I normally come up with a rather rough meal plan on Sunday and then go grocery shopping. I usually pick four meals for the week and the rest of the time we use what’s leftover, things happen to change up our food needs, or we make do with what’s on hand. There’s often a dinner out with friends, or a BBQ where we only need to take one thing, a lunch provided by work, or some other event that changes up our food plans for the week.
One week, I decided I was going to put off going to the store for at least a day, because we had a reasonable amount of food on hand and, frankly, I just didn’t feel like bothering. We went biking instead and I completely skipped buying groceries. 🙂
I have mentioned before that we end up spending quite a lot on food, for various reasons. Two weekends ago, we unexpectedly went to Calgary and stocked up on fish and some other groceries while we were there, which meant we had spent even more than we normally do on food.
That sets the scene for the week. I didn’t want to go buy food, didn’t want to plan, and didn’t want to spend more money on food.
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The result?
We probably saved a bunch of money. We definitely wasted less food (though there were some peppers that were long lost, and some mushrooms that went moldy…. if only the fresh food in my town was fresher!).
We have a rather well stocked pantry, and currently we have an overflowing freezer. That means that carbs and proteins are not in short supply, it’s more the fruits and vegetables that are a problem. We don’t have very many veggies in the freezer due to allergies (for example, neither one of us is supposed to eat broccoli, for two totally different reasons, and broccoli is in a ton of the frozen veggie mixes that you can buy).
I tweeted (@moneypropeller) at Michelle, from the Shop My Closet Project. She’s good at shopping fridges, too, and came up with some great suggestions.
I managed to make it all the way to the weekend without having to buy anything. Party! I almost went to the grocery store several times, but thankfully my laziness prevailed. Plus, by Wednesday, I had decided that I should be able to make it to Thursday without any problems. I skipped buying groceries for an entire week!
These meals ended up including fewer vegetables and fruits than we normally eat, but every once in awhile I suppose that’s okay.
What Did We Eat While Scrounging the Fridge?
The beginning of the week didn’t require getting too creative, towards the end of the week I had to think a lot harder.
Don’t worry, we’ve probably all faced harder challenges than combining random foods to make a meal!
Sunday
For dinner (and subsequently lunches) on Sunday, we had homemade squash gnocchi with an oil sauce and venison jerky, topped with fresh diced tomatoes. That was on the plan for last week, but we never got around to it.
Monday
Lamb roast (yuck… in my opinion anyway) and grilled zucchini strips. The lamb lives in the freezer and my spouse loves the stuff. We also had a bit of leftover sticky date pudding from the dinner party we hosted on the weekend.
Tuesday
“Random everything stir fry” with soba noodles and scallops. It turns out we have at least five bags of scallops in the freezer and no shrimp. Who knew? When scallops go on sale, they are usually more than half off, so I pick them up. The “random everything” included a bag of green peppers, some green onions, jalapenos, limp celery and coconut milk.
Wednesday
By Wednesday this game was getting a fair bit harder, as we had already incorporated most of the veggies into the Tuesday night “toss it all in” stir fry. I opted to make pea pesto with rice pasta, incorporating grated carrots. We didn’t have any cheese that we could both eat, so it was olive oil, frozen peas, pine nuts, parsley and a bit of water. If you’ve never had it before, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s a lot cheaper than basil pesto, and includes more veggies! It is also this gorgeous, super-bright green color.
I made a bit of a cucumber salad, consisting of only cucumbers, lemon juice, S&P and oil to go with them. Again, more veggies would normally be our style, but not too horrible all in all.
My spouse had been on a work day trip and ended up eating a burrito at 4pm, so barely ate anything, which changed the plan for Thursday.
Thursday
Crock pot cabbage rolls were my solution for Thursday… but then that’s not what I made, which is exactly why I only ever plan four meals per week.
A few months back, I spent a whole day prepping frozen freezer meals with a friend and it has been a fantastic decision. I am getting toward the end of the freezer meals, but we each left that kitchen day with nearly a dozen giant ziplock bags of meals. Easy meals rock!
I was going to make carrot salad to go with the cabbage rolls, which I still did. The carrot, apple and raisin salad was pretty good, because for the first time ever I added some Sriracha
This meal is pretty representative of what we normally eat: a protein and two to three veggie choices, sometimes with a carb.
Weekend
I’m writing this before Friday comes around, because at that point groceries will be fairly moot. We have a dinner at my spouse’s boss’s house on Friday and a fundraiser dinner on Saturday.
