happy at home

DAY 30This is the final day of the 30 Days of Nothing.

It has been pretty slim pickings around here these last few days, for sure. Today being the slimmest. Still, we all had food to eat, even if it wasn't exactly what we might have liked to have had. But, that is good for us, isn't it? And a good lesson in thankfulness?

For breakfast we had oatmeal and milk. My oldest child doesn't like oatmeal so he had toast with jelly. We were out of eggs.

We had our homeschool co-op classes in the next town over, so we packed a lunch consisting of PB & H (last of the bread), salad, and leftover lasagna and onion cheese supper bread.

Dinner was the sketchiest meal we have had this month, by a mile. But, it really forced me to be creative! The kids wanted tacos. I browned the deer meat before I realized that I didn't have taco seasonings of any kind...no salsa, taco seasoning mix, or chili powder. So, to the deer meat I added ketchup, garlic powder, salt, and all of the taco bell sauce packets that were languishing in the back of my fridge. I didn't point out my doctoring to anyone, and they didn't say anything, so I guess it was good! They also had corn on the cob, which had been in the freezer and frozen blueberries. For dessert, I was looking at a couple of leftover flour tortillas and a small bowl of cream cheese icing left over from the cinnamon rolls I made a few weeks ago. I cooked the tortillas on the griddle with a little bit of butter and sprinkled with cinnamon. Then, I spread the torilla with the icing and folded it over. I left it on the griddle until the icing softened and warmed. The kids and I loved these! They were really good and the boys were impressed. Iron Chef has nothing on us. Ha! It is really fun to come up with new "recipes" when faced with a weird assortment of ingredients. They may not make it to the table for future meals, but it is fun to experiment.

My grocery list is fairly long and I am looking forward to going to the store. However, I do not plan on going crazy now that September is ending. I won't be holding myself to spending only $200 next month. I will resume shopping in a more regular manner, but am going to document how much I spend each week and may occasionally post on what I am doing differently, how my shopping has changed post-experiment, and what things I am allowing back into the cart after a month of living with less.
I am still processing what I have learned from this month, and will probably post more about it later, as time goes on and as I shop in a less restricted manner. I am curious about you. Were you doing this challenge? And, whether you were or not, as you read about my and others' experiences, did you change anything about the way you shopped or the way that you perceived what qualifies as a necessity?

I really thrive on challenges. My creativity and excitement for homemaking is heightened when I have a goal in mind. I always learn things as I am forced to evaluate and reconsider habits. Now that I am coming off of the 30 Days of Nothing (but still working through what I learned in my mind), I am thinking of a new challenge and wondering if any of you would be interested in participating in it with me. I am thinking of taking the 30 Days of Nothing idea and tweaking it a bit...more like a 30 Days of Less, Christmas Edition. It will involve being really intentional about gift giving and holiday spending. Being creative with decorating. Making and giving gifts that are meaningful, but not necessarily expensive. It won't be just about pinching pennies, but rather, spending the Christmas season focusing on things of lasting value. That is something that I always want to do better. I will flesh this out a little more over the next few days but please let me know if you are interested in participating with me!

*Creative Commons image from Dan Taylor on flickr.com