Spending Freeze Day 1: State of our stockpile

I mentioned before that people have asked if we stocked up in preparation for this spending freeze, in short no, we didn't, but we do have a stock pile of sorts.  It was only 2 weeks ago that Hubs and I decided to challenge ourselves for the month of February to spend $100 or less on anything that is not a monthly bill.  We did not run out and buy everything we thought we might need for the month, or go on a shopping spree to hold us over, in our minds, that would defeat the purpose. 

I have began couponing 5 months ago, and in that time I have learned that when a price is really low on something your family uses regularly, you should buy enough to last you until the next sale. So with that in mind, we do have a modest stock in our pantry.  What to see? 

We have a bunch of hot cereal, pasta, peanut butter, tomato soup, and certainly enough brownie and cake mix to last us awhile.  We have about 10 boxes of cold cereal (1/2 which are the ones the kids pass over) so we will be seeing how to make those more appealing to the this month.  We are also pretty set on oatmeal, flour, sugar and bisquick, so I am sure i will be baking a bit as well. 


Now the fridge and freezer are looking a bit light these days, we have eggs, jelly, butter, mayo....  but we will need to pick up some more produce for sure.  As for meat, we are all but out, so I will hunting for good deals on chicken and  beef.  (This just might be the month that I finally try cooking a whole chicken).  What to see inside my fridge?  It's a bit of a mess, but here goes...

Hum, we do have some frozen veggies, a pizza and a couple of burritos in there too I see, besides the pizza, these are mostly items my kids groan at, so we will have to get creative and sneaky to get these past my picky eaters. 

Other than food, gas is the other large part of our day to day expenses.  We have 2 cars, the family mini van and Hub's little car, both of which have about 1/8 tank of gas.  We will really be needing to plan our trips out carefully.  I mentioned before that Hub's is currently looking for work, so we don't have his commute to worry about, but trips to the post office and the store can still add up quick and it costs a bit over $50 to fill our van.  I will be wanting to take advantage of sales this month to stretch our budget, but I will have to weigh the sale against the cost of gas, something I have not really done in the past.

So there you have it.  This is what we are starting with, a modest stockpile, very little gas and creativity.

Today we spent $0, we drove nowhere, but instead got out on our bikes and enjoyed the very cold sunshine.

Kimberly