Coupon Confession

Last week when I brought home all those groceries I seriously had to "find" places to put it. We had so much in our food storage already I had no idea what I was going to do. It seriously made me wish I had participated in Money Saving Mom's Eat From You Pantry Challenge the month before. I ended up having to go through my pantry, freezer and fridge and purge. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff that I was able to throw away. Between the 3 locations I filled up 4 garbage bags(that's why I am glad to see garbage bags on sale at Smith's this week) .

My confession this week -Some of the stuff I threw away wasn't old or expired. It was just stuff I needed to get rid of the make room for my new stuff!

I know that is horrible! I did call a friend down the street who just got married and she took most of it, but I still felt so bad. It was like putting money into the garbage can.

My new goal is to be much more selective about what I buy unless I plan on donating the extras. Emily and I do our shopping together frequently and something I admire about Emily is how disciplined she is. She literally only buys what she KNOWS her family will use. So many weeks I get caught up with the idea that it is only "a few pennies". But something I am learning is that pennies add up to dollars. And those dollars can end up in the garbage if you don't use the stuff your are buying. If you don't plan on using it, don't buy it!

Another thing that happened to me as I was cleaning out my pantry was I noticed some of the food was expired. We all know how important it is to buy in bulk, but to buy 5 years worth of salad dressing when it expires in 6 months isn't going to do you any good! As I am buying things now and planning for food storage I am becoming much more conscious about expiration dates! It has helped me a ton!

Last thing- Keep your pantry, freezer and fridge organized, so you can see what you actually have on hand. Some of the stuff I would have eaten if I had been able to see that we even had it!

What's your coupon confession this week?

The photos for this post came from the blog Grasping for Objectivity. I was kicking myself for not taking pictures of the mess I cleaned out yesterday, so I googled cleaning out the pantry. I found Rachel's blog and these photos and had to share them with you. No joke, the 4 garbage bags picture is really just a coincidence. I felt so much better knowing that I wasn' the only one who had a messy pantry, but really Rachel's blog was a ton of fun reading and she has a great take on being a stay at home mom!