The Shelftember Shelf Cooking™ challenge has been one of our favorite annual traditions, and it’s a guaranteed way to get your grocery budget back on track! Here’s your how-to guide to join us this month – and there might even be some fun surprises included!
It's Shelftember!!! 🎉
Hey, Freebs Nation! 🎉 It's officially Shelftember, and you know what that means—time to tighten those grocery budgets and get creative in the kitchen with Shelf Cooking™️!
WHAT IS SHELFTEMBER?
Every September, we challenge Freebs Nation to join us in our favorite annual tradition: Shelftember! This is our eighth year hosting the challenge, and trust me, it's more fun than ever. (And stick around because we’ve got an AMAZING giveaway at the end of this post!) Shelftember is all about spending just $75 a week on groceries for your entire family. Yup, you heard that right! It’s lower than our usual grocery budget recommendation, but if we can do it with a family of 9, I know you can, too!
The goal? Shop your fridge, freezer, and pantry FIRST. Use what you already have, and only hit the grocery store to fill in the gaps. It's like a juice cleanse for your grocery budget—short-term, intense, and oh-so-effective at getting your finances back on track. And let’s be real, after this past year of skyrocketing prices, we could all use a little budget detox, right? 💰
We’re going to break down the details in this blog post, and even share some tips from Freebs who are Shelftember veterans. Here’s a past Shelftember YouTube video where you can walk through the meal planning process with Jordan during this challenge!
🍳 Doing Shelftember? These Cookbooks Will Be Your BFFs
Need a little inspo to help you cook from what you’ve already got? Our Shelf Cooking™ cookbooks are packed with flexible, no-waste, family-friendly recipes that are perfect for Shelftember, and right now, they’re on super sale! 🙌
Want the ultimate tool to simplify your life? Snag the 4-volume cookbook set, A Season of Family Meal Plans! It gives you a full YEAR of meal plans, so you can cook once, plan less, and actually enjoy dinnertime again.
🎉 Shop the sale + grab what you need → Browse Cookbooks
SHELFTEMBER TIPS & TRICKS
Let’s get you set up for success with some tried-and-true tips 🙌:
- Inventory Everything: Start by taking stock of your pantry, fridge, and freezer. You’d be surprised how much you’ve got hiding in there! Check out this post for an inventory printable!
- Prioritize Expirations: As you take inventory, keep an eye out for anything nearing its expiration date. Make those items a priority in your meal plan.
- Think Substitutions: Missing an ingredient? Don’t run to the store! Get creative—make it from scratch, substitute with something you have, or leave it out altogether. Find ideas here!
- Focus on What You Already Have: It's going to make you focus extremely hard on what you're buying at the store to supplement for the month! This isn't the month to stock up on kitchen staples. It's the month to really focus on what you already have.
- Meal Plan Like a Pro: Especially as your stockpile dwindles, focus on frugal meal planning. This isn’t the month for fancy dinners—think simple, filling, and budget-friendly.
- Get Creative: Double and freeze for later in the month or repurpose those leftovers into a new meal for later in the week.
- Stay Motivated: Remember why you’re doing this! Whether it’s to pay off debt, save for the holidays, or just put a little extra in your slush fund, every dollar saved counts!
And don’t forget, you’re not alone! Join over 33,000 members in the Shelf Cooking™️ Community on Facebook for support, ideas, and inspiration.
YOUR BEST SHELFTEMBER TIPS! 💁♀️
We’ve collected the best tips and tricks for Shelftember success from our Freebs! Be sure to share yours on our Facebook Group or tag us @jordanpage and use the hashtag #shelftember on Instagram!
- Meal Plan in Advance: Avoid the temptation of takeout by planning your meals ahead of time.
- Trade with Neighbors: Swapping ingredients is a great way to get what you need without spending more!
- Lean on Staples: Spaghetti and chili are Shelftember lifesavers—easy, cheap, and filling.
- Get Creative: Treat Shelftember like an episode of Chopped and see what you can whip up with what you’ve got on hand!
