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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

7 read-a-long




I'm currently reading the book "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess", by Jen Hatmaker and I've joined this blog read-a-long by Marla Taviano to discuss each chapter on Tuesday's. First a bit of background on the book (from Amazon):
"7 is the true story of how Jen (along with her husband and her children to varying degrees) took seven months, identified seven areas of excess, and made seven simple choices to fight back against the modern-day diseases of greed, materialism, and overindulgence."

Food. Clothes. Spending. Media. Possessions. Waste. Stress. They would spend thirty days on each topic, boiling it down to the number seven. Only eat seven foods, wear seven articles of clothing, and spend money in seven places. Eliminate use of seven media types, give away seven things each day for one month, adopt seven green habits, and observe “seven sacred pauses.”

This week's prompt is:
Tell us a little bit of your from-the-gut right-now story

The first chapter is Food and prior to reading the book, my initial thought was that I'm pregnant so I don't see how this can be applied to my life at this time. I cannot suddenly start eating only 7 foods at 33 weeks! However, I'm really glad I read the chapter because Jen talks about many different factors of food such as health, where our food comes from and how many food options we have in our pantry and kitchen verses the rest of the world. Jen counted 240 food items in her house, I have no idea how many we have but it's plenty!

I have had this casual goal to eat through our freezer and pantry food for several months now but every week I justify buying new food options because it fits into my $400 monthly food budget. If it fits into my budget, why not buy more food options? Well I'm also reading
"The Money Saving Mom's Budget" by Crystal Paine and she pointed out that even a $25.oo savings per month could lead to some pretty significant savings over 5 years, make a great donation to a worthy charity or at minimum pay for both Jen and Crystal's books if I apply this rule in March!

So in March, I plan to cut my food budget by $25.00 and use up all the food in our freezer and pantry! That includes you FAD diet Agave Syrup that makes my baked goods taste really dry!!! And capers - why on earth do I have an unopened jar of capers? Any ideas for using these up???

14 comments:

Amanda said...

I have nothing for you for ideas with capers. I need to eat through our freezer too...mind you I've been doing well at not buying as much lately because I know what's in the freezer or worse...I stocked up on things that were on sale over the fall.

Marla Taviano said...

I'm doing the same thing right now!! It's actually been fun!!

Katrina Ryder said...

Great goal! I'm going to do the same. :)

Kelly said...

Great idea! I'm pregnant too (due in June) and am wondering about the same thing... I think I'm going to try to cut out sugar/junk food for a week. I figure, it's good for me and the baby, saves money, and helps me think about whether my food is really a necessity or a luxury! Good luck using everything up ~ especially those capers! :)

Brooke F said...

i've been "shopping" from my pantry and only buying produce, milk & bread at the store. you'll enjoy the first few weeks at the very least! its so freeing to not spend all evening at the grocery store :)

Valerie said...

I've been doing the same thing for the past couple of weeks. Every now and then I have to get a head of lettuce or a missing ingredient in order to use up stuff. It's led to some interesting meal combinations. I'm about out of everything now and too lazy to go shopping 8-). I think it's time to throw out what's left......I would take it to the food closet but my random items, like yours, are pretty weird.....

Stacie said...

Sounds like a good read. And the pantry project would be a good one for me to adopt as well!

Sharon said...

I want to try the eating through the pantry challenge too! As far as the capers, I can't help you directly, but you can go to allrecipes.com and click on the "ingredients" tab and enter capers (and any other ingredients, if you want to) and recipes will pop right up.

rubberbacon said...

LOL, just noticed your Disqus tag line says "Failed Missionary", you are too funny!!!

rubberbacon said...

Hi Kelly - thanks for stopping by week 1 of the 7 read-a-long. Sorry I'm a big late in answering comments. I'd love to connect and blatter on about pregnancy. I'm at 34 weeks and almost done but I'm sure it will be fun to watch your journey. Best of luck on cutting out sugar/junk food. You will thank yourself post pregnancy when it comes time to lose the weight!

rubberbacon said...

Hi Brooke - thanks for stopping by week 1 of the 7 read-a-long. Sorry I'm so late in answering your comment. I hope to stop by your blog this week and see what you've written on this subject!

rubberbacon said...

Hi Amanda - I'm still at a complete loss on the capers! Thanks for stopping by last week!!!

rubberbacon said...

Hi Marla - so impressed that you are hosting this read-a-long even with your complicated life. I'm keeping you and your husband in my prayers.

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