February Food Challenge - Month End

This challenge was to use up lots of foods that had been sat in my kitchen cupboards for months, untouched.  Many were very close to or over the best before dates, so it wasn't a case of me being able to donate them to the food bank, and I just couldn't possibly bring myself to throw them out so I have set about trying to make every effort to use them up this month.  I was hoping that in the process I might be able to clear a cupboard and hopefully save a bit of money on the food budget, which could then come off the overdraft .

It turned out to be a longer challenge than just one month.  In my last post, I described how I'd used some of the items and in the intervening couple of weeks we have managed to use up a few more.  We've now eaten the braising steak from the freezer, the solitary pork chop, half of the last packet of crème brulees and a few more sachets of jelly.  We've also used up the frozen Crispy Duck, the Peshwari naans, the last Curried Chickpea Pan Soup Mix and another Spaghetti Bolognese Mix pack, so further progress has been made.

Unfortunately, due to us going away for the week, I completely lost track of food spending, so I haven't managed to save any extra money this month on food.  To be honest, I bought far too much extra food at the beginning of the month, in an attempt to use one of the money off vouchers and would have fared much better in the challenge if I'd held off, ignored the vouchers and used up what was in the freezer first.  Also, some of the food did not get used, as I still had open packets of the same food in the cupboards, which needed using first.  As a consequence, I'm continuing with the challenge next month and creating a menu plan for March that is much more geared towards using up most of the remaining food and trying to avoid buying in new food until most of it has been used up.

Here's an update of what is left on the list:

Herby Dumpling mix 5 x 180g packs
Ainsley Harriot Pecorino Cheese and Garlic Croutons x 2 95g packs
Popping corn 1 x 500g pack
Chicken Oxo cubes 7 x 6 cube packs and 2 x 4 cubes Knorr Chicken Stock cubes.
1 pack Spaghetti Bolognese Mix
1 pack Fajita Seasoning Mix
3 packs Tikka Masala Seasoning Mix
Lasagne Sheets x 1 pack
Hellman's Light Mayonnaise x 1 Jar
Dijon Mustard x 1 bottle
Cream Crackers x 1 pack
Melba Toasts x 1 pack
Quince Jelly x 1 Jar
Homemade Rhubarb Jam x 3 jars
Quince Paste x 1 pack
Packets of Polo mints x 1
Oat So Simple Porridge mixed pack of 9
Bottled water x 1
4 Stuffing balls (frozen)
Carrot and Coriander Soup (frozen)
Pot of Grated Parmesan Cheese x 1
Linda McCartney Vegetarian Sausages x 1 pack (frozen)
4 Breaded Cod Fillets (frozen)
Strong White Bread Flour 1kg
Wholemeal Self Raising Flour 1kg
Yeast sachets x 4
Raspberry Jelly sachets x 3
Crème Brulee sachet x 1
Trifle Sponges x 4
Instant Semolina x 1 box

Anything missing from this list has either been used up or has been opened and is in use.  I think if I can at least halve this list next month, including using up all of the frozen foods, I'll be very happy. The remainder I'm happy to gradually work my way through as required.  

If nothing else, this challenge has kick started me into using things that I just wasn't bothering to use before, so even if there are some things left, I'll be a lot happier and much more careful about stockpiling too much in the future.  I'll post at the end of the month to let you know how I've done.