What to Eat???

The plan is to live like it is financially tough for us. The scenario for us is to assume our kitchen is almost out of food. The weeks leading up to this event required some easy planning of purchasing less food at the grocery store to empty out the fridge and cupboards. During the past few weeks we were able to make substantial space in the fridge and cupboard to allow a whole shelf in the fridge for our three days worth of food and one shelf in the cupboard for non perishable foods.

Three food items were able to be brought from our current supply into our three day event. The three items could not be the most expensive shopping items as that would just make this task seem to easy. The foods had to represent items that carry over from grocery shopping week to week. For our family the three items were yeast, baking powder and lemons. This may seem like a strange combination but it will fit into our dietary needs.

How tough is tough? We had $30.00 to feed a family of four for three days. 12 meals and only $30.00 to do it with. When I told my family we were doing this a couple weeks ago they just brushed it off and carried on. Yesterday when I reminded them about this three day event they were kind of upset. But I 

explained it as, imagine us running out of money and we still needed to eat until payday. This happens to thousands of families everyday. I would rather learn how to cope while I can afford to eat than learn how to cope because we have no choice. At least we will appreciate what we have.

The shopping trip started with both children going shopping with me. Almost instantly after the doors closed in the first grocery store they asked to get some candy. I reminded them that we are purchasing only what we need for the next three days. The list was small as we planned to purchase only what was needed to feed us for three days. The first stop was the quick oats bulk bin followed by the dried raisins. The kids agreed to eat pancakes for breakfast over the next few days with home made apple flavored syrup. We headed to the bulk sugar bin when the oldest child tried to work her magic asking in her gentle voice if they could get a small bag of gummie bears. I know what she was up to and played the game by asking which meal would she give up so she can have some gummie bears to eat? Her initial response was lunch but after she changed her mind to sacrifice the bears for lunch. We quickly finished getting the remaining items on our list. The first store seemed easy, my list was small and I had relatively a substantial amount of cash leftover.

We left the first grocery store and headed to our last stop where some of the biggest priced items were going to be purchased. The plan was to start with the fresh fruits and vegetables. This proved to be time consuming and difficult. Eat bag of fruit needed to be counted, weighed, and mathematically calculated in my head since I did not bring a calculator with me. The kids disappeared for a while looking for samples to try which really helped.