Klatsch: a week without shopping

[Kerry Beal]

Any ideas on what to cook with, like, six pounds of honey?

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Nougat!

[Catherine Iino]

I love the pain d'epices in the second volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It uses a pound of honey (and no eggs!), but the best thing is, it is supposed to age, so you could make a bunch and keep it around. The texture is completely addictive.

[annecros]

Any ideas on what to cook with, like, six pounds of honey?

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Butch suggests Mead.

Save you a buck or two on your booze bill!

[David Ross]

It's been 24 days since I finished up my week without shopping. If you had asked me three weeks ago if I had any lasting thoughts about going a week without shopping, I would have said it reminded me of what it must have been like for my forefathers getting through Northwest winters without the luxury of shopping for weeks on end. I don't think other than reminiscing about vague family memories, I would have come away with many more thoughts about my week of cooking without shopping.

But in the three weeks since, I've found, somewhat surprisingly, that the thoughts that were provoked during my week now carry with me every day. Every day I think about not wasting food, not wasting time or money, and making do with what I have. I think about the rough times others are going through, and I'm thankful I have a freezer, refrigerator and cupboards full of food. I think about how wasteful I was in the past, and I challenge myself to remember that. I think today should be the start of another week of going without shopping, and it will be.

I'll share photos of another week without shopping somewhere down the road, but I was wondering if anyone else has felt the same lasting effects after their week without shopping?

[Lora]

I'll share photos of another week without shopping somewhere down the road, but I was wondering if anyone else has felt the same lasting effects after their week without shopping?

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I went three weeks and managed to completely empty my freezer and refrigerator (good thing, because I had to unplug it to get a new floor installed). I realized that I do genuinely like the feeling of having plenty of food around, both in case of emergencies and because surveying a well stocked pantry makes me feel rich and domestically competent. BUT - I have to manage the inventory better from now on.

New rules:

Nothing in the house over a year old.

Unless it is a daily staple, let something completely run out before replacing it.

If I buy something experimental, I have to commit to it. I can't make one recipe and then push it to the back of the cupboard.

[Special K]

"First in, first out!" Why is that so easy to forget at home?

[Milt]

"First in, first out!"  Why is that so easy to forget at home?

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Because last in is blocking the view of first in.

[Special K]

[andiesenji]

I'm away from home right now, but this is exactly the reason I use baskets in my freezer. Much easier to pull the basket out, tip it and shove the present contents to the front and stuff the new stuff in back. This has saved me a lot of grief. I do have one basket for stuff purchased for a specific dish to be made within a few days.

When I get home, I will take a photo.

The baskets are not all that expensive and for me, worth every penny I spent.

[baroness]

"First in, first out!"  Why is that so easy to forget at home?

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Because last in is blocking the view of first in.

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I use a marker to label most items on arrival with the month and year -- right now it's "3.9". That makes it easier to use the older can of tuna or whatever first.

[Fat Guy]

Those of you who have been a part of this, and those who haven't, may be pleased to learn that tomorrow morning Good Morning America is scheduled to do a segment about the no-shopping challenge.

Tomorrow (Friday) morning, unless there are last-minute scheduling changes or any real news happens, the segment will run on ABC's Good Morning America during the 8am-9am (Eastern time) hour. Not for the whole hour, probably just for a couple of minutes, but still you might find it entertaining to set your DVR or otherwise make arrangements to see the segment.

If there is a web-video link available after the show, I'll post that when it pops up.

[alacarte]

Checking in on this thread for the first time in a while...so impressed by the scale of this! And the #10 can of tomatoes as doorstop - that's a keeper, I'll remember that for a long while.

[snowangel]

Thanks for the heads up, Steven. DVR set to record!

One of the things that has been interesting is that although this started out as a one-week project, I keep extending it.

A friend or my Mom and I share the stuff from Costco that is simply too big for our family -- like the mongo box of greens. As I've talked about this project with my mom, we've started sharing more food -- she lives close and we see each other frequently. A bunch of celery -- either of us use enough of it to justify an entire bunch that is going to be languid by the time we get around to the last of it.

Outside of produce, milk and eggs, my biggest expenses in the last couple of weeks were a few cans of coconut milk (we go through a lot), a case of canned tomatoes (scratch and dent) for a great deal, and a 25-pound sack of jasmine rice. My mom and I shared the rice and tomatoes. The only other stocking up I've done was with butter -- on sale at my supermarket for $.98/lb. this week with an in-store coupon.

