Pantry Purge: The End!

My bean stash at the beginning of the Pantry Purge has now been cut in half!

I can hardly believe I'm almost done done with my Pantry Purge!  Woot!

I've learned a lot of lessons: self-control, humility, creativity, giving generously and being thankful, just to name a few.  I could write a blog post a day on how humbling it is to eat what is in your pantry, and not buy all the nice cheeses that you want to!

I've noticed that we have saved a lot in our budget, and our freezer is almost halfway empty!  Perfect, just in time for making some freezer jam once strawberries are in season this summer!

The first half of the month was pretty difficult because of my husband's busy schedule, but we have made up for it and seem to have a good groove going.  I plan to continue eating mostly from our pantry stash. 

I've made tuna fish, soups, tilapia, rice, black bean brownies(since I used up my chocolate stash in the first, um, few days), hummus, shrimp, guacamole, homemade mac 'n cheese, and a roast. I've used up lots of frozen fruits and veggies, eggs, canned soup, chicken sausage, couscous, one box of Hamburger Helper (blech, I know some people love it, but I bought it at a weak moment while shopping with my husband and I'm GLAD it's gone!) and tortillas.  Even when I made food for others, like my piano and voice recital and Norwex party, I purposely used recipes that called for ingredients I already had on hand. 

I donated about 4 bags of groceries that I know we won't use, but could still bless others, so my pantry is definitely looking more bare, which is a great thing!  It's a lot easier to eat healthy when you have room for healthy food.  In my case, some of that stuff just sat there, like the Hamburger Helper, because I don't normally cook stuff like that.

I've spent less than $10 on groceries this month!!  No doubt though, it has taken creativity.  We were out of milk when I made the mac 'n cheese, so I used half and half.  I didn't have one of the spices for my tilapia recipe, so I used another.  I didn't have lime juice when I made the guacamole, so I just omitted it.  Normally I would have went to the store and bought what I wanted or needed. 

I do have a list of things that I need to buy come June 1st, but I've kept it to the minimums: apple cider vinegar, whole fat yogurt (soon, I WILL make my own!), butter, chocolate chips, cream cheese and lime juice. 

To all that joined me, in some way, shape or form: THANK YOU!  In a few weak moments, when I was tempted, it was great knowing that there were many others out there doing the same thing. 

How did you do with the Pantry Purge?  What lessons did you learn?