Grocery Shopping for No Spend Challenge - Pantry Challenge

Well, we picked up the basics from the store that included some fresh vegetables (carrots, lettuce, potatoes, bell peppers, garlic and cabbage, frozen berries and dairy (milk and sour cream). I didn't get everything on my list, but Number One Husband picked out a few things that weren't on the list. We broke the first rule of shopping, DO NOT GO HUNGRY!

This is one of Number One Husband's picks that helped jack up our bill. 
At least it was a healthy choice. Dave's Killer Bread is a real treat for us.

We ended up spending a whopping $80 bucks, but for the most part it will see us through the first month of the challenge and part of the second month. We could have spent a little less if we had stuck to our list. In all fairness, we should have shopped over two weeks ago. This also impacted what we had to spend. Dave's Killer Bread was over $6 for 8 buns. Ouch!

The vegetables available were not great quality vegetables. In fact, I spent a lot of time picking through the offerings. Some were in such poor shape that I didn't purchase any of them. I just decided to do without. 

I have started hearing about shortages and higher prices popping up here and there, so I decided to check on a few things to see if it was true or not. I must say that there were higher prices especially in the meat department. Canned fruits and vegetables also had sizable increases. 

As far as shortages, there were limited supplies on the shelves in many areas and there were items missing altogether. We will all have to learn to make do again until the situations causing these issues are resolved. If we refuse to buy low quality produce maybe there will be a change in the greedy corporations' policies. 

The store that we went to has a small long term food storage section on the end of and isle. The shelves were pretty bare. I buy tomato powder from this section, and they only had two bags left. I use the tomato powder in addition to chicken bouillon. I like the combo, but what is available at stores has MSG included in the ingredients and that does not work for us, so I found a solution with better ingredients.

Pantry Meals - Baked Oatmeal

We will need to pick up milk in a couple of weeks for yogurt and kefir and maybe some fresh produce if they have anything decent available. Other than that, hopefully nothing else will come up. One of our old hens laid an egg this morning. I hope the others follow suit. 

I'm in the process of using up what is in the pantry, however since we just completed this challenge about 6 months ago there are not a lot of lost items that have been shoved behind newer purchases. This fact will impact our grocery bill unless I missed somethings the first time around. I enjoy a good challenge! Happy hunting to everyone in the midst of a pantry challenge...

Mrs. Smith