We’re buckling down and making ourselves eat as much of the remaining food in our fridge as possible. We haven’t gone grocery shopping for at least three weeks (except for the occasional under $30 run for milk, cereal, and some fresh fruits & veggies) and we don’t plan to go at all for the next two weeks (since there’s still plenty to nosh on before we move). We’re concentrating mostly on eating things in the freezer and the fridge since there will be at least five hours between handing over the keys to our current house and getting the keys to our new one (we were luckily able to coordinate both closings on the same day, but the bank still needs a few hours to transfer funds in between). So we don’t want to worry about keeping a bunch of things refrigerated or frozen in a cooler in the moving van (or over in John’s sister’s fridge) if we can help it. Here’s what we’re dealing with (MTV Cribs style):
So I devised a little look-how-type-A-I-am system to keep us focused when it comes to strategically stuffing our faces. I’m a sucker for a list, what can I say? It actually took a little while to get the whole list thing figured out. I knew we needed a reminder about what we should eat, so first I made a list of all the random ingredients and items that we ideally should scarf before moving day. But it seemed like a chaotic little crammed piece of paper with too many things to actually absorb. So I decided to compartmentalize, grouping items that we could eat together and listing things in these categories: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack/dessert. Worked like a charm. We now have this list staring us in the face every time we glance at the fridge:
- Breakfast:
- eggs
- oatmeal
- waffles
- smoothies
- Lunch:
- peas and carrot sides (J)
- broccoli soup (S)
- grilled cheese (J & S)
- turkey, cheese, & deli flats (J & S)
- tuna on wasa crackers (S)
- laughing cow cheese or almond butter on wasa crackers (S)
- Dinner:
- breakfast for dinner omelette w/ frozen veggies
- pot stickers with frozen veggies
- burritos and frozen veggies
- pancakes with mixed berries
- spaghetti
- frozen amy’s pizza and alexa fries
- sides to eat asap: brown rice & cous cous
- Snack/Dessert:
- pumpkin bread
- ice cream
- tea
- mixed nuts & pistachios
We just cross things off when we finish them and then move onto other meals in that category. So far we’re on track to eat right up until moving day (since we have a few servings of a few of the things on the list- like pasta, pot stickers, a truckload of wasa crackers, etc). Here’s hoping we can get ‘er done. Have you guys ever strategically planned meals (for moving or just money management or organizational purposes?). Do you have weekly meal plans (Macaroni Monday? Taco Tuesday?). Growing up we had a pretty predictable rotation but there was something strangely comforting about it. I still miss Wednesday night pizza dinners…
Psst- I know the last few posts haven’t been very DIY focused (we blame our turkey coma) but soon we’ll be sharing some fun homemade holiday gift ideas along with a free downloadable calendar for 2011 and another home-related video. So as they say on SNL, stick around…
Second pssst- Holy bananas. Who watched Dexter last night? Was it not the single best episode ever? John and I couldn’t sleep from all the adrenaline rushing through our veins. Love that show.
UPDATE: See how we did when it came to cleaning out the fridge before our big move here.
Ugh, isn’t that one of the worst things about moving? Good that you have a plan, though!
I love Dexter!! My husband’s family gets Showtime so they record and send it to us…cannot wait to watch it tonight! I freaked out a little at the end of last week’s episode. :)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Dexter!! Such an intense episode!
Yes! This is a great idea, and you are smart to be so strategic about it. I blog about food a lot, so I constantly find myself going to the store for fresh ingredients. One day, I gained a sense of awareness about how wasteful I was becoming, and vowed to use up at least 75% of the food I already had until buying more. It’s kinda fun to cook from what you have–forces kitchen creativity!
OOPS! I totally missed dexter! I will be stalking it’s upload asap =)
I did the same thing with our fridge/pantry during this last move. My hubs and I made a giant list of what we had and what the heck we could make out of it! I like to think that it saved us a lot of money… but boy were we HUNGRY! eek! best of luck — don’t end up driving to taco bell at midnight like we did =)
xoXOxo
Jenn
That’s too funny about the list! I think I’d get resentful of the list after a while though. Here’s hoping the time goes quickly for you and you aren’t finding yourselves going “ugh, grilled cheese again?!”
