The conversations are happening in offices and homes everywhere across the country. The prices of everything have gone up. We’re all thinking about where we can cut corners. In my household we’re reviewing things like cable/streaming expenses and oil companies for our heating costs. I recently challenged myself to save money by purchasing zero food items for one week. Aside from keeping some extra dough in my checking account, I know that I actually have a lot of food in my cupboards already. Much of it is non perishables, but also some fresh produce that would probably end up getting thrown away when I push it aside for a quick trip to the grocery store.
I enjoy looking at recipes and trying new things out. I will often pick up ingredients at the grocery store for these new test items, but they don’t always make it to the oven. This is partly because I like ease and quickness when I have to come up with a family dinner at the end of a workday, so I often opt for a meal that requires few ingredients and is easy to prepare. I also order from subscription meal kit services like HelloFresh and EveryPlate, which provide all the ingredients for a complete dinner, requiring me to only open a bag and start assembling a meal. This is a great time-saver, but it sometimes means those new ingredients I purchased go unused.
So I decided to boycott the grocery store, and my online meal delivery kits, for a week, to see if I could save some money, and also use up some of those ingredients taking up space in my pantry and fridge. I share cooking duties with my boyfriend, so my obligation was to come up with 4 dinners for the week, as well as making sure my 2 kids still had some options for lunches and snacks.
I started by tracking how much I actually spend on food each week. I should mention that I refuse to push a carriage in a grocery store. I just don’t like it. This means that I go in with my reusable shopping bag and once that is full, I’m done shopping. Therefore I may shop more frequently than some of you. I am probably in the store 2-3 times per week, as opposed to doing one big shopping trip each week. I explain this in case it seems odd that I didn’t know how much I spend weekly. I truly didn’t. After crunching a couple of month’s worth of numbers, I determined that I average approximately $152 on food each week between trips to the store and delivered meal services. This figure did surprise me in that I expected it would be less. After all, my kids are 19 and 20 and aren’t at home as much as they used to be. It’s probably an average amount for a family of 4, but the thought of keeping that sum in my pocket was very appealing.
The next step was to plan. So I went on a tour of my kitchen. I started with my pantry where I discovered quite a few options that would make for a complete dinner: Meal kits for Tiki Masala, hamburger helper, A chow mein mix, a risotto mix, Pastas and sauces, rice, and lots of seasoning mixes for meal prep (pot roast, chili, sloppy joes, fried rice). I also have a decent supply of boxed crackers, canned tomatoes, soups, corn, and black beans. Most of these can easily be converted to a meal or snack with other ingredients I already have at home.
In the freezer I located boneless chicken, ground beef, pork chops, bacon, several varieties of vegetables, and bread. In the fridge, fresh spinach, carrots, peppers, onions, and cheeses and eggs. I was feeling pretty good about my chances to be successful.
Next, I Cancelled my subscription services, Hello fresh and Everyplate, for the week.
Then it was time for meal planning.
Tiki Masala and hamburger helper were pretty much ready to go. Just add meat. The chow mein I would normally serve on hamburger buns, which I did not have, but I could easily substitute another type of bread for chow mein sandwiches. I could easily make omelettes with peppers, onions and cheese, or prepare bacon and eggs. Pasta and sauces is easy enough. I didn’t really have the makings of a salad, but I could add a frozen vegetable, or fresh spinach or carrots to a pasta meal. I could use the ground beef and seasoning sauce to make chili, adding my onions and peppers. I didn’t have the traditional kidney beans, but could substitute black beans. I could make the fried rice the star of a meal and add in vegetables, eggs, and/or chicken.
Satisfied that I had plenty of meal options, I finalized my weekly dinner plan, making the necessary substitutions and made note of lunch options that included peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or soup, as well as cheese and crackers, and carrot sticks, and sat back to enjoy my extra time (no trips to the store) and extra cash in my pocket.
I’m happy to report that the challenge was surprisingly easy. In the end I went with the Tiki Masala (adding grated carrot), chili, pasta with sauce and a side of spinach, and omelettes with peppers and onions. The meals went off without any problems and it felt good to not be stopping at the store on my way home from work and also to use up some of the items that had been sitting around my kitchen. Even items that feel like a “must-have” (in my house that’s milk, lunch meat, ramen, crackers), were not really missed for the week by simply substituting something we already had. And my family never even noticed! I’ll definitely be challenging myself with this one again. Here is a summary of the steps to take if you’d like to try this challenge for yourself: 1. Take inventory of what is already in your home 2. Plan your dinners, lunches, snacks etc for the week 3. Save money!
If this particular challenge seems too difficult for your household situation, try challenging yourself with whatever eats up a lot of your disposable income. Eat out multiple times a week? Make it through a week with just at-home meals. Playing the lottery regularly (and who isn’t?)? Stay away from the quickpicks and scratches for a week. Dunkin donuts addict? Brew at home. You get the picture.
Let us know how you challenged yourself and whether or not it was successful!
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