A few days before November, I don’t recall what prompted it exactly, but I spoke to my hubby asking him to be on board with a “No Shopping November” challenge.  Considering a few recent purchases (but not knowing we’d need a lot of work on our vehicle), he agreed that would be a good idea.  Such a good idea, in fact, that he suggested we could just go down to shopping once a month EVERY month.

I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but I thought that was a terrible idea.  I wasn’t willing to give up my weekly clearance run to Giant where I’d look for reduced meat and yogurt (50% off), and my trips to Aldi for bananas, salad, etc.  I replied something like, “Are you sure we’d save if I can’t buy meat on sale? (Organic chicken and beef are expensive after all.)

Furthermore, I do enjoy shopping alone (shopping with kids is a different matter; that’s not relaxing).  I start at Giant like I said, then I go to Aldi, and whatever Aldi doesn’t carry that I think we need, I get at Walmart (they have a better price on gallons of organic milk.) So time and receipt totals add up.  The next week I might go to Aldi and Costco instead, and maybe the dollar Tree for some spice or something or Big Lots to browse the discount end cap.  The next week I go to the other end of town to get organic sweet potatoes at Harris Teeter.

Well, a month of no grocery shopping later, and I must admit, I am excited to continue  to scale back on future grocery shopping.  Why? I found that I saved more than money.  I saved about 2 and 1/2 hours of my time a week.  That was an exciting realization. More creative productivity=happier Amy.  I used the newfound time mostly to edit videos (alas, COPPA and the FTC might be changing things for me and many others).  (Photo by Pixaby with Canva graphics).

More energy because of less work, too.  Less hassle of carrying bags in from the store, fewer plastic bags everywhere the times I forget the reusable ones, and less mess as I had to organize and put everything away.

I’d like to think our kids gained an important lesson as well.  The idea that in life not everything can immediately be granted, not everything has to be convenient, and that we can eat what we have and be thankful.  So about that once a month shopping idea my hubby wanted to continue?  Maybe I’m on board after all.

After typing this up, I thought of some other things to mention and made this video about it if you’re interested.