If you were to walk into my kitchen today, you would find roughly 400lbs of food. Included are at least 50lbs of whole grains that a friend gave to me before they moved to Peru a couple months ago and several cans of Italian tomatoes we ordered in bulk for our favorite pizza sauce.
There’s also six different types of sweeteners, several varieties of flour (at least five, but probably closer to 10), and seven kinds of dried beans.
Between the fridge and freezer, you’ll find 40lbs of chicken and 70lbs of berries. There’s another 4lbs of berries on the counter, 5lbs of potatoes on the dryer, 9lbs of strawberries in the dehydrator and 4lbs of blueberries turning into leather in the oven.
Don’t forget the myriad of sauces and vinegars in the pantry, homemade yogurt and dressings in the fridge and the zucchini bread and chocolate chip cookies on top of the microwave.
The more I think about the kitchen, the more I’m apt to believe that saying we have a lot of food is a gross understatement.
The problem? The feeling that I still need to go grocery shopping.
Most of this food wasn’t in our kitchen two days ago. Every year my dad brings home an overflow of produce, and when he does, it’s a race to dehydrate, can, jam, freezer or eat as much as we can before it goes bad.
But just last weekend, when there was 200lbs less food in my kitchen, the tug to go to the grocery store was still there. Admitting this is difficult and humbling, but it sparked something inside. Much like I share my shopping trips every month to hold myself accountable to my grocery budget, sharing with you what’s in my kitchen is a reality check that I felt this past week that I believe many of you can benefit from as well.
How many days could we go without grocery shopping?
Have you ever looked at what was in your kitchen and wondered that? I do, almost every month.
My family is blessed in more ways than I can possibly count. We have a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. There has never been a day when we go hungry, yet there’s always a small part of me that thinks the food we have isn’t enough.
I meal plan based on what’s in the house and then shop the kitchen before every stepping foot in a store. But still… it’s a trip for just one lemon… or just sour cream and dill… or whatever else I think we “need” in order for the family to eat a proper meal.
But what would happen if I didn’t go to the store?
Would we starve? Would we lose any nutrients? Would the family complain about the salad being dressed with plain oil and vinegar instead of a tastier strawberry vinaigrette?
How much is enough?
Last year at the Allume Christian Bloggers Conference, Kelly and I heard Jeff Shinabarger, author of “More or Less,” speak on the topic of “enough.” He shared a story about how his wife began to question her thoughts about her wardrobe. Instead of continuing to think “I don’t have anything to wear” each time she opened her closet, she instead wondered how many days she could go without wearing the same thing twice.
The question she asked herself was, “how much is enough?” She soon discovered that she had enough clothing in her closet to wear a different outfit for more than 45 days in row. This simple question changed her perspective and her family’s. They now serve to help others in need.
Asking ourselves “how much is enough?” can be the ultimate key to discovering our needs versus wants, and so I’m taking it to the kitchen and I’d like to encourage you to join me …
Ask yourself: How much food is enough?
The average family eats between 3-5 pounds of food per day. Starting with the 400lbs of food in the house and assuming my family of four eats 16lbs of food each day, we could eat for 25 days without leaving the house.
And you know what? I think we could easily go longer.
It’s not a competition to see who could eat the smallest meals possible so that they can say they went the longest without shopping.
Rather, it’s the fact that 95% of the food in our house is real food (with the tortilla chips and ice cream being the two current exceptions) and the nutrients in real food help to control our appetite and blood sugar. Eating real food means we’re less likely to overeat in the first place, and the food we do eat will help us feel full and more satiated than if we had eaten junk food.
Plus we don’t eat much of the food we have in its current form. Whole grains are ground into flour to make bread. Raw beans are soaked and cooked first. Salads are only drizzled with dressings, not soaked in them. So there is certainly more food available than we probably even realize.
So while the math says we could go for 3-4 weeks without shopping, I have no doubt that if we made a legit attempt at eating only the food in our home, we could add at least another week.
Sure, we’d cook pretty much everything from scratch, and there would definitely be some hodge-podge meals, but we’d still be eating real food.
Can you imagine how much money my family would save if we didn’t go grocery shopping for 5 weeks?
Our grocery budget is $330 for four weeks, which means we’d save over $400 simply by eating the food we already have on hand.
Friends, I encourage you to ask yourself these two questions, and answer honestly:
- How much food do you currently have in your kitchen? 100lbs? 200lbs? More?
- How much food is enough? Could you stay out of a grocery store until your family ate every last ounce, or at least made a significant dent in your surplus?
