No-Spend Month Day 26: The Cupboard is Bare

This no-grocery-shopping-for-a-month thing can really dwindle food supplies, go figure.

The grocery list is growing for September 1st, and dinner options are becoming narrower. I'm learning to use leftovers like I haven't before, and that's definitely a good thing. We've had a couple "All-Sides" dinners, consisting only of leftover side dishes. Monday, it was baked mac & cheese, baked beans, green beans, and corn on the cob. These meals make for a weird menu, but usually end up being vegetarian, which I know is better for us.

We've had to make a few runs to the store. We were out of Kleenex, and the worst of ragweed season is approaching. I was out of canning jars with a big box of overripe peaches (and even bigger box of tomatoes!) sitting in my kitchen. The tomatoes were free. The tomatoes were free; the peaches were $6 and netted 9 pints canned plus some in the freezer. I should add- our pantry is looking empty except for the canning I've been doing, which is supposed to last us all year. So far, 25 quarts and 12 pints of green beans, 12 pints and 1 quart of pickles, and 9 pints of peaches have been put up. Today, I'm, tackling the tomatoes.

We're already over our gas budget for the month, and my car needs its tank filled pretty badly. A lunch was left at home at the end of last week, as well as Monday, resulting in picking up fast food twice.

Money has been spent this month, but right now our no-spend budget is tracking to save $700 over what we normally spend. I go back and do the math again- can it be true? In just one month? Yep. Wow.

My husband and I will definitely be talking about which of these changes are permanent, once we run numbers at the end of the month and see where we saved money.

One more note: My husband was able to tighten the aforemetioned pipe and a crisis was averted, but we cleared out everything from below the sink just in case it wasn't a permanent fix.

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Two lunches out: $10
Kleenex: $2
Canning jars: $16

Previous total: $129.70
New total: $157.70