HAPPY SHELFTEMBER! Let us know in the comments below how you’re doing with the challenge. We’re in this together, Freebs! 🎉
I sure do love shelftember! 3rd year participating & I love it each year! Using our extra money this year to spend on a vacation! We haven’t been on vacation as a family ever & can’t wait!
Yessss love to hear it!
I am trying Shelftember for the first time! Getting creative with all of the bits and pieces in the freezer and pantry.
This is what we’re hoping to use our saved money on, too! We need a family vaca!!
What a joy to read that for you all! Good for you for putting your family’s budget and financial protection first which has in turn allowed you to reap the benefits! I pray you all enjoy that earned vacation and you make beautiful memories with your family! Rooting for you!!
Love and prayers,
Ell
Excited to do this!
This will be my 3rd year participating in shelftember and I’m so excited to see some progress and clear out the old!
Woohoo, an awesome annual tradition!
Love the idea around shelftember! I’m 100% joining in this year 👍
We have a pretty big trip coming up and instead of eating out we are taking meals with us. To help our shopping budget I made a list of each meal and we are going through freezers and cupboards to find a lot of the ingredients!
That’s what we like to hear!
I went to Costco today for a few things and came home with a LOT of things. Not uncommon for me 😜 So this is great timing to reign things in and use what I already have!
Shelftember makes grocery shopping on a budget a little more more fun, it’s good to know that so many are doing the challenge along with you!
Love your social media and blog insights!!💗
This is perfect timing! I was just thinking I needed to use up what I have in my freezer! I’m a few days late, but excited to join!
Never too late to start, welcome!
I am All in, and really want to work on using up some of our older food. Thanks for organizing this and keeping us all creative!
Yes, put those older items to use! You can do it!
I have been looking forward to this month. SO excited! And that freezer… I’ve been dreaming of it! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
Good luck, girl!
This is one of my favorite months! I’m so excited for for shelftember!!
Yay, can’t wait!
I love shelftember! I wish you would do more YouTube videos. I watched you for years, you always had such great advice!
I’m up for the challenge!
You got this!
So excited for this year’s shelftember
Woohoo, us too!
This is my first time doing shelftember. It’s good timing. We are freezing lots of things from our garden now, and my husband needs room in the freezer for venison if he gets a deer this year. Thanks for doing this.
I’m so amped for the challenge! And have gotten friends/family on board. I’m missing how to enter to win the freezer??
Just below the graphic with the freezer and cookbook (towards the bottom) there is a button that says the giveaway is powered by Rafflecopter. Click that button and it will ask for your email or Facebook login as a way to notify you if you win. Then your entry options will appear!
So excited for it! I just organized my pantry last week!
I can’t wait to do shelftember. I have lots of canned pumpkin and canned beans. I’m going to be making lots of chili and pumpkin pie. 🥧
Yay! Always excited for Shelftember and Stocktober!
Yes! Have been doing this low key for a few months, but I am in!
Every year I’ve see this challenge I’ve wanted to do it, yet never jumped in. So I’ve put myself on this challenge and I’m feeling excited and thrilled. Just shopped at spent $73.16 (Canadian dollars) for our groceries this week and I put the savings into a jar. I like seeing the visual because it’s motivating to see it grow each week.😁
Hi, where are the tons of ways to enter the giveaway? I don’t see it listed anywhere. Thanks
Just below the graphic with a freezer, there is a button that says the Giveaway is powered by rafflecopter. Click that button and all of your entry options will appear! 🙂
It took me a while to find it, too. Right under the paragraph about the giveaway, there’s a button that goes to the giveaway widget.
I’m so excited for this. My freezer broke and I would be content to win a new one. 😅
We have started this from now till the holidays. Trying to clear out the freezer.
This is my first time joining this and first year following you. My household shops and cooks like this regularly and it’s a must! So excited for this challenge, in the process of buying a home and looking forward to the savings but also a chance to win the much needed freezer!
I love this idea. We are also a family of 8 as my oldest has left for college and Im waisting money each week shopping for items on sale but never using the things on my shelves. Soooo this is much needed and I am super excited about doing this challenge. Thanks Jordan!!