There are hundreds of ways you can save money on real food, but there’s one way that surpasses them all: Eat what you already have.
As summer begins to wind down and the busy season of school looms ahead, I encourage you to not just be a good steward of your provisions, but to seek contentment with them by cultivating a heart of thanksgiving.
Before you shop – before you even make a meal plan or shopping list – really consider how much food you already have and find a way to use it. Your kitchen will be less cluttered, your budget will be leaner and your purposeful stewardship will be for His glory and will result in a more thankful heart.
30 Days Without Spending
And if you’re up for a good challenge, I’d like to invite you to join my family in our “30 Days Without Spending” challenge. Yes, that’s right. We’ve decided to not spend any money on groceries. At all. For the rest of August.
Sound crazy? Perhaps. But after writing this post, it really was on my heart (and my husband’s) to continue to challenge ourselves to be better stewards of what we have, and we’d love for you to join us!
Honestly, how many days could you legitimately eat, based on what’s in your house? I’ll go first: I think we could eat for 33 days, which is why we’re taking the “30 Days Without Spending” challenge.
Note from Kelly: For many of us, stocking our pantry and fridge week after week (even when we may already have an abundance of food) often is a result of mindless habit rather than thoughtful intention. That’s why stopping and asking ourselves “how much is enough?” helps us to live more purposefully – with more intention and with more gratitude. Tiffany’s post really struck a chord in my heart, and as I began to take inventory of my near-full pantry, I stopped and prayed, “thank you, Lord, for your gracious blessings!” I needed this reminder to be thankful for my daily bread and for friends like Tiffany who help us to stay focused on what truly matters – living with gratitude to the praise of His glory. I hope this post blesses your heart, as it has mine.
Thanks for sharing this. Its a great reminder. I know I feel guilty about produce I buy and then goes to waste. Due to my kids loving bananas one week and hating them the next, etc. There is always uneaten excess. I need to get better at freezing, I guess. Or just plan to run out before I shop again?
I just finished a book last week (maybe the author was even who you heard at Allume?) called More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger which considers the idea of what is enough (in all avenues of life) and what we can do with our excess. I highly recommend it!
You’re most welcome Alison. You know, I think it was Jeff who we heard speak! It was very inspiring, and as you can tell, his message has stuck with me for almost a year now, and still counting!! Thank you for the recommendation!
I just read your note, Alison, and yes, this was the presenter that Tiffany and I heard at Allume. I didn’t realize he wrote a book. How awesome. I am going to look for it on Amazon. Thanks for sharing! Blessings to you, Kelly 🙂
I found an awesome recipe for banana pancakes! 1 mushed banana and 2 eggs. Mix together. Cook like a regular pancake! We have it a couple times a week.
Oh wow. This was amazing. Having my husband in school and very little funds for groceries, I tend to always think we have a little less than we need. But looking around my kitchen I truly do have so much to be grateful for that I have already been given. I think we could go almost another two weeks without going to the grocery store. Thank you so much for this eye-opening post!!
Thank you Alison. My heart is so full with gratitude, and I’m so thankful that you found it inspiring as well. 🙂
I freeze banana. Just peel and put in a Ziploc gallon bag. Use for fruit smoothies or banana bread.
Blend frozen bananas-its like icecream, or just eat them as they are, they taste like mini milk lollies. Or dip them in sprinkles, melted choc or both before freezing to make them cold friendly. If my six leave bananas until they look a bit sad I also do bananas and custard or mashed banana and sprinkles xxx
Great article! I have been working through our freezer this summer as there is so much there. I tried to do this every 6 months or so to really keep the overstock down. It also provides us with a little extra cash which is nice during the summer months when we tend to visit more away from home.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Stephanie! A full freezer is both a blessing and a curse, I believe. So easy to stock, so hard to eat down, lol. At least at my house! 🙂
Yes! We have the hardest time sticking to our food budget! I think that it isn’t the fact that we don’t have “enough”, it’s that we want Easy, Convenient, snacks to grab in a hurry without me spending my whole day in the kitchen. My kids will look in the fridge/pantry and say, “There’s nothing to eat!” Well, yes, there are plenty of ingredients, but that takes work! oh my!
