The No Shopping Month

I am teaching a class on Saturday at The Emergency Preparedness Fair about the whys and hows of the "no shopping month". And I thought it might be nice to vet some of my materials here on the blog. 
Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Photo from Ricks Picks

What is a "no shopping month"?

It is as simple as it sounds - no grocery or other purchases for one month.

What is the purpose of it? (For my class I am focusing on not grocery shopping for a month)

• Use and rotate existing short-term food storage -- we try to have 3 months of short-term food storage on hand. Eating from it for a month helps me see what kinds of things our family actually wants to eat and helps us rotate through stock-on-hand rather than wasting anything. Also, I am not good at keeping inventory lists of what we have, but the "no shopping month" forces me to really dig in and get to know what I have on my pantry and freezer shelves.
• Store what we like -- as above, forcing ourselves to eat from storage is the ultimate test of how much we need and what types of foods. We realized, for example, that we need about twice as much canned, dried, and frozen fruit when we are not out buying fresh fruit every week or two.
• Save $ -- not grocery shopping for a month saves money because you make fewer impulse purchases and use up things that have been hanging out in the freezer or that might have otherwise gone to waste. For example, I have lots of frozen kale, squash, and mincemeat pie filling in the freezer from the summer garden's bounty. I do a much better job incorporating those into our meals when I have fewer options to work with. 

Caveat: I usually use some of the money saved from not shopping to improve and restock the pantry/freezer storage the next month.

• Change our habits -- This is the big bonus of the no shopping month.  It is forced frugality for a month that then leads to a natural change in perspective. You appreciate what you have more, treat your resources more respectfully, and end up with a more frugal attitude than when you started.  For the last 3 years we have done a "no shopping month" in January. It is a nice reset after treating ourselves over the holidays and a good way to get ourselves on track for the new year's spending goals.

Does it work?

We have done this about 5-6 times now with varying levels of success. Here are a few suggestions to help anyone interested in trying this get off to a good start:

1. Cover the basics -- Before I start a "no shopping month" I go through a little mental list of  things that I must have on hand. I made the chart below to try to illustrate the way that I conceptualize this. The basic ingredients are listed in the upper left column of my chart. If I have those things then I know that I can make all the things listed in the right column. And with each additional set of "add-ins" my list of meal options grows. Make sense?

For example, before the "no shopping month" starts I make sure that I have about 4 dozen eggs on hand (or chickens laying), otherwise I know will not be able to make it through the month -- too many things require eggs. I have tried.

2. Make things from scratch - If you know that you cannot live without pop-tarts for a month, then you could plan to have 10 boxes of them in your short-term storage at all times OR you could just wait until you are really craving them and make the yummy homemade version in The Homemade Pantry. Honestly, for the no-shopping month to work well requires some cooking from scratch. For example, you can buy bread from the store and keep it in the freezer, but it really is so much yummier and cheaper to just make a loaf every few days.

There are some great books out there to help with this.

3. Get creative - I am going to ask the students in my class to play a game to illustrate this point.  They will each get an index card with 5 ingredients plus they can use any of the basic ingredient list and then they need to list as many things as they can think of to make with what they have. Whoever can think of the most creative menu ideas wins. Ready Go!

I think this is my favorite part of the no shopping month. It forces me to make substitutions and get creative with my cooking. And of course, if all else fails you can search for recipes by ingredient.

4. Reward Yourselves - I should have listed a Costco size bag of chocolate chips in my basic ingredients category.  I always keep a few treats squirreled away for the end of the month when things get boring and repetitive. Like a package of pepperoni for pizza night the last week.  It helps us get through the last 10 days with flare.

5. Food storage Wish List & Restock - The wish list and restocking are critical for the next “no shopping month” and improving the short term storage overall. Every time I WISH I had some ingredient or other, I add it to my Food Storage Wish List. Usually, things on my wish list are kinda quirky. I would not have thought of having a case of coconut milk or a pound of frozen ginger root in my food storage, but during a recent month of no shopping I craved so many things that I could have made with those two additions.  The wish list also helps me know what things to buy more of -- the stores are depleted after using them for a month. I try to note all the things that need to be restocked and how many I would like.