I have a very sweet friend who lived across the hall from us with her equally adorable family for a month last year while they did construction on their home.

We spent more time together than we had before and it was dreamy. (When you meet those rare families where all the parents and all the kids get along great and any permutation of groupings within really gels, you gotta lock that sh*t down.)

One day my friend and I were standing around my kitchen island and my pantry door was open (which is true about 80% of the time) and somehow we got to talking about my only slightly conscious habit of overstocking non-perishables.

At the time, I had extra boxes of crackers tucked in every nook and cranny, including atop the cookbooks in the cupboard over our fridge and behind the toaster.

One of the great things about spending time really getting to know folks (like sharing space and sharing a lot of meals) is that you see your quirks mirrored back to you through the eyes of people seeing said quirks for the very first time.

I was aware I had slightly anxious behavior around stocking food, but when I witnessed my friend seeing the sheer number of boxes of crackers and other things I was socking away in multiples, I saw myself in a new way.

And, I decided to do a little experiment with myself to see if I could transmute this borderline compulsive behavior into something more conscious and life-giving.

The experiment was this:

For the month of January, I was not allowed to buy any more non-perishable items (with the exception of condiments such as ketchup and mayonnaise because I don’t have any compulsive buying behavior with them.)

Specifically, I could not buy any more packaged snacks until the end of the month. We had plenty.

I was to use what we had. The end.

Here’s what I noticed: While on the online grocery shopping app, I would often want to throw in a couple of boxes of granola bars for the kids, or some other suggested item that I usually buy that the app was enticing me with.

But, instead of unconsciously adding it to my cart, I just let the urge pass and re-routed myself to the fruits, veggies, dairy, and meats that were actually on my list.

I noticed the snack bins for the kids after school snacks getting emptier and emptier. I resisted the urge to keep them filled to the brim at all times.

And here’s what I noticed:

I was able to put my attention on receiving the feeling of abundance from an overly full pantry to receiving that feeling from a pantry with plenty of space instead.

We ended up with more room on the shelves, fewer things falling down due to stuff being too close together, and we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of the backlog of snacks I had stashed away.

So, I’m keeping the experiment going until we actually need them.

Why does this experiment matter?

It was a great way to bring some more consciousness to my spending behavior and notice what I was doing unconsciously to create a sense of safety.

For me, safety has equaled a pantry filled to the brim with extra snacks.

But you know what? After a month of my experiment, I have a stronger sense of internal safety. I regulated myself right on through those urges to overbuy snacks and my nervous system, our grocery budget, the planet, and our health are all better for it.

Do you have an area of your budget where you spend money unconsciously or semi-consciously?

Give yourself a 30-day self-designed experiment like I did and see if you can strengthen your ability to be regulated without that unconscious behavior.

And, when you do it, send us an email because I wanna hear about your success!

Here’s to us and a feeling of plenty that comes from within!

Love,
Kate