Sorting the Storecupboard..... or Upping the Ante.....

Back in January I started my Storecupboard Challenge, to live off the contents of the storecupboards, fridges and freezers buying only fresh foods, milk, bread etc and things to turn what I already had into meals.

These pictures of my bulging at the seams cupboards are what spurred me into action.

Alright they look neat enough, but what a lot of food for just two adults to have in stock, some of which seemed to just live there, never being used, just added to on a regular basis. I wanted to simplify them, having only a store of what we regularly use and only buying extras as and when we needed them in stead of 'just in case'.

The Challenge has been going quite well, but by giving myself quite a large budget (£70,although not all spent I hasten to add, I have managed to save over £300 out of this 'budget allowance') I haven't really got to the back of the cupboards or even emptied the freezers yet. In my mind I haven't been inventive enough. I know I can do SO much better.

We do tend to eat the same sort of meals over and over, I suppose that's something we all do, after a hard days work, just grab the ingredients we know and rustle up a favourite meal. Well by continuing to do this and buying stuff we ran out of, as well as the fresh stuff, and also by putting in my order to Approved Foods the contents of the cupboards don't seem to have gone down that much. Indeed briefly they went up as I managed to fit all the food left over from Christmas into them, you know all the little hampers you get off people and the boxes of sweets that temporarily live on the work tops because there's no room anywhere else for them.

So in the interests of making the Challenge harder (it is supposed to be challenging after all), I am making this coming week a 'No Spend Week'. Lovely Hubby will have his usual 'dinner money' for work, but I will empty my purse and not buy a thing. My whole £70 will go straight into Spotty Jug and will not be touched.

I have enough milk in the fridge for the week (and an emergency pack of long life milk, just in case). I will make my own bread when what we have in the bread bin and freezer runs out. Once the fresh fruit and veggies are used up we will eat veggies and fruit frozen from our harvests last year. So we will not go hungry, and hopefully when I show you the shots of the cupboards at the end of the week they will look a lot barer than they do now.

In a week or so the first of our home grown salad crops will be ready for picking and then the taste of Summer will begin, and the living and the eating will be a lot simpler. Exciting times ahead. ~

Sue xx