So far our food expenses - which have been relentlessly creeping up toward $1,000/month - have totalled $300 for the month, including $100 at Walmart just yesterday.  I’ll probably spend another $100 today between Costco (just cheddar cheese, eggs and milk) and produce at the terminal downtown.  After that, we’ll be set for another week and will have just a few days left in the month!

Not bad for 11 people with no garden.  We’ve had meat nearly every night, and have eaten far more healthy foods than usual: beans, rice, chicken & ground beef, milk, cheese, eggs, and tons of fresh fruits and vegetables.  The only substantial changes have been no junk food, no eating out, and no unnecessary non-food purchases.

Of course “unnecessary” means different things to different people.  After a bit of discussion, hubby and I agreed that our experiment was not to make a radical change in our lifestyle for the month, but rather to control unplanned consumer spending.

For example, we did buy:

• toilet paper
• disposable diapers and wipes
• foil
• shampoo, conditioner and body wash
• cat litter
• laundry detergent
• 18 metal forks, at 6/$1.  We have more company than forks nearly every Tuesday, and simple courtesy required us to acquire more.  At this price, it made no sense at all to buy plastic.  Anyway, we like using real flatware. 
• a classified ad to sell our Yorkie pups (a preplanned business expense)
• a service call to repair our internet.  We were already paying for the monthly service, so it didn’t make sense to pay good money for nothing.  And we do earn more from our internet than we pay.

On the other hand, there were many things we normally would have bought but didn’t.  A few examples come immediately to mind:

• fabric and notions for new sewing projects
• a 3rd laundry bin
• paper napkins or paper towels - no longer necessary since I made 3 dozen (and already have the fabric to make more)
• new (newer) shoes to replace worn ones
• a $10 yard sale stroller that is exactly what I’ve been looking for
• new dish towels and dish cloths to replace my sadly worn rags.  I will buy these as soon as the month is up.
• a 6″ sub sandwich, free w/the purchase of a large drink
• bobby pins to try out new hairstyles in a book
• chocolate - except plain cocoa for cooking frugal desserts from scratch

I commented to hubby just yesterday that I love having the fridge, freezer, and pantry so neat and orderly - something that is only really possible when they have significant empty space.  This seems like a far more efficient and economic way to operate.  We don’t need a big freezer, we don’t have dry goods long enough to worry about weevils or pantry moths, and nothing is lost and rotting in the back of the fridge. We are wasting far less food than we ever have!

This feels like better stewardship than hoarding 3 months’ worth of food where we’ll never remember to use it in time.  I realize that keeping a store of emergency food is wise and can be done without waste, but that’s not what we were doing.  We were simply wasting both food and space.

I think we’ve learned something from this little experiment, something that will stick.  I wonder what else we’ll learn in the 11 days to come?

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Filed under: food, frugal