It also means that I made it an entire week without buying groceries!!!!!! <- I like exclamation marks.
My Lessons
This wasn’t a challenge that I set out to do on purpose, more of a gradual thing that I decided to fully embrace halfway through the week. I often know that we have more food than we need, but to force myself to use it was very useful. Michelle challenged herself to only eat what she had on hand for a month and did amazingly well, while also eating very well!
There’s a lot of food options available if you stop, think and get creative to use what’s on hand. I still have two jalapenos to figure out what to do with (they were in a recipe we made two weeks ago, but only available to purchase in a six pack… thanks, small town grocery store.)
You can eat a LOT of simple carbs that are shelf stable, and proteins as well. We had zero shortage of those things, the fruits and vegetables were the really tricky part. If you have a freezer full of vegetables, DO NOT GO GROCERY SHOPPING THIS WEEK. You’ll be able to make it, I swear!
I am confident that it saved us money, but it would be hard for me to piece out how much, because I don’t track our spending in detail. Plus, we stocked up on proteins two weeks ago, so the month’s spending is still fairly high. If I had to venture a guess, despite the $100 worth of fish purchased two weeks ago, we are probably on pace for the month.
We ran out of some things that we normally have on hand, like balsamic vinegar, and I was tempted to treat that growing list of things as a reason to go to the store. The store, a magical land of plenty, where I could stock up on fresh fruits and veggies, but I ignored the urge to go (well, I let my laziness prevail) and it kept me from buying more, unneeded food while I was there. Who ever said laziness was a completely bad thing? Not this kid!
I have seen many people do pantry challenges before, for all sorts of reasons. There’s the environmental motivation, there’s the financial motivation, there’s the laziness motivation, like me. If you have ever thought about it, or just not thought about it, try pushing grocery shopping off, for a day, or two, or five, and see how it goes.
Have you ever done a pantry challenge, or avoided the grocery store on purpose?
i recently did this same thing for the same reason (lol)! I just didn’t want to shop and spend money. It’s amazing how creative you can get with your food, plus I feel like we burned through so many of the “extras” (half spaghetti packets, lone bagel) that we had lying around.
Great post!
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Yes! It’s an awesome way to incorporate those really random things, like the tiny bit of spice packet leftover.
Anne recently posted…Life and Financial To-Dos
This is a great challenge. I would be interested in doing this as well.
Give it a shot and blog about it!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
That’s such a great challenge to give yourself. Sometimes it’s so hard to eat what’s on hand rather than just going out, and buying what I’m really in the mood to eat.;) I’ve found that the less I experiment with food the less I waste. It’s like, I really want to be an adventurous cook/eater but I continually go back to the same old same old. It’s hard to find that balance of trying out new things and also being financially conservative.
Interesting. That’s kind of like me having to find a use for four extra jalapenos… if I hadn’t made the original dish, I wouldn’t have that problem.
On the other hand, I have a pantry full of things like xanthan gum and whatnot that are there for the taking because I made something once that needed it!
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Wow, I´m so impressed with the meals you came up with! I´ve never done a pantry challenge, but have often been in those shoes of just not feeling like going to the grocery store. We almost always have pasta, and I´m good at making up sauces and tossing whatever I can find in there. It usually turns out pretty well!
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They were pretty good 🙂
That’s why I didn’t really call it a pantry challenge… it originated out of laziness!
Pasta is a limitless option, especially when you’re not fixed on having tomato sauce with it. My spouse makes a great clam and pepper sauce, and some great olive oil based ones.
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
We are trying to eat more of our “stockpile” but we still get produce every week. I think it can save some money if you take on a pantry challenge, but only if you actually stick to it and don’t just go out to eat instead!
DC @ Young Adult Money recently posted…Is Roku the Key to Cutting Cable Forever?
Haha, ya. That would totally destroy the purpose.
Figuring out how to avoid buying produce is the key. If you’ve got a bunch in the freezer, see if you can avoid the store for an extra day or two!
Anne recently posted…What Happens to your Future Self when you Max out your TFSA
Something I have found when I don’t grocery shop, either due to schedule or desire to save, is that my family really enjoys simple meals. Grilled cheese and pea soup, eggs, quesadillas, etc. Sometimes I think I’m too under the spell of Pinterest. Life can be simpler. I am still learning the every day
Jen @ Healthfulsaver recently posted…Saving at CVS Today
That’s a rather interesting observation, it’s nice to know that those things are all options that are well received. I am so guilty of making more complicated meals than necessary. That, and chopping vegetables. Good GOLLY does that take forever.