But, my greatest discovery this past week was an old pocket protector in a box of junk. A great find, you ask? I superglued a magnet to the backside of it, and it's on my fridge with a sharpie and a small roll of freezer tape. I've informed my family that the penalty for removing the pen and not returning it is going to be severe. As a result, I'm labeling everything I put in the freezer!

[Fat Guy]

Tomorrow (Friday) morning, unless there are last-minute scheduling changes or any real news happens, the segment will run on ABC's Good Morning America during the 8am-9am (Eastern time) hour. Not for the whole hour, probably just for a couple of minutes, but still you might find it entertaining to set your DVR or otherwise make arrangements to see the segment.

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Last-minute scheduling changes have happened, as is often the case with the taped segments (so I'm told), so we're now supposed to be up for Monday. I'll post an update if and when I learn more!

[Lauriux]

I was afraid to use the 10% allowable funds at first, because I hadn't made much of a dent yet, and because I was scared of going overboard. I've have finally made about all of my normal meals out of my pantry/freezer, and was just hitting the creative phase of using other things. I thought if I went to the store, I might fall back into the routine foodstuffs, and not get through the on-hand supplies. Ultimately, I had to hit the store . . . I got a 5 lb bag of flour, it was on sale & I wanted to make more of the 5 min artisan bread, 1 qt milk, 1 box frozen peas, 1 jicama, 1 pineapple, 1 cucumber, 1 box salad greens, 1 celery heart (shared from a costco bag w/friend) and a lg costco skippy peanut butterand a lg costco brick of sharp cheddar that was too good a price to pass up. Not too bad.

I've been having 1-2 meals a wk away from home, but still feel I have too much foodstuffs so I'm going to keep going at this. Since my last post I've made the 5 min artisan bread, made a delicious risotto w/ dried mushrooms and shallots and homemade stock, and had more soup, rice and beans type things, and quesadillas. Oh, and I defrosted some salmon and threw it on the grill, using some of that jumbo bottle of chipotle rasp marinade, pretty good. Think that was 3-4 meals, all accompanied w/boxed couscous I had purchased about 18 months ago, 10/$10, must buy 10, there are now 3 remaining. Will be resisting those kinds of deals in the future. Last night had creamed chipped beef on toast (oh yeah, bought a loaf of whole wheat bread from discount shelf @ supermarket for $1.50, slightly squished bread is yummy), a childhood favorite comfort food - - taking advantage of the milk and the frozen peas. Today I sauteed 4 frozen shrimp and served it on top of ramen noodles drained, and made a great salad with those new greens, found half an avocado in the fridge which I sliced and added, plus some hearts of palm, as once I got deeper into the pantry I discovered I had 3 jars of them.

Besides becoming more self aware about my planning, shopping and cooking habits, a few other things have surfaced throughout this challenge. I buy less stuff elsewhere now, not so much because of heightened awareness of wasteful spending and stockpiling, but because I'm not running out to the store for a few things and stopping off a drug store or else where while I'm out. Grocery store runs were usually the headliner activity of my errands, and once I stopped hitting the grocery store, I found it easier to not go all those other places for heavens only knows what. And the other thing is huge for me - - I don't use an ATM to get cash, as I often use my debit card @ supermarket and can then get $200 cash back, w/o any atm fee. No grocery store runs, no extra cash readily available. Have been more thrifty with my cash knowing I have to pay the atm fee to go get more. That has definately compounded my grocery savings!!! Thank you Fat Guy for your genious on inspiring this challenge.

So I'm gonna keep pressing on, and will update periodically. Goal is to empty freezer in garage, so that all fits into the freezer in the house. Maybe I can even sell that extra freezer on craigslist and boost my gain from the project . . . but that would mean throwing out my equivalent of a security blanket, not sure I can go that far, but just entertaining the idea is huge for me.

Can't wait for GMA on Monday. I haven't watched that in over 10 yrs, but will be tuning in . . .

Edited March 28, 2009 by Lauriux (log)

[Fat Guy]

Can't wait for GMA on Monday.

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The latest on this is that we're probably looking at Thursday! I'm going to do everybody a favor and stop posting updates until there's an actual airing, after which there should be a link to the video available.

