Day 2 Make Do

Organized and cleaned up in the large freezer today. Our beef order will be ready in February, we have plenty of beef until them. The only thing we are getting low on is chicken but until I can find something local or the grocery store comes off the price we will work with what we have,

more than enough fruits and veggies to make it until next spring.
Here is what is left from the summer of canning

The kitchen pantry is back to working order.

Today was a FULL day in the freezers, kitchen pantry, back pantry and restocking the pantry containers from bulk storage. I am totally whipped, who would have thought cleaning the pantry's and such would be so much work. I spent lots of time checking expiration dates and ensuring my food rotation plan is working correctly. So far so good, I have pulled a few things out that we need to use up in the next few months. I'm not much for eating anything after the suggested expiration date. I didn't take photo's of our bulk storage so trust me on this one. We have around 60 pounds of white flour on hand however I use more wheat berries than white flour. I like soft white wheat, it is the closest I have found to the flour we all know and love but a hec of a lot better for you. When we buy wheat I order 300 pounds, sounds like a lot but we use around 5 pounds per week. It is also a lot cheaper to order in larger quantities. Sugar and other basic pantry supplies are about the same, I buy in bulk then just shop from our bulk storage when I need something. I know our way of doing things is off the hook for some of you but it works for our family. Having a large deep pantry enables me to shop only on sale along with coupons to get the biggest bang for our buck. For the month of January other than milk and eggs we should be in really good shape.

For those of you who are into the extreme couponing you might be interested in the following sites. These ladies are super hip, and know their stuff when it comes to food storage. If you are stockpiling using coupons you are doing food storage no matter what you call it. Make sure you understand the correct way to store food you pick up for free, no need to poison your family trying to save a buck!!!

http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/

This is Crystal's site, she does amazing things with her food storage

http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Using the food on hand this month will be key for us in the No/Low spending challenge. We did have some spending today. I needed to pick up eggs (under$3.00) and hubby needed to get the heck out of my hair!! I sent him on a play date with some of his buddies to take in a movie (matinee price) I'm sure there was a jumbo popcorn and biggie drink involved but it was worth whatever he spent to have the uninterrupted time to get my rump in gear. The alternative would have been to knock him out with my fabulous line of cast iron skillets, pots and pans. A trip to the ER after the assault would have cost a pretty penny (our deductible is $4,000.00@ this year) Not sure what the attorney fees might have been. I feel sure I would have had the charges dropped if a female judge were to hear the case but it just wasn't work the risk.

We also hit Barnes and Noble tonight to pick up a book suggested by Carla at 1/2 dozen daily, I used a gift card from Christmas to buy the book, even shared with hubby so he could get a new magazine all for free!! Love gift cards. How are you doing with your no/low spend January, every little bit helps.