Goldee

My challenge:

To only use the cash I’ve put aside in an envelope for use in the grocery store.

What are you hoping to gain?

We have a monthly budget, where we set aside certain amounts for each category. But I don’t do anything to ensure we actually stick to the budget. At the end of the month, I’ll just see where I went over and think, “Hmm, we spent more,” but then I do the same thing the next month.

I’m hoping this will really help me stick to those budgets. I’m also hoping it will give me a better idea of where I’m overspending. Maybe I’ll start to notice what I buy and don’t use.

Also, this just feels really fun.

What are you most worried about?

Oh my, so many things. First of all, my husband doesn’t want to pay cash, so I have to work that part out. If he doesn’t get on board and I just have to limit how much I spend on the credit card, the challenge won’t work as well.

Secondly, I’m nervous I’ll run out of money in the envelope before the month ends and need to either pull out more cash or swipe my card.

My third major concern is that this whole challenge will put me in a scarcity mindset. I really don’t want to shop from a place of, “Oh no, I only have 30 agorot left, so which can of corn is cheaper?” I try to operate out of a place of abundance and really feel that Hashem is proving for me from His limitless bounty, so I’m not thrilled about being in the mindset of pinching pennies.

Suri

My challenge:

• To skip the end-of-year sales and not order anything until I actually need it.
• Only buy items that are on my grocery list.

Why this specific one?

Recently, we had some huge expenses crop up — in the thousands — so I’m trying to recoup and focus on “needs” only. It’s tempting to place an online order and get really nice brand-name items for great prices, but firstly, I don’t actually need to spend that money on them. And secondly, it’s a huge time waste to go through every website, one by one, and look through their millions of pages. You can spend a good hour just to get one or two items.

My theory is that when I buy things in advance, they don’t always work perfectly by the time I need them. I don’t actually end up saving money. I’ll only buy bulk in advance for things we really go through and need to replenish on a daily basis.

Also, inevitably, once something’s in the house, we think of it as free. For example, I might see hot pretzels on sale and buy them in bulk. Once they’re in the house, I don’t think twice about opening the box because it’s there — but I don’t really need it. If it weren’t in the house, no one would miss it. Because it’s there, it gets used.

What are you most worried about?

Not much. If anything, I’m excited. Twice already, I went to the store near me and only bought two grocery items — which is so not like me. I’m really impressed with myself for shopping from my freezer instead.

Two weeks in…

Goldee

I’ve already tried a lot of the things like “check the pantry before you leave,” and it doesn’t work for me, maybe because I’m not a creative cook. I don’t want to brainstorm dinner for 20 minutes. I just want to make it in five.

I feel I’m being moser nefesh for this challenge. Whenever I go shopping, my toddler holds some of the groceries in his stroller and it keeps him happy. Now, because I’m only using cash instead of a credit card, I couldn’t use the self-checkout, where I always let my son put the things down or help me scan. The last two times I went shopping, he threw the world’s biggest tantrum when I wrestled the items out of his hands to give it to the cashier.

On the bright side, because I now walk around with cash I actually have money to give the people asking for tzedakah outside.

I’ve realized I have no idea how to budget. It’s only halfway through the month, and I’m already running low on cash. Looking back, I should have been on top of things from the start so I wouldn’t have woken up halfway through the month and make the tiny bit that’s left stretch the entire time.

My husband’s convinced I’m going to fail, but I refuse to. I decided I’m not buying anything unless it is an absolute necessity. For me, that means milk and my son’s snacks for gan. I’m going to make suppers out of what we have in the pantry. Or maybe we’ll go out for dinner because swiping the credit card at restaurants doesn’t go under our grocery budget, right?

Suri

I’ve noticed something interesting. Because I’m in this mindset of holding back, I’ve been “shopping” in my freezer a lot. I probably saved a good few hundred dollars just from that.

I usually do two big shops a week, and this week I didn’t need my Monday shop at all because I found so much at home. It’s amazing what we have in our freezers when we only look!

Musia

The day before the challenge started, I realized I was running low on mayonnaise. I was so, so tempted to run out and get some more. After all, the challenge hadn’t officially begun yet, but I wanted to stay true to the spirit of it and let things run out. The next Shabbos, our guests requested my somewhat-famous Ceasar salad, but I had to turn them down (and explain that my editors make me do crazy things like this challenge).

If I’m honest, though, I broke the challenge on day one. My husband’s schedule was changing, so we realized he would need to start eating breakfast at home and so we went to the grocery store to stock up. A hundred dollars later, we came home.

I did think I would have to make a meat order halfway through the month because we had enough chicken, but I had no more cholent meat. Then — Hashgachah pratis — I dropped off dinner for someone who just had a baby. I brought her extras to freeze, but she didn’t have room in her freezer because it was stocked with meat. She said she’d rather have cooked food than have to cook, so she sent me home with two huge packets of meat — more than enough to make it through the rest of the month.

Other than that, it’s been easier than I thought. I’m looking at this as a challenge in creativity. If I run out of something, how can I improvise? What are ways to use up the things in my pantry?

