Every can we owned was lined up on the kitchen counter by type when Tyler came in from walking Moose on the first Saturday of the year. Soups on the left, beans in the middle, tomatoes and vegetables on the right. He looked at it for a minute and asked how long this was going to take.
About two weeks, as it turned out. We were starting a pantry challenge: cook from what was already in the cupboard and freezer, and only buy fresh basics. Our rent goes up $35 a month in February with the new lease, Christmas cost what Christmas costs, and I had a feeling we were sitting on more food than I realized.
What we had
I made a list on a legal pad. Thirty-one cans, counting soup, beans, tomatoes, green beans and corn. Three pounds of rice, four boxes of pasta, two bags of dried pinto beans, half a bag of flour, pancake mix, oatmeal, two jars of spaghetti sauce and a jar of peanut butter. Plus two quarts of Debbie's canned tomatoes from last summer.
The freezer was thinner than usual. We lost about $140 worth of frozen food in the December ice storm, when the power was out for nine hours, and I'd only partly restocked it. What was in there: two pounds of ground beef, a bag of chicken thighs, half a pork shoulder my mom sent home with us at Christmas, two bags of frozen vegetables, a package of tortillas and a block of cheese.
The rules were simple. We could buy milk, eggs, bread, coffee and fresh fruit and vegetables, up to $25 a week. Everything else had to come off the list.
What we ate
Fourteen dinners, two weeks, no takeout:
- Chili with ground beef, pinto beans and a quart of Debbie's tomatoes, twice
- Pulled pork from the shoulder, three ways: sandwiches, tacos and over rice
- Chicken thighs baked with rice and frozen green beans, twice
- Spaghetti with jarred sauce and the second quart of tomatoes, twice
- Pancakes and scrambled eggs, twice
- Bean burritos with the second bag of pintos, cooked down and mashed
- Potato soup, with potatoes from the fresh allowance and a can of cream of chicken
- One "pantry soup" made from whatever was left, which we will not be making again
Lunches were leftovers for Tyler and soup or peanut butter sandwiches for me. Breakfast was oatmeal, every single day, and I'm still not tired of it, which surprised both of us.
The pork shoulder did the most work. It went in the slow cooker on a Sunday with salt, pepper and an onion, and it fed us three dinners and two of Tyler's lunches. If I'd paid for it, it would have been about $12. My mom gets the credit for that one.
What we spent
Week one was $22.14 on milk, eggs, bread, bananas, a bag of potatoes, onions and coffee. Week two was $26.56, which went $1.56 over the limit because we ran out of coffee on a Wednesday and nobody in this house was going to wait. Total for two weeks: $48.70.
Our grocery budget is $600 a month, which is about $277 for two weeks, and a normal two weeks lands right around that. So the challenge saved about $228. I moved $225 of it into the house fund on the 16th, and the other $3 and change went in the jar.
The can we never opened
When the two weeks were up, nine cans were still on the shelf. Most of them are things we'll use, like green beans and soup. One was a can of water chestnuts. I bought it in 2023 for a stir-fry recipe I never made, and it has now survived three cupboard cleanouts, an ice storm and a pantry challenge. Tyler wanted to put it in the pantry soup. I said no. At this point it has earned its spot.
The real lesson ran the other direction. Almost everything that sat in that cupboard for months was bought for one specific recipe. The things that got used were the plain ones: rice, beans, pasta, canned tomatoes. From now on, if I'm buying something for one recipe, I'm buying it the week I make the recipe, not for "someday."
We might do it again this summer. The freezer will be fuller by then, and the cupboard will probably have a few more someday cans in it, sitting right next to the water chestnuts.
