One way that we have discussed to save money on groceries in 2026 is to start the year off with a month without the grocery store. If we do it, it will depend on how depleted our stockpile looks the end of December. Looking at the inventory now, I am 90% sure that we will do it. We will see how the month of January goes and if it goes well, we may carry it into February.
The idea is to use up what we have so that it does not go bad and to save our grocery money those months. Wasting food is a NO NO in this home.
Here are some ideas on how we are going to survive when our fresh items in the refrigerator are gone:
Milk: We use both shelf stable and powdered. Our back up also includes evaporated milk that can be diluted with 1/2 water.
Half and Half: We will use jarred creamer like Coffemate or use Nestle Crema.
Fresh Veggies: We have multi colored peppers, onions, carrots, and blanched potatoes in the freezer. I prepared all of these myself. I also have a supply of potatoes in my garage that should last through the winter. We have plenty of veggies that are frozen, freeze dried, and canned.
Fruit: We have frozen mixed berries, peaches, cranberries, strawberries, blueberries, tart pie cherries, and pineapple. We have canned apples, pears, peaches, cranberry sauce, pineapple, and pumpkin. We have many pie fillings on the shelf.
Dairy: We have plenty of butter, cream cheese, and shredded cheeses in the freezer. I also have canned butter. We have butter powder, powdered cream, and powdered sour cream.
Jams and Jellies: We have some homemade peach jam in the freezer. We have many different kinds on the shelf.
Eggs: We always have 6-7 dozen in the fridge. But if they run out, we have many dozen frozen. I also have powdered eggs.
If we run out of meat in the freezer, we have canned ground beef, BS chicken breasts, pork shreds and chunks, turkey, beef chunks, corned beef and hams. Many of them I canned and many are store bought.
If we run out of fish and seafood in the freezer, we have canned tuna fish, salmon, and shrimp.
The pictures are just of things that you might use that you are not aware that you can purchase. Sorry about the blurry one.
We are having homemade beef barley soup for dinner tonight. We had a tomahawk steak left in the freezer that Hubby did not like. So I cut it up into beef chunks for the soup. I added diced celery, cut up onions, and cut up carrots. That is what you see here in the picture. Then I added the beef broth. Two hours before we eat, I will add pearled barley to the pot. This is one of Hubby’s favorite soups. He keeps asking me when it will be done. We will eat it with crackers and butter.
Important Information: Yesterday, the Trump administration took the tariffs off of coffee, beef, and tropical fruits coming into the U.S. from South America. This is great for all of us. This means those prices should go down within the next few weeks. How much remains to be seen. The prices still rise because of the inflation and gouging. I did stock a lot of coffee before the prices went up as I am sure many of you did. After all, we can’t go without our coffee. Bananas should go down in price. But the beef is what I am most excited about. It will go down a bit but not much because it was high before the tariffs. Plus we have a shortage right here in America. But it should be cheaper than it has been! Hallelujah!
Any one want to join me on the January Challenge: A Month Without The Grocery Store?