Join the January Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge!

Are your cabinets, refrigerator and freezer neatly organized and inventoried or are they a little more like mine—overflowing and unorganized?  If I stopped to really go through everything I have on hand, I probably wouldn’t have to shop (except for eggs and milk) for the next three months!  Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m quite sure that we could easily make it a month without too much effort. 

For that reason, I’m excited to announce the new Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge series that I’ll be participating in and posting about throughout the month of January!  The Challenge is being co-hosted by myself, Laura at Frugal Follies, Robbie at Going Green Mama, Crystal at Mrs. Happy Homemaker, and Rebecca Jean at Midnight Maniac, and we’re inviting you to participate as well! 

This Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge is a great way to:

• use up all the excess stuff in your stockpile and pantry
• clear out your freezers before all the ‘Frozen Food Month’ sales in March
• and BEST OF ALL – start out the year way below budget!

What do I have to do?

All you have to do is yourself to eat from your pantry during the month of January—to use up all that excess food sitting in the back of your cupboards, in the refrigerator door, from the stockpile and from the freezer—and limit your shopping to as little as possible. 

Make your own rules!

• Eat! This is not an eat as little as possible challenge.  Prepare healthy foods for your family and shop for the things that you need, just try to base your meals on things you already have on hand.
• Don’t forgo buying groceries then eat at restaurants all month long.  Of course, feel free to eat out as you normally would.
• If you’ve used up all your excess before the month is over, then consider yourself done!

As for the details of the challenge, it’s up to you!

• You might want to purchase dairy and produce throughout the month; others might try to stretch what they already have.  
• You might want to limit your challenge to food items, or extend it to personal care items, paper goods, and cleaning supplies.
• You might want to allow yourself to pick up those really great deals, others might want to halt all shopping.  

What’s next?  Figure out what your goals are—do you want to save more money?  to have more room in your pantry? to stop wasting food and thus help the environment?  Then find a few minutes to do an inventory of your pantry, cupboards, stockpile and freezers so that you’ll have an accurate idea of what all you have on hand before we officially get started in January.

(Bloggers: if you’d like to join us, there will be a linky each week where you can link to your challenge posts, and your posts will show up on the blogs of all five co-hosts!)