It's only a can of beans. The one can that hid in the dark recesses of my pantry. I pulled it out and it had expired last year. My rational brain says that it may still be good but my instincts tell me to toss it.

I tossed it without a second thought. You see, if any of you have ever had food poisoning you know why I didn't try to salvage it. It is not worth the risk of being sick for over a week for a .89 cent can of beans.

I will be more diligent in rotating my food pantry as I put the foods that will expire soon in the front so I will use them first. I may write a list of items to use by month in my pantry to remind me of their expiration dates.

The refrigerator was the next place I looked for expired foods. I usually do a good job at using up food in the refrigerator. The only thing I need to use up is a half box of raisins that will expire in April. I am making raisin quick bread today. I noticed I have a half package of dates in there too that need to be eaten by April so I will make a mental note to eat those as snacks next week or make more quick bread with them next weekend.

This month we have been eating pantry foods. Today I made a chicken spaghetti casserole and a spinach quiche to eat on for the weekend.

I have been updating my coupon savings this month and as of today my total grocery coupon savings is $154.75.

This is only on grocery items! My dh and I do shop for sale items on household and entertainment needs.
We try to curb our spending as much as we can. Dh has a collection that he is constantly adding to and sometimes he does over spend in that category but we are working on it.

How much do you save every month by using coupons?

Today I saved $35.30 in coupons. I shopped the sales at CVS, Walgreens, and Hancock Fabrics. My greatest savings were at CVS on grocery items.

My updated coupons savings for this year is:
$12.44 + 35.30 = $47.74

I hope I can keep this up all year. I want to see how much I am saving by using coupons this year.

As for the $1.00 savings challenge I may discontinue it because I primarily use my debit card and do not carry any cash.

One of my goals this year is to not waste food.

Today I did a inventory of my pantry. I have made a list of all the food items in my cupboards and refrigerator. I am going to make up some menus to use up the food that will expire soon.

Happy New Year to everyone!

We are celebrating at home. I had pre-shopped and thought I had everything I needed but had to go out today for one item that we really needed and ended up getting a few other things too. I saved $5.00 by using coupons today and will add that to my savings challenge.

Coupon savings $7.44 + 5.00 = $12.44