We never actually had a “schedule” growing up, but I do miss some of the more frequent recipes that my parents made.
DONT TELL what happened on Dexter…p.l.e.a.s.e… I’ll watch it this week.
Love your idea about the list for the food…I think that could work to help me just eat healthier. I’m going to try it.
Question for you, related to fridges. . .
We’d like to buy a new fridge, but plan on moving in a couple of years so it would be a little silly to buy our dream fridge. –Stainless steel, french doors, etc. But obviously we want something that will make our kitchen look more attractive.
What do you think about Clean Steel versus Stainless? Do you think French Doors increase the look of a kitchen, or are they so particular that some potential buyers will be turned off?
I know you guys are busy and everything, but if you happen to have a gut response I’d love to read it.
Thanks so much, your blog rocks. –Monique
Hey Monique,
Good questions. These responses are totally our gut, so not based in much fact beyond our own opinion. We prefer the look of real stainless steel and it personally would attract us more than clean steel. And we think french doors are definitely a great upgrade over the old school freezer-on-top configuration, but these days the freezer-drawer-on-bottom feels most current to us. So our opinion is that as long as you don’t leave a freezer-on-top fridge then your kitchen should look nicely upgraded to buyers. Hope that helps!
-John
Hubs and I are going out of town on Friday, so we’re doing the same thing. We’re terrible about not eating things just because something else (out) sounds better. Good for you!
My husband and I are doing the same thing right now! We are moving in a week, but it’s from Georgia to Connecticut and there is no way to keep cold stuff cold as we make the two day drive.
Every so often, when we feel that we’ve been spending too much on groceries, or throwing food out because it went bad before we could eat it, we do a lockdown where we only eat what we have for a good week. I like doing it because I feel less wasteful and we save some money, plus I have a bit of that Type A-ness and like to finish/empty foods from our fridge and shelves!
We did the same thing, and it was actually kind of fun! As we finished things off, we added them to a list we kept on the fridge so we so we knew what we were out of and could replenish after we moved. Although that first grocery bill after we moved in was a killer. Boy howdy, it was close to $500!
We also went so far as to pack up our entire kitchen save one pot, a flat skillet, and our camping dishes, mugs, and flatware so that we could throw that stuff into a last-minute box and go.
I was so ridiculously hyper-organized about moving. I hunted down all of our boxes and packing paper on craigslist, and I even gave each space in the new house a number, figured out where things were going to initially go, and taped a huge, corresponding number on each box so I knew into what room it needed to go. It made it so much easier to find things and unpack that way.
An our moving story was crazy! Our closing was delayed so we had to move everything ourselves onto wrapped pallets and store them in my husband’s warehouse where it sat for two weeks, so I was ever so grateful that I put numbers on those boxes because six pallets worth of stuff sitting in the garage was overwhelming enough!
We’ve been making weekly lists of lunches and dinners before we head to the grocery store. Not because we’re moving but because we just got married and kept wasting food while we figure out the whole living together and eating together transition!
Remember to breathe, I remember how stressful moving was :)
Good idea. I don’t think I will be this type A but I definitely will use this suggestions. Not only are we in the process of buying a home and moving this holiday season but my father in law is also downsizing. So there’s a lot of moving and he’s unloading his unopened groceries on us. I hate throwing out food in general besides the fact its a waste of money. Thanks for the idea. Do you typically eat simple meals? Do you have a date night where you cook something special?
John is actually a great cook (right now he’s cooking his way through Jamie Oliver’s new book) so we typically enjoy one of those more complicated recipes a night or two a week- but the new rule is no more Jamie Oliver meals until the move so we can eat all the food that we already have.
xo,
s
I’m glad I caught this with only 5 comments. I can’t come back until I watch Dexter now because I don’t trust it not to be ruined, hah.
Sherry,
This is a great idea whether you’re moving or not. I did something similar right before we were leaving town on vacation. It was interesting to see how much food we already had and really that we couldn’t come up w/a good reason to go shopping during that period of time. It may not have been what we wanted to eat, but at least we weren’t going to starve.
It looks like you guys might be eating a lot of that yellow stuff on the second shelf on the door. Happy squeeze and sucking!
