Now that we are through January 2011 you may be wondering how I  did with my No Grocery Shopping Month Challenge.  I did a lot better than I anticipated, but still had a hiccup or two.  Thankfully no one starved or went hungry in our house during my challenge.  We even hosted guests for a few meals!  It took a little extra planning on my part to cook meals from items already in the pantry and fridge, if we didn’t have something we did without it or found a creative way to make it out of what we had at home.  The amazing part is the entire family was supportive of my goal even if that meant a slightly altered menu.  The only comment I received from one of the girls that indicated they noticed was “Mom, did we eat up all the leftovers in the fridge because it looks a little empty?”

Here is the complete list of groceries I purchased in the month of January:

• 6 gallons of Milk
• 1 loaf of Bread
• 1 package Ground Hamburger
• 1 package Cube Steaks
• 2 Yogurts
• 1 container French Onion Dip
• 1 container Cottage Cheese
• 1 package Flour Tortillas
• 1 box Kellogg’s Toy Story 3 cereal

The total spent on groceries for this month was $27.95 including the tax.   Milk was by far the most expensive part of our expenditures for the month of January adding up to $18.93.  We had an extra expense of $1.50 from the Kellogg’s Toy Story 3 cereal that did not meet my criteria.  Leaving only $7.52 for all of our other grocery purchases for the month of January which I bought last week.

The food I bought had to meet the following criteria:

• FREE – I don’t want to waste free grocery coupons that my family will use while doing this goal
• Necessity – Milk, Eggs, Bread, etc…
• For Someone Else outside of my household.  For example I make meals for new Moms in our church and if I need to pick up an item for them on the way to deliver a meal that will be an exception.

I have decided to continue with this challenge.  It has been wonderful not having to go to the grocery store every week for anything other than milk.  Our pantry still has plenty for us to eat and our freezer is fairly full.  So I am going to continue with this challenge into February and see how much longer I can make it stretch.

One of the questions I have been asked is – What are we eating?  Do we have recipes for these meals?  To answer those questions I will be sharing a little more about what we are eating and recipes in a later post.

I will continue to share with you the challenges, successes and what I had to purchase so you can keep me accountable or even go through the journey with me by participating  and sharing your story.  I am excited to be extending this goal into the first part of February!  It has been great learning to say “no” when at the grocery store to extras and being creative with we have at home.

Life Simplified is a series on getting rid of the extras in our life while learning how to enjoy what God has given us so we can continue to be a blessing to others.  Our homes can quickly start are bursting with “stuff”  and if you are like us we just have too much.  I am doing a series on ways we are learning to simplifying our food, homes, and lives.  When our hearts, lives, and homes get too cluttered we may start missing out on opportunities to serve and bless the people around us.