Thursday 3 September 2009

Step 1 - Grocery Shopping in My Own Home


So it is Day 3 of our Thirty Days of Almost Nothing experiment and I have already learned some interesting things about myself. I have often joked that if there was ever a disaster that we should all head to my mom's house as she could feed a small army for a month with all the food she has in her freezer and her cold room. Well, I cleaned out my own freezers today and I discovered that the apple does not fall far from the tree. I had no idea that I had so much food. I know that I stock up when things are on sale and sometimes I cook in bulk and freeze casseroles etc for nights that I don't really feel like cooking but I had no idea exactly what was in there. Lesson number one is that I need a system for knowing what is in my freezer and when I put it there so that we are not wasting or buying what we do not need. So those of you who know me know I love lists and forms so I developed one that helps me keep track of what I have in freezer, the date I put it there and how may people it will feed. I am keeping the form on the freezer itself so as I take something out I cross it off the inventory.

The good news of lesson number one is that I was able to go grocery shopping in my own freezer and pantry before I went grocery shopping at the store. I have another form that I use to plan my family meals for the week so I was able to organize that once I knew what was in my freezer. Our grocery list (another form) was much smaller than usual this week. We only had to buy perishables such as fresh fruit and veggies and milk. We spent under $50.00 which is pretty impressive for a family of six. Our buy of the day was our milk (3 litres bag) for just $2.77 with our coupons. If you would like a copy of any of the forms I have mentioned just leave me a comment or send me an email and I will send it to you. Be sure to check back tomorrow as I will be posting a great corn salad recipe that uses ingredients you probably have in your fridge and freezer and budget friendly.

3 comments:

  1. Does this mean that you are going to get up the courage to overcome your fear of going to the basement? If that is the case then way to go! Don't forget that Willard, the man who lives behind the furnace, was just at your Dad's house and I am pretty sure he was just made up :)

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  2. My problem's not so much the stuff that's frozen and waiting to be used- it's leftovers. Even when they're sitting right there in front of my face, they just get left. Over. And over.

    There have been times when we've had no choice but to live off what we've got in the cupboards. It's made for some interesting meals, but we've never starved (though that's often been thanks to generous friends and family, too).

    Wow... milk coupons? I'm SO jealous. We pay almost $8 for a 4-litre jug of milk out here, no sales, no coupons. It's ridiculous. Sometimes I miss Ontario!

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  3. We have a problem with leftovers too. Feeding six people at every meal is hard to do with leftovers, as there is never enough for everyone. So what I have found is that I designate one night/day a week for leftovers. The kids get to pick what they want from the leftovers and since they are all very different they usually pick something different. Yeah!! We also use leftovers for lunch. Or I make things into something else....like sloppy joes becomes chili and leftover chicken becomes oriental chicken salad or chicken pho soup. My family thinks it is something new and I get the leftovers out of the fridge!

    Yes, the milk coupons were a score! I got them on the website www.smartcanucks.ca It for all of canada so maybe you can get some deals! The milk coupons were for Natural Milk so if you have that where you are maybe you can use them as I think they are good to the end of October.

    Thanks for the comments! I love to hear from people! Blessings!

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