Holly batman! You guys really do buy a lot of organic foods. How much a month do you end up spending on groceries?
We love eating organic when we can, but you know we’re cheap-os, right? We do buy organic milk, yogurt, eggs, butter and things like ketchup and other condiments (since they’re only about a dollar more or so, and they last plenty of servings to spread it out so it’s not that noticeable of an upgrade). How long does a box of butter or a container of ketchup last? In our house it’s a long time, which is nice. We also buy organic fruits and veggies when we can, but we use coupons and our store savings card to save money. I’d say we spend about $120-150 per grocery store run, and we do that every three weeks or so (so we probably spend around $250 a month or so). We’re huge believers in leftovers and buying things on sale and with coupons when we can- oh and eating meat only once or twice a week really cuts costs in a major way! And we also try to avoid going to the store very often (when we went shopping once a week or even once every two weeks we spent so much more on impulse snack food, so now we get a lot at each trip and eat it for a while before returning to keep those impulse buys to a minimum). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
YES! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Jordan is a huge creep, and that Emily girl? What the heck. Love Lumen and Dexter as a partnership.
I do this every year or so, just to make sure we’re eating everything in the freezer, mostly. We do have a loosely predictable schedule – every rotation one of my boys chooses one dish from each category, which includes a meat dish, a soup, a Mexican dish, a pasta dish, a breakfast-for-dinner dish, and then an “other” which can include things like stir-fry and fish. Each time it’s their rotation to choose the meals, they also have to help me prepare them. Can you tell I’m type-A, too?
Do the J and S letters after some of those foods mean only one of you (or both in some cases) will eat those things? Or something else entirely?
Hey Beth,
Yup, initials are for lunch foods since our tastes for lunch vary slightly, so some things we’ll both eat, and some are just things that one of us buys and eats- so they’re our responsibility to finish!
xo,
s
I love your blogs! They are so funny and very helpful. Where are you moving to? Is it another fixer-upper? Pics?
Hey Ashley,
Here are a few posts about the new house for ya (it’s definitely another fixer upper):
https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/11/to-the-tune-of-katy-perrys-hot-n-cold/
https://www.younghouselove.com/2010/11/the-floor-plan-stan/
Enjoy!
xo,
s
Everything looks so good in the pantry and fridge until you’re forced to eat it all!
Wow – that is really organized!
You know, there is a website where you can type in a list of ingredients, and it will come up with a recipe for you. It’s http://www.ideas4recipes.com. Just in case you get sick of pancakes. And really, just how many eggs and won-ton wrappers do you have? LOL!
Sounds about like what we’re doing right now. We have a 12 hour move ahead of us (south Georgia to northeast Arkansas)at the end this week and we’re trying so hard to eat up what we have left in the fridge/freezer. I may end up sneaking on a cooler with my beloved Trader Joe’s salsa on board though. No sense in throwing that out if there are no Trader Joe’s stores in the state of Arkansas.
I plan meals out for the week before my weekly grocery trip. That way I can get everything I need in one trip and I don’t have to come up with ideas throughout the week. I love to cook so I try something new pretty much every week, otherwise it gets boring for me.
The tough part when moving is what to do with all those condiments and bags of flour you can’t possibly use up in time. We ended up tossing a lot of it last time, such a waste.
MY GOSH I AM SO HAPPY YOU MENTIONED DEXTER! I know you guys watch and I don’t know many people that do, so I am dyiiiing to discuss! My husband was growing tired of the theories I was shouting out as he was trying to fall asleep. My adrenaline has been flowing since the ending of last week’s episode. How on earth are they going to pull this off? I’ve heard they’ve been renewed for season 6, so Dexter has to be able to get out of this one, but then Lumen! Poor Lumen! I want her to stick around but she’s only signed on for one season!
Sorry I could go on for days, there’s got to be a Dexter blog out there!
I know! John has a Lumen theory but I don’t want to share it in detail in case it ruins it for anyone. It goes along with the one-season-only thing though. And doesn’t involve her dying, but more involves her “taking one for the team” if you get the drift. Can’t wait to see how it all pans out…
xo,
s
We missed the start of this season of Dexter (so sad!) due to our stupid DVR freaking out an losing all our season passes. So we’ll have to catch up on reruns…grrr.
