As we explained in our last post on this challenge: “Saving Money By Eating Only Food Already in the House Part 1;” “Can We Last a Month” is a Broke Professional’s series where we pick a different “Challenge” each month and then report back on our success at achieving it. For February 2011, our challenge is to “forage” for food in our own apartment. That’s right, we’re going to get back to our hunter and gatherer instincts and attempt to eat only what is already in our apartment. No grocery shopping. No restaurants or fast food. No Fun. (Well, hopefully some fun).
We will be detailing how much weight we lose, our thoughts on the process, and how much money we save, if any. We invite you to join along: how else are those 13 cans of string green beans that have been accumulating since early 2009 in the back of your pantry ever going to get eaten? Also, we pledge to donate 1/4 of any savings towards purchasing food for a food bank or some other food charity of the sort.
Click Here to See Part 1 of the Series.
Click Here to See Part 3 of the Series.
Day 8 – February 6, 2011
Last week we went grocery shopping for the last time. As stated in our previous entry, we normally spend $120.00 per week in groceries, but last week we spent $240.00. That meant that for the first week at least, we have not had to go without much. The upcoming week should not be too challenging either. However, there are already some causes for concern.
The biggest cause for concern as of today: We are almost out of milk.
Also, after Mrs. Broke Professional made banana bread (to replace lunch meat for her lunches starting sometime this upcoming work week), we are now completely out of eggs. As certified diet soda addicts, the fact that we are down to a little more than a twelve pack of soda is very worrisome as well. All of the good snacks (like the chocolate cookie bars) we started with are almost gone. What worries me the most is what we will have to resort to for the main course of dinner a week to a week and a half from now. At our current pace, we will run out of meat at that time. We are quite the opposite of vegetarians.
*See a full updated weekly list of our decreasing food supply at the ETC page of our site, HERE.
Another thing we noticed is that we are beginning to no longer take food for granted. Two days ago when our bag of Tortilla Chips ripped (spilling out most of the bags contents onto our floor), it was borderline devastating. We have been forced to use all of the food we can–we will no longer make wasteful decisions such as throwing out the last serving or two of rice we did not eat with dinner. We have also begun to learn how to properly pair food so as to conserve our food supply and save money.
Weight/Health Benefits and Exceptions/Notes
On the weight front, I have already lost two pounds this week, and Mrs. Broke Professional lost a pound and a half! We believe this is in large part due to the fact that we are no longer eating out.
We did attend a wedding and we ate dinner while we were there (we thought to do otherwise would just be weird and we did not want to be a problem of any sort on one of our friend’s special days). Also, tomorrow we plan to have a few snacks during the Super Bowl, but we are also bringing some food with us to the party as well.
We exempt our dog, (as explained in more detail below, we make Sophie’s food by hand). We also exempt bottled water, as the water in our apartment may be making our dog sick.
Viewpoints
Mr. BrokeProfessional: So far…. piece of cake. Mmmm, cake. I wish we had some cake in the house.
Sophie our Dog: “I am glad I am exempt from this. Since they make my food by hand (1/3 mixed vegetables, 1/3 white rice, 1/3 ground beef) my only fear is one of them attempting to steal from my food supply when things get tough. As the alpha leader of the pack I can assure you that will not fly in this house.”
Mrs. Broke Professional: “Between you and me, I suspect Mr. Broke Professional is hoarding food. If I find conclusive evidence I’m going to flip. P.S. thanks for drinking like 3/4th’s more soda than I have, Mr. BP. That’s just awesome.” (Ed. Note: Sarcasm, noted).
My Grandmother – “You’re still doing that? I thought that was over a month ago.”
My Mother – “You guys need to stop! You’re going to starve!”
Mrs. Broke Professionals Mother – N/A – In the Caribbean on a cruise. (lovely).
Conclusion
So, do you think we can do it? Has anyone else ever tried foraging in their own home? Take a look at our updated full food supplies in the photos below (we will be showing updated photos along the way so you can see our decreased quality of life), and read our rapidly decreasing weekly updated food list in the “ETC” page of our site, and wish us luck.
Click Here to See Part 1 of the Series.
Click Here to See Part 3 of the Series.
Related posts:
- Saving Money by Eating Only Food Already in the House for a Month: “Can We Last a Month”- February Edition, Part 1
- A Dozen Ways to Save Money Around the House
- Saving Money on Workouts
- Personal Finance: Saving Money While Switching Apartments (Have We Become Nomads?)?)
- What Broke Professionals Is Reading: January 30th Through February 5, 2011
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Breaking the soda habit is probably a good thing! The weight will drop off!
Recommendation:
When you make food with meat in it now, make a big batch and stick a quarter to half of what you made in the freezer. You will thank yourself come Feb 20th, give or take a few days.
