In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful
We’re a couple days into our countdown…about 6 days left until Ramadan! We’ve talked about Ramadan goals, mistakes to avoid, and getting our kiddos involved; Today we’re talking about how to stay out of the grocery store this month!
Before we dive into ‘how’, let’s talk about our why.. Each of us will probably have our own personal reasons for this kind of goal. But I think I’ll just mention three things to consider when making your intentions. Firstly, we have much better things to do in this sacred month than spending a bunch of time in the shops. Secondly, we’ve all heard about not going shopping while we’re hungry. We tend to buy things we really don’t need or sometimes even want. Finally, it helps us be more intentional about food in general and can be helpful in decreasing the amount of food we waste throughout the month.
It’s so important to remember that challenging ourselves in this way is not about going without or not enjoying yourself. Although I definitely recommend you make use of the things you already have on hand and you can certainly use this challenge to help your budget. The idea though is to avoid making an everyday/every week appearance at the grocery store, buying things that your fasting belly might be craving…that you wind up not even eating at the end of the day. With a little planning and prep ahead of time, you won’t have to take up all that mental space to figure out what your family will be eating. each day and what ingredients you need to pick up before breaking fast. You’re doing the work upfront and lightening the load for later.
So if you’re interested in trying to stay out of the grocery store this Ramadan, here are my three best tips to help you set that up.
1. Start your meal planning and meal prepping NOW!!
If you’re new to meal-planning, this might feel daunting. I highly suggest you start by figuring out a handful of your family favorites – breakfasts and dinner ideas. Those meals that aren’t super complicated and everyone will eat. Another thing you can do, instead of focusing on the whole month, start with one week at a time. I’ve been meal-planning and grocery shopping on a monthly basis for almost a year now (I can share more about that in another post) and one thing that works for me is planning 10-13 meals and just repeating those throughout the month. It’s less decisions, less planning and it’ll make shopping and storing groceries that much easier.
2. Plan on doing your BIG grocery haul just a few days before Ramadan.
Before making your grocery list, you’ll want to start off by looking at what you already have – make sure you look in your pantry, fridge and freezer. This is a great time to go ahead and throw out anything that may be expired…and pass on anything your family won’t be using. Then jump right into writing your grocery list. Looking at your recipes, figure out the ingredients you need and the amount of each you’ll need for your monthly plan. Don’t forget to figure in dried fruits and any other things you might want to have on hand throughout the month of Ramadan. Then of course, you’ll need to go pick up all the stuff you need. I love using the grocery pickup option whenever I can. Try to block out a whole day for this – keeping in mind you might need to go to multiple stores, you’ll have to take everything into your home…and put everything away.
3. Be realistic about it and give yourself grace.
In order to stay consistent and stick to a goal, we need to be realistic about it. That might mean, you make allowances for yourself such as fresh fruits and vegetables or meat. Maybe you don’t have a lot of storage space, so you may need to shop for a few weeks at a time instead of the whole month. You want to make it your own and set it up in such a way that it serves you and your family well and it’s not a burden. You want to be flexible and be sure to extend yourself grace. At the end of the day, it’s not about perfection…but rather checking in with your intentions regularly and striving for excellence.
That’s it for today; short and sweet. Let me know in the comments if you plan on trying to stay out of the grocery store this month…and be sure to stop by tomorrow for our next topic in the countdown.
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