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I do the random stir fry thing probably every week and find it a great way to get rid of vegetables before they go bad. I try new sauces in a Mark Bittman cookbook on how to cook everything, and it keeps it new on a weekly basis.
I don’t think I have the confidence to skip grocery store trips, however. I try to use what’s in our pantry/freezer at least once a week (usually Fridays) and sometimes the meals get quite interesting.
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Once a week eh? Good for you, that’s way more often than I end up doing that!
Try pushing the grocery store trip for just a day. I mean, I know that I have a ton of food I can eat around here, if you plan down to the last bits, then it’s probably a lot harder.
Anne recently posted…What Happens to your Future Self when you Max out your TFSA
This about shop in your freezer and pantry first…. I went thru my fridge and freezer an panrty, about a week ago.
I had to throw out expired,and opened old jars of food!
I was sooo mad at myself!
I threw the stuff out,and took little post it’s and wrote the exp. date RIGHT ON THEM and taped them to the jars..I don’t have to guess or put my glasses on to read the dates,and I know if they were opened or not.
Also, I wrote down a list of all freezer foods that I had in cellar and up stairs freezers!
I sat down,made out a dinner list,listed dinners on paper with days listed and wrote down what I was going to make with the food I already had. I was so excited I thought of this!!!
Ugh, that happens to me all the time and I hate it!
That’s an amazing idea, to make expiry dates more noticeable, I love it. Things like salad dressing always catch up on me.
Anne recently posted…I Finally Made Money in April – Money Propeller’s Blog Earnings and Stats
I am gonna skip buying groceries especially when there are still stocks in the fridge. Let’s see what happens. This is very challenging, though.
Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…The Public Vs Private School Debate
I alway’s have chicken broth in the pantry, so if I run out of meals to cook,I make a veggi soup with rice in it…It’s alway’s my go to dinner!
That sounds yummy!
Anne recently posted…I Finally Made Money in April – Money Propeller’s Blog Earnings and Stats
Wow, way to go! We don’t cook, so we don’t have a lot going on in our pantry. Part of the problem is I’m now trying to avoid (as many) simple carbs. And those suckers are the most shelf stable and therefore easiest to stock up on. And fruit has been messing with my blood sugar. So when we do actually need something from the store, we can usually only put it off a couple of days.
Abigail @ipickuppennies recently posted…Prepaying debt
Don’t cook eh? I knew a guy or two in university who didn’t cook. I couldn’t figure out how they funded themselves/could justify being so expensive!
The carrrrbbbbs. So shelf stable. So simple carbs. *sigh*
That sucks about the fruit. My spouse has been downing bananas and I’m allergic to them and the smell makes me miss them!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
Well, it’s definitely pricey. But as a depressive with chronic fatigue and depression married to a guy with severe ADD and major skin and joint issues, cooking just isn’t tenable. We tried repeatedly, but it always ended with me frustrated and angry when we couldn’t keep it up. Then I’d beat myself up about it, which made me less able to cope with other life things, which caused some things to fall by the wayside with bad consequences.
So I finally realized it was never going to happen, and I could either accept that or spend valuable energy fighting it without success. I chose the former.
And yeah, we definitely eat too many carbs.
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I have always bought groceries every two weeks and prefer once a month. I’m to lazy or to busy to do it more often. Monthly is hard because of the planning but far less expensiv, than weekly. Try a month and see how you do…planning is the key!
Wowzers. I’m impressed that you can do monthly only. I really don’t think I could do a full month… unless the produce in my town massively improved in freshness!!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
Nice! And the meals sound delicious. I’m a little on the opposite spectrum though to try and save money, eat healthy, and not have any food go to waste. I go MORE often to the grocery store but only buy minimal things. I’m a terrible cook and hate cooking, so I go for beyond simple meals like salad and a bean burrito. Or grilled chicken and veggies. I still probably spend more than most people in a month, but I’ve really cut back on food waste. I’m just not that creative and motivated to make what is in my pantry. 🙂
Tonya@Budget and the Beach recently posted…What Acting Class Taught Me About Freelancing
Congratulations on making progress. We’ve made a bunch, too, but I still had a cucumber, some romaine and half a can of pasta sauce go bad on me this week. *sigh* Oh, and some mushrooms.
I definitely get what you are saying about going more often… but you probably have less on hand than I do!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I’ve managed to avoid the grocery store for the last couple weeks. It’s been great!
