This is a repost of a post I shared on Facebook and Instagram. I didn’t know that it would be so interesting to share a photo of our mostly empty refrigerator. There were lots of good conversations in the comments of that post so I will share some general thoughts in this post.
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Sometimes we do a quasi-no-spend week (for various reasons) and we have to get creative with our meals. Is this weird? Does anyone else do this sorta thing?
Also, apparently we like maple syrup! 😂 That was an overbuy for our camping trip with friends. We plan to use it to make some granola soon though. (Update: we did make the granola…it was super basic but it was gobbled by all! My friend also shared THIS RECIPE to use up the syrup.)
Added notes for this post: You can’t see in the bottom drawers but we had fruits and veggies left at this point too…for those concerned for our health. Someone mentioned clean…I’m not great at cleaning, it’s mostly just decluttered.
ADDED TO NOTE: No judgment, no comparison, no refrigerator shaming from me or anything else here, my friends! :p
Some clarifying items…
🍉 It doesn’t always look like this. I mean, if I were you, I definitely wouldn’t randomly show up at our house before grocery shopping days BUT it’s not as cleared out as this on a normal basis.
🍨 We don’t have extra stuff stocked anywhere else, this is pretty much it besides a few packages of pasta, jars of sauce, and some canned items. I was really tired of finding old and/or expired food and tossing it…wasting money, food, and something that someone doesn’t have the luxury of having “extras” of…
🌭 We live approximately 3-5 minutes from 3 big grocery stores and 3 other places we can buy food from at almost any time. We also live within 10 minutes of my parents and siblings/sibs-in-law. And I’m sure friends (and strangers (love Buy Nothing community!) would offer if we ever were in real need of anything.
SOME OF THE RESPONSES
- Wow… that is impressive. That would require a lot of creativity! 😂 I would love to work towards that. My fridge is a mess. 😳
- We go through once a week and have a leftover night to eat all the food we prepared before it goes bad and has to be tossed.
- Nope, we do this quite often. Some of our favorite recipes emerged from it lol
- This is a great idea.
- I like to use everything in my freezer sometimes & then clean it before I restock!
- I could only WISH my fridge and freezer looked like that!
- Wow! Super impressive. I am learning to be better. Still have way more than 2 of us need. But I am labeling/dating all that goes into the freezer. 👍 Also using what we have. 😏👍
- Impressive. I have way too much dry pantry items but trying to be better. Learning to do better with pandemic as well.
- I’m definitely doing better with using up everything in the fridge! Work in progress!
- I am so jelly of your fridge right now!!
- It looks beautiful! If I could keep mine that clean!! PS I do not think that is an abnormal amount of maple syrup. I think this is a great idea!
- We do this thing how long we can go without having to go do grocery shopping…I think our max was 10 days.
- We do this a lot! We let it get to the bottom of the barrel! Love this!
- Definitely do that too! You are not alone, I’ve created some of my favorite go-to dishes from my non-spending week.
- My fridge looks empty like that usually on the weekends. But I like to stock up foods, especially veggies as I’m just not used to the feeling of an empty fridge. 😄😄
- I need to do this! My fridge is packed all the time, yet I feel like we have nothing to eat! 🤣 I need to be better about utilizing ALL my resources and getting creative before going shopping! 🙌🏻
- Impressive
- So smart! Combatting food waste!
- I see you have the Trader Joe’s pork dumplings and the boba ice cream bars. My two favorite things 😍
- I love this!!
- Oh wow! This is a good idea. We have 2 fridge, and a large freezer packed with food. 😅
- Does anyone else feel like your fridge has to be packed because of the pandemic?
- I’ve been working on this, too!🙌
- That looks my mom’s fridge
Do you ever do a no-spend week? Do you ever clear the fridge and/or pantry out before you stock up again?