Well, here we are with just one more day of January left. My pantry and freezer challenge were successful in that I used what I had on hand from December 26, 2011, forward except for needing eggs, bread, milk and fresh lettuce, fruits and pet foods. I didn't save one penny of my grocery budget this month, however. Not one penny. I spent it all and then some stocking up the pantry and freezer in anticipation of all that I thought I'd use this month. Here I am with two days left in the month and in my freezer, I still have several items from that inventory back in December that weren't used. So, I'm offering up a continued challenge for another two weeks of Pantry/Freezer challenge, bringing my total to 8 weeks. And this time around I mean to save the budget beyond what I'll need to purchase in milk, cheese, eggs, lettuce, and fruits. John will require a couple of loaves of store-bought bread, but I also mean to make bread.
In fact, baking is big on my list for February. I meant to learn to make English muffins and bagels this month but due to illness never even went near my baking center at all. John has been busy today with a DIY project. I moved my small freezer into the craft room closet I use as a pantry area. We had to have a way to plug in the freezer and didn't want to run an extension cord. Since the outlet was on the opposite side of the wall, we put a hole in the wall about a foot below the outlet, complete with a nice plate cover, ran the plug and cord through the hole right to the outlet. Voila! I now have the second freezer ready to be up and running. And that means I must begin to fill it. I thought baking bread and making doughnuts and bagels and muffins and such might just be the thing to start with, don't you?