[maggiethecat]

But, my greatest discovery this past week was an old pocket protector in a box of junk.  A great find, you ask?  I superglued a magnet to the backside of it, and it's on my fridge with a sharpie and a small roll of freezer tape.  I've informed my family that the penalty for removing the pen and not returning it is going to be severe.  As a result, I'm labeling everything I put in the freezer!

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Susan, that's absolutely brilliant. Really. I'll have to find a pocket protector substitute.

Penalties? Maybe no TV, computer time, no desert for a week.

Second offense:No bacon for a month.

[JTravel]

I am still working at not shopping. I went to Wegmans today to pick up medicine and only bought a bunch of bananas. I have not bought any canned or packaged goods at all but have gotten milk, cheese, eggs and fresh fruits and veggies. Also, I bought 2 different pieces of pork on sale which really set back eating up the meat inventory. The big freezer is showing gaps, but it will be a while before I will want to defrost it.

Last night we ate 2 of the six individually wrapped tilapia fillets.....coated with a mix of the Amish cornmeal and finely ground almonds. Very nice. Tonight I finished up some wonderful Thai soup while DH got a portion of meatloaf. I had wrapped slices in foil for times such as this. There are several more pieces of meatloaf along with a whole bunch of individual Kibbeh portions in the freezer.

Tomorrow night we will have a treat of shrimp cocktails. One thing I will try to do in the future is not to stock up on shrimp. One bag, at most , to be eaten quickly should be the rule.

I had no idea that it would take so long to pare down the over supply. I swear I will not let this happen again. It has changed how I look at grocery shopping.

[Chris Amirault]

After ten days of vacation and a few days of catch-up that involved three evenings of work (read: no dinner at home), I finally settled into dinner-making mode tonight. Usually I would have hit Whole Foods and found a whole bunch of things to make, then let half of them sit in the fridge two weeks.

Tonight? I made the second batch of the turkey parm above. The only thing I bought from a store was some mesclun mix for a salad on the side. Who'da thunk it.

[snowangel]

I, too, continue to use what I have and not shop nearly as frequently. Another upside to this is that I am driving less, hence using less gas, so the savings are even greater!

[Peter the eater]

Another upside to this is that I am driving less, hence using less gas, so the savings are even greater!

For anyone who's living in a non-urban non-dense place, this is a huge consideration. I'll estimate 90% of my groceries come from three or four places that are 20 km from my home, and they're not all clustered together. I know that some places have good prices for this or that, and others vice versa. At some point, for price or convenience or the larger ecological reasons, you've got to make a wise choice.

[lcool]

thank you Fat Guy!! I have been on board since day one,prepping for a move.

We are in,the kitchen is down to the range hood and final finish on the wood floor.

Using this "klatsch" as the target for pantry and freezer prep was a great boost.I

managed to clean down EVERTHING with RATIONAL consumption,MINIMAL restock

milk,green vegetables etc.All that wasn't ideal for the move IE scraps,baggy stuff,dribs and drabs etc and what not was EATEN.Five days a week for five weeks menus were 95% structured with "on hand" food stuffs.The other two days were leftovers or social obligations.

This was a real reminder about ? extravagence.Once upon a time,on Fridays I shook out the refrigerator.Always found a dinner for five using scraps and leftovers

This policy will be restored,all be it on a differant day.

What a wonderful way to celebrate Passover.A "first Seder" from a fresh,clean pantry and frig.All planned with zero waste.Very satisfying

Lynne

[lcool]

and a PS,we both lost 6 POUNDS without the "diet thing".Just no extras or indugences

[Special K]

I have read that some people out there are saying that we eGulleteers are going to finish off the economy with the newfound food-shopping habits that we've learned from this experiment. The idea is that businesses and restaurants are going to go bust because we're no longer spending our money as freely as we "should."

I submit that an economy based on waste and greed is not a healthy economy. I think that waste and greed is what got us into this mess to begin with. The idea of this challenge wasn't for us to stop shopping, just to be more mindful - to buy only what we need, when we need it, and to exercise our creativity and ingenuity by using what we have on hand. And nobody said anything about not going out to eat! In fact, I now have a little more money to do just that.

[Special K]

One thing I don't think has been mentioned here is that your freezer has to work harder when it isn't full.  I did a little search and found a suggestion that made sense to me.  Freeze water! 

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Or (duh!) gin! Extra water is good to have in an earthquake zone -- and so is gin!