So HOW did I do this? Well, first of all, I had just done a shopping trip, so we had fresh milk and veggies on hand. It was also garden season, and we have chickens, so we had a few fresh veggies coming in every day, (not a lot, like a handful of cherry tomatoes or similar at a time) and we also had 2-3 chicken eggs every day from our hens who were starting to freshly lay.

I started out by doing a rough inventory of what we had available to us, and putting it down in order of “freshness”. To make sure we were eating up fresh items before the pantry items so we’d minimize food going bad before we could use it. So through the 30 days, we transitioned from fresh produce first, to dried, canned, and frozen. Same with any meats we had in the fridge and freezer. We ate the fresh first, then moved on to the storage foods.

But as I was planning my meals, I found myself naturally taking the leftovers from one meal, and turning them into the next. For example, one night we had elk smokies. I had to make fresh buns for them because we didn’t have any hot dog buns around, and we ate them with sauerkraut, and some sort of vegetable. I think it was broccoli. Then I took the leftover sausage and broccoli, chopped it up really small, added some cheese and rolled it up in tortillas. I put them in a 9×13 pan like enchiladas and poured beaten eggs and seasonings over it, and cooked that the next day for breakfast enchiladas. When that meal was all used up, I moved on to the next meal.

If you want to get planning on a 30 day no shopping challenge of your own, I’d really recommend grabbing a notebook (any notebook will do) and writing down as many meals as you can think of that you could make from what you have on hand. Then, add meals your family loves that you have MOST of the ingredients on hand for. Don’t forget simple meals like yogurt and granola for breakfast, or base recipe ingredients such as eggs or potatoes. You can do a LOT with eggs and potatoes. Also, never underestimate the power of a good stir fry. You can throw in whatever meat and veggies you have, either already cooked as leftovers, or fresh/frozen, and have an amazing meal.

I will say, having a meal planning notebook dedicated to this helps to keep your lists of food items organized. I love this one, and as a bonus it has an expense tracker in it too, so you can keep track of how much your stock up shopping trip costs, and your re-stock shopping trip to see if this is something you can do long term!  The tear-off shopping list is kind of handy also! The idea of only having to go to the grocery store once per month makes me GIDDY. It’s such a time saver, and that’s worth a lot to me.