Store cupboard challenge

Mags_cat

Make lists.

Take everything *and I mean everything* out of one cupboard and write it down.

If that's all you can do today, great - you did one

Tomorrow - do another cupboard/drawer.

Find this week's Meal Planner thread and write down what you can make from what's in the cupboard.

Stick to it!

It gets easier as you go on.

Cookie_monster_7

If you have something that you haven't used in 6 months then throw it or give it away.

I have done that....not very OS , but I am saving money now by sticking to a 2 week menu plan so I am not buying any ingredients I know won't get used up. I still try new recipes sometimes but I buy those ingredients and make it asap.

leiela

I dunno i just keep doing nut's things...

the other day i spent ages baking cakes for the kids, great you say.

Then i spent ages making some flap jacks ... wonderful.

But its not wonderfull when i have 3 full tubs of Cadbury cake bites in the cuboard leftover from christmas GAH!!! i know i should use them first but i keep seeing cool recipes so i run out buy the ingredients and make them instead.

meal plan's don't work in this house, i plan things perfectly then on the day i sit there and think "UGH i don't fancy that" or something happens and i have to make something quick.

I dunno part of me thinks i might be better sorting though the cuboards and dedicate "one" cuboard to "things that must be used" and force myself to use something from that cuboard every day.

Seems alittle silly though ...

flissh

Leila, first ask yourself why you want to be more organised. Is it to save money? Be healthier? Save the planet?
You are right, there is little point in making flapjacks, (that you have had to go out and buy the ingredients for) if you have lots of shop bought snacks/cakes in the cupboard already. Unless, that is, you want to be healthier. H/M oaty flapjacks are probably healthier than Cadbury cake bites.
It sounds like a good idea tackling one cupboard at a time. Also make sure you are not continually adding to this store of stuff you will never get rid of, or you will never get to the back of the cupboard.

Olliebeak

leiela wrote: »

.........I dunno part of me thinks i might be better sorting though the cuboards and dedicate "one" cuboard to "things that must be used" and force myself to use something from that cuboard every day.

Seems alittle silly though ..........

I don't think that sounds silly at all. If that is what would work for YOU - then do it that way. OR how about getting a strong box (cardboard one if necessary) and putting some of your more recent tins in that and putting it somewhere out of sight - maybe upstairs in the bottom of a wardrobe, in the garage or in a shed. THEN concentrate on what's in the cupboards.

I don't 'meal plan' as such either. I have a vague plan in my head and know what's in my freezers. I aim to have alternate days of 'meaty meals'/'lighter meals' and try not to have potatoes at every meal. I keep some 'one person portions' of things like casseroles/stews/chillis/curries so that every now and again we can have home-made equivalent of ready-meals when it needs to be something very quick!

Have you tried counting NSD's (No Spend Days) to see how many you can have in a row without caving in and going to the s/market? That can be quite a useful way of keeping a check of how often you step over the threshold of the s/market.

For some of us, me included, going to the s/market is just a habit that needs breaking! Every month I have a huge shopping session and get the majority of what we will need for the entire month - including milk, bread, veggies and catfood!

My problem is when I look after my youngest dgd (age 15mths) because I then take her to our local shopping centre. We have a habit of hitting the charity shops (there are 8 in our one road of shops!), the bargain shops (B&M, Poundland, Poundstretcher), Wilkinsons and eventually having lunch in Asda and final wander around there (just in case they have any whoopsies that may be calling out to me ).

NONE of that stuff is necessary, to be honest it's just a way of taking dgd out and about and keeping her amused. I never buy expensive stuff and we most certainly could do without it - I mean, just how many plastic dishes does one tabby moggie need; how many baking tins do I need; how many toys (from charity shop) do I need to keep in my home for dgd to play with when I take her out all the time; how many bags of whoopsied veg do I need when my freezer is bursting with frozen veg?

Good luck with your efforts, leiela - at least you're seeing the problem :T . Dealing with it is the next step .

leiela

Well ultimatly i'd like to be healthier, i recently had a breakthough with my kids who agree'd to give up the "sweets after tea" that had become habit in exchange for pudding mummy made and so far the things i've been able to make have been 100% healthier than crappy suger/colour/flavor filled junk that used to make up so much of thier diet.

