, they too didn't have their usual yields as in previous years. Glad you got some winter squash; we brought back a box of those too from our last visit. It must have been a good year for winter squash!
DeleteSix Aldi quarters in my purse, so I bought 4 of our favorite brownie mix (on sale). I also was given a large bag of food, including beef stew, sloppy joe sauce, canned fruit and tomato sauce for much more than 6 items in the pantry.
ReplyDelete--Frances in the Trailer Park
Frances, what a blessing all that food was!!! You hit this challenge out of the park!
Delete