Pantry Challenge, Month 2

There are still a lot of random items I would like to finish off.  January was a good start, but my freezer and pantry are still full.  The fridge has been in great shape since the second week, so I'm not even bothering with that.  Passover is late this year, but there is no way I could finish off the chometz I've amassed before it.  The best I can hope for is only one box in the hall closet.

At the beginning of the pandemic (really, two years ago?) I could easily fit all of my everyday items on a single shelf, including home-canned jams.  A year ago, I didn't need the hard-to-reach fourth shelf, and the freezer was mostly several kinds of flour.  This year, I have four full shelves in the pantry and a full freezer.  And that's after a month of primarily buying what I intended to use within the same week.  Yes, in these times of uncertain availability it's a good idea to have a bit extra on hand, but this is ridiculous.  I don't want to know how much I spent to accumulate all this food.  It had to be twice my normal grocery budget.  Well, I'm getting it back now by only buying a few things to make a meal out of what's in there.

I will be spending more this month, I think.  I'm pretty much out of both canned and frozen vegetables.  I won't be buying meat unless it's a great deal to stick in the freezer, and that won't count as weekly spending.  One of this month's planned meals involves cheese that I'll have to buy new unless I decide to sub cream cheese, but the Romano that I bought last month was split between three recipes, so I'm still coming out ahead.  The funny thing is I don't have any rewards points at the market because I didn't spend enough.  What I have in my bank account is worth far more than a two-point dozen of eggs.

What I would really like is to get rid of that top shelf of "prepper" foods.  I think I'll be able to get all of it onto the regular shelves by the end of the month.  It will involve a little geometry and repackaging a few things into smaller jars, but it might be doable.  Fortunately, I did not win the pressure canner in a contest I entered.  That would have resulted in a few dozen more jars, mostly beans and low-sodium soups.  I just can't believe how much I stocked up, fearing shortages like March 2020, of items that I don't regularly use.  Better to have that than no food at all, I guess.  I need to let go of the fear of shortages and be willing not to carry backups just for the sake of having them.  It really does not take a lot of food to feed me for two weeks, and I don't mind altering my plans if an ingredient is unavailable.