We are 3 weeks into a pantry challenge, focused on using what we have on hand rather than filling up at the grocery store. It has gone really well and we have exceeded our goals. We are enjoying more home cooked meals and our grocery budget has been tiny this month. We have learned several things from this challenge, including what we want to focus on growing next year and how we will meal plan in the future. We have also inadvertently cut out a large amount of the processed food we were consuming and reduced our food waste. Overall, I would call this a major success.

This challenge has forced me to make more things from scratch, and I’ve learned several new recipes and techniques. For me, that is the most exciting part. I have planned out a weeks worth of meals at a time and then worked hard to find the best way to prepare what we have. It has forced me to use some substitutions, and I’ve also become more flexible with our favorite recipes. Seeing other Instagram accounts doing the #threeriverschallenge has also inspired some of our meals. Luckily, we’ve started getting some fresh eggs, which have been great for baking some treats.

The amount of dishes created from cooking every meal at home is the biggest negative takeaway from this challenge. Dishes are my least favorite housework and I have definitely seen an increase. It has helped me structure my day differently though, and I feel very accomplished when the day is done, bellys are full, and the kitchen is clean.

We went grocery shopping this weekend and spent $56, putting us at a total of $117 for the month. I think we may be able to make it to the end of the month with what we currently have on hand. We typically spend between $400-500/month on groceries, so this is a big savings. We needed to fill up on flour, oats, milk, fresh veggies, and fruit. I would like to find a better way to buy flour and oats in bulk, but I’m afraid we will still need to spend a bit on dairy. We don’t have a great alternative option right now. We typically only buy fruit and vegetables that are on sale, so the investment in those items hasn’t changed, except we have been using more of the squash and green beans we have on hand.

I would love to have beans, corn, and more tomatoes preserved. These are all items that we have used quite a bit of, especially because it is soup season here. When it comes to planting time, I want all of the fresh lettuces and cucumbers, but some of that space would be better used growing more for winter meals. I always end up feeding lettuce to the chickens because we have way too much. I also am determined to grow turkeys this year, because I would love some ground meat. We do have some venison, but I like ground venison mixed with other meats to hide a bit of the game flavor. We have missed having turkey in our freezer this year. As I have mentioned, pigs are also on the radar, so we will be doing some planning a preparation for that this summer.

I am surprised how much processed food we have cut out. Micah loves mac and cheese. The Kraft kind with the powdered cheese. I’m not going to lie, I like it too. We buy several boxes a month and it is a lunch option for us more than I would like to admit. However, we haven’t had any in the house this month and the kids haven’t even asked for it. Turns out, it you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t on a diet and we are still eating plenty of fats and sugar, but a diet was never our intention either. We have just ended up making more things from scratch, which results in less processed food. With reduced grocery shopping, we have also done a lot less snacking. We only snack on what we have on hand, which is mostly fresh cut veggies or fruit.

We have been more intentional about our meals which has resulted in reducing our food waste. We’ve done this in two ways. First of all, if we hadn’t done a freezer and pantry inventory, a lot of what we had would be left to go bad. We didn’t even know we had a lot of what we have been eating. Secondly, we have planned our leftovers into meals and have been more intentional about finishing what we have prepared before making something new. It is easier to reduce waste when you are eating something you worked hard for, so the homegrown things get eaten right up.

We are starting out February with a vacation, so this challenge will be complete at the end of the month for us. However, I will be working off of our freezer inventory for meals in February and keeping a reduced grocery budget. Our habits have changed and I hope to continue on with this new perspective. If you have never done a challenge like this, I encourage you to give it a try. I have found it to be very rewarding in just the 3 weeks we have completed so far.