Oh goodness, when is “easy and convenient” NOT on the menu, lol! My family does the same as yours, and while I’m willing to eat just about anything and call it dinner, they’re not quite so willing. Still though, it just means we have to work a bit harder at being creative. That, or giving the family a pep-talk and warning that dinner will look weird this week, but they’ll still eat so hang in tight! 😉
This post came at such an appropriate time for me. Yesterday, I tackled reorganizing the kitchen. Finding all the packages of this and that which were hidden away in this cupboard or that one was a reality check. Here is what I found: 122 lbs of various types of rice. 79 lbs of flour, 48 lbs of sugar, 35 lbs of a variety of beans and lentils and about 20 lbs of dry pasta. That doesn’t even include the canned goods and a full freezer. Now I’m a baker so that flour and sugar will get used up easily. But that rice? There’s two of us. Even if we ate rice every day, it would still take at least a year or two to finish it all off. I tend to stock up during sales and I remember when that sugar was $1.49 a bag and the pasta was 50¢ a pound. But am I really saving money if I am buying way more than I can use?
My thoughts are the same Aishah. I was SHOCKED to find some amounts of food… especially on things I knew the family didn’t like?! Eye-opening indeed, and the reminder to consider quantity when stocking up. You’re right – if you’re buying more than you can use, it has a greater chance of becoming waste… so anything you thought you had saved is now gone. 🙁
I love applying the question of “how much is enough?” to our food purchases the same way we do with our wardrobes, homes, toys, and other material things. Reminds me of Proverbs 30:8-9 – “….give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I become full and deny you…”
Occasionally, I’ll force myself to draw on pantry and freezer storage for meals just to help clear out some items, and I’m always amazed by what a good meal my “extras” can supply! Maybe it’s time to do that again…as it stands now, I’m pretty sure we could live pretty comfortably for a few weeks without shopping.
Thanks for the though-provoking post, Tiffany. Excuse me, I’ve got some things to defrost… 🙂
You’re most welcome Dena, and thank you for sharing the very applicable verse! I’m amazed too at how many REAL meals we can make with what we have on hand if we forced ourselves to do so. It’s just too easy to think we need more… but it’s a battle we don’t have to fight on our own. 🙂
I always plan for winter. I live in Michigan. My cupboards,pantry and freezer are full by november and that way when old man wilnter comes I don’t have to worry about going to the store in the spring time to clean out and rebuild my supplies for the winter. Too much is if you are wasting the food and not using it. If you use it then is just enough.
Completely agree! The point of Tiffany’s post is to just help us pause and think about why we do what we do, and to help us cultivate an even deeper level of gratitude for our blessings. You have a purposeful plan for using what you have and that is what being a good steward is all about! 🙂
Great post Tiffany! I’m not sure how many pounds of food we have, but I’m sure I could feed us for about 2 months…maybe longer. The urge to stock the larder for hard times is one that was passed down from generation to generation. There are times when it’s saved us when unexpected bills came up. But then there are times when we need to know when enough is enough….thanks for the reminder.
You’re most welcome Katie! You’re right in that smart storage can literally be a lifesaver when we come across hard times, but that line of “enough is enough” is really hard to draw on sometimes. It’s especially difficult when the line is drawn with blueberries. 🙂
I had to chime in with an LOL! 🙂
Tiffany: Your title surprised me a bit. I was expecting a discussion about, for example, how walnuts would give the optimum nutrition. Then I read your article and again am confused because you should only have what can be eaten before it goes bad. Some foods last longer than others. Anyway, thanks for any comment.
George
Hi George! In theory, you’re right: we should only have on hand what we can eat. But that’s rarely the case in reality. Sometimes we’re gifted more than we can eat in a few days, so we preserve for the future. Sometimes we buy an extra of something because it was on mark down and we know we’ll eat it within the next few weeks. Sometimes we have everything needed to make a meal except just one ingredient. The point of the article is to make us think twice before bringing more food into the kitchen and really consider how much we already have. We live in a society where its WAY to convenient to make a quick run to the store for something, rather than trying to find a work-around with what we have at home. As other commenters have written, it’s difficult to balance the line between preparing for the future and having “just enough” for now… throw in there trying to do it on a budget, or balancing financial feast now knowing there will be famine later, and it can be very, very difficult! I hope this helps to clear up the confusion. In regards to optimal nutrition of walnuts, you just might have inspired a future post! 🙂
Thanks for this reminder! I really struggle with this. It has gotten worse since I have taken recipe developing more seriously. I work on so many recipes in a week and sometimes I can’t get past the mental block of not having lemon, ect.
Hi, Debra! It’s so great to hear from you, sweet friend! And I can totally relate to what you’re saying. It certainly adds a difficult challenge to manage a food budget when your job is developing new recipes. 🙂
It does. But, I really need to figure it out (especially now when everything is out of our families budget).