Great timing! 🙂
Very exciting
Love the Shelftember challenge! Always seems to come at the right time🙌🏻
Doesn’t it, though?! 😀
I was already doing a “shop the freezer/pantry” month due to food prices….I completely forgot it was Shelftember!
A Happy Coincidence!
I still need to conduct a thorough inventory (of our food storage too) but I’m already off to a great start for shelf cooking. No last minute runs to the grocery store this week. And I traded with my neighbor, who has an incredible garden, for some freshproduce I needed for lunches & last night’s dinner garnish (chives.)
Thanks for the helpful tips!
yay!
Can’t wait to get my budget in check thanks to shelftember!
I’ve always wanted to participate but life has always been so crazy busy, but I think I’ll finally have time this year to focus on this!
You’re awesome
I really have to try Shelftember some time, but I have such a small storage space (and NO extra freezer space) that it’s hard to have “extra” around.
I love shelftember! Helps me clean out my freezers and pantry and use up things that used to get thrown out!
Love Shelftember! It’s a great way to gauge our usage and reevaluate what we really used, and things we don’t need to stock up on anymore.
So excited to try this Shelftember thing!
Love shelftember!! Shelf cooking saved my grocery bill since the pandemic!! I love the creativeness it brings to the kitchen!
I love the challenge that this brings to use up the items we have in the freezer and pantry! My freezer is quitw full so Im excited to see all the meals that I can make!
Someone’s gotta win, might as well be me 😁
I’ve never tried this before but I’m super excited to give this a shot!!!!
I have done shelftember for 3 years now! I have gotten my friends in on it and we all make it a competition to see how little we can spend but make it “boujee” as we can! I love cleaning out my pantry, fridge and freezers and then starting fresh!
I am so excited to try this challenge this is exactly what i have been needing to do!
I love following along and seeing how much I can save each year! It’s a good kick in the butt to buckle down on the budget!
This is such a great idea! I do this occasionally throughout the whole year!
Thanks for always being a bright inspiration!
Shelftember is honestly one of my favorite thing in life. It resets my families whole way of eating ans grocery shopping after summer break.
Excited to try this! Just ordered the book too!
I haven’t always committed to Shelftember but I sure feel like it’s needed this year. Love watching other people do the most inspired things with their pantry goods!
I love every year when Shelftember comes. Yay for purging all the unused pantry and freezer items. It’s great timing with school starting have having to start making lunches again. Thanks for sharing all of your amazing ideas!!!
So excited for this! I literally wanted to do this for September and stumbled upon Shelftember. I am IN!
Thank you! Hoping for that big freezer!
I love Shelftember! It’s just so smart to do!
You have the best ideas! Love all your ways to do things! Take care!
This is an awesome giveaway! Good luck to everyone!
Love the shelftember reset button! My favorite go to recipe is breakfast for dinner with easy leftover ingredients like eggs and sausage links. And P.s. you can freeze block cheese and then thaw and shred it because it crumbles much easier (much cheaper than buying processed shredded cheese)
Love Shelftember! Thank you.
Definitely need to do this!
Can’t wait to clean out my freezer so there’s room for applesauce! Apple season is upon us!!
I am so excited to do then shelftember challenge!
I love Shelftember I have already used so much food that I would have thrown away. I LOVE SAVING money as well.
Love Shelftember!!!
I love shelftember! It’s a great way to use up food, save and not waste as much.
I never do this 100% (someday, maybe!) but it helps me keep my deep freezer manageable and keep things from sitting in there for years and getting tossed. I’m excited to see what my family and the community come up with this Shelftember. 🙂
Love challenges 🙌🏼
this is super exciting and I really really really need a freezer!!!
Glad to hear middle of the month is not too late! Shelftember starts tomorrow!
Second year doing shelftember and I’m hoping to get better and better at it! Would really like to know down debt! Love this idea
Is this the first shelftember post I’m seeing almost half way through September?
I started eating/shopping out of the freezer and pantry last month and I’m only buying what we have to have, using what substitutions I can.
I try to do shelf cooking on the regular since I have a habit of packing my pantry. But the challenges like Shelftember make it a ton more fun!
