Looking at this picture of
a pantry, you may be thinking one of two things: a) Wow – it’s huge! Or b) Yuk – what a mess! They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. How you see this picture, may reveal a little
something about you. J
On a good week – my
oversized pantry is sorted and houses an incredible amount of goodies. However, a typical week (reality check) – I haven’t a clue
as to what really is in there.
Periodically, I will take a stab at re-organizing it, though this job has mostly
been delegated to my teenage sons.
They actually do a pretty decent job - though I don’t believe it has ever
occurred to them to pitch or toss anything. They
more or less just wipe down the shelves and move everything back into some kind
of an orderly fashion. When you have
free help, I guess you can’t get overly picky.
Always
amazes me though how quickly a semi-organized space can
go to the dogs.
Recently, my daughter
spent some time at my house and as a favour, took some time to re-arrange my
pantry. It’s surprising how much stuff you
can stockpile without giving it a second
thought. She found some awfully strange things in there. Even surprised me (and I bought the stuff!) After she finished re-organizing my
little mini Safeway … I still managed to find things that had expired four
years ago! You don’t always think about
expiration dates for non refrigerated foods – at least I don’t.
Most of these things were probably bought for a specific
recipe, which just never got made. A real
waste of money. As the expression goes … "the road to hell is paved with good
intentions." That is probably why so many
pantries look like a disaster zone. We all have good intentions.
Same with freezers. I have the
good fortune (or not) or having three fridges (inherited 2 from moving) and one
deep freeze. You can store an awful lot
of things in those freezers - to the
point where you have no idea what is actually in them. They become bottomless pits. Some things had been in there so long, they
were actually frozen to the bottom and sides of the freezer. The freezer below
is a far cry from mine. This one is actually organized. Mine has loose
freezies, empty boxes of ice cream bars, bags of who knows what, and packages
of everything imaginable under the sun. All things were
bought with the plan of being used.
Since most meals in our household
get prepared at the last minute, meat or frozen foods get pulled out and used
as they are seen. Out of sight, out of
mind. So it’s not a surprise that those items stuck to each other never got
used. Last year, I actually filled 2
oversized garbage bags with berries, meat, casseroles, etc. and threw them out. Those were just
from the 3 fridge freezers. Most of the contents were looking pretty
questionable and freezer burned beyond recognition.
When our daughter was
living with us for a few weeks and agreed to cook for the family, she commented
on the surprising amount of meat she found.
In fact, she pointed out that we didn’t need to buy meat for a VERY LONG
TIME. That is what got me thinking about
the incredible amount of waste in our house and all that gets pitched out - pretty sobering.
It seems that our fridges
only get cleaned out once a month (or so) and it’s scary when I see what is growing in
those sour cream containers. Storing
leftovers in margarine/sour cream containers is probably not the smartest thing
– again, out of sight, out of mind. I recall not buying sour cream for months,
thinking that I had all this sour cream.
Fact is, there wasn’t a drop of it in the house – just lots of sour cream containers full of fuzzy
green mold. Can’t even tell you what the
mold was covering. Leftovers can go from
great to gross in a heart beat, it seems.
Looking back at the waste
that I’ve thrown out and prob. still will as there is still the chest freezer
left to go through – it’s shocking to think of the money that has gone down the
drain. I’m reminded of voices from my
childhood …. “You know there are starving children in Biafra that would
eat that!” or “We could feed a whole country on that plate of food! Eat it!”
Well – yes – now I see that we probably could have with all that I’ve
chucked out these past few years. It’s
quite sickening to think about it, actually.
Time to get onto this
Plan It - Make It challenge. I would say that there are
probably a fair number of meals that could be made out of the food that is still
fairly “current” in our freezers, without having to invest in any more
frozen food
Having a menu plan is
really the way to go. Even if I planned 3 out of 7 days for meals (and followed through on preparing them) that would be a huge step in the right direction. Having a list when you shop is imperative - and sticking to it is even more important. Ask anyone that is
watching their money . . . there is none of this random aisle shopping. Even looking for “a good deals” has the potential of being a money
waster, if its not on the grocery list.
I know because I have a pantry and freezer full of those good
deals. Someone recently told me that
it’s unrealistic to plan for 7 meals a week, if your lifestyle shows that you
are not home to eat that food. It just ends up
as some kind of a weird science experiment in the fridge or sits for time eternity in the frozen abyss called my
freezer.
In the past (aka known as
Basketball Season) I think it is fairly safe to say that we ate more meals out
than we did at home. So you’d think that I would have caught onto that and not planned so many
meals.
This week, I will be
planning the meals and shopping only for them. Ok - maybe one or two extra treats (I probably can't go totally
cold turkey - I do have teenagers and a husband who loves their junk food). Anything I purchase this week and in the future (until the chest freezer
is empty) will go into the one empty fridge freezer. That should be an easier reminder of what still needs to get used up.
I am actually excited
about this challenge. When I think of
what we could have spent that money on or visualize simply burning it (because
that’s what it really amounts to) … it irritates me.
instead of
Will be interesting to see
what creative meals we will have this week and in the coming weeks. I hope this will really be a turning point for
me - using what we have, making a realistic plan and sticking to it. Hopefully the Saturday and Sunday free
shopping challenge will be another positive step, as well.
The temptation is always there to run out and pick up something. Today I was very tempted but decided to look
in the freezer. Didn’t need to buy buns
– there they were! Who knows --- maybe
I’ll even get back to cooking and baking more things. Nothing like a home cooked meal. Sorry Wendy … I know my boys love your
Baconator but at the $10 price tag (fries and drink, too) … it’ll be my home
and not yours!
“Beware of little
expenses; a small leak will sink
a great ship.”
Benjamin Franklin
Looking forward to seeing
you next Sunday when I take on the Show Me the Money, Honey Challenge!
Images by: chicagonow.com;
fastgrowtheweeds.com; jokedujour.com; rosssimmonds.com;
walletpop.ca; afreeman.org; howtomakemoneyinfitness.com; mymovietshirts.info; fidelisartprints.com
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