I meant to say earlier, LOVE the photos. The blueberry one especially captures the fruit gorgeously.
This is a realy good post, and something I think about and mull over quite frequently. My friends say that if there was a zombie apocalypse they would all come to my house. And they should – I’m the only one who would have food!
In all seriousness, though, for me ‘how much food is too much’ depends on the season. I intentionally have a monstrous grocery budget from June to October. Then, from November to May our food budget is 1/4 of what it is during the other months. For me, I preserve it all and buy meat when it is in season (in Iowa, that is late summer and fall). Fruits, veggies, frozen, canned, fermented – it all happens in the craziness of summer and fall. In the winter months I buy fresh lettuce, onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Otherwise, I pretty much buy no veggies. The only fresh fruit we buy in winter are things we can’t get in summer like oranges, grapefruit, and pomegranates. Otherwise, all produce is from jars or the freezer.
While this is great, it is still a struggle for me because I have to make sure I am using my budget well and preserving enough for us to last through the winter and give away to family and friends who love the fresh taste of tomatoes in the midst of a long, dark winter. I also have to make sure I am not preserving too much for no reason other than hoarding. It has been a fine balance. At this point, after doing it for about 5 years, I definitely have figured out the rhythm and typically only make what we can eat, except for jams. I cycle through different jams we love and make a couple each summer and they last 2 or 3 years on the canning shelf. We don’t eat a ton of them, but I do love homemade jam.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post. Right now, we have at least 4 months of food in the house for the 2 of us. But in May? Maybe a few weeks will be left.
Love how thoughtfully you plan out how to preserve seasonal produce for the wintertime. Sounds to me like you have a very intentional plan in place for using what you have and that is what being a good steward is all about! On a personal note, that is one thing I’d like to do more of – purchase in bulk seasonal produce and preserve it. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂 Blessings, Kelly
I want to try harder at a “pantry challenge” like Jessica Fisher does at Good Cheap Eats/Life As Mom. But like you I run out for ‘one thing’ or the grocery store has an amazing loss leader or we just got our Azure order yesterday. I know we could go a month with only buying milk and fresh fruit. But we don’t. Sigh. You’re right though, it would save SO much money! However much I want to try it for August though, hubby is lamenting his lack of grab-and-go snacks for his afternoons at work
Sounds like a pantry challenge would be a great idea for the majority of us. And as a member of Azure, I can totally relate. I’ve really curbed back my order as I was finding that I was leaning in the direction of overstocking because I just kept placing nearly the same order each month. 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing! Blessings, Kelly
Very beautiful post, and ouch! Me thinks you stepped on my toes. 🙂 We live smack dab in the middle of the city about 4 blocks from a grocery store, so I am terrible about running out to go get whatever I think I need to “complete” our meal or a recipe. When I think about it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. We have a stocked fridge, freezer, deep freeze and pantry, plus a flourishing garden in the backyard. Me also thinks I need to rethink how I do things!
Me thinks you are a sweetheart! Tiffany has certainly given us all some good advice to think about! 🙂 Blessings, Kelly
Um… 3 to 5 pounds per day??? I want that family’s food budget!It is common for us to down 1 loaf of bread, 1 gallon of milk, a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon, 2 pounds of chicken, 2 pounds of strawberries 1/2 pound of veggies and 6 potatoes in ONE day. We might make it a week on what I have in the house now. But no milk would spell disaster almost immediately. I spend about $150 per week just at Costco :/
In the kitchen? Maybe a week or two. In my pantry and freezers? 6-12 months. With the exceptions being dairy (cheese I buy about as needed, get milk and eggs weekly) and water (still building racks for those barrels of in the garage). I plan out for the year – best bang for my buck, and if/when something happens (like when we quarantined ourselves for a month due to chicken pox exposure, or the posts or at the grocery store for a week, or when we were a family of 5, son to be six, and were laid off and income-less). Granted, I do go with my gut feeling on this (hence why my stockpile grew shortly before we were laid off, followed my gut instinct) and grew up with Depression-era grandparents
Oh my typos… barrels *out* in the garage, milk and eggs weekly *from my farmers*, if the *power was out* at the grocery store.
Thanks for this great reminder to look in the pantry before shopping!
I love food! And, by love, I mean I dream about recipes in my sleep. I wake up creating dishes in my head. I start drooling at the farmer’s market because of all the possibilities. It makes me giddy inside. Because of that my grocery budget has ballooned over the last couple years. Years ago I learned to cook by using what I have and making it work so I’d like to go back to that and I think this is the time to start. I could probably feed my family of four adults without shopping for anything other than perishables (raw milk, some fruits and veggies) for about 4 weeks.