I love the idea of this. I do try every September to get through as much as I can in my freezers but I do need to shop more for my dinner as I eat only protein and veggies. Any advice would be appreciated.
It’s been so nice cleaning out our freezer. I still have meals in there from when our baby was born. It’s crazy how much food accumulates, but I love a good declutter! Thanks Shelftember!
I love Shelftember as a personal and family challenge, the make the most of what we have, focusing on perishable foods first and supplementing with what is already on hand. The ability to expand my recipe and cooking repertoire while still providing healthy balanced meals for myself and my child gives me a great deal of satisfaction. Plus teaching solid habits, nutrition and reduction of waste is an added benefit. I take the saved money from the intentional effort and place it towards a mini-adventure or a small home improvement or upgrade.
Love all you’re doing! I saved so much at the grocery store last week! Woot woot!
Look forward to shelftember every year. Time to get creative.
I look forward to this challenge every year! Historically I have not done well at sticking to the budget, but I am doing super well so far this month!
My shelftember tip is to reuse foods in a new way where the texture can be modified for its new form. Got bell peppers that are losing their crispiness? Throw them in a soup or spaghetti sauce where the texture doesn’t matter. Got wilted spinach? Throw it in a frittata or omelette where no one can tell it’s wilting. I promise no one will notice the produce is near the end, and you still get to use it up without wasting!
I’ve been following for a couple of years now but its the first year that i’ll really participate in shelftember and i’m excited to put money aside!
I am excited to participate in shelftember! We don’t have a deep freeze so as far as protein sources we won’t make it far without purchasing for that but I’m excited to use the other things in our home to make dinners’
I love shelftember, it not only helps you go through your fridge and freezer and use up what might go bad soon but it also helps you think out side the box when it comes to meals and get creative. I love using leftovers in soups and casseroles, like cauliflower bacon casserole ( you can add almost anything to it. )
I love shelftember all year round.
I am excited to have more room in my freezer and on my shelves by using what I need to before buying more. It sounds obvious, but unless you stop buying you just keep filling them and spend more than you need to. Also, I am kind of resistant to a budget, though we live well within our means. Maybe Shelftember will convince me to be better at tracking what I spend.
Love this challenge! Thanks for sharing all your wisdom Jordan!
I got my cookbook a few days ago and I’ve been reading it like it was the Bible and my soul depended on it! It’s fabulous!!
I live in a very small community on an island far from the comforts of bulk buying but the principals that I have learned the last few years have helped me to be very creative in using what I have and what is available. When we leave island to get things in bulk we are always stocking it away for other meals all the time! SHELFTOBER is a year long practice for me now!
First year participating! Hoping for a lot of money saving!
I try to do this challenge every year. It’s so fun to see all the creative ways I can feed my family!
It’s my first year to join and I’m excited! The way you plan is gong to be so helpful.
I’ve been looking at menu planning as a passive activity (sit and plan) instead of an active activity (get up, look in the fridge, the freezer, and the pantry).
I’m excited to save!!
Love the whole concept of shelf cooking and can’t wait for the new freezer. We are buying a cow so that we can have grass fed and finished beef on the ready! The freezer will be perfect for keeping the beef.
Great giveaway!
This is my first time doing shelftember. It’s good timing. We are freezing lots of things from our garden now, and my husband needs room in the freezer for venison if he gets a deer this year. Thanks for doing this.
I tend to stock up on sale items I use so that I always have what I need for meals. I’m in Shelftember all year! My issue is fridge and freezer space for perishables and meat and freezer meals.
I used some baby cereal in my meatloaf last night! It needed to be used up and I think our bread and crackers will be needed. As I was mixing it I noticed I could smell it and was a little worried, but once it cooked everything was totally fine.
I’m having a baby soon and working on stocking my shelves and freezer. But I definitely want to try this challenge next year or another month!
I am really enjoying shelftember!!! And so is my wallet!!!
I am gonna start this! I totally forgot until I got the email but am excited to finish it out this month!
Ah the leaves are turning, a fall breeze makes a long awaited appearance and we know…it’s time for Shelftember!
This is a great exercise for your budget!
Love this challenge!