The month’s over…

Musia

The last week was definitely the hardest, mainly because I was so bored of everything on my shelves. I like picking up random items and finding ways to cook with them, but this month I didn’t do it at all.

I will admit that I didn’t 100 percent keep to things at the end. My shvigger was in town, and I knew she would want to cook in my kitchen. I wasn’t sure how to explain why she would open my fridge and find none of the basics — no lemon juice, no mayonnaise — and that I was low on spices. (For some reason basically all my spices coordinated with each other to finish this month.)

I could just tell my shvigger about the challenge, but I also wanted her to feel comfortable. Pushing myself to think outside the box is one thing, but I didn’t love the idea of doing that to her.

The day she came, I asked my husband to pick up a few of the basics we were missing. The irony is that my mother-in-law went with him and ended up picking up the bill. So did I actually break the challenge if we weren’t the ones to pay?

Now that I’ve done it, I think I would do a challenge like this again sometime. It’s almost like a juice cleanse, but for your pantry. My carbs draw used to be so heavy I could barely open it. Now I know exactly what’s inside. It forced me to be creative when I didn’t have the exact ingredients I wanted. And we saved a fair bit of money. For context, in December we spent close to $900 on groceries. During January, it was around $300 — mostly produce and perishables like eggs, milk, fish, and cheese.

And guess what? No one starved. We even had enough to host big meals almost every Shabbos.

Moving forward, I definitely want to shop my pantry on a regular basis and only buy the things we need when we need them. If my pantry does fill up again, I would consider challenging myself to another cleanse like this. It was a learning experience — and saved us a significant amount of money. So I’m not complaining. (But I am going to the store now to refill all my empty spice containers.)

Goldee

When I looked inside the envelope at the end of the month… I had a whole five shekels left! And I was ecstatic. Then I opened the cabinet and realized I still had some receipts sitting there. They were my husband’s credit card purchases I still didn’t deduct from the envelope. To be honest, I refused to look at them and threw them out instead. I couldn’t face the fact that after coming so close, I still failed.

Looking back, I should have been more diligent about only using the actual cash and not deducting credit card purchases from the envelope. It took away the opportunity to see the money disappearing in front of my eyes, and if I had, I probably would have been better about my budget. (That was the whole point, after all.)

This whole challenge made me realize how seldom I look at prices. I buy what we need — and try not to buy any extra — but I have no idea about the cost of each item. I also did a lot of thinking about why it was so hard for me to cut back, and I think a huge part is that I’m already getting what I consider “basics.” When I make chicken, it’s with onions and spices. No fancy ingredients. If I look at my list every week, it’s hard for me to see things that I could do without because we already limit our shopping. I know it’s definitely possible because there are people who spend less than me, but they save by not eating chicken during the week. I don’t see how I could’ve pulled that off.

Did doing this save us money? Even though I ultimately failed, I think so. Our average grocery budget is usually a bit less than $1,000. This month we spent closer to $900. It wasn’t our smallest spending month, but it’s also not our biggest.

Doing this for a month made me feel compassion for people who have super limited budgets. It’s not like mine is completely unlimited, but we do have wiggle room. Now, when the lady scans each item I stand and stare at the numbers to watch them climb and see if — and what — I should take out. It makes me appreciate my blessings.

Honestly, this left me with so much food for thought that I would do the challenge again — but my husband did a literal happy dance when it ended so I can’t see it happening again anytime soon.

Frayda

I didn’t think this challenge would be a big deal for me. I never shopped with a list, though, and once I started making one, I realized how hard it was not to add the extra things I see on the shelves.

It was eye-opening to see how much of what I buy is on impulse, and how I could literally shave down my grocery total when I don’t add the random things that catch my eye as I walk through the aisles.

I don’t have an exact number, but there’s no doubt my spending went down significantly. But it came at a cost — I found the challenge hard, and it made grocery shopping annoying. I definitely plan to make lists, though. I realized that the ten minutes spent making a list will save me in the long run — even if I still pick up things that weren’t on it.

Suri

The challenge was FANTASTIC and because I did it during January, I feel like it reset my whole year (hopefully!). It’s now in my system to ask myself, “Do I need that?” on a constant basis.

Before this challenge, I had a bit of a complex about “I work so hard, I deserve this,” and I always felt like if I wanted something, it was okay for me to buy it. Because I really, really like buying things and enjoy the thrill of opening something new. I’d like to think I’m healthy and responsible about it, but the little under-$30 treats definitely added up.

Moving forward, my plan is to keep asking myself before every purchase, “Do I really need this?” This simple question saved me close to $400 this month!

The whole thing reminds me of something from Naftali Horowitz, which I read in a recent Mishpacha (Issue 946). He was saying that right now we can tell ourselves we need things, but one day we’ll be retired  and won’t have all the money we spent. At that point, we won’t be able to go back and say, “I wish I didn’t spend.” It will be too late.

At the end of the day, we women work hard and it makes perfect sense to want to pay for conveniences, but we’ve given ourselves this right (or at least I gave it to myself) and ultimately we’re not ahead for it.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 831)