No Money Month – Day 1: An Inventory of our Kitchen

In an effort to prevent starvation during the last days of our new experiment, I decided to do an inventory of our kitchen as it currently is stocked. This will give us a better picture of exactly how much we should be (and can) eat each day, as well as tell us what we should eat more of (there are some things in surplus).

After a comprehensive process, I have isolated the amounts of what we have in our cabinets. Our major staples are in bold:

In the fridge:

1. 48 pieces of whole wheat bread
2. 17 pieces of fancy sprouted grain bread
3. 3/4 of a 32 ounce carton of soy milk
4. 9 pieces of raw boneless chicken breast
5. 2 half-empty fresh packs of lettuce
6. A 10 ounce bottle of jam, almost full
7. 7 spinach tortillas
8. 3 little cartons of strawberries from the farmer’s market
9. A small pack of mushrooms
10. The last bits of a jar of salsa
11. A couple-dozen questionably fresh eggs
12. A quarter-jar of mayonnaise
13. 3 bell-peppers
14. An almost-full package of spinach leaves
15. 1 cucumber
16. 9 carrots
17. 5 stalks of celery
18. A small bag of old green beans
19. A small plastic jar of fresh-made peanut butter
20. The same sized jar full of almond butter
21. 4 cloves of garlic
22. 14 small red potatoes
23. 6 red onions
24. An old moldy block of pepper-jack cheese
25. 3 sticks of butter
26. Almost empty bottle of Aji hot-sauce
27. Half a bottle of natural mustard
28. Nearly full bottle of honey
29. Nearly full bottle of butterscotch
30. A quarter-full bottle of soy sauce
31. Tiny bottle of relish
32. Quarter-full bottle of ketchup

In the freezer:

1. 19 hot dog buns
2. Quarter-tub of ice cream
3. 26 hot dogs

In our cabinets:

1. 5 cans of corn
2. 27 cans of refried beans
3. 2 cans of kidney beans
4. 2 cans of garbanzo beans
5. A can of diced tomatoes
6. 7 cans of tuna
7. 1 and 1/16th small bags of brown rice
8. 2 small packs multi-grain crackers
9. Half bag of raisins
10. Nearly full package of protein powder
11. Half full jar of popcorn
12. 4 bags of pasta
13. 2 1/2 big bags of oats
14. Really big bag of white rice
15. 3 freezer-sized ziplocks of white sugar
16. 2 freezer-sized ziplocks of flour
17. 3 bottles of Caesar salad dressing
18. Quarter-bottle of balsamic vinegar
19. Half a bottle of white vinegar
20. Full bottle of rice vinegar
21. Big bottles of ketchup and mustard
22. 2 1/2 bottles of olive oil
23. 1 tin of lemonade mix
24. Bottle of garlic powder
25. Bottle of taco mix
26. Bottle of lawry’s salt
27. 3 small bottles of lavender soda
28. 2 bags of chocolate chips
29. 2 bags of blue corn chips
30. 10-serving container of candy apple mix
31. Small bag of walnuts
32. Small bag of almonds
33. Small bag of dried fruits
34. 11 boxes of Gudfud flavored marshmallows
35. 4 stacks of soda crackers
36. Tin of hot chocolate mix
37. Small jars of assorted spices
38. 8 small boxes of various teas

That’s it. Literally. We can’t (and won’t) be buying anything to add to this stockpile, even when we go camping for five days (we’ll be bringing all our food with us) later this month.

This gives us the basic idea about how we’re going to need to be rationing our meals. Lots of oatmeal and popcorn is in our future, I can tell.

There are other things we’ll need to worry about lasting us for the 30 days of our challenge, but food is by far the most crucial. Now that I’ve worked to create this list, I’m getting hungry.

Time to deplete our supplies!

1. Money Fast Update – Day 6
2. No Money Month – Day 3
3. Living for a month without spending a dime.