My favorite shelf cooking recipe is:
1 pound of ground beef
1 can of cream of mushroom s Cooked rice
The can full of milk
Vegetable of choice
Cook the sauce ingredients together including the vegetable and flavor it how you prefer. Then pour over the cooked rice. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods!
Fun! For some reason I never got emails on this event, but happy to participate. Been looking at what to eat from home canned items and not buying anything else to can at the moment. I recommend looking at all sources of food (canned, dry, fridge, freezer, pantry) sometimes we end up with extra food tucked into places and buy extra. Especially difficult when you don’t have a set pantry.
One of the beat ways to save up a bit and also clearing the shelfs for fresh goods. Love it!
Love SHELFTEMBER! Here is one of our favorite recipes! https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/249858/cheese-spinach-stuffed-portobellos/
Yay for shelftember!
Shelftember helps me clear out all the little bits of this and that tucked away! I also love how it’s like a mental reset and makes you intentional about using what you have!
I always appreciate the reminder to rethink my groceries and meals.
I’ve always been a meal planner, but for so long did it “backwards” according to Jordan.
Now I do it by shopping what I have first! Works way better!
Thank you for helping me switch habits to work towards budgeting goals!
Thank you so much for all of your helpful tips and guidance! Shelf-cooking has really helped my budget, and expanded my cooking skills in unexpected ways. I love riding to challenges like Shelftember – it helps me realize that I really can do this!
I missed the start of shelftember because I am a teacher and days blur together this time of year, so I will be starting Monday and going into October. I have a lot of food for my family to eat through, it is just finding that magical number to spend per week with how crazy prices are these days! 4 people, so I’m thinking $40..
Never too late to start!
Excited to try this out
Love Shelftember! As the chaos coordinator of my home I am always looking for ways to cut costs on our grocery bill.
My favorite way to clean out space in my fridge and/or pantry is soup night! You can take any protein, veggie, starch combo and turn it into a soup.
I love Shelf Cooking! It’s the best way to use up all of the food I can/preserve/freeze and it keeps me on budget!
Cleaning freezer out, one meal at a time. Thank you for the motivation and easy hacks.
I love shelftember!!! 🙌🏼
I know it goes against Shelftember rules, but I used my grocery savings to purchase $200 worth of food storage!
I am so proud how much I have stuck to this challenge this year!!!! I have only grabbed milk since I started the challenge! I have inventoried my freezer and doing my pantry this weekend.
Ive been 7-8 years with Jordan YT & learn so much that Shelftember helps our family use everything & save money. Thank you Jordan❤️
My favorite thing to make with random stuff is fried rice lol works every time
So many options!
I never did shelftember in the past. But that’s some thing our family has tried to add in this year to it to make sure that we go through our rotations and we’re not wasting any food. .So many great tips. Thanks for sharing!
Second year in a row doing Shelftember and I look forward to it now!! Gets me excited about meal planning
I love #shelftember! We all thought the “Salsa Verde Chicken Enchilada Casserole” (pg. 156 in Shelf Cooking 101) was DELICIOUS!!
Happy Shelftember! This is my third year, but my fourth challenge. I had so much fun last year I did it again! My favorite thing about this challenge is being creative in the kitchen. I’m always surprised to learn a new DIY, cooking skill, or shelfcooking recipe. My biggest takeaway each year is that we really don’t need as much food as I think we need! Good luck everyone 🙂
This is perfect time for a reset with school back in session. I’m excited to focus on meal planning again with what I have on hand and what is on sale.
I love this so much
!
Love @shelfcooking and Shelftemper for using up the winter stores and breaking out the more simple summer recipes.
I love shelftember! We had a box of hamburger helper that ended up with WAY too few noodles. We had some leftover lasagna noodles in the cupboard so we broke them up and threw them in and it was perfect!
I love this so much! My friend told me about this a couple years ago and I love trying to use up what I have so it doesn’t expire! You always have the best tips and tricks! Thank you!
I love this so much! My friend told me about this a couple years ago and I love trying to use up what I have so it doesn’t expire! You always have the best tips and tricks!
Thank you!
