I’ve decided to not grocery shop in September for as long as we can.

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When we made our house into one unit in June we inherited the “newer” refrigerator from upstairs. I was so excited until I realized (after the old one was already gone) that it’s SMALLER than what we had before. Several cubic feet smaller. There’s also no shelf in the freezer, making it exceedingly difficult to arrange food well. This has led to daily frustration as things often fall out of the freezer onto my feet, and it’s become nearly impossible to organize efficiently.

We currently only shop every two weeks (on payday) so on grocery day we have a lot of food to put away after our grocery pickup. Without adequate space, it has gone from a day I loved (knowing that we are well-stocked and ready to go) to a day that I dread (because it’s so hard to fit our normal amount of groceries into our “new” refrigerator).

Yesterday I realized that the easiest solution isn’t to get a new fridge (though that’s DEFINITELY a want): the easiest solution is to try to use up everything we have before shopping again. I love when the best solutions save us money.

We take advantage of meat sales, buy lots of frozen vegetables, etc. so we have a decent stockpile and our chest freezer is filled to the brim. Our pantry is also fairly well-stocked with essentials.

So now the question becomes how long can we go without needing to shop?

Starting on Tuesday, and without shopping to stockpile more beforehand, we are going to see.

The exception to this challenge will be fresh produce, milk, bread – things that you can’t easily stock up on. Those things we can get from our local market/produce stand when needed. But as for the rest, it’s up to me to be creative and resourceful.

I’m a little nervous, but also excited, because I think we can do this but I’m not sure. I think we can get through two-three weeks, easily. And whatever we don’t spend can go into the new refrigerator fund 😉 No matter what, making sure that we use what we already have will be a great stewardship of our resources and a good lesson overall.

The first step will be an inventory of supplies so that I can meal plan. I am not looking forward to this but I know it will help me succeed.

Stay tuned as I use every ounce of creativity within me to feed our family using only what we have in the house!