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Weeks?! How?! Do tell!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I agree that a lot of us do have a lot more food than we really need stock in our pantry and fridge. I personally have strayed far from stocking my kitchen and really work with meal planning and it has been saving me money big time.
Petrish @ Debt Free Martini recently posted…Debt Free Martini Wants to Share Your Story
Nice. Have you written any posts about it yet?
I’ve found that planning has made a big difference, especially for our sanity, because there’s no “what are we going to eat tonight?” Plus all the food we have on hand lines up to those recipes.
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
All of your meals sound super yummy!! I do a fridge/pantry challenge once every few months and I love that it not only saves money at the grocery store, but it challenges me to get creative and come up with awesome meals. I feel like I’m on an episode of Chopped or something.
Shannon @ Financially Blonde recently posted…Do You Get Saver’s Fatigue?
Haha, yesssss. Chopped is fun (to watch). I would stress out way too much trying to do something like that.
We definitely didn’t starve eating that week 🙂
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
We get our groceries delivered every week and I love it. I don’t have to worry about big lineups at the store or certain items being out of stock because of a big sale. it’s one less thing that needs to be done on weekends and it’s nice
Dan @ Our Big Fat Wallet recently posted…Last Minute Tax Return Tips
Nice. Do you pick the groceries, or is it a set selection, like a CSA box?
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
Oh Anne! That was a great challenge. I may try this next week. I’ve skipped weekly grocery shopping in the past, but always ended up going out daily to get things. This time, I’ll resist that urge! Highly inspiring Madam! 🙂
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Tell us if you do!!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I typically go to the grocery store once/week, but lately I’ve completely skipped some weeks as I had plenty of food left to get by. This has saved me from going over my grocery budget in March and April. Whew!
Kayla @ Femme Frugality recently posted…When Things Got Financially Real
Yay! Nice work 🙂 Did you eat anything weird/creative when you skipped groceries?
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
Siracha is a staple in our house. We buy the big bottle and go through one at least once every two months. Tapitio hot sauce is another favorite.
We typically skip out on grocery shopping for a week every 4-5 weeks. To be honest we could probably go two weeks and still be fine.
We are still trying to get through the half cow we bought last summer that is in the deep freeze. I won’t do that again. You get a lot of cuts of meat that are really only good for making into ground beef.
But it has been great for parties and camping. I will grind a bunch of meat and pre-form hamburger patties and make huge batches of meat sauce for spaghetti.
Cheers!
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Ah interesting. We buy a lamb and have a bunch of venison. I’ve never tried buying a cow (yet). That’s a bummer that most of it needs to be turned into ground beef.
I should make some patties and freeze them, that would be great to have on hand and way better than store-bought ones.
I can’t believe you go through that much sriracha! That is a LOT.
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I love all of these meals AND LAMB!! I’m obsessed with the stuff every since dating a guy from Australia. I would say from observing this that you need to do 2 things-have more high quality frozen food vegetables items in your freezer so that you can incorporate those items into your meals if you opt for a no shopping week. I usually have the following frozen items: Kale, spinach (don’t really love). mixed mushrooms (Whole Foods Brand Only), acorn squash, english peas, and okra (nom nom). I also have mango chunks, blueberries, and strawberries (usually freeze those myself). Buy more fruits and veggies on the weekends. I just buy more fruits and veggies on the weekend. You and I are food twins so I understand how it feels when you don’t have enough fresh foods 🙁 I want to eat everything that you made by the way! AND LAMB-send some my way.
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YUCK. hahaha. I am not a fan of lamb, but pretty much everyone else is. You can find a lot better frozen veggies than I can. I even checked again after you wrote this. Maybe I’ll take a look when I get to the city next.
Come visit. You can have lamb!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
I’ve been living off of rice and dried goods for the past week or so, and it’s been going well. I have so much dried korean food products in my pantry and they taste so good when I make stews or fried rice with them. I think I could last another month on them without getting bored by the variety!
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Ooohhhh, what kind of things are you making? I could go for some inspiration that changes things up and I haven’t had very much Korean food lately!
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?
With two small kids, I don’t do pantry challenges but I have done things like only shopped for staples once a month. I get the fresh stuff weekly. I spend a lot less money and am more conscious of waste 🙂
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Awesome. Most of what I get is fresh stuff too… and then whatever else is on sale, haha.
Anne recently posted…How Much Does Life Insurance Cost?