In response to your food post, I force us to do the “eat what we own” thing once a year or so. I like starting over with things I know we actually want to eat as we discover new things or outgrow the old!
I need to do this too! Good idea!
I always have a very diverse meal plan. I get bored really easily so I mix it up a lot. I do like to try and do “Meatless Monday” though! Tonight, I’m making a tofu/chickpea curry.
We also have a monthly budget for our groceries so closer to the end of the month, we tend to be noshing on pantry items more than fresh fun foods. (Read: Spaghetti instead of sweet potato gnocchi with sage brown butter)
I try to plan out my meals every week, and have actually gotten into a pretty good habit — every Sunday I sit down for an hour and look through all of the clippings and bookmarks I’ve saved from the past week, put together a shopping list for ingredients I don’t already have on hand, and then the bf and I take a walk to the store and pick up what we need (which, as we get better about planning, becomes less and less because we’ll have things like flour and pasta in bulk!).
Also: OMG. Dexter. I really need to stop watching that and The Walking Dead before I go to bed — fantastic TV, not so fantastic nightmares, haha.
i’m so excited you also mentioned Dexter that episode gave me crazy strange dreams last night!!! my boyfriend and i had to stop it and take a few breaths and a walk around the house during the part when Jordan was outside that house. I totally agree – single best episode ever, even beats last season’s trinity finale… which i thought was the best.. up until last night!!
I thought Dexter was pretty good. However, I had a little issue with the fact that they (Spoiler alert) had sex… Wouldn’t Lumen still be too traumatized from the rapes to want to have sex so soon? Just a thought!
Nothing to do with the food part but the dexter part. The episode was amazing! Definitely my favorite episode I think.
Yes and yes. I’m planning my meals since we are moving out on a month and our freezer was full of goodies. I hate throwing food away, so i’m just planning our meals. I do it pretty often normally so it’s no big deal. And second yes to that dexter thing, i love the show and i think this season it’s being my fovourite. Every episode is better than the previous one. I was pretty shocked and angry when i watched the last episode of last season (you know what i mean) but man, it was really worthy!! Love Lumen!
LOVED Dexter last night! Can’t believe there’s only a few episodes left!
What a great idea! I do admire your stick-to-it-ness and determination :o)
Our move won’t be for another 3 months (closing in 4 weeks, then kick-off of kitchen reno to make house livable) but I sure will be taking any inspiration I can get from you!
Thank you for all of those great ideas!
I just wanted to chime in that your grocery budget is pretty awesome considering you buy lots of organic items. I also admire your infrequent visits. We also shop at Kroger, but I go weekly because it’s just around the corner from our house, and I love to try to snag manager’s specials on organic dairy items, organic juice, organic meat, bakery items, bagged produce, etc. If I worked at home like you guys, I would totally hit up Kroger every Monday morning to snag those deals! Since I work full time outside the home (and so does my hubby), I settle for going on Monday afternoons.
Sherry,
Do you use the internet to get your grocery coupons? Where do you find them?
We use newspaper fliers for coupons from time to time, but mostly rely on our store card (we shop at Kroger) which they scan at the register. It works just like a coupon, discounting the items that are on sale for Kroger Shoppers (often saving us at least $20-40 per visit- it’s pretty amazing). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
I love the fact that y’all are so organized. And that you can both agree on something like this, it’s very frugal and speaks well of both you being on the same page when it comes to saving money on stuff like this instead of just throwing the food out or something.
My guy and I sublet a house for 3 months, and then moved across the country. I spent the entire 3 months trying to be strategic about only buying quantities that we would use before moving, and mixing up our meals so that we didn’t spend the last week eating only pasta in order to use it up. I’ve been at my current place for a year and a half now, and it’s great to just have to worry about what we can eat before it expires.
This post is so helpful~! I am moving within the next 60 days and was just thinking yesterday of all the food I want/have to eat so I don’t have to move that too. Love your lists Sherry!!!
Your list is totally something I would do! We went through the same “eat everything we can” phase before we moved last year so we weren’t moving perishable things. I’m sure you’ll really enjoy your next John/Jamie meal when you can cook in your new kitchen!