This is my first time participating in shelftember and it was actually hubby’s idea! We are working as a team to make this successful. It’s definitely a challenge feeding 4 teen boys (they eat SO much) but we are doing it!
Shelftember helps me create better habits each year. This year I have constantly been thinking that I need to start making all my family’s snacks homemade and stop buying premade altogether. But I haven’t committed yet, until Shelftember.
I’ve had my eye on that freezer for so long just for meal prep and Shelftember! How did you know??? haha jk. But Costco is pretty great right?
I love shelftember so much! Such a great way to prepare for winter/the new year. I just used up 2 big bags of cauliflower rice from our freezer and freeing up the space felt so good. Thanks for all the help and guidance!
Love shelftember. Struggling this year with so many events in the month. But still trying.
LOVE Shelftember! The challenge is so good for me! We have a large family as well so this is gunna be tricky this year but I think its totally worth it.
Look forward to these reminders every year to use up what we have on hand and sometimes it’s hard to stop once we’ve started :).
Loving the new cook book! So glad you are feeling healthy and well again. My daughter is going through it, picking recipes out as I write this. Thanks for your beautiful service!💛
Definitely need to clear out some food in my freezer!
I have loved participating for the last few years! We don’t have a giant pantry as some folks do, so it doesn’t take long to rotate through what we have in one month with only buying a few groceries to supplement. I’m so glad I found Jordan those years ago! Gosh, we have saved a ton of money on everything – not just groceries in shelftember!
Such a great challenge!
Shelftember freeb for life!! I love the challenge, the creative meals we’ve done and a huge bonus, the savings!! Thank you for pushing me to dig deep and pull it off! 🥳
This would be such a blessing for us. Sometimes I want to buy more frozen things, or freeze things for later, and our freezer in the kitchen is just so tiny. I just ordered the book and can’t wait for it to get here!
Need a freezer to start Stocktober!!
I’m excited to try shelf cooking! I have been looking for ways to cut my food budget and this seems amazing!
Shelftember has been a game changer!
I love this! It was still need it for us! I like to use of our veggies that are on their way out by cooking them up and putting them in casseroles, soups, or omelettes!
Keeping track of favorite recipes from past Shelftembers is really helpful when we are working on Shelftember the next year!
I’ve loved getting creative and using this method to reduce waste!!
Such a great concept to stay within a great budget!!!
I love that my freezer is now empty for me to refill with things that I will actually use. It truly needed this shelf-tember cleanse!
Get ready for STOCKTOBER!!!
I have really enjoyed Shelftember. This is the 2nd year I have done this. I plan to continue to shelf cook as long as possible, since my paycheck is alot smaller for the next 4 months. I will try Stocktober, only if I find amazing deals that I can’t pass up.
I love Shelftember!!
Oh man! I’m so ready to save some money this month!!! Shelftember here we come!!!
Super excited for shelftember!! Last year we were able to use the extra money we saved towards our new house! This year it will help us put a dent in our IVF fund!
Been following for a while, but this is the first year I’ve been “set up” to join in doing shelftember and I’m so excited!
So excited for shelftember!! I love all the recipe ideas, it makes it so much easier to prep and plan!
I so need this! I had already planned on doing something like this as my freezers are full of meat and I need to clean it out. Thanks for the motivation to do this.
Been doing this for years! It’s a great way to retrain the brain and keep up on good habits for the rest of the year too
So excited to join shelftember in September for the first time! I did it back in June of last year since September wasn’t going to work for us, and loved doing it. Time to get that freezer cleaned out!
So excited for this month!! This is my 3rd time and I love finding new ways to stretch what I already have!!
Yay!
Super excited to participate in Shelftember this year! It’ll be my first!
Shelftember for the win!
I only spent $64 last week! Let’s see if I can keep this momentum going! 😃
I don’t know why it took me so long to get on this train, but keeping the inventory as a list on my phone is a game changer. I LOVE paper planner things, but the digital version allows me to even put things at the top as they need to get used or eaten (leftovers, I see you) without tons of arrows all over the page.
Thank you for all of this helpful information!
This is my first time here for Shelftember. Thank you!