if you had to...

[2moretrees]

If you had to spend the least amount possible on food for the next month, how much could you get by on? My friend has joined a "cupboard cleaning challenge" where they are supposed to try and not spend a single cent for the next month to clean out their cupboards of food that has been there for awhile. Do you think you could do this? I'm thinking about trying it, but I don't know how well I would manage. I think you'd have to be a creative cooker to pull it off, which I am not.

[PrincessPerky]

Creative and liking spices, I occasionally just don't make a list for DH, which means we tend to end up restocking the 'got to have' like milk and bread, but nothing much else, and we spend a LOT less that month, but the following month I go restock all the canned goods and staples (pasta ect) bringing the two month total to just under what it would have been.

I think going a month would be easier if I knew how to make pasta, and or was willing to try. I keep telling myself I should, I burn sugar so fast the white pasta is not good for me and I should make whole wheat, but I am chicken.

[bee]

I think that I could, I do pretty much all of my cooking and baking from scratch and I buy the 22 lb bags of flour, my freezer has tons of meat in it. I already make my own bread etc. I use powder milk when cooking and baking , I have a bunch of my mixes done up for pizza,biscuits, cream soups etc.

The only thing that I would have to do is pick up some potatoe, another bag of flour , cheese, I think that is it .

Now you have me thinking....lol.....except this week turkeys are onsale and I pick up 3...one for thanksgiving,Chirstmas and Easter, as I find where I live this is the cheapest time of year to buy turkeys.


Great thread

Heather

[jaksilee]

Yep I could...I am a horder so I could come up with enouth food to make us happy! I even stock dry milk and eggs.

[DivaJen]

I think we would have breakfast covered, between cream of wheat, cereal on hand, and muffins in the freezer. I could make bread, to go with the loaf in the freezer, so we could do sandwiches for lunch. Where I would run into trouble would be dinner. I'd also need to get fresh produce, milk, cheese and eggs. If I knew I was going to be doing this, I could stock up on a few things in preparation.

I wouldn't want to go a month without shopping. I like the idea of eating to clean out the cupboards and freezer, though.

[34saving]

I think I could do it except for milk. I grew up on dry milk, but dh put an end to that when we got married. Dd hasn't ever had dry milk, but . . . Can you even get dry whole milk??

[mjrube94]

If I had to start today, I'd need to get milk, fresh fruit and veggies, bread, and ice cream . Hubby would never go for it, though...

[Bluezy]

Can you even get dry whole milk??

Yes you can, hun. It's always been available, just not a popular item.

I use it to cook with and use it half and half with whole milk to make two gallons of milk out of one. I don't notice the difference.

[locolorenzo24]

I think going a month would be easier if I knew how to make pasta, and or was willing to try. I keep telling myself I should, I burn sugar so fast the white pasta is not good for me and I should make whole wheat, but I am chicken.[/quote]


Whole wheat pasta isn't so bad....It takes about as long. 10 to 12 minutes to al dente. Mix with beans, onions, peppers, spices, etc. good pantry cleaner meal!!

[cercis]

We buy whole grain pasta and I like it fine. I barely even noticed when we switched (and I tend to have a very "tender" palate).

I think I have about 4 gallons of milk in the freezer. Plus quite a bit of pasta in the freezer.

I could probably go a few weeks without shopping. We don't shop that often as it is.

[PrincessPerky]

my check book would notice if I switched .

[34saving]

Princess -- my mom recently gave me a pasta maker because she never used it. It works well and I bet your kids would love it! It's kind of time consuming, but then your cost would be whole grain flour, which (my guess) is cheaper than whole grain pasta. My guess is that there's lots of these out there . . .not being used . . . maybe if you put a wanted request on Craig's list (or even freecycle) you coulod find one. Mine is a Pasta Express, but I don't know anything about the brands.

[PrincessPerky]

hmm that I might look into. is it easy to use?

[34saving]

Yeah. It's pretty easy. You pour in the ingredients, it mixes them up and extrudes the pasta. You have to cut the pasta as it comes out. Not rocket science, but kind of putzy (sp? I'm not sure I've ever seen that word in writing ) Think the play dough barber shop

[PrincessPerky]

Heh, sounds like fun, I always wanted a playdough 'thing' spageti hair thing or the creepy monster maker or whatever, but I never got one .

[marglo]

We have gone for several weeks only buying milk so I know we could. We get to a point where we are not eating stuff we really want usually but we would not starve. However one of the reasons we have been able to do this is that I used to stock up a LOT and still have quite a lot. These days I am buying mostly organic/natural foods and because they are usually more expensive I am not stocking up as much, so it might be harder to do this after while.

[PRICEPLUS]

You can live on rice and beans for quite a while. Using your imagination and eating what you need and not what you want you can do it for less than 50 a week.

[PrincessPerky]

Ah but cravings can really get you when pregnant!

[Bluezy]

Yes indeed!!! Those cravings can break a budget in one day...and I dare anyone to stop a pregnant mum with super charged hormones from fulfilling those cravings.

[Pollyanna]

Could we? Yes. We would run out of fresh milk and 1/2&1/2 before the month was over. I do a lot of canning/freezing/drying of our produce so we would be eating mostly those types of veggies and fruits with our meals, rather than having some fresh produce/fruits.

I really wouldn't want to try it this month, as I would be missing an awful lot of good sales on staples this time of year. I try to get pretty well stocked up before cold/icy/snowy weather hits, so that all I have to get then is milk and a few perishable veggies. Try me again in January!