The Calm before the Storm

I realized yesterday that August has 31 days so my social experiment will begin tomorrow. Last night, we invited some friends over for dinner and they were really psyched about this experiment! Somehow it evolved into seeing how far we could go without buying any food/groceries for the entire month.

"What about lack of fresh vegetables", queried an inquiring mind.
"Our little garden should suffice. See what I picked two days ago?

It isn't much but if we get desperate, my parents have a successful garden of their own. We shall also glean our greens from them."

"Arrghh matey, but what about potential "problems" when your supply of fruit runs out", arrgh'd Captain Doubty-Pants.

"Blimey, scurvy and constipation are a great concern of ours, but we picked 12lbs of blueberries this summer that is sittin' pretty in the cozy freezer. Plus, we currently have 1 pomegranate, 1 chermoya, 2lbs of clementines, half a giant watermelon and 4 avocados in our fruit supply. I think we shall be fine."

"Protein?" wondered a healthy Korean male.

"We have plenty in the form of beef, chicken, duck, seafood, tofu, eggs, and beans. In fact, I took out a whole chicken that I bought a few weeks ago and took it apart. The leftover bones I put into a pot with some filtered water and leftover vegetables to turn into pure liquid gold (aka chicken stock)."







"Dairy/calcium?" inquired a medically educated friend.

"We have a Costco pack of string cheese, about 8oz left of yogurt, and some soy milk. Also, leafy greens and bone soup (see above) also provides plenty of calcium and minerals.

"What if you run out of food" posed a responsible wife of 10 months.

"My Parents-in-Law own a noodle manufacturing company. Not spending money doesn't mean not using one's resources! Besides, my fridge and freezer still has a lot of random "rainy day" rations in the form of wontons, dumplings, shao long baozi, zhongzi, scones, butternut squash ravioli (homemade), and the aforementioned protein."





With a good natured chuckle and an open invitation on September 15th for dinner (or whenever our supply runs dry), my friends encouraged us to give this social experiment a try. They did plant one seed into my head that perhaps unfairly alters my plan just a tiny bit, which is...to run to store and stock up before night falls on August 31st! Although I only intended to get flour and coffee, I emerged with $32.58 worth of additional supplies later. On the other hand, I now feel confident that we can go an entire month without buying food and still eat very nutritiously.

So what exactly does $32.58 buy? This.



Soy Milk
Organic Coffee (if I don't brew my own, I will spend money to buy it.)
Organic Kefir (probiotics are my friends)
3lbs Naturally raised ground beef (because it was on sale)
A dozen eggs (certified humanely raised)
Organic whole wheat flour

Thus armed with everything above, some ingenuity, $32.58 of supplies and $38 worth of gas...we venture into September.