Food The Cleaning Out the Kitchen Cabinets Club!

hlfinn

hlfinn

ASO The Today Show
O.G.
Nov 3, 2006
19,432
11
#1
So this is an offshoot of a conversation/ thread in the Money Talks forum. There is a great website called "And then she saved" where the blogger, while trying to save money, tries to go through all the food in her house to save money on groceries. I am totally inspired and wanted to try to do the same thing.

A few months ago I went through and cleaned out my cabinets and fridge and wrote a list that I taped on the freezer with a list of everything I had. I was going to eat through everything and mark it off as I did. I think I crossed out one thing. I still have about 10 cans of string beans, 2-3 large cans on salmon, endless Trader Joe's meatballs etc etc. While I have been making progress in eating what I buy (I used to be a big food waster- it can be very hard as a single person to eat like a whole loaf of bread or package of meat in a week) but could still do better.

I am also not the best cook in the world. I have a few things in my repetoire (mostly dishes from weight watchers online which are good, healthy and easy if anyone is interested) but usually I make them over and over again. Though I did try chili for the first time last night.

I would love to have us be able to come on here, talk about what's in our cupboards, encourage each other to eat what we have rather than order in or buy more stuff that will sit around at the store. And to be able to share recipes or cooking ideas to make the idea of cooking what we haven't been eating more exciting.

I can post a list of what I have when I get home tonight. I hope you will too!
 
#2
Oh I should say that last night I also cleaned out the freezer- I had a ton of meat and chicken in there for god knows how long (damn you costco and your cheap mass quanitity temptation!). I am so dumb about kitchen stuff that I actually had to send a pic of a chicken breast to my cousin's wife to ask her if she thought I should toss it. Her verdict: yes. So I ended up throwing everything out except some shrimp and a package of chicken that a friend left when he house sat recently. I will buy some chicken breasts on my next shopping trip but maybe not.
 
#3
We do this every 6 months or so in our family, to make sure our 'stock pile' is rotated. I will have to look up what we spent while doing it, but I think it was about $100 for our family of 6 for a whole month.

It is really a great idea! Good luck everyone!
 
#4
Great idea. I would do a list but it would be very very short.

Growing up my mother was a huge food hoarder. We had 2 spare fridges in the garage! I always hated it, I hated opening the kitchen pantry and being overwhelmed by the clutter. Come to think of it she is a hoarder in general LOL

By contrast I think I do the opposite because I hated what she did so much. She'd buy meat and it would sit frozen for a year before she'd defrost and cook it. If you look in my fridge and pantry at any given time there is always a small amount of food in there. I like to be able to glance and see EVERYTHING I have. I shop small and because I'm lazy I can sometimes go 3-4 weeks without doing a proper grocery shop (DH will stop and pick up milk or something if we run out). It's actually a really good feeling to use up your food before buying more ;)
 
#5
my mom was/ is a food hoarder too. she actually doesn't buy a lot but she keeps it FOREVER. it's one of the reasons i clean out my fridge ALL. THE. TIME. i adore her but hated that you never knew how old something was when you went to reach for something.
 
#6
This is a great thread! I have a tiny kitchen and like cooking a lot so I try to not buy thing I know I wouldn't use. What always happens though, is that I convince myself I'm running out of something and need to restock it. So I then find myself with like 5 bottles of washing up liquid or 12 tins of chopped tomatoes... I think a list like yours, taped to the fridge doors, would help me a lot!

The only thing I hoard is sweets. I occasionally get given boxes of chocolates and neither I nor my BF have sweet teeth so the sweets just sit there in their cupboard.
 
#7
I looked it up, it was 166.96 for all 6 of us for 1 month, it was less $1 a day, per person.

We didn't eat out, have junk food or buy lunches the whole month either. This was the grand total for food for the month, including kitty food.
 
#8
This is a good idea! I often end up doing this accidentally, as I hate grocery shopping. Currently, I have a pot roast in, but as I didn't have the seasoning packet I usually use, I just tossed in whatever spices I have with some carrots. We'll see how it comes out! haha

Right now I have a lot of meat ($10 off $40 purchase of meat at whole foods) and not a whole lot else. A couple cans of taco/chili type stuff like refried beans and jalapeno lime beans- so some kind of burrito may be in my future. Will take down a full list later today though!
 
#9
i don't know how i could possibly do that in nyc. i was happy to have spent under 40 at the supermarket this weekend in long island and that was buying a lot of store brands.
 
#11
Actually I do this all the time!! Since I live very close to a butcher shop I never buy more than I need. I have no clue if I am actually saving money but I like eating everything in my refridgerator before replacing it. Re Costco; even if I went on an all protien diet I would never be able to eat all of that frozen meat!! But I do love their salad greens!! I eat salad with every meal...breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually get fresh fruit and veggies from costco. I have werid tastes...I usually have soup for breakfast.
 
#14
Great thread shoot off hlfinn!

I also made progress last night! Chicken Helper Alfredo (which is actually really tasty) plus canned chicken (not tasty together), and I threw in fresh broccoli and mushrooms.

But more importantly, I didn't spend money and two things gone out of the 45 things in my pantry! I don't actually know how much is there, but I'm ready to make a dent!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back