Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 29)

Well, the food challenge is nearly over, and I have to say I'm feeling quite relieved. With just three days left (including today), I've had just about enough of being so concerned about our food budget!

The Adjustments:

This week's tasks were to stop restricting food intake, make enough food to last us until Thanksgiving (but not too much), and to prepare a Thanksgiving feast while keeping within the budget.

I made a few dishes early in the week for us to eat until Thanksgiving, including a big pan of gluten-free breakfast casserole, which featured many ingredients from the pantry and freezer. On Sunday, Jaymz made himself a pasta dish to take to work for lunch during the week. We didn't make quite enough food to last those first three days, but we ended up having soup and other frozen meals to fill in the gaps, so it worked out fine.

Since it was just the three of us at the house for the long weekend, we decided to spread out the cooking and eating over several days instead of making everything all on one day. On Thanksgiving, we cooked a turkey breast (brined, then roasted), gravy, gluten-free bread stuffing, and mashed yams with cinnamon and brown sugar. The next day, we made turkey noodle soup made with fresh turkey stock, which we're still eating—I even had it for dinner last night! Yesterday, we made green bean casserole using some of my homemade cream of mushroom soup from the freezer, and tomorrow I'll make mashed potatoes to continue to eat with the soup (and to use up the gravy) over the next few days.

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 22)

With just eight days left in this food challenge, I feel like we're definitely getting the hang of it! I'm being more intentional about menu planning, I'm spending less at the grocery store, and we haven't eaten out at all this month. I feel very proud of the progress we've made, and I'm confident that we can carry on with the things we've learned.

The Budget:

Bulk foods!

As I mentioned last week, we planned to spend the week's food budget on our bulk foods delivery (which arrived on Friday). I ended up spending $43.40 on bulk foods, which brings the total for the month so far to $148.13.

The Adjustments:

Last week's tasks were fairly simple: to spend no extra money on groceries since I was purchasing from the bulk foods delivery, and to eat more foods from the freezer and pantry for daytime meals as well as dinners. All of these goals were met this week, and I was surprised that we could go for so long without buying any food at all!

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 15)

Today I'm feeling a little minimalist challenge weary, which seems appropriate for the mid-way point. We had a really tough week, being the first week without OT for Daniel. These kinds of weeks make it hard to feel motivated to make the effort to prepare food at home (and we usually eat out a lot when our family feels like this). However, we stuck to the challenge and made it through the week, so I'm feeling very proud of us!

The Budget:

This week, we spent $49.64 on groceries, which included all the food we prepared and packed to eat on our two-day trip to the coast. This means we've spent $104.73 of our $200 budget for the month. Today marks the halfway point of the challenge, so I think we're doing really great!

The Adjustments:

Last week's tasks were to work on menu planning, figure out a solution for Jaymz's lunches, and navigate going on a trip without spending too much of the food budget.

Minimalist Food Challenge (Day 8)

The contents of my pantry before the challenge

The minimalist food challenge is going very well so far! We've been making a dent in the foods we have, and we ate at home every single meal last week.

The Budget:

As far as money goes, I spent $57.09 on food this week, and most of the items I bought were to replace foods that we finished off during the week (milk, peanut butter, etc.). I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the $57.09 includes $14.67 I spent on a frozen turkey breast, because I was nervous that I might spend too much money and not be able to buy one when Thanksgiving rolls around. Whether or not this is giving in to my food hoarding tendencies, it made me feel better about my holiday meal plan, and the turkey is safe in the deep freezer. I'm only a little ahead of budget even given that large purchase. If I put the turkey in the last week's budget instead, I only spent $42.42 this week!

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.