The No Grocery Challenge

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Husband and I have had to modify our game of "what would you buy if you had some money" in the last few years. Having a mortgage is tough y'all. Budgets are tightening in every area of our home. Instead of talking about upgrading my little 3-door hatchback we wish we had enough spare cash to go out to breakfast on a Sunday.

If I think about it too hard, it's kind of depressing. Anyways, one of the ways I try not to think about fiscal woes is to make a game of it. I see how far I can drive my car with the fuel light on. I test how long a lettuce can last in the refrigerator before becoming inedible. I forgo bathing and washing my hair to save on soap and shampoo. No, not really.

However this week I am making a concerted effort to stretch our precious dollars further. I had the crazy idea yesterday that instead of placing my online grocery order as normal, I would try to make do with what we had, for the entire week.

This task is made infinitely easier by the fact that before they went back home, C’s parents actually bought a crapload of meat for us. In fact they filled up one entire basket of our upright freezer with, admittedly, their favourite things: crumbed chicken, crumbed steak (I’m sensing a theme here), mince, sausages and rissoles.

Because we were so sick of the bland dinners that C’s mum cooked the entire time that she was here*, I have been using maybe one of these items a week and supplementing our diet with spicy things we enjoy – hot sweet chilli stir fry beef, Thai green chicken curry and the like.

Anyway, I’ve ended up with a freezer basket still half full of this wonderful meat, and so in the very best wartime era spirit I am going to “make do”. I still plan on going to the corner store for milk and bread, but the menu plan for this week looks something like this:

M – Savoury mince
T – Crumbed steak, mash & veges
W – Pasta & sauce
T – Crumbed chicken & salad
F – Rissoles, roast potatoes and veges
S – Cheese & Tomato toasties
S – Steak with packet Alfredo pasta

I’ve got just enough muesli bars to last me for morning tea at work, and I hope to take leftovers for lunch every day. I have one pie in the freezer and some 2-min noodles in the cupboard – hopefully, these along with sandwiches will be enough to feed C for lunch every day.

I’ll let you know how it goes. I absolutely hate going to the supermarket for any reason, and will do just about anything to avoid it. Wish me luck.

*I do not, in any way, mean to sound ungrateful. It was absolute bliss when I went back to work after our honeymoon to come home to dinner cooked every night. It’s just that C’s parents have a very shall we say, Georgian diet, comprising of meat, potatoes, veges and gravy. Every night. The only exception is beef stroganoff, which C’s mum makes by broiling beef strips for hours on a low heat before dumping in a bottle of sauce. She pretty much broils everything, come to think of it. They hate spicy or hot things and so when they left, C and I eagerly began consuming food with a bit more variety!