Shop the Pantry and Freezer Week Update

My plan to shop the pantry and freezer for the last week of June, due to budgetary restrictions/lack of funds (and as it was part of Courtney Carver's 21 Day Declutter Challenge), has been pretty successful.

The freezer looked like this on the eve of my final weekly shop for the month, so quite a bit of progress has been made in emptying it, although I do apologise for not providing a before photo. I did have to throw away a couple of items, but they were things that were past their best and inedible.

Most of what is left in here will get used up this week, save for some prawns, Quorn mince, potato wedges and stir fry vegetables.   These remaining few items will make at least 2 or 3 more meals or part meals, so I might even continue this mini challenge into the first week of July or until all of these items have been used up.  I could then give the freezer the complete defrost that it is in dire need of.

It is quite a satisfying feeling to empty the freezer completely and start from scratch again.  A good time to consider the freezer foods you do buy.

I mostly freeze meat, fish and bread products that I buy on my weekly shop and then defrost them on the day I intend to use them or use them frozen, as in the case of fish and vegetarian options. Veggies, potato products, pizzas and pies also get frozen.

A few sweet things find their way into the freezer too, i.e fruit, sorbet or fruit/yoghurt lollies, plus the odd leftover, although I often find leftovers don't agree with me digestively when reheated.

On a monthly basis, I buy liver, kidney and heart, which I chop and divide up before freezing, and use as food for the dog.  She enjoys this fried and with vegetables for a couple of meals each week. A little indulgent perhaps, but she's worth it.

There is one item in here at the moment that is something that I don't particularly like, namely some spicy bean burgers I bought as a meat free alternative. I was planning on using them up this week, but part of me would like to just throw them away, if I could bear the thought of the waste. I will probably try to use them.

As you can see, we don't have a large freezer. I gave away an under counter freezer last year, that I just didn't use enough.  I'm beginning to wonder if I did the right thing now.  With impending Brexit, a little stockpiling might be in order, although let us hope it doesn't come to that.

This week I'm planning on doing my full weekly shop (albeit a reduced one) at Lidl, as I have a voucher for £5 off a £40 spend. I'm hoping that I can keep it to an absolute minimum as it would be a nice frugal way to end the month.  How's your food budgeting gone this month?