Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 1)

A while back, Jaymz and I got to talking about food. I have some interesting personal philosophies about eating (which I'd like to write about this month as well), but this was more a conversation about the sheer amount of food we have in our house.

I've written before about how much I like to hoard things. For some reason, this is particularly an issue with food. I like to keep food, I like to buy food in bulk, and I like to have a full refrigerator and cabinets at all times. My tendency to hoard food has been getting a little easier for me lately, as I've been getting treatment for some (previously undiagnosed) thyroid problems I was having. In any case, I still definitely have some room to improve.

Another problem with having so much food in the house is that inevitably, some of it goes bad and we end up wasting food. This is always really hard for me, as I don't like wasting anything! Part of why I want to do this challenge is to learn how to buy just the right amount of food for us to be able to eat in a given week, so that nothing goes to waste. 


Jaymz and I could also use to cut back on our food budget, so we had this idea to spend a full month eating on as little money as possible, while also using up some of the food we have in the house. We talked about trying this a couple of months ago, and I immediately got panicky and started thinking of stocking up food for the minimalist month (which completely defeats the purpose). Today, I feel like it's totally doable, so we begin now. Starting today prevents me from being able to stock up on foods in any way, and it's almost November, so...close enough!

Here are the rules we've come up with:

1. Buy as little new food as possible
2. Eat as much as we want
3. Use up foods we already have (in the freezers and pantry cabinet in particular)
4. Try to keep food spending (including any Thanksgiving foods) $200 or less for the month
5. Write about the progress weekly on Mondays

I want to admit upfront that this is going to be difficult for us, and perhaps (as you see the amount of food we have in the house) the small food budget will seem like too much. We do also enjoy eating out, and lately Daniel in OT, we're running fairly low on time and energy. Also, Daniel eats a lot of food, so keeping up with his appetite without help from as many (store-bought) prepared foods will be a challenge in and of itself.

We have a new deep freezer (pictured above) which is no longer empty, so that will help us with being able to store more prepared (at home) foods to save some time in our everyday routine. I'll also be working on meal planning (something I've never been very skilled at in the past) and I'll share my work on that with you, too.

Momma Jorje has this great Monday Minimalist series (complete with a new button!), so I'll be participating in that for these Mondays in November, giving you updates on our food situation.

Wish us luck for this month of minimalism!