Grocery Shopping – Changing Up The Game Plan!

Despite devoting the last week of November and the entire month of December to a pantry month, amazingly I find myself doing so again this month. 

Last month I did my usual grocery shopping plan and stuck to my meal planner with gusto.  I loved making all those fresh new meals and enjoying the leftovers but I’m afraid I was a little too devoted to my menu planner. 

In retrospect I needed to be a little more flexible because we ended up with a lot of food waste last month.  More than I have had in so I long I can’t remember when.  More than I’d want to confess to over at Frugalgirl.com that’s for sure. 

After perusing the grocery list I realized that most of what I had on it was to stock up on items we already had on hand and a number of “want” items we really didn’t need.  A few “wants” is fine but this was more than a few.  So I decided to change strategies this month and I am glad I did. 

I started out by declaring February a pantry month and then purchasing only items we really needed which ended up being milk, eggs, flour tortillas, non-stick spray, cheese and fresh fruit.  It has been nice because it freed up some cash to take advantage of a couple specials I came across.  One was NY strip steak for Valentine’s Day – 4 steaks for $17 and three packages of center cut bacon for $1.99 each.  Bacon has become so expensive lately so I was really glad to find it on markdown. 

I am still using my menu planner but not quite so rigidly.  If there is something to use up in the refrigerator we are doing that first before we make something new.  So far, so good.  We have had spaghetti three times for supper as well as several times for lunch this month, much to the sheer delight of my youngest, but other than that not too much repetition. 

Last week a dear friend of mine gave me a pot of chili and a tuna casserole to take home.  I appreciate that she thinks of me and likes to give me a break at supper from time to time.  Since I have been under the weather the last couple of weeks, first with migraines and now with a cold, I have really appreciated her thoughtfulness! 

So definitely some flexibility around here.  How are things going in your kitchen this month?