Eat From the Pantry Challenge

Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom are having an eat from the pantry challenge for the month of January.
Accounting Dude and I decided to participate because December seems like our month when we forget that we live on a written game plan. So a new month and new year seems like the perfect time to bring in the reigns and participate.

Our Challenge will include:

• Inventorying our Pantry. Just inventoried the freezer a couple of weeks ago.
• Reduce Grocery spending to $150.00 for the month. Normally spent $320.00 a month last year.
• Purchase only dairy, produce, bags of ice (ice maker hasn't worked in a year and we don’t own ice cube trays and this is just easier), Diet Sunkist (drink one a day for both Accounting Dude and I) and items that are either free or super cheap.
• Find creative things for lunch at work because Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones will eat into our budget.
• Clean out my coupon organizer and keep it up to date.
• Make a monthly menu. Did this in the past and it seemed to work out great.
• Money saved will go towards our new refrigerator.
  
  *We have an eat out envelope and still plan to use once a week. When the money is gone - there is no more eating out. We maybe helped in this area because we did get eat out gift cards for Christmas.
  *CVS items will no longer count in our grocery envelope. It is now going to have its own envelope.

I think that we can handle all of these items and we are always up for a good challenge. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.