I'm playing a little game with myself.
See, this last paycheck was smaller than usual and we ran out of grocery money.
Now, before you start sending me Paypals, let me just say that I do have money socked away. We're not destitute. I can run to the store at any time. But I decided not to.
In different wards, they've done emergency preparedness drills by asking people not to go to the store and see how long they can live on what's already in their cupboard and fridge. I decided to give that a try myself and see how many meals I can create from the odds and ends I have left over from other shopping trips. I've been doing this for about three days now and I've been pretty amazed at what I've come up with. I've got bread in the oven right now and I've got a pot of vegetarian chili in the fridge, ready for me to heat up for Sunday dinner. Also on the menu are things like pizza, blueberry yogurt (using the frozen berries I've had for a while and mixing them with plain yogurt) pancakes, pasta in sauce, baked potatoes, and green bean casserole. I think I can carry on until Wednesday, which is when we get paid again.
I probably will make a run on Monday for some milk and apples. But I'm pretty excited to see if I can pull this off. I'll let you know how I do!
6 comments:
Good luck with that, Tristi. I am in that same position very often. Food storage is a wonderful thing.
Way to go. My parents are doing something similar. They are starting to live on a budget of what they will get when my dad retires soon. They figure they may as well get used to it now, rather than when they have no choice to be used to it.
Hey! I was in that same situation this month (but Bert got paid on Fri so I'm good now, hooray! =)). You can do it, Tristi! It gave me such a feeling of accomplishment when I made it. =)
Unfortunately, I felt deprived so when I finally got money I bought chocolate milk (which I never ordinarily buy) and sushi and salt and vinegar chips.
So I guess challenge number 2 is to not splurge once the money is there. =D I have a feeling the end of Nov is going to be tight as well - I'm challenging myself to stay within budget even when the Dec. money comes in. =)
It'll be interesting to hear what your menu is this week. Have you checked out the Hillbilly Housewife? She has recipes here and an emergency $45 menu here.
We did this game before we moved, because I didn't want to move food storage. We did OK, but we had a lot of meat still in the freezer after 2 months (I did buy milk & bread, but that's it) and we had to throw a big party & BBQ to use up all the meat. We still brought a freezer full of meat out here when we came.
We play this game once in awhile, but the biggest eye opener was the time my husband lost his job suddenly. That round of the game went on for nine months. Gotta love food storage.
It is definitely one thing to do it by choice and another to do it out of necessity. The first way is kind of fun -- the second way, not so much. We've gone through many bouts of unemployment and I've learned that the counsel to get food storage isn't just for the end of the world, but for any time that arises that we have no food.
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