Menu Plan - Pantry Challenge Week 52

Yes.  We actually made it through the whole year without having to buy any groceries.  

Between the milk from a farm and the vegetables from a CSA or family's gardens, I had very little that I needed to buy throughout the year.  

Fruit was probably my biggest reoccurring expenditure.  

And of course I ran out of things like sugar, vinegar, and jars this summer from all of the canning that needed to be replaced.  

If there was an incredibly good sale on groceries, I would replenish stock but it went untouched in a different area of my stockpile and not with what I was trying to use up. 

The two deer that Engineer bagged last year lasted us the whole year.  

Things I have taken away from this and need to reflect in my shopping habits:

• We don't eat that many canned vegetables
• We don't need anywhere near the amount of cream soups  
• We don't eat that much meat
• We don't use huge amounts of condiments
• We don't need to ever buy vegetables in a store as long as we are part of a CSA
• We use very little fruit juice
• We eat at my parents' house more than I realized
• We don't need more than 1 gallon of frozen milk at any given time
• I cannot have too much sugar
• I can't have too many sticks of butter
• I can't have too much rice
• I cannot keep up with demand in the amount of vinegar (balsamic, white or red wine, rice wine, apple cider, or distilled) that we consume
• I cannot have enough dried fruit

With all of that in mind, I plan to shift my shopping focus slightly to accommodate what I now know.  

If you have a stockpile, I would encourage you to try and eat off of it for a while to use up what you can before it expires and also to see how your family actually uses it.  

Without doing this, I would have never known that our family can make it a whole year on 10 cans of cream soups, that green beans are not the staple food I thought they were, and that a bottle of ketchup will last us nearly a year.  

For our last menu plan of this year, we will be eating:

Sunday - Muffaletta Croissants (I adapted the idea from Ms. En Place) and Salad

Monday - Dinner with Family - BBQ

Tuesday - Dinner with Family - Mexican food

Wednesday - Pancakes, Sausage, & Eggs and Fruit

Thursday - Pasta Primavera & Salad

Friday - Date Night

Saturday - Leftovers

This is part of Menu Plan Monday.