This week, after realizing I overspent my grocery budget, I decided to not to go to the grocery store and live exclusively on what I had in the house.
Additional observations (see yesterday’s post for part one):
Let me finally experiment with this discount food. You know those packets of soup that were heavily discounted because they were expired or that noodle mix you bought at the salvage store two months ago? I think a lot of us buy these things to try and then totally forgot about them. Boy did I experiment! What I learned: Singapore noodle mix plus the remains of a roast chicken equals three fantastic meals.
Look Mom, I’m baking… at least I could! Flour, salt, yeast, I could have actually baked some bread like I always mean to. In a relative sea of carbohydrate possibilities, I ate ployes for breakfast on Friday. Point is the option was there… as I had more food than I could even eat in one week.
Hey, I can actually donate stuff. There is a basket as I leave the grocery store where you can put food for the local food bank. I kick myself every time because I only remember as I’m leaving the store. Looking through my pantry, I actually had a chance to evaluate what I had (as in more than I need) and took my surplus to the grocery store for drop-off.
All in all, it really wasn’t a hard week because I thought since I do keep a lot of staples around like lentils, pasta, and canned vegetables. Although this is possible because I can be really flexible with what I eat.
In short, a good experiment and I’m sure I’ll repeat again. And I can even put some extra dishes back in my cupboard again!