Our no-grocery journey has become all too-real at this point. At the beginning of our challenge, it took a long time for either of us to notice a dent in our food storage, be it freezer, pantry, canning shelf, cupboards, fridge, etc. Today, that story has changed. We totally notice a difference, and things are getting exponentially more difficult.
Oh, so difficult.
We knew it wouldn't be easy. We are doing this as a challenge, and to be good stewards of what we already have on hand. I think we've been successful in that pursuit thus far. We have been blessed more than we deserve, and many others are not so fortunate when it comes to food. This past week, we watched a movie on TV called Food Stamped. In it, a married couple set out to consume food for a week based on what the average family of two would get in food stamp benefits. That equated to be roughly $50. I thought it was a fortune. They "proved" that it was not, and seemed to live with great difficulty over the course of ONE WEEK with that sort of budget.
Now, I'm not going to get into a political diatribe about food stamps here. That is another matter for another day. What does trouble me though is truly how much food costs. Relatively small families are spending hundreds of dollars each week on food that isn't even all that nutritious. Hundreds. Of. Dollars.
It sickens me how much money we will have to spend to eventually replenish some of our food supply once this no-grocery challenge is over. I'm truly starting to hate spending money on much of anything these days. I dream of a bountiful summer garden, summer streams full of fish, and a freezer re-stocked with venison, rabbit, and pheasant this fall. I'm also daydreaming about backyard chickens.
It's a disease.
Today is day #83 of our no-grocery challenge. In a few days, we'll hit the three month mark. That in itself is huge. Just around the corner from the three month mark is an even larger milestone...the quarter year mark.
A QUARTER OF A YEAR.
Thursday, April 2nd at 6AM, we hit that milestone.
You know I'm dreaming of celebratory cheeseburgers for breakfast, right? I have no shame.
Pantry staples are dwindling. Flour, butter, oatmeal. Those sorts of things.
Are we quitting? Eventually, yes. For the time being though, no.
Originally, I never wanted our blog of our no-grocery journey to be a documentation of our nightly dinners. That's ridiculous. While I do include occasional recipes and dinner posts, that was not my original intent. If that was the case, you all would be seeing a large amount of photos of us consuming green beans from the garden, canned tomatoes from the garden, and venison. It would be boring.
As time presses on, we will do our best to think up some novel ways to use what we still have. With the turning of another month, another $20.00 goes into our unspent allowance kitty. That will bring our total to $75.00. We have toyed with the idea of using this fund to replenish some missing things. We have also toyed with the idea of dragging it out to the bitter, brutal, ugly end.
The end is somewhere down the road to be sure, but it is still not quite on the horizon, yet. We are pushing on toward 91.25 for sure. If you have any feedback of how we should either kickstart, replenish, or wind down our journey, we would love to hear it.
We are all ears.
--SH