When I was in high school I dated a guy who’s dad is a pretty well know chef/TV personality in New Orleans and used to have a TV show on BBC called Big Kevin/Little Kevin. Every year he would try and use up all the food that was in his fridge by New Years Eve. Whatever was left was made into dinner for New Years Eve night. One year all he had was peanut butter & beer so he made PB&B soup. I didn’t have any so I couldn’t tell you if it was disgusting or not, but knowing him, it turned out great.
We LOVED Dexter last night! We can’t believe there’s only 2 episodes left! So glad they finally hooked up!
I’m looking forward to leftovers again tonight and making my first turkey stock! We’re newlyweds (10/9/10) and hosted our first Thanksgiving!
I stumbled upon your website this weekend (we avoided shopping and stayed in to relax/watch movies) and there are sooooo many resources! Thank you for sharing with us!
We’ve been eating turkey leftovers for lunch and dinner for the past 4 days! I hear ya! Food is so expensive! I’ve been cutting back too. Oh well, I try look on the bright side, I lost 5 lbs since we started to get thrifty!
No worries about the non DIY post. I like the regular real life posts.
xo
Mindy
http://fisilis.wordpress.com
Yep, my husband and I followed this plan right before we moved, too. Dinners got “interesting” for awhile :)
Dexter was I.N.T.E.N.S.E. I agree with John’s theory about Lumen possibly “taking one for the team.” BUT, if that happens, how on earth is Deb and the rest of the police department not going to start putting things together about Dexter. Nearly all of his friends/aquaintances are killers themselves – Doakes, Miguel Prado, Trinity, Ice Truck Killer, now Lumen. As much as I love this show, I think Miami Metro is the worst fake police department ever.
Ooooh this post is right up my alley. I was just talking with the Hubs last night about eating things up from our pantry before we restock – and being smart about what we buy from here on out. We plan to move in about 6 months (our first attempt at selling this past summer was a fail). We have some time to clear out the freezer and take note of what we have a lot of (currently, it’s spaghetti and lasagna noodles!). I like your plan of attack – it’s smart!
I wish I had seen this post before we moved! The fridge was the last thing on our minds leading up to the move and we basically wound up throwing out everything in the fridge/freezer because logistically there was no good way to bring it with us. And I still feel really guilty about.
I love the list!
During college and grad school I moved 7 times in 5 years (the last time being a 4 hour, across-state move). I usually ended up moving at least some food…but I always tried to use up as much as I could.
College students are known for eating some weird things but when I was trying to use up what was left, I think I created some extra unique recipes!! Tuna-noodle casserole made with blu-cheese dressing instead of cream of mushroom soup, anyone?
Oh man that list is right up my alley. I plan out our meals monthly and do 2 shopping trips, one major one then in the middle of the month for any fresh ingredients we need. It saves a ton of money but at this point of the month, the cupboards are looking pretty bare so I’ll probably end up having a sugar packet or two for lunch.
I moved to another state this past summer, but I was getting married in my original state a week later, so I still had to keep a few things on hand to eat that week. A few months before the move, I took inventory of my freezer and listed my “frozen assets” on my blog (http://r8chel.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/frozen-assets/), then crossed them off as I ate up the things in my freezer. I didn’t quite reach my goal, but I made good progress!
Also, a few people have mentioned that they threw away food before a long-distance move. I’ve gotten condiments and other perishable items from friends who were moving. Don’t throw that stuff away – just pass those things along to other people who aren’t moving!
I used to label the inside of my fridge so that it stayed neat and tidy and everyone could always find what they wanted (and know where to put it back). When we moved about six years ago, I let go of my fridge labels. But, I did continue to plan all of our meals a week ahead of time, with the help of my Martha Stewart “Everyday Food” magazine. Then, more changes came along. About three years ago we started eating locally and reduced our meat consumption to only two or three times a week. That didn’t work so well with Everyday Food, so now our food life is total chaos. We’ve got a freezer full of local meat plus we get weekly produce and egg deliveries from our CSA. I never know what we’re going to eat for dinner, but somehow I always manage to get something healthy on the table!