Eating All The Things Part 1

It's about half way through our month of eating all the things.  It's been going pretty well; I've shopped but only for fresh fruit, vegetables and milk so I've already saved lots of grocery money.  (Ok, apart from some ice cream and poppadums...)  The freezer has been bountiful, with several forgotten cuts of meat emerging as well as other tasty odds and sods.  We've got to the point where we've run out of some bits like seasonings we usually cook with but have decided to try not to restock until November.

The money saving's been good but what's been better is realising how much food we buy because it's cheap but which we then don't use because we forget about it.  I think one reason for this is that when times have been hard I've squirrelled food away to see us through; do that for a few years and you've got a well ingrained habit there.  I don't need to do that any more and that's a big adjustment to make, because being well stocked up has been a comfort and a safety net.  I don't want to do without food stores completely though because it can really be a money saver.  The difference is I need to have a stock of things we actually will use so we can make less supermarket trips and impulse buys, rather that stocking up on whatever's cheap out of fear of running out.  It's funny how the 'thin' times affect you, even when they've passed.  Actions that served you well at the time can become a coping mechanism long afterwards.

I'm looking forward to making a fresh start in November with more room, more meal ideas (thank you necessity and ingenuity), less waste...and a defrosted freezer.