Our food budget is completely out of control.
I have seen the benefits of setting a menu and shopping to it. I do so periodically, and when we stick to it – gasp – we save money! But it isn’t easy. We are a busy family, with people always going in different directions, and it is just too convenient to deviate from the plan.
Even worse, we go through terrible phases of eating out a LOT , and our checkbook really reflects it. When I can look back over the month and see more restaurants than anything else, I know we have fallen off the rails!
I went through our checking account and found that our food spending for the past three months (December, January, and February) averaged about $1,550. In the first two weeks of March, we are at $731.92. Yikes!
I would really get that budget to $250 per week, keeping “out” eating to a minimum, and focusing on a plant-based, whole foods menu. I am also thinking of moving to a cash system for grocery shopping, putting cash in an envelope each week and limiting grocery shopping (and restaurant eating) to the money in that envelope. I know it certainly makes it easy to overspend when I'm just whipping out a card at the end of the transaction, no matter what the total comes out at.
So, I was spending a Saturday morning working on my menu and shopping list while chatting with a friend online when she made a comment that totally got me thinking. What about all the food already in my house? Why is it that I go shopping every week or two for this big pile of food, and then proceed to move around what is already there in order to make space?
Here’s a thought.
What if we eat the food that is already in the cupboard?
I know, I know, it’s a tall ask. And, to be honest, some of the food probably doesn’t fit with our current eating practices. You know, the processed food picked up on a whim or the cans of soup you can’t remember the reasoning behind buying? But there is lots and lots there that is probably perfectly fine to eat, I just haven’t bothered to use it. How wasteful!
As I got to thinking about it, a project brewed in my head. I wonder how long we could live off the food that is already in our house. A week? A month? Longer?
I poked around in the cupboards, discovered a few things I had clearly forgotten about, and decided to give it a shot. And I set a goal – five weeks.
We have two freezers in our basement, a refrigerator/freezer upstairs, and dry storage food in several cupboards, as well. At the end of the five weeks, if we haven’t eaten it, I am fairly confident we don’t have any plans to! With that in mind, we will clean out the cupboards and donate anything uneaten at the end of this “challenge,” thus starting fresh in the days to follow.
(I am hoping this will help me make a transition to healthier foods easier, too! We can start from scratch!)
So the plan is to start on Sunday, March 18, and end Saturday, April 21. I am on call that entire time, so we won’t be venturing far from home, which will help a bit. (One place where we really tend to fall down on food budgets is while traveling, but that is a separate issue to attack another time!)
We did our last meal out on Saturday night, so we’ll be all ready to dive in! I think. We’ll see how challenged I feel in a few days!
Rules (Simple, to the point):
*The budget is $50 per week. This will allow us to buy fresh milk, eggs, butter, and the occasional bit in order to pull a meal together.
*Everything else must come from food already in the house!
*No eating out.
A good challenge should have a reward, right?
We have wanted to buy a new bed for a while now, so my plan is to put $200 toward our “bed fund” for every week we stick to this challenge. I’ll put cash in an envelope every Sunday for the previous week.
When we do the full five weeks, we’ll be almost there, and we'll kick in what remains. But only if we do the full five weeks!
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