Save on Groceries: Join the eGullet Challenge

by Laura Holland

Snowed in with my two kids, I have decided to ditch my original idea for a post. Instead, I want to talk about eGullet’s interesting challenge: forgo grocery shopping for a week and live off the bounty that is already in our pantries, fridge, and freezer.

The LA Times blog alerted me to this interesting proposition with its Friday posting. “Think of it as the ultimate Top Chef quick-fire challenge with Rice-a-Roni and canned tuna,” wote LA Times’ Jenn Garbee.

The challenge was announced on eGullet’s Klatch forum on February 18 by eGullet co-founder Steve Shaw and the Klatch Team. Shaw (AKA “Fat Guy”) was inspired to call for the weeklong supermarket boycott when he had what Oprah would call an “aha” moment.

Shaw has been shopping once a week at Fairway in Manhattan (love that place!) for about eighteen years. Well, he missed his usual Sunday trip for various reasons and had to resort to cooking what he already had in the house. “But when I went to make dinner on Sunday night,” Shaw posted, “I noticed that my freezer and cabinets were overflowing with edible foodstuffs. Why was I saving all this stuff, when I could be eating it? I resolved just to skip my grocery shopping for that week and eat what was around.”

Shaw reported that he was able to live quite nicely off the stuff already in his house.

That is when Shaw had his “aha” moment. He realized that if he, in his small New York apartment had this excess amount of food, surely others with larger homes have even more food stashed in capacious pantries and second refrigerators and freezers. This is food, he observed, that would expire and get ditched instead of being used as we keep trying to stuff more and more new food into our homes.

So Shaw offered a modest proposals for these tough economic times and suggested a “national eat the stuff in our freezers and pantries week.” He did a little math and says that, if we do this experiment even just four times a year, we could save 8 percent on our yearly grocery expenses.

Here is my summary of the rules, as posted on eGullet on February 19:

(1) No stockpiling food before starting the challenge. Just skip your normal shopping day.
(2) No depriving the kids. It is within the rules to get milk for your children if you run out.
(3) No suffering. You are allowed to get a item or two as needed, if you really need it or want it.
(4) Chronicle your meals for the week, starting with the day you normally shop (but didn’t because you skipped it for this experiment).
(5) Have fun (and post on your experience on eGullet….or here).

I have already started. I have made pizza from scratch with whole wheat flour that had been sitting in my fridge (more on that next week), vegetarian tacos with lentils and beans from my pantry (and that last little bit of jarred salsa in the fridge), and curried noodles with that coconut milk I had been hoarding in my pantry and a small handful of leftover cashews. I may be snowed in, but I have plenty to eat!

Comments

[Katherine Lewis]

I love this idea! I have done this in an informal way, just by deciding to skip groceries and eat frozen and dry goods. I can't wait to see what recipes you come up with!

[Peggy]

Kim O'Donnel of the Washington Post just did a very similar challenge called "Eating Down the Fridge."

O'Donnel's blog entry: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2009/02/eating_down_the_fridge_save_th.html

O'Donnel's online discussion:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/03/06/DI2009030602219.html