Recap No Grocery Shopping January

My take always from our no grocery shopping January…

To review, the last minute decision goal was to avoid grocery shopping during the month of January, with the exception of picking up milk/dairy locally.

With this last minute decision. I was a little sad that we only had two graham crackers left and no maple syrup, but we made do just fine.

I actually feel that we maybe were not challenged as much as we’d expected, or liked. Perhaps the better way to look at it is that we have made ourselves very well resourced. Hard work pays off.

The canning and freezing done last year (and years before), along side fresh/refrigerated produce and meat in the freezer provide. The pantry staples - oats, flour and more - are important to to keep.

We had enough chocolate, coffee and cheese to get by, or we maybe would have had more exceptions.

The major benefits we felt were feeling healthier, reaping the reward of our hard work, menu planning successes and creativity. This is the first time we have actually meal planned four weeks in a row, so really instilling a habit (which is great to establish at our less busy time of year).

We’ve decided to go again for February! With a once a month grocery shopping. We stocked some pantry staples, snacks and a couple produce items. Dried fruit, bananas, frozen blueberries and, yes, local maple syrup.

So, that’s the NEW goal that emerged - once a month grocery shopping! Love this. Of course during farmers market season - and when we grab our @cedarcratefarm CSA - we’ll be getting fresh produce weekly.

So that’s the take aways. This will definitely be annual and we’re excited to see how it evolves!!

I did post more ramblings and our monthly azure order to stories, so maybe you caught that too. I’ve got a couple canning projects to do this month to compliment. Thanks for following this adventure! Holler if you have questions, or share your challenges with the community! Cheers.