Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge: Take inventory

I hope you've read about January's Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge, which will be co-hosted by me, Denise at Shopper Strategy, Robbie at Going Green Mama, Crystal at Mrs. Happy Homemaker, and Rebecca Jean at Midnight Maniac.

If you're planning to participate (and I hope you are!), here's a tip to start on now, before the challenge begins: Take inventory!

Go into the back or bottom of your freezer and attempt to identify the contents.  (If you can't, perhaps you shouldn't be eating it!)  Go into the way back of your cupboards and see what's back there.  Check out your refrigerator, throw out what's going bad, and make sure you can see all the stuff that isn't.

Keep a written list of what's in there, and what you want to use up during the challenge.  I'd suggest giving top priority to refrigerator items as well as already-opened items in your pantry and items that have been in the freezer for a while.  Leave unopened packages and recently-frozen items for later.

While you're looking through the pantry, look for unopened items that you can't imagine eating during the challenge.  You might have items in our pantry that you bought for a specific recipe and never used  Or perhaps you got excited about a sale and picked up a dozen boxes of a rice mix that your family ended up hating.  If you won't use it during the challenge, consider donating those items to a food bank so they can help someone else.

Check your spices, too!  I cleaned out my spice shelf last weekend and found some spices that had been in there a long, long time.  I threw much of it out.  I also had several open containers of the same spice - I consolidated them to save room.  Hopefully I won't buy more of what I already have in the future.

Once you've taken inventory, you'll probably find many items that you'll be looking forward to using up next month.  I hope you're joining us for the Clean Out the Cupboards Challenge!

Check out these sites for other frugal ideas:

• Frugal Friday @ Life as MOM
• Making Dollars out of Change @ Madame Deals
• Penny Pinching Party @ The Thrifty Home 
• Works For Me Wednesday @ We Are That Family
• Thrifty Thursday @ Coupon Teacher 
• Fantastic Frugal Fridays at Frugality Is Free and Being Frugal and Making It Work
• Money Saving Monday @ Homebody  
• Simple Lives Thursday @ GNOWFGLINS