Probably, really hard.
But, we're setting our minds to it and jumping in with both feet.
What are we doing, you ask? Oh...right.....
We are going 2 weeks without spending any money. With 1 exception, gas. I'll explain that later.
I have read other blogs about their families doing this but have always thought 'there is no way we could do that'.
I like my Sonic runs too much. What if we run out of diapers? Wait, I know there will be nights when I don't feel like cooking. It just wouldn't work for our family.
Until now.
We decided that once January hits we aren't spending any money for at least 2 weeks. We might get really crazy and see how long we can go. Don't hold me to it. I said, we might. ;)
Well, unfortunately, our pantry, or cupboards in our case, are not that well stocked. So, I will be doing major grocery shopping on Thursday and getting everything we need for meals for at least the next 2 weeks. That means no grocery shopping at all during our 2 week spending free time. Yikes! I'll probably push the Eating From the Pantry challenge on through the rest of the month with a small shopping trip around the 15th.
As with the others in the Eating From the Pantry Challenge I'll be posting our meals and progress along the way. I'm excited to see what I can come up with towards the end of the month and what others do as well! I'm also very excited to see how much money we have saved and not spent through the month! I love that Crystal, over at Money Saving Mom, will be giving the difference of her grocery budget towards Gleaning the Harvest.
Once I checked out that ministry I was super excited to have run across it. Growing up in a single-mother home I know how much this means to these families. My mom wanted to be able to work from home and homeschool me and we had a wonderful church family at the time who tried to help her do that. There were different times if she had to work outside the home I would go to another families house and do school with them during that period. If there had been a ministry like this at the time I know my mom and I would have been even more blessed!
So, through this Eating From the Pantry Challenge and the Spending Free 2 Weeks Derek and I have challenged ourselves to I'm excited to see how much money we waste and how much we really are capable of giving!
There will be 1 exception to our Spending Free time. We have to spend money on gas. We live out in the country and Derek has to fill up his car every 4 days to get to work. So, he'll be getting gas about 3 times. It takes 30 mins to get into town for church or friends and 45 mins to get to my parents. I'll fill up on Thursday and then my goal will to be only to fill up 1 other time.
It would be cool if others joined with us in a Spend Free period and joined in lots of others with the Eating From the Pantry Challenge! If you do, I'd love to know and follow your progress (if you're blogging through it).
What a great challenge. We did a sorta impromptu pantry challenge ourselves the past 2 weeks. We are moving this coming weekend and I did not want to have to pack and move TONS of cans and such from the pantry so my goal was to make only meals that could be made from things that I had the ingredients in the house for already. My pantry has decreased greatly and the freezer is looking bare, which will make moving day a lot easier. Creativity has been the key in the past few days. I did have to get a few cans to suppliment but for the most part I have not bought anything other then milk for the baby in the past two plus weeks. :) so satisfying. Enjoy the challenge. Once we get settled I would love to join in the fun again. (Gonna be a couple pizza nights for us while we try to unearth the plates and silverware).
ReplyDeleteSo what about things that don't last 2 weeks like milk? What do you do about that?
ReplyDeleteJoy- GL with the moving! Im gonna have to hop on over to your blog and see whats new in yalls life!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous- Each person in the challenge is setting their own guidelines. Some people are going grocery shopping 2-3 times during the month to buy the staples like milk, eggs and fresh produce. The milk wont be an issue for our family bc the majority of us cant drink milk. My husband is the only one who can drink milk and handle all dairy. So, a gallon will usually last an entire 2 week period in our home. If a recipe calls for milk I *usually* substitute rice milk in place of the cows milk. Hopefully that answers your question.