Pantry Organization Ideas – Monique’s $20/$20 Challenge Pictures

The pictures keep rolling in and the great ideas right along with them! Monique walks us through how she plans her weeks out to make her life a little easier. She has some great tips. Here’s her story:

Hi Mavis!

I’ve been following your blog for a couple years now, and I love reading up on your challenges and tribulations, while you go through all your transitions and gardens and the new homes! I’ve moved once during my following of your blog, and both times have been in a small apartment.

I started in a one bedroom, which made food storage nearly impossible, and now we’re in a two bedroom, which is better, but still difficult. We have a hall closet that we converted to a small pantry. I cant really garden, except for over the edge of the deck planters, which limits me to a couple of radish varieties, carrots and if I’m feeling adventurous, tomatoes and cucumbers.

For food, we do a bit of a mix. I’m all about pre-planning. There are two of us in the house and a demon cat! She’s super picky, so we have to be very specific about food and liter for her. We have many nieces and nephews under the age of 7 {hence the second room} and they are over a lot, so there always has to be snack foods readily available.

I tend to coupon for convenience snacks and healthy foods alike, sticking to all natural {mostly Bob’s Red Mill,  Joes and Winco} for my baking and dried good. I buy meats in bulk {From Zaycon if I can!} and you’ll notice my freezer doesn’t have much in the way of processed foods {the mini corn dogs and fries were a sneak in by my other half when the nephews were over for a visit last weekend!} I bulk make freezer meals like shepherd’s pies, lasagnas, and chicken enchiladas to make my weeks even easier. A couple weeks ago the cat pulled the plug on our tiny little freezer and I had to start pretty much from scratch…so its about half empty right now. Thank goodness we caught it before EVERYTHING defrosted!

There’s also A LOT of junk food in the pantry right now because after Christmas clearance is my weakness. And it’ll probably sit there until I use it all in baking and bring it to work. Good thing there are 50 lbs of flour down there at the bottom of my hall pantry, huh?? I’ve also got two 1L bottles down there with the condiments that look like vodka but are actually homemade Madagascar bourbon vanilla extract. I’ve been brewing them for about 14 months and they’re amazing. Whenever I go to duty free I stock up and make my own!

We both work in a call center, so we’re away for typically 8-10 hour days, 5 days a week. A lot of times our schedules don’t align, so here’s how I make our food lifestyle work for us and keep us eating healthy, at home goodness, 7 days a week:

I make a meal plan, usually for a two week period. I only plan out the dinner meals but I do a 14 day stretch, and I budget in a splurge day, or a pizza night in there. If I don’t, it all goes down in flames and we will cheat…and that’s just no good.

I ask: What do you want for lunches next week? And we buy the fresh veggies and lunch meats to accommodate that meal plan, typically I’ll buy enough lunch meat for a couple weeks and freeze it…or MORE if its on a great sale. My tip is to ask your deli slicer to slice it thin and lay it flat. Don’t be afraid to ask for them to put it in a separate bag based on how much you’re buying.

On Sundays I pre-make the bulk of our weekly dinners. That way, when we get home, all we have to do is make sides or veggies. Example meal plan: This week we’re having roast beef with mashed potatoes and broccoli tonight and there will be leftovers for another night during the week. I’m also pre-making chicken enchiladas {from that shredded taco meat you saw in my freezer} to have for two more nights this week. We’re babysitting on Thurs, so that’s a splurge night and Friday is a work event. That’s all week, done in only an hour of prep, and I’ll only have to make broccoli and reheat enchiladas and refried beans during the week.

On Sundays I’ll also pop in some sort of a baked pastry, usually banana bread with walnuts or some flax, etc. to make it a healthy morning snack before heading out to work.

Keep in mind as well that my shopping time is minimal. I do two shops a month for all household items: groceries, toiletries, fuel, etc. For produce I pop into the local farm market once a week and grab the staples for that week!

Thanks for doing such an awesome incentive, and giving back to the community. I find that a lot of my couponing goes to the local pantries as well, since I don’t typically use it all.

Thanks,
Monique

Are you getting your pantries camera ready? You can participate in the $20/$20 Challenge by simply sending in pictures of your pantry. Find out more about the $20/$20 Challenge: Show Your Pantry – Fill a Pantry!