Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning Challenge UPDATE!

Yesterday was the last day of April which means that my spring cleaning event is officially over!

However, I am finding that I still have several things that were not used up in April!  These things are still good and there are no worries of them expiring even in the month of May but they still need to be used and the amount on the pantry or freezer shelves still needs to be reduced.   So in an effort to use those items up, I am going to continue this spring cleaning and join the fun over at Learning the Frugal Life: Eat from the Pantry Challenge!  

Most of our eating from the pantry will be in the form of desserts!!  Some how I still have 17 boxes of instant pudding and 7 boxes of cake mixes!!  I have several cans of pumpkin and sweet potatoes to make muffins too! As for the freezer there is still lots of browned ground beef to use but not much else in the way of meats!  There is also several packages of english muffins and toaster strudel that need to be eaten as their freezer life is shortening by the day. 

As for April grocery shopping totals:  

Grand Total(food only) was $469.82

Grand Total for the month(food, paper products, toiletries, laundry soap, and cleaners) was $523.37

I have been spending closer to $650/month!!  So I was successful in getting our budget back on track! We have a budget of $525/month. The total also includes my monthly shopping trip to Sam's Club!

Breaking down the grand total spent on food, it translates into $15.67 per day for 3 meals and 2 snacks!!   That is amazing for feeding my family of seven!

So it looks like really taking the time to think throughly about what I have on hand and shopping accordingly is helping me to reduce the grocery food bill and get the budget back on track!  

Now to continue on  keeping my grocery total under $500 for the month of May!!

This post is linked at: 

• Eat from the Pantry Challenge at Learning The Frugal Life!