“Food-Shop” Challenge, Week Two

I just wanted to write a quick update on the plan to cut my food bill in order to send money to Tearfund for those suffering a famine in East Africa.

I didn’t run out of fruit as I’d feared! Hooray for bumper bags of apples. The Lord provides.

I was definitely more aware of my general spending throughout the week, which can only be a good thing. Especially living in a city, it’s so easy to fritter away cash throughout the week. A coffee here, a sandwich there – it all adds up.

We decided to do it for a second week, which I think is definitely a good idea because you might find you can freeze things or you bought slightly too much of something the first week and can eek things out a bit. What I mean is, I found it easier the second week to spend less because I’d made some foolish mistakes the first week, like buying too many sausages. Also we were all set for dishwasher tablets and nappies.

Also, my children surprised me by not minding at all about some of the changes that I thought they’d really notice. Eg. I bought a giant tub of cheap natural yogurt instead of exciting little munch bunch ones (other brands are available), and they are perfectly happy with that. They are also, dare I write it, happy with bread and butter!

I was reminded on Sunday, hearing a talk on giving (coincidence?), that our main motivation for giving is the generosity of Christ. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9.) We should always be giving sacrificially to the Lord, our of gratitude to Christ for all he’s given to us. So this little food-shop challenge is an extra bit of giving in a crisis, but the ultimate motivation is still the same. This is something else to chat to the children about – what a blessing it will be for them if they can grow up as cheerful givers.