January 2016: A peek inside my kitchen (how I organize to save money on groceries)

I see a lot of grocery savings posts and cooking posts that seem inspiring, but I often wonder, "What did they already have in their pantry and fridge??? How can they buy those particular things and no xyz and still eat well?" I also see perfect, beautiful, clean kitchens--I don't know about you, but my kitchen doesn't look like that on most days!

So, here is a peek inside my kitchen on January 6th, 2016. I'm showing you my messy counters, my before pictures of my cupboards, fridge, and freezer, and afters of those same areas.

After watching a video by The Former Mrs. Jones on YouTube about her grocery budget and a recent grocery trip followed by a clip of her cleaning her kitchen and some info on her meal plan for the next two weeks, I decided to tackle some similar stuff.

Ready?

Set.

Go...

Here's an overview of my kitchen--we cook fairly frequently and so we almost always have dishes to wash. We've gotten a lot better at washing dishes more often and all of these dishes on the counter and in the sink should be washed by end of day today. We also only wash by hand, turning the water OFF while we scrub. Hand washing, even though we have a dishwasher, saves us a ton on our electric bill--so much that the added time required to hand wash is well worth it! Often we wash dishes while watching Netflix to make the time pass a little faster.

And a few cupboards, the fridge, and pantry...

Hanging on the back of my pantry door, I have a shoe organizer. The top two rows of pockets hold medications, bandages, and health stuff. The third row from the top holds instant oatmeal packets and breakfast drink mix (all given to us for FREE) and some leftover Halloween candy. The fourth row holds my son's breakfast and snack bars. The fifth row holds a couple of my snacks (bulk purchased wasabi peas, Sesame Snaps), a pocket with paperclips and binder clips, and a pocket with napkins, plastic cutlery, and straws that we've picked up randomly. The bottom two rows hold dog supplies (heart worm medication, ear wash for one of our dogs, travel brochures from places we hope to visit in the next few years, a pouch of unopened mix-ins that I use in smoothies, and a roll of trash bags.

THIS over the door pocket shoe organizer is very similar to and several dollars LESS expensive than the one we bought.

In the cupboards and pantry shelf--it might not look like a did a whole ton of organizing on the pantry shelf or kitchen cupboard, but it feels like I did! I pulled a few canned items from random spots and put them on the pantry shelf and grouped items together. I also pulled two items out of the pantry that we won't eat (one was given to us and the other I bought on a whim and I will donate both).

In the cupboard, I pulled together boxed items, organized my herbs and spices a little better, pulled cereal out of its boxes (the boxes were too big and I couldn't close the door completely), grouped pasta together, grouped cereal together, and few other little things.

In the fridge and freezer, there wasn't a whole lot to do other than reorganize so I would know what I had. I couldn't clearly see what was in the freezer for the most part. While I don't have it organized in the most energy efficient manner, I do have it organized so I know what's there and where things are. For example, the door of the freezer is mostly filled with fruits and veggies--all fruits gathered together and veggies together. The ice cube tray actually doesn't have ice in it, but rather frozen pureed bananas that I use in smoothies. When bananas go on sale, I buy a bunch, puree them and freeze them.

In the fridge, I pulled together condiments and small jarred items, put food that needs to be eaten today on the top shelf, pulled together my son's Christmas candy leftovers, and then pulled together some other leftovers, veggies, and so on. I also have a container on the bottom shelf filled with leftover rice that we give to one of my dogs (she has digestive issues and plain rice seems to help her a lot--consult your vet before changing your dog's diet though!).

We have A LOT of condiments, sauces, and other small stuff in our fridge. I don't remember where I saw it, but someone posted a picture on social media showing how they used the bottom half of an egg carton to old condiments upside down so the dregs in the bottom of the jars would be pulled by gravity towards the lids and openings. BRILLIANT, right? I cut the bottom of an egg carton down a little bit so it would fit in our fridge door and popped our mustards, ketchup, and horseradish sauce into it. Works beautifully!

Now that I know what I have on hand, I can meal plan, make my grocery list for this coming weekend to fill in the gaps, and so on. Doing this kind of cleaning up and organizing at least every other month, if not monthly, allows me to save in the following ways:

• I don't double or triple buy unless it is strategic (like maybe there's a too good to be true sale price on something) because I know what we have on hand.
• I can group things in the fridge according to when they need to be eaten (TODAY items always go on the top shelf) so we waste a lot less food.
• I can STOP buying things we won't eat--if it's non-perishable that's been hanging around for months or a perishable that is going bad, I probably shouldn't buy them again.
• I can adjust quantities on my grocery list before going to the store so I don't over or under buy.
• I can create a meal plan (I do three days at a time) easily knowing what's on hand and not worry about needing to go to the store, thus I minimize impulse buying--you know how it is: you go in for one item and leave the store with four or five items.

My meal plan for the next three days:

Today:

• Breakfast: oatmeal with berries, coffee, tea
• Lunch: leftover pasta with cheese sauce and leftover taco bowl for JP; leftover pasta with marinara sauce and salad for me
• Dinner: mini meatballs with pasta and marinara sauce; salad; garlic bread

Tomorrow: 

• Breakfast: waffles, berries
• Lunch: dad and stepmom are taking us out to eat
• Dinner: tomato soup with hash browns (oven needs fixed before we do oven fries)

Two days from now:

• Breakfast: oatmeal, coffee, tea
• Lunch: whole fruit smoothies, hard boiled eggs for both of us; salad and tomatoes for me; Pasta Roni for JP
• Dinner: veggie soup; garlic bread

How do you keep your kitchen organized and how does it help you financially?

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Also, what are you watching on Netflix that you LOVE? I'm about to finish "Nurse Jackie" and need some suggestions. I've already watched "Jessica Jones" which I loved and also recently finished "Sons of Anarchy." Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

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