A big chunk of saving money can come from my food budget and so that is what I am tackling. I have read about the food stamp budget so I am trying to follow that in an attempt to get a handle on my food expenses. I overshot this month's food budget, but hoping for next month being a success.

Yesterday I spent a big portion of my day cleaning out the pantry. The amount of redundancy I have in it is a little ridiculous. Okay. It is embarrassingly ridiculous. Why do I have four bottles of cardamom? I can't really remember when I last used cardamom. I have too many containers of tea leaves too and I don't drink tea unless I'm really sick and I don't get sick that often. I think I like the packaging. That is the only possible reason to explain some of the redundancy I have in the kitchen.

So I started a pantry list (it's on my iPhone that syncs up to my laptop) so that I have a grasp of what in the pantry. What I added were the redundancy items (that which I have more than one container of). I need to add the stuff that I only have one container of so I can replenish it when I run out of it. So one item I don't have any of is rice. But I have all sorts of other grains so I'm going to go through it all before I buy my next gigantic bag of rice. I also want to simplify what's in my pantry because I can make do or make my own if needed (especially those esoteric flavored oils that I have some sort of addiction to. Addiction to buying, that is!).

I also cleaned out the refrigerator and stocked it with the veggies I bought yesterday. While cleaning it out I noticed redundancies in there too! Two jars of mayo, for example. Forgotten veggies hiding in the back. Ugh! The big problem is I don't look at my calendar when purchasing foods. I should buy based on my work travel schedule or scheduled meals out - I know at least a week or two in advance all the meals I'll be eating out. But I buy groceries like I will be eating all meals at home when that is not the case. Bad habits need reform!

But I was good and made my salad and sandwich yesterday before going to bed, so packing it up this morning was easy peasy. I also have a tiny bit of lentils and millet sitting around, but I found a