Ho Ho .. Holy cow, that's a lot of tuna !

So, we know you've all been sitting around with baited breath, anxiously waiting for this post.   Well, with the holidays fast approaching, we've been quite busy... spending money. With all the gift buying, entertaining and visiting (remember, no matter how tight, there is no excuse to be an empty-handed guest),  money just seems to quietly and quickly disappear.  Something about this time of year however makes this okay;  it is happy spending (I can't wait until sis sees the ____ that we bought her !).  But, as we sat, listening to Christmas music and sorting through our receipts, a thought dawned on us  - that we're actually pretty fortunate to be in a situation where living frugally has become a choice, and not a necessity.     

For those of you who have not kept up with our entries (really folks....there have only been 2 so far!),  in our last post we challenged ourselves to survive on less than 100$ worth of groceries for the week.  Well, last week, our grocer loved us a little less, because we did it ! Now, now, put down the phone.  There is no need to call child welfare, we promise that the children did eat!  (Well, they were offered food. Whether or not they ate depends upon whether or not you consider pushing  peas around on a plate and feeding the dog your chicken "eating"...but we digress).  In fact, after a 90$ grocery trip last Sunday,  we managed to stay out of the market until Friday evening, when Economia Nia popped in to pick up some milk, bread, eggs and ham (breakfast for supper may be the wisest thing we did all week ). 

Now, there are reasons of course as to why this was so effortless. Reason 1: On Thursday, supper was provided for Frugal Fred and the girls by Economia Nia's mommy and daddy (while E.N. went out to her workplace holiday party).  Reason 2: This past weekend we headed to Ontario to spend the weekend with family - and they were kind enough to feed us.  The rest of the time we were actually, quite easily, able to provide healthy and balanced meals for ourselves and our children, three times a day, with nutritious snacks in between. How is that possible you ask???  Ahhh, that brings us to Reason 3.  You see, we have a pantry that is as deep as it is high (and it's pretty high).  Not only is it big, it is also original to the house, and, well, 50 years ago, pantry's didn't have fancy pull out shelves and drawers.  If you are lucky enough to have a pantry like ours (sarcastic grin),  then you know that what goes in, doesn't necessarily come out - instead it gets lost somewhere behind the tomato sauce and canned beets.  Our pantry is full of stuff that we didn't even know we had!  We actually thought about posting a picture, but figured that would be too embarrassing (plus, we don't know how to load pictures onto the blog yet :)).  Oh, and along with our scary pantry, we have two refrigerators (each with a freezer) and a second chest freezer (Reasons 4, 5 and 6).  No wonder we were able to subsist on only 100$ worth of groceries last week - we had enough food squirreled away to feed a small country.

Which got us to thinking about all the people (most of the people in fact), in the world who don't have the luxury of not even knowing what is in their pantry.  And then, on the drive in to work one morning, we heard that a local food bank was having to ration their Christmas food baskets more than ever this year.  Instead of getting a dozen eggs, families would have to make do with 4 eggs.  Gulp.  This got us to thinking about the 7 cans of black beans, 9 packages of pasta, 2 cans of artichoke hearts and about 12 cans of tuna just sitting, forgotten and lost, in the back of our pantry.  So we grabbed a bag (a big bag) and filled it with our excess.  What had been neglected in our kitchen was delivered to Sun Youth (the struggling food bank) and has likely already made it's way into someone's needy kitchen.  Now, we're pretty convinced that we are not the only people who suffer from pantry overload (remember when the oatmeal was on sale...how many bags did you buy??).  So, this holiday season, take the time to go through the stuff you already have, and donate it to those less fortunate.  It won't cost you a penny!  If you don't have the time to do this before the holidays...no problem - people are hungry all year round.

To all of you, we wish you a very happy holiday season and a healthy, loving, peaceful and joyous 2011.  

The Tightwads