Challenge

I am one of those people who struggle with completing projects - especially long ones.  I still only have one living room curtain, minimal kitchen cabinet doors - they are in various stages of being painted white, and a huge pile of "mis-matched" socks.  Maybe I enjoy baking so much because it doesn't take too long to complete.  Who knows.  One of the negative side effects of this problem, combined with my ability to seek sales and stock up on groceries, is that I have a house full of food that I have miserably failed to incorporate into my weekly meal plan.  

Once 2011 started, we began really feeling the stress of the economy.  Something made me realize that I had a ton of food at my house, but was struggling to keep up with my grocery budget.  "No more laziness!" I declared to myself as I hopped up, grabbed a pen and paper, and headed outside to my freezer (yes, outside. . .there is a lean-to type room on the side of my house that is only accessible from the outdoors.  It  stores our water heater, gardening supplies, and a freezer).  I began compiling a list of all the types of food, quantities, and their locations.  After typing my list into a spreadsheet and organizing it by product. . .I was astounded to realized that I had about 150 DIFFERENT TYPES of food (this number only includes type - not quantity.  i.e.  If I had 10 boxes of cake mix, that counts as one type).

Now that I have an accessible file of what food I have at my house, it is easier to plan a weekly menu that only needs minimal groceries.

HERE IS MY CHALLENGE FOR YOU!

Plan a time within this next week to go through all of your nooks and crannies.  Maybe you are analytical like I am and would be helped by making a physical list.  Maybe you would do better just taking the time to realize what you actually have.  Whichever personality you have, take some time to see what God has blessed you with and to figure out how to use it to cut your next week's grocery budget!