· All food items must come from our home storage: freezers, fridge, pantry, stash of home-preserved goods, etc.
· Freebie food is acceptable—free samples, the communal treat pile at work, gifted food (garden surplus, etc.), free coupon food, etc. That being said, I hope people start putting vegetables on the “bait pile” at work.
· Bartering or trading is acceptable—we can trade something we have with someone else without exchanging money. If we have a package of pork chops to give, and someone is willing to trade them for a gallon of milk, or fresh veggies, so be it—you know—that sort of thing.
· Prearranged food orders before Jan. 1st are OK. I am getting some meat from a friend who raises hogs, and I have an appointment scheduled with a friend who raises chickens, to get eggs. These arrangements will stand.
· Prearranged restaurant visits scheduled ahead of time are OK. We always have a standing January “date” with another couple since three out of the four of us have January birthdays. Jay does not. He buys dinner. Win.
· If someone invites us over for a meal, we are allowed to go. I will do my best to bring a dish to pass and share that is not too weird.
· If we are invited to go out to dinner, and we aren’t paying the bill, we are allowed to go.
· Jay will continue to purchase his lunch at work. Part of his job is to oversee hospital supply chain material management and dietary services. It would be odd for him to not eat at work when he is essentially in charge of the food there. I will not purchase lunch at work. Therefore, between the two of us, five out of six meals will come from home. All of them for me, two out of three for Jay.
· Non-grocery essentials are not part of this challenge. If we can’t eat it, and we need it, we are allowed to purchase it. Therefore things like: medicine, toilet paper, bar soap, and deodorant will be (thankfully) readily available to us.
· We are both part of a service organization that has bi-monthly dinner meetings. We will still go to these meetings as usual. It is our choice if we decide to have dinner at these meetings, or eat at home ahead of time. Jay usually doesn't like the food choices to be ordered at these meetings. I'm seeing it as an opportunity to get salad!
· Dog supplies are not part of this challenge. The dog will eat and get his treats as per usual.
· To keep the ball rolling, we are including $20 each month to be used as needed. I’m guessing we’ll be using this for dairy and fresh vegetables. Whatever is not used out of that allotment at the end of the month can and will be rolled over into the next month. Therefore, if January’s allowance isn’t used, February will have $40, March would have $60, etc. The goal is to keep as much money in the allowance kitty as possible. We will only spend if we really, really, need something.
· This isn’t a starvation challenge. We are eating meals as we normally would prepare, in normal-sized proportions.
· This isn’t a torture challenge, either. If we get down to three pounds of freezer burned meat and a stale Pop-Tart, it’s over. We’re going shopping. We’ve made our point, and we know how far a full freezer, pantry, and fridge essentially took us.
28 hours and change until the challenge begins. Did we miss anything?
Any bets on how long we’ll be able to go?
-SH