January 2012 Eat from the Pantry Challenge

I'm joining Jessica over at Good (Cheap) Eats for the Eat from the Pantry challenge this month.  How's it work?  Easy.  You simply "shop" your pantry/freezer/cellar before you go to the store.  It really more about making a conscience effort to use what you have on hand, than completely avoiding the grocery store. 

My goals for this challenge are also simple:
           1.  Lower my grocery bill.
                    I don't have a concrete number in mind on this, but I do know that I'd like
                    to keep my monthly total below $200 to $300.
           2.  Use up some of my deals from the pantry. 
                    There's no savings in wasted food.  It doesn't matter what great price I got
                     on an item if it goes bad before I use it.
           3.  Teach Josh to make one recipe a week.
                     I want him to be able to independently make four simple items in the
                     kitchen - pudding, package muffins, salad and a fried egg.
           4.  Put money in our emergency fund.
                     I've been a little discouraged this week.  We're going back to the Dave
                     Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and the envelope system.  I had an
                     extra $500 saved up towards our goal.  Good right?  It was good, until
                     our hot water tank blew up - leaving water all over the kitchen.  Our new
                     hot water tank was $549.  I know I should be encouraged.  Seven years
                     ago we would have had to put an unexpected expense like this on a
                     credit card.  We've come a long way.  It's just still a little
                    disappointing.

 My menu plans will be from my pantry this month.  I went to WalMart on Saturday with my mom and by price matching, couponing and not buying pre packaged items, I spent $52 on 5 gallons of milk, 6 loaves of bread, 5 dozen eggs, dog food, fish food and turtle food, 2 large yogurts and (my favorite) coconut cream creamer.  I'm not planning on going to the store again for two weeks.  Mostly because I spent all my money on the hot water tank.

I'm looking forward to the challenge.  Interested in joining me?  Check out Good(Cheap) Eats link above.