Finances & Money

Secret Value of House Guests: Cleaning Out the Pantry

When we shop for groceries and see a good deal, we try to load up. However, since Stacie I and have differing tastes, and therefore don’t eat common meals, it takes quite some time to go through our stash of dry and frozen foods. For example, we’ll buy a “Supper Bake”, but since I’m the only one who eats it, it lasts for 3-4 meals. Therefore, I get pretty tired of that meal or ingredient and don’t want to eat it for another few weeks.

But I’ve found a great way to get through our leftovers and extra foods: have house guests. My gram is visiting this whole week, and she and I both eat similar dishes, so we’ve been able to go through frozen pierogies we bought 6 months ago, and a 1-pound pack of beef sausage I bought from the Amish from the farmer’s market 2 weeks ago. We’ve also been going through some bread, condiments and some fresh produce from our families’ gardens from the last few weeks.

Granted, using house guests to get rid of food is counter to the purpose of stocking up on a good deal. We basically bought the goods to feed ourselves, but as I mentioned, we can get tired of raviolis and then the 8 remaining cans from the 20-pack from Sam’s Club is left languishing on the shelf for the next 6 months.

Of course another method is to have a neighborhood potluck or host a full dinner with a few of your friends. Perhaps that’s how we’ll get through the whole frozen turkey that Stacie got from work last year. We’ll be getting another one in less than 2 months again anyway.

So if you’re finding your pantry and freezer is full, and you’re looking for a change in your routine but can’t justify buying more food when you have so much already, think about hosting a party or houseguests. You’ll make more friends/stronger friendships, have a good time, and have a good reason to use that extra food.

Oh, and thank God for the abundance 🙂