In addition to reducing our costs for groceries each week, we've been working on building up our 'emergency pantry.' We've stayed nearly right on with our monthly food/sundries budget and in the last month by shopping sales and using coupons have built up a months + worth of dried and canned goods. We also have enough meat in the freezer to last us at least 6 weeks, more if you take into consideration the dried beans.
While we're not expecting things to go south anytime soon, it feels nice to know that we are preparing for things that *could* come. Ultimately, I'd like to get to the point we have a good 3-4 months supply of basics in our emergency pantry. I believe that over the next 2 months we can get there. This weeks shopping trip alone added 12 boxes of cereal (at $1.05 or less each) to our emergency pantry and 12 cans of beans/soup at $50 - $55 each. Last week I found whole wheat pasta on sale for 10/$10 and combined with coupons to make it even cheaper... that added 20 boxes of pasta to our emergency pantry! We're also set (and rotating) through several types of dried beans, lentils and such. I'd like to try to sneak another $20 out of our budget to go back and purchase a few (18) more cans of soup I found on sale for $0.55....but we'll see. I found oatmeal on sale as well, just $0.88 per 42 ounce container, so I'll be stocking up on these as well.
My next job is to go to some of the bulk stores (URM/Cash n' Carry) to price out their bulk flours...maybe, just maybe they'll actually have a 100% whole wheat flour ???
Do you have an emergency food pantry? What's your method for rotating through foods, keeping track of what you have... and what do you keep in it?
We are installing a wood stove to reduce our absurd $500/month electricity bills from electric heating through the winter, so cooking will still be a viable option if we were to loose power. We'd also be able to boil water, etc.
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Food Budget for week 1 of January: $150
*Fred Meyer - $46.01 spent ($26.37 in coupon/sale savings)
*Safeway - $41.43 spent ($41.58 in coupon/sale savings)
*Walgreens - $9.45 spent ($4.90 in coupon/sale savings)
*Albertsons - $9.25 spent $20.20 in coupon/sale savings)
*Target - haven't gone yet :)
Farm Eggs (3 dozen) - $10.50
TOTAL: $116.64
Milk directly from the farm (3 weeks worth, 18 gallons) - $60 *monthly milk budget $80*
MONDAY:
Breakfast - leftover whole wheat biscuits, bacon, eggs, applesauce
Lunch - nachos, yogurt
Snack - celery and peanut butter w/raisins
Dinner - Roasted Chicken, Corn Suffle *leftovers*, salad
To Do: boil eggs
TUESDAY:
Breakfast - cold cereal, yogurt, banana
Lunch - Hard boiled egg sands, carrot sticks, apple slices
Snack - Pretzels n' cheese w/oranges
Dinner - Dinner @ a friends house *or* Barley n' Beef w/veggies soup
To Do: take leftover noodles out of freezer
WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast - Steel Cut Oats w/pears, eggs
Lunch - Cheese, Crackers, yogurt, apple slices, carrot sticks
Snack - cheese stick and popcorn
Dinner - Broccoli and Chicken *leftovers* Pesto over noodles *leftovers*
THURSDAY:
Breakfast - Egg, Bacon, Toast and bananas
Lunch - Ham sandwiches, cheese sticks, orange slices and celery sticks
Snack - Graham cracker w/yogurt and apple slices
Dinner - Taco Salad
FRIDAY:
Breakfast - Yogurt w/granola, egg, bananas
Lunch - Farmer's Market Soup, Tortillas w/cheese
Snack - hardboiled eggs and pears
Dinner - homemade pizza, salad and green beans
To Do: make yogurt and bread
SATURDAY:
Breakfast - (homemade) biscuits and gravy, eggs, and applesauce
Lunch - Leftover soup w/fresh bread
Snack - cheese sticks, pretzels and oranges
Dinner - Loaded Baked Potatoes, salad
SUNDAY:
Breakfast - hashbrowns, eggs, bacon/sausage and pineapple
Lunch - leftover soup w/grilled cheese
Snack - cheese w/crackers
Dinner - Lentil Shepherds Pie w/salad
To Do: menu plan for next week
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