It’s definitely more difficult when I’m working. I’m a freelancer with a random schedule but I’m just tired of running to the store all the time when we’re out of one or two things. Time to plan ahead. Thanks!
Great article. I don’t know how you manage on $330. for four weeks and have so much food. Our budget for three adults is $600 and we always go over.
This is a genuinely inspiring article! I can identify with that anxiety that tells me I need to go grocery shopping. Last week I resisted going shopping in the middle of the week for the first time in forever and just made due with what we had. We still ate great and it got my creative juices flowing. I have never had the courage to really try to clear out the pantry, freezer and fridge. I loved your thoughts on how much you can save just by using what you’ve got. Thank you!!
Good food for thought this morning (see how I worked the word food in…smiling). I’m an older woman who lives in earthquake country and have had to deal with the power being out for up to a week on three different occasions over the years. That caused me to get rid of my freezer since I resented losing so much food. My electric bill plummeted because the darn thing was in our hot garage and evidently cost a lot to run. I’ve never missed it for one day. I have six fruit trees so I spend some time canning but that’s fun to me anyway.
To deal with utilities being out I make sure I have water and batteries on hand and believe me we have plenty of food to get through a week or so if we have to.
Even though I mention my electric bill plummeting my motivation isn’t money. I want things simple in my life and I’ve made that happen and I appreciate your blog from the point of view about eating real food!
What a great post! I recently found my kitchen and garage were so overstocked I had no idea how many years it would take to eat all the beans, lentils and wheat berries we had stored. I decided to take beans and staples to work to share with my colleagues. Most did not have any idea how to cook dry beans or use staple food. I now provide instructions and suggestions on how to make healthy meals. It’s been an amazing experience.
Thank you for this fantastic post. I was just thinking about this myself the past few weeks as I threw away several cobs of precious (and delicious) sweet corn and other produce from the garden that I hadn’t gotten to because they had fallen behind other things in the fridge. I have been being more mindful and that in and of itself has been freeing and relieves some of the guilt, and I am inspired to continue down this path thanks to your post.
i would think taking it a step further would be more about sharing than refraining. How about inviting others over to eat to lighten their load or just for fun? Or giving some to a local food bank? Fresh produce is the hardest thing to get when you’re really in need.
That is such a great idea! And I agree! In my newsletter last week, I shared how I bagged up some of my extra and gave it to a food bank. Love your idea of inviting others over. You could host a “Let’s Clean Out the Pantry” dinner party. You’ve totally inspired me! 🙂 Thank you! 🙂 Kelly
Kelly,
My family is rather new and still getting the hang of meal plans and budgets. I find myself wanting to grocery shop just about daily, usually I go for one item and end up spending $80. Just recently we decided to begin our freezer collection, so far we have freezer packed berries and apples. It doesn’t seem that we ever have enough left overs to freeze. I really do want to be the woman that has her kitchen under control, but I feel that between breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner I never leave the kitchen. Like you, it is important to me that my family eats real whole foods. I am struggling to keep up my house, tend to our two little ones and plan/prepare meals. I feel myself wearing thin and thinking that going to back to work actually sounds refreshing. I follow your fb page, and appreciate all your posts. If you have any tips for me, they would be greatly appreciated as well… or prayer! Thank you, Chelsea
One of my favorite Cosby shows is when they have the Freezer Family Dinner and just pull whatever is in there out and invite friends over. Great posts and thankful for the reminders of eating what we have,
I forgot about that one. LOL! Thank you so much, Stacie! 🙂
I started a ~No Spend~ challenge for August because I KNOW I have too much… Much too much in my life! Food is my number one problem. It is just me here, with the occasional visitor and I have enuf food for 6+ months!! Even milk, if I use powdered, is not going to run low!! I have decided that I will not go to the store!! I will make due if I run out of an ingredient or chose a different recipe.
I am unemployed (3 months now) and panicked on food levels…. Completely ridiculous! I accept your challenge 🙂
With a glad heart, thank you!
Great post! A couple of years ago my husband and I noticed how much food we were wasting and decided to do something about it. Now, before each paycheck we go through the fridge, freezers, and pantry. We plan out on paper exactly how many meals we can make. ( It’s nice to have at least a 5 day cushion after a paycheck in case of illnesses or emergency. ) We were able to reduce our grocery budget by $200 each month and reduce our waste.