Still moneys an issue so right, ha isn't it for everyone??!

So for now i'd like to try and mix in some of the less than great crap in with the much better homemade stuff till the crap is all gone then i just won't buy it anymore... ultimatly i'd like to convert to making everything from scratch.

Still i seem to be getting carried away with the making stuff from scratch and running out to buy ingredients for things i see the recipes for, even though i have sooooooo much food in the house already.

Im still managing to stick to the budget which is good but heck i've only got 3 cuboards in my kitchen (1 is used for plates/pans) so i REALLY don't have room.

things i have for example

3 tubs of hot chocolate ???!!! why do i have 3!!!!???? i really need to use at least 2 of these, but how do you use hot chocolate quickly?? i guess i could throw 2 away but it seems such a waste.

3 tubs of milkshake mix ... again i REALLY need to use at least 2 of these.

6 boxes of cornflour .... WHY!!!!! i have no idea i guess every time i make something i forget if i have some in and buy it.

don't even get me started on Nuts... i have at least 15 variety's of nuts and seeds, salad mix's and other nutty combinations these ALONE take an entire shelf.

I have over 15 jars and packets of chinese/indian cook in sauces yet i STILL keep making sauce from scratch ...

Seriously this shouldn't be THIS hard... it's just my cuboards are THAT tightly packed that the old stuff sits at the back and never see's the light of day and i forget it's there.

So when i fancy sweet and sour i go out buy the ingredients and make it, without even realising i have 3 jars of sweet and sour cookin sauce buried.

i have a tiny tiny tiny kitchen and if i want to make more stuff from scratch i need to make SPACE!!! Besides using what i have this month would save me a ton of money i could put in my christmas tin right??

marfan_not_martian

Hi Leiela

I agree its amazing what you find at the back of your cupboards. This week I have sat down and wrote a complete list of everything in my cupboards and have made a meal plan list for the the next week so that I can use up some of the sauces and packets that never get used.

When doing the plan I found that not only did I have enough food for this week I also have enough for another 5 days so all in all I have spent the grand sum of £ 4 on veg for this week and plan to spend another £4 on fruit tomorrow (already had plennty of milk and have bread in freezer) so I will have saved £52 from this weeks shopping budget and next week I plan to spend the same on fruit and veg plus an extra £10 on milk, bread and some meat - and baby stuff £10 So hoping to save in total over 2 weeks £ 84.

As I also have loads of other sauces and tins still left to use up after the next 2 weeks plans. So I am going to only buy stuff to go with the tins, packets and sauces that I have so that over the next month I use them all up.


When I use anything out of my cupboards I am going to cross it off my list which is now on my freezer.

It feels great not only decluttering my home selling things on ebay but also decluttering my food to eat cheap for a couple of weeks.

:beer:

longtimelurker_2

Hmmm, do you have your meal plan displayed for the rest of the family to see? I'd be in trouble if I deviated from the 'weekly menu'! I also find that checking it in the morning I get excited about dinner, and that when I get home to cook it the meal plan is a way of saving time faffing around and cuts out stressing over dinner.

Some days I don't fancy what's on the list, but if that's the case I'll invent an impromptu pudding (like fruit salad, or if we have some frozen fruit in the freezer with icecream) to get me through the dinner and onto the interesting pudding!

I'm lucky in that I have a very big kitchen (this is a new thing - I've had tiny kitchens before!) so I have a cupboard I keep for 'doubles' and stocked-up ingredients and onyl keep one of everything in its normal place. When I get low on an ingredient, I check the stockcupboard first. When I had a small kitchen I did this too, but kept the doubles in a box in another room.

longtimelurker_2

Oh, and also - I limit myself to one new experiment a week! It can just cost so much to set yourself up for a new recipe. So once a week it is.

exlibris

Hot Chocolate - I take it you mean the drinking chocolate stuff from Cadbury's et al.

Use it to make chocolate cake, sponge puds etc. - Make the usual cake recipe and add 2 or 3 tablespoons of choc powder with the flour or replace 2tbs of flour with the choc powder.. It doesn't make a difference to the quality of the resulting cake. The powder can also be used with icing to decorate the cake. Sorry about lack of precise instructions. I don't bake anymore - I eat it if I do