Pantry Challenge - week 3

Our pantry challenge is still going, but we struggled a little this week.  We had lots going on and Kevin was gone for 4 days.  When we have a lot going on, we tend to eat quick & easy meals so we didn't use a lot of our meat and we ate a Subway a couple times with our gift card from Christmas.  When Kevin is gone we like to eat breakfasty type foods because he doesn't prefer breakfast for supper or lunch.  We had pancakes, waffles, sausage, and french toast.  This uses up baking ingredients and bread, but again not much meat or vegetables.  Hopefully this week we can get back on track and finish cleaning out that pantry!  Here is how I did on my goals:

Goal #1 - Spend less on groceries.  This week I ordered my groceries from Azure so it was my big spending week.  I ordered 38 pounds of oranges, 20 pounds of apples, 5 pounds of flax seed, and 25 pounds of oatmeal.  I spent $62.68.  I also had to buy a frozen pizza, a box pizza, and a bag of shredded cheese for a 4-H cooking lesson (comparing pizza costs, tastes, & prep time) which cost me $6.99.  Added to week 1 & 2 total of $11.58 - my total for January so far is now $74.26.  I am well under my $125 budget for the month, so if I can stick to it for next week I will be very happy with this challenge!

Goal #2 - Make more space in my cupboards.  I used 1 jar of pizza sauce from my pantry so I didn't get much accomplished here this week.

Goal #3 - Reduce the stuff in my freezer.  Didn't get far on this either.  Most of the meat I thawed out for the week is still in the refrigerator, so we will have to get that used right away this week.

Goal #4 - Have fun!  We had a lot of fun making pizzas for the 4-H lesson.  We learned that we will never again buy the pizza kit in a box.  The sauce was terrible, it cost more than homemade or frozen, and it took longer to prepare than homemade and frozen.  We did like the homemade pizza and frozen pizza about the same, but overall homemade pizza was cheaper per serving.  We also enjoyed making and eating waffles & pancakes this week.  We also made homemade pretzels this week - it was fun bending them into lots of different shapes!  We may not have accomplished much else, but at least we had fun this week!

How is your pantry challenge coming?  Want to see how everyone else is doing?  Check it out over at Good Cheap Eats.