If you do this again (and you should! think how much you’re learning!), get more eggs. They’re cheap and if you had them you could make a cake even if you don’t have milk. You could also make omelets with whatever random stuff you had left at the end of the month. Or pancakes for dinner… or fried rice… or egg drop soup…
p.s. Here’s a discussion of different cooking systems http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/whats-your-cooking-system/
and here’s a way to eat (mostly healthily) on very little money: http://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/cooking-when-youre-really-broke/
Fried rice with leftover rice is a great idea. Keep at it, and don’t give in to temptation. By the way, save the chicken bones, they’ll come in handy for making stock.
Now, I’m off to make that cheesy corn casserole, and perhaps later some chocolate brownies.
You’re killing me… j/k. But that does sound awesome.
Good point about not wasting anything. That whole chicken alone may end up feeding us through those tough last days. If we make it a month without much trouble we’re just going to keep going. It will be interesting to see how long we can last.
I’m sorry about the eggs. That’s a tough one that would send us to the store.
Maybe one of the best things that comes out of this challenge for you is you’ll learn your household’s rate of consumption. That was key for me in being able to shop only once a week. There are foods I’ll buy without a sale or a coupon just to keep a minimum supply in. Eggs, bread, and milk are the big ones. If my supply falls under the minimum of any of these there’s an increased likelihood I’ll end up back in the store and then I’ll come out of the store not only with my staple, but probably some good looking fresh fruit or an on sale item that caught my eye.
Obviously, there are other staples, like cheese and butter, but they’ve got a long enough refrigerator life that it’s rare that my stock falls too low on them that I can’t wait for a coupon or a sale. We have a large freezer/small fridge in our garage. (I don’t freeze bread, because I don’t like how defrosted bread tastes).
Great point about the household rate of consumption. It is something we do not know and something we are quickly learning the hard way. Sometimes I do not believe there are any “Essentials” in modern food consumption (other than water). Although I agree it stinks to be without milk right now.
Well, sure, there aren’t really essentials other than water and some sort of calories, but I guess it comes back to that quality of life question you had up here a couple of days ago. I grew up drinking powdered milk and Mr. Philly area grew up drinking powdered generic iced tea, which is a darn sight better than powdered milk, but perhaps nutritionally lacking. I’m glad those days are behind both of us, never to return (we hope).
I grew up in a very blue collar family, and I remember going to college and there were just certain things/foods I had no idea about. For example, one time a girl I was dating at the time told me they just “couldn’t live without pesto!” I was like, “Well I have no idea what pesto is….but I do know I have been able to live without it for the past twenty years.” lol.
On another site the other day I saw a post about saving money with frozen orange juice, and that brought me back to my childhood also. The one thing I never want to return to is fish sticks….
Hah! While our income may have come a long way from our upbringings, my husband and I still have distinctly blue collar taste buds. Although our kids have never had Friday night fishsticks and french fries, they also I’m sure have no idea what pesto sauce is. How could they when their parents couldn’t identify it in a lineup?
Keep up the good work. You are making great progress. I was just telling my husband about your challenge yesterday and suggested we try the same thing. It really is amazing how creative you can get with what you have in your cupboards when you need to.
That’s for sure! I was a little nervous because I have read a few posts lately (one was on Get Rich Slowly) that said it was bad to have nothing around and that you should be stocking up. To me, I do not see the point in “investing” in items that will all, eventually go bad one day. I know if we did not do this challenge there would be certain food we would keep avoiding until they went bad (even canned goods). Because the cycle would be buy more food, use that, avoid foods we do not want to eat. So, I think in the long run our little “Experiment” will prove we saved money doing this. Good luck if you decide to follow suit, please keep up appraised of you and your husband’s progress as well!
I think you’re right. I do go through the pantry and freezer and give away food that I know we’re not eating because we all find it inferior for one reason or another. For instance, the Costco kirkland brand bacon was on sale (last month?). It came in a 4 pound pack. Bacon freezes great so it’s one of those items for which I never pay full price. Anyway, I took out one of the Kirkland pounds and cooked it up. I didn’t like how it cooked and knew I would never serve up the other 3 pounds. I have a brother in law whose wife left him with 4 kids and devastated finances. What’s a pain in the butt for me will actually be a nice treat for him and his kids. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found people who can take pretty much any of my bargain hoarding purchases that didn’t work out so well. And many of them do the same for me, so what goes around comes around.
That’s why we try to stock up on items that we actually like eating although we still seem to get given stuff that we won’t eat. Either way, you get creative with what you have and you save money in the process.
I will let you know how it goes.
And we will continue to see just how “Creative” we can become as time goes on. Mmmmm cereal without milk.
When we don’t eat out, we save dollars and shed some pounds. But we love eating out. Food is one of the rare pleasures in life that we enjoy a lot. We try to cook at home at least three-four times a week. We should do it more because we do notice how much more we are able to save that way.
In the grand scheme of things, food is really one of the healthier “vices” within reason. What we learned when we went to Paris is that food can taste awesome, leave you feeling fulfilled, and not cause you to gain weight. We believe it is all the crap they put in American food that causes weight gain. How unfulfilling is white flour anything? You’ll be hungry again within minutes.
Cooking is our hobby. We cook every night of the week. It doesn’t feel like a chore though. We find it a lot of fun trying different recipes. It sure saves a lot of money. n
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