Saving Money Feels Fantastic: The Pantry (Finally!!!!)

hello friends!  I know it has been WAY too long since I told you I would be going through my pantry and organizing it as the last ‘step’ on the list to help save money on food! I finally felt well enough to be comfortable going through the food in our modest ‘pantry’ and organizing it. It’s just not one of those things one does when one is coughing uncontrollably , or blowing their nose repeatedly. (your welcome for that mental picture). 

I like how squawkfox does a step by step on each of these to-do’s! This is something i love doing, personally, but haven’t done since we moved in since it is a super tiny kitchen (i love it though!) and it’s easier somehow to just throw another item on top of the pile and then it’s like a treasure hunt to make dinner – ‘i have noodles? no way!’ ‘oooh, there’s rice in here!’ ‘honey! we have spaghetti sauce!’ – you get the idea. It can be fun, but not when it turns out that you bought more of something you didn’t need. SO. I tackled it.

I pulled everything out, sighing sadly at the spaghetti sauce – i recently had to cut out most nightshades from my diet, which includes tomatoes.  beans. pasta. balsamic vinegar. little bag of  unpopped popcorn. small bag of dried lentils. It all piled on the counter while i wiped the cupboard out. It wasn’t bad but any crumbs kind of gross me out. I rearranged a little bit but mostly everything went back where it had been.

sorry it’s slightly blurry, i don’t know why! =( 

Then i stood up and started on the second cupboard – the baking cupboard. Flours – amaranth, tapioca, rice and oat. baking powder and soda. rose water. almond meal. dry goat’s milk. bag of gf pizza crust mix. egg replacer.   

is this a gluten free house or what?? I almost don’t remember what 1 flour looks like anymore. 

I admit to being slightly lazy and NOT taking out the entire shelf of spices (when you combine two houses plus awesome spices we got for a wedding gift, it adds up to a lot!!) and only worrying about the top two shelves. I have been saving nice jars as they got emptied- honey, peanut butter, etc… so I was able to switch some items that we had in bulk bags into jars, label them and not only does it look better, i now have a better idea of what i have in there! YAY! 

here is the link to the original article :http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/07/02/pantry/

I hope this encourages you to go through your pantry! I’d love to hear about it! 

Now there’s a last entry from squawkfox about those as seen on tv green bags. i’ll let you go ahead and read it if you’re interested.  http://www.squawkfox.com/2012/07/16/green-bags/

Well, that finally wraps up that adventure! And now, on to the next!  I will tell you about it tomorrow! 

Tags: pantry organization, squawkfox info