Just some notes from the time I was doing the no groceries challenge. The influence of the challenge is still with me, though I wouldn’t consider myself in a challenge right now.

• Playing this game is nothing like actually not having enough money to buy groceries. Nothing at all. Knowing if I really “had to” I could get anything I needed makes the experience a personal growth exercise unrelated to poverty. I wrote about this in my newspaper column.
• Homemade whole wheat tortillas are *really* easy and so much better than store-bought they are worth the effort. I can keep the dough frozen if I don’t have time to cook them all up at once. I used the breadmaker to mix the dough, which made it feel even easier.
  
• Friends are supportive and generous when they know about the challenge.
• My grocery shopping is much more cost-efficient. I recognize impulse buys for what they are, for example, and don’t succumb.
• Ordering take out pizza or Chinese food is CHEATING and it started seeming like a reasonable option after a few weeks.
• The creativity I force myself to tap into has helped me work on time management skills. I don’t do it as much as would be helpful, but meal planning and pre-prep work make being so tired takeout seems like a good option a relatively rare experience.
• I’ll do one of these no groceries challenges again soon.