Use it up...

...wear it out, make it do, or do without!

This should be the mantra of Eat from Your Pantry Challenge.

During week one, I ran out of Pam and Glad Wrap...two beloved kitchen staples. I also realized that we were plowing through paper towels like there was no tomorrow. So...I had to put a major halt on that while coping with the loss of Pam and Glad Wrap. Because...those really don't count as necessities..and they would eat up my slim budget.

So. The first thing I tackled was the paper towels. I went through my husband's shirts and found an undershirt that had seen one too many workdays and promptly made a nice pile of rags. Now, when I reach for a paper towel, I ask myself if I really need a paper towel. Usually...I don't. I also rummaged around and found the pretty decent stack of cloth napkins I had been given and broke them out for dinner. There's only two of us, so it doesn't add much to the laundry at all. I also started saving my weekly newspaper and using it to clean my windows/mirrors.

The steps are simple, but they have slowed our paper towel usage down considerably. I think those are a few habits I'll keep past the month of January. :)

As far as Pam, I found out in my Family Feasts book that, if you put olive oil in a spray bottle, you can grease your pans with it. I didn't have olive oil, but I figured vegetable oil would work as well...so I scrounged around for a spray bottle, filled it up with oil, and voila. I usually smear it around with a paper towel (yes, I deem this a *necessary* use because I don't want to wash oil out of cloth...ick) to help distribute it, but it works fine. I don't know if this is a habit I will keep, but it works for now.

Glad Wrap was considerably more difficult. I despise cling wrap, even if it is cheaper. So, I've been hoarding my foil, and I've been trying to use all of my plastic containers with lids, sandwich baggies, and ziplocs on things I would regularly use Glad Wrap for...and it hasn't been much of a problem at all. Score!