Wednesday, March 28, 2012

My No shopping update and lessons learned.

You may remember in January and February I had fun pretending we were unable to shop and trying to use what we already had instead of buying anything. (Like the Ingalls during the hard winter.) It was my goal to do that until May like the Ingalls had too but we never were able to do it perfectly and some things came about that caused me to quit my little pretending.

  1. Life got busy- The kids and I headed off to Iowa with my parents for my Grandma's funeral and though we actually bought very little on our trip (we were able to pack the majority of our food), I was not able to get the fridge prepared enough with food that Ken liked and so he did a fair amount of shopping for convenience foods while I was gone. As soon as we got home we had a houseful of company and then after that I was sick for around 2 weeks and meanwhile Ken did more shopping of convenience foods just to keep the family fed while I lay on the couch. (My mom and sister were also great to take care of us during that time!)
  2. My parents and my Mother-in-law questioned the wisdom of getting too low on food supplies especially during this time when gas prices are rising (which will lead to higher food prices). They were concerned that I might run us completely out of things like oil/fats which are rather necessary. Though we still had a lot of food- Ken and I did see wisdom in their council and so I have decided to start stocking up again. I placed an order with Azure Standard (to get my oatmeal and such) and after finding a good deal on Coconut oil at Vitacoast I stocked up on that as well. (I was able to get $10 off as I was a first time customer. You can too if you use this link and if you do I will also be rewarded.)
  3. We are close to running out of things that are essentials- like veggies. So shopping soon was going to have to happen anyway. We still have not bought any pasta or chocolate chips or white sugar or flour. The pasta and chocolate chips have been missed a bit but we are surviving. :-)
One of our meals using what we had- Liver, Oven Fries, Cabbage Salad and Sunflower seeds that I roasted myself.

 I did have fun during this whole process (though when I got sick I simply did not have the energy to try to keep it up any longer) and I think I have learned from it.

During this process I have.....
  • Really made an effort to use tallow in my cooking/baking and have found that I like it quite a lot in somethings. This is nice because as we are able to get as a part of the 1/2 beef that we get (grass fed and finished, hormone free and raised naturally) it is basically "free". It is also what I consider to be a healthy fat.
  • Used up most of the odds and ends of foods that we had in our cupboards or freezers that I had been avoiding.
  • Become more aware of the things that are "essentials" and the things that we might enjoy but can actually get by without pretty easily.
  • Become more excited about the idea of living on less in many areas of our life. I feel I learned some about living more simply and have worked to get rid of clutter in many more areas than just food.
  • Stretched myself in cooking creatively while using just what we had.
  • Have enjoyed how much of what we eat has been stuff that we grew or picked or got locally.
  • Become more interested in trying to eat locally and shop less all of the time.
  • Been very thankful for the bounty that God blesses us with in so many ways! 
Do you grow or raise a lot of your own food? Do you like to have a lot of food stocked up? I would love to hear your thoughts!


My chives are coming up! I am excited about adding them to our diet.

6 comments:

Miranda said...

I really enjoyed your no spend posts, Abbi. Thank you for taking the time to share them with us. I think opportunities like this show us what we "could" do if we had no other choice. Thanks again for sharing!

Alison said...

I really like having a stocked pantry, but we are getting ready to move across country and are trying to eat everything up. As soon as we get settled again I plan to begin the process of stocking up again. It is so costly to stock up from absolutely nothing, and it takes a long time (6+ months). But, it is so worth it to know that I don't have to run out to the store to pick up missing ingredients all the time.

Lady Violet said...

Dear Family.
When all my children (5) were home schooling we decided we would live a school week without electricity or mod.cons. :) It didn't work either because we could never decide which week to start!
Yes, we have a kitchen garden down here in sunny Spain, where I plant potatoes, beans,courgettes, lettuce, tomatoes and onions. We also have a two apricot trees, three olive trees and a plum tree. My daughter works in the grape harvest and we freeze grapes, too. Then friends give us their extras like lemons, cherries, peaches, watermelon, aubergine,peppers e.t.c.
It is a Spanish custom to just "pop in" for a meal and it is good to have things at hand to make an instant supper for 10 or 12! This means I have to keep stocked on the basics.
May God bless you all.
Like your blog, too. It is interesting to see how other families live :)

Anonymous said...

What nice commentors you have, Abbi! I especially enjoyed the one from Spain. Made me think of our friends from Spain. Wish we still were in contact with them! Mom

Sheila said...

I always love it when bloggers' moms comment. I'm sure your mom is proud of you, Abbi!

Anonymous said...

I much prefer to have well stocked shelves and pantry, but to know what to do with what you have is invaluable. I'm so glad you have shared your journey with us. It's been very helpful.

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