Kimmie in Real Life...wrap up!

Three months of Plenty!

What a wonderful summer we have had

and what a wonderful time we had with
"3 months of no shopping"!


I had a friend ask me
if we stocked up before we started our three month adventure...the answer is absolutely NOT !!

Most of the time trials or adversity
come into our lives without any warning and so we treated our three months of no shopping as if something really happened.

Each month for the past year we would always buy extras of all of the basics in our food storage room...I wouldn't know what it was like, to not be preparing for the future today.

For those that haven't been following this challenge...
for the past 2 years we have diligently been adding an extra $1,000 to our debt to get it paid off...we hate debt and want the Freedom that comes from having financial freedom and being debt free!

In May our HELOC debt was at $6,043 and by keeping with paying the $1,000 each month, it would mean we wouldn't have it paid off for another six months.

SO, we decided to rally our food allowance
and family fun money together
to put towards the debt and pay it off in 3 months instead of 6 months and so we decided to not do any grocery shopping for the next three months and put our food allowance/family fun money and any other extra money we could towards paying off our debt.

We wanted this to be a real test and since I opened my big mouth and told people we weren't going to shop for 3 months...we didn't cheat at all.

(these were the guidelines we established,
before we started this challenge...
we would only live off our food storage)

BUT, we did buy a gallon of milk every other week and supplemented with powdered milk (click here for how we make our milk stretch)
AND we did allow ourselves $15.00 each week for fresh produce
(although some weeks we didn't purchase any produce)

(here showing our DEBT gone after our challenge)

We learned so much,
like how much we LOVE onions, and need to find a way to better store onions so if we had to be long term without any shopping at the grocery store, we could make sure and have plenty of onions to make all of our yummy soups, Dutch Oven cooking and Stir-Fry. (dehydrated onions, just don't quite cut it).

I also realized how much celery, carrots and bell peppers
make up many of our meals and I want to have plenty of freeze-dried and or dehydrated versions of these so if we don't have these fresh in our fridge, we can still make up our favorites.

We ran out of yogurt and cottage cheese, cream cheese, onions and chocolate chips and were on our last package of butter when the three months was over.

Here is a list of the major things we went through.
With cooking every meal from scratch,
we went through A LOT of the staples.
This has been very helpful to help us in planning for LONG term storage.
(BTW...we have chickens that we get eggs from, so we didn't have to use egg powder)

(staples)
100 pounds unbleached flour
25 pounds sugar
10 pounds brown sugar
2 pounds powdered sugar
10 pounds honey
10 pounds raisins
1 pound dried cherries
13 pounds wheat
2 pounds corn meal
1-1/2 pounds SAF yeast
3/4 pound baking powder
2 pounds baking soda
3 pounds salt
6 pounds rock salt
25 pounds steel cut oats
8 pounds rolled oats
8 pounds powdered milk
9 pounds dried beans/legumes
9 pounds rice
12 pounds pasta
3 pounds popcorn kernels
5 pounds raw almonds
1 pound walnuts
1/2 pound pecans
1 pound sunflower seeds
1 pound cashews
(1) 23 ounce container unsweetened cocoa powder
32 oz. bottle REAL maple syrup
12 ounces molasses
16 ounces corn syrup
2 packages marshmallows
1 pound Citric Acid
2 bottles Lemon Extract
(3) 8.2 ounce bottles REAL vanilla
2 liters Olive Oil
72 ounces Canola Oil
2-1/2 pounds cornstarch
72 ounces chocolate chips
6 ounces white chocolate chips
(2) 40 ounce jars peanut butter
(we also used quite a bit of Cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, taco seasoning, cumin, chili powder, granulated garlic, beef and chicken bouillon, dried parsley oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and All-Spice)

(cheese/butter)
10 pounds Monterey Jack Cheese
1-1/2 pounds sharp cheese
2 pounds Mozzarella Cheese
24 pounds butter

(meat)
4 pounds chicken
8 pounds hamburger
5 pounds pork
10 pounds salmon
22 cans tuna
2 packages Pepperoni & Canadian Bacon (from freezer)

(misc.)
40 limes (limes, citric acid and sugar turned into this)
6 packages Pink Lemonade Kool-Aid
25 pound bale carrots
(2) 46 ounce jars pickles
(2) 24 ounce bottles ketchup
(2) 30 ounce jars Mayonnaise
10 cans stewed tomatoes/tomato sauce
2 bottles salsa
2 packages dry Ranch Dressing Mix
20 packages Doublemint Gum
bag of 200 Menthol cough drops

(we also went through a few cans each of pineapple tidbits, olives, diced green chilies, canned beans, evaporated milk, bean sprouts, water chestnuts and chow mein noodles...ALSO, a few packages of Ramen for our backpacker meals))
1 large bag charcoal briquettes

(I lost track of how many pounds of frozen fruits/berries we used for our smoothies, (here) but I had pineapple in my freezer from 2007 and 2008 and it is all used up and we are on this years pineapple chunks..click here for how I freeze pineapple)

(cleaning/toiletries)
(4) 56 ounce containers Soft Soap
48 ounces shampoo
48 ounces conditioner
30 ounces hair gel
33 ounces hair spray
(1) 13 ounce bottle Curel lotion
18 rolls paper towels
60 rolls toilet paper
(1) 36 count box tampons/(1) 18 count box maxi-pads
1 box of each sandwich and snack sized bags
2 boxes of each gallon and quart sized bags
1/2 box Q-tips
20 oz. mouth wash
(2) 100 ounce jugs laundry soap
1 box Borax
90 ounces dishwasher soap
32 ounces Glass Plus
12 ounces 409 cleaner
16 ounces Armstrong floor cleaner
40 ounces Bathroom cleaner
40 ounces Shower Cleaner
64 ounces Hydrogen Peroxide
3 gallons vinegar
1/2 box Bounce sheets
1 gallon CAR oil
1 gallon windshield washer cleaner

I LOVED this challenge
and I'm so glad we did this as I learned SO much.
When we walk down to our food storage room it doesn't look much different than these photos (here)
and
we realize that the shelves of canned goods, we made very little dent in.
It was all of the basics, flours, sugars, grains, honey, yeast, oil, spices/cooking supplies that we used the most. We also realized how much our freezers benefit us with having pounds of butter, cheese, meat and frozen berries and fruit.

This was a WIN-WIN for us...

we were able to get one of our debts paid off early,
ROTATE our food storage
and we now have a guideline of what our family needs for three months, six months or a year of staples.

I don't have to "guess" anymore
how much we really do go through in three months time and I gained so much more of an appreciation for simple things.
I also gained skills that I probably wouldn't have, had I not needed tortillas to make up enchiladas, or buns for hot dogs or hoagie sandwiches, or, Granola Bars for energy when we went on our backpacking trips, OR, for Jade to have for energy bars when he runs Cross Country
AND we realized how fun and easy it is to make homemade ice cream.

Challenges are good!
It's not until you force yourself,
(or until you're forced into a situation)
that you really learn what you're made of!