The mini emergency fund your pantry

In my pursuit of paying back my debt and frugality I have tried to come up with ways to save money. One of the largest ways I have found to save is by shopping less at the grocery store and cooking. I like to buy enough groceries to last a month.

Obviously you can’t do this with Milk and items like that. I find that milk is cheaper at my local convenience store any how so I pick up my milk there when I fill up my car. As far as fresh produce or fruit I have a garden, and a few apple and apricot trees as well as a raspberry patch. I do freeze and can these items for use in the winter months. Produce has really gone crazy at the local grocery store, I would say in cost it has gotten to be just as expensive as meat or maybe even more expensive for some items.

I like to have enough groceries and supplies in my house to last three months just in case there was an illness or a job loss. This is my general rule of thumb; it is kind of a mini emergency fund.

I keep a supply of shampoo, toilet paper, dish soap, laundry soap, bar soap, on hand enough to last 3-6 months.

I also have enough canned items to last about 6 months, I only buy items that my family will eat and I try to get them when they are on sale (Please note: buy only what you will use! A good deal is not a good deal if it spoils or you have to throw it out because it spoiled!). I also buy these staples:

Flour

Sugar

Oatmeal

Rice

Beans

Barley

Dried milk

Instant Yeast (I like to buy this at Sam’s Club you get about 4 pnds for less than 5 bucks. You add this yeast to your dry ingredients.) It lasts a long time and comes in a bag and does not have to be refrigerated.

I look at what I have weekly and plan my meals according to what I have available. Obviously I use up any fresh items first, towards the end of the month I end up relying more on canned and frozen items. Then I make out a list of items that I am running low on and will need to stock back up on. I would say this has saved me an average of 300.00 a month to throw at my debt, or put in to savings.

If it came down to a job loss or an illness I know my family would have enough to meet there basic needs for three months or maybe even more.

The beauty of all this, no one in my family really noticed any difference!