The end of the drought is nigh! I have survived 28 days of rehab… Grocery store rehab. But you know what? It barely made a dent in my supplies. I ran out of SO MUCH STUFF, yet when I open the doors of the pantries and freezers, it does not look like I ever took a break from shopping…
I started keeping a list of all the foods I ran out of, but after about 35 individual entries I started to lose track. Proteins, pasta, ALL the fresh produce (except a bag of cranberries), all the major baking supplies like flour, sugar, and vanilla were blown through. I had only two cloves of garlic left by the 28th day. The mayonnaise was GONE. We ate up a bunch of canned food, a bunch of frozen foods, and I still. Have. More! Most important… I was down to my last Pepsi on day 27. It was getting REAL. 
I didn’t take the easy way out all month either! Like any real addict, I eventually had to test my resolve. Safeway and Target were like opium dens, but I had to go in to buy birthday gifts, or bring snacks to work when asked to pick something up, but I never gave in to the temptation to stock up just a little! I had to avert my eyes at the fresh fruit and baking aisles…
But hey, the point of this experiment was multifaceted. I would have loved to have cleared out everything and had nothing but a Mother Hubbard-bare cupboard, because then my whole pantry would be refreshed with new food. That may not have happened, but the inability to hit the store forced me to be creative, make substitutions, and polish off all those irritating half-bags of ingredients. I made my own brown sugar from white sugar and molasses for crying out loud! The bigger win? I spent a grand total of $53.82 for food in February, and that was on the dairy delivery for the month. You know what I spent on groceries so far after one shopping trip? $545. Ouch. You may have noticed that I had to buy 25# bags of sugar and flour, plus a whole new supply of fresh vegetables, but I think I’m going to try to make this my only grocery trip for the month.
Unless I run out of Pepsi again.
Have Book, Will Cook 