Eating Ourselves Out of House and Home

The Globe and Mail has been running a series of articles aimed at having people try and improve their lives one small step at a time.  Last week’s challenge: try not to buy groceries and eat up what is already in your cupboards and freezer.

Inspired – we’ve decided to take up the challenge. There are massive stockpiles of food in both our cupboards and our freezers – enough to live on for at least several weeks.  Still, I know this is going to be no easy task.  We are grocery store junkies. We frequent them at least three times a week.  We just started the challenge three days ago and I have already had to reign myself in from emailing hubby my list of this and that.

We have set the following rules in place:

1.       Only items like milk, juice, toiletries, etc. can be purchased at the grocery store ( I should probably define etc. – it could mean a lot of things)

2.       Fresh produce can be freely purchased but is encouraged at the Farmer’s Market

3.       Lunch meat can also be purchased from the butcher but must be put on bread that has a questionable purchasing date and is in the freezer.

I think I also need to add a fourth rule because since we began the challenge we have managed to eat out almost every meal.  We are now avoiding the food we have set out to eat.

4.       No more eating out until the challenge is over (rules we meant to be broken, right?)

I can already hear the complaining of the kids. My son will be in all out revolt if we run out of Bisquick. That reminds me, yogurt is on the approved list. Hmmm, what if we have company over?  Are they to be fed from the depths of our freezer, too?  Maybe company should be another exception.

Oh, it’s a slippery slope back to the glorious grocery store. But, we are going to do our best.  It will be amazing if at the end of this we can open our freezer without risk of some random frozen item free falling from the freezer and possibly breaking a toe.  It will be wonderful to open the freezer and actually be able to fit something in it.  Be gone grocery store flyers: To the recycling bin for you. 

I do believe my life can be marginally improved by having cleaned out cupboards and roomy freezers.  Just like I believe my life is marginally better when my bed is made and the kitchen is clean.  The rest of the house could be falling apart but made beds and a clean kitchen gives me a sense of calm. I can often be found making my side of the bed as I get out of it in the morning. Does a half made bed make me half as happy? Some days I think.

Tomorrow we are in fact having company over. Without even having to think about it, I told them we’d pull something out of the freezer for dinner.  They will be unsuspecting accomplices in our quest to rid our house of the perfectly good food, that until now, we couldn’t be bothered to eat.

P.S. You can follow the rest of the challenges by reading the Globe and Mail (obviously) or checking out their facebook page - Globe Life - The Globe and Mail