My Top 10 Takeaways from the Three Rivers Challenge
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I loved watching your version of the 3 rivers challenge. I learned so much and am making March a no spend grocery month. Thanks for motivating me!
Did I just see a DVC magnet???
I’m so grateful that you shared with us. I enjoyed every video. I didn’t do that challenge because I don’t have much in my pantry. But I do preserve and can. Yea love making food from scratch and always come up with something out of my pantry. Thank you so much ☺️
I found your channel recently and am enjoying your videos! I'm thinking of trying this but am no way prepared for it. I also like this idea for hurricane preparedness (i'm in Texas) I stock for that in the summer but not to this extent and think it would be so much better. I already use my freezer, but am looking into canning or freeze drying next. Just curious on figuring out which method to start with, any thoughts on how to start? Thank you!!
I have enjoyed watching you the past several weeks. I have felt so encouraged and want to do this the best that I can. We are a plant based family of 7 and I really learned a lot. So many ideas came to my mind just seeing you make up things as you went. I also really am thankful for your joy and time. Thanks so much!!! This has changed the way that I shop for my large family!
I found this challenge late in the game.. I’m doing something similar in March. $25 a week for dairy and produce.. nothing else!!!
love your videos!!
Thanks for sharing your journey. I did top off some dry goods this week. It seemed like a good idea. It was overall a fun challenge especially while we had fresh produce.
I am amazed I had pot roast (frozen) in 90min in the instant pot!
I participated in the challenge for January and February. I did buy groceries but not for eating then. I purchased groceries to stock my pantry and freezer and bought some items for preserving. I really liked using up the meat that was a little older. I saw the items we were missing or low on. It really helped to inventory what we have. I loved making bread and other baked items. I found that I didn’t mind eating frozen vegetables especially the ones I froze from my garden last summer. If I steamed them they tasted like fresh. I also could see what vegetables I want to grow in my garden as well as ones that I don’t need to grow and ones that I don’t need as many. We had to retire our large chest freezer that was 42 years old. It had rusted and had a hole on the side with ice popping out. We didn’t lose any food and purchased two upright freezers. It’s so organized now. I learned that I really missed fresh raw vegetables especially salads. I did give in and bought some lettuce and salad vegetables around February 7th. I think I will do this every year. I learned some really good lessons and it was fun. I enjoyed watching my YouTube friends’ “what we ate this week” videos. I got some good ideas and recipes. Thanks for documenting your challenge for us. ❤️
Loved this video. We're in a different situation, that we live in a small apartment in a city, but the past 2 years I had started building up a pantry and we bought a small chest freezer, so I decided to take on the challenge too. I learned a lot from it also and will adjust the things I store for the future. Eggs were the 1st thing I ran out of, but I expected that. I dont have a lot of room to do the waterglass thing, but I think I will get some freeze dried and will also keep some in the freezer in the future. We discovered that we LOVE homemade strained yogurt made with powdered whole milk! My oh my, it's good. And homemade sour cream and ricotta cheese. When I restock my freezer, I will focus more on ingredients instead of convenience items and this year I am going to grow as many spices as possible on my balcony and dehydrate those. I had never realized how many tomato products we use, so that is also something I need to try canning this summer. Oh, and we bought a small hydroponic setup to grow fresh lettuce, and I started growing microgreens! I had canned jellies, pickles and a few other things as an experiment during my time home in 2020 and we ate all of those up, so I obviously need to keep doing it. Anyone that says they can't preserve food because they live in a small place, are on a small budget, work full time, etc — those are excuses! I know because I made them too. You can do small batches — 2 or 3 jars at a time. My instant pot will steam can 5 pints at once. My only failure was I haven't been able to find a sandwich bread recipe that will make my boyfriend give up his grocery store bread. He just doesn't love the texture of homemade bread on sandwiches. I kept a sourdough starter going all of 2020 and I never could get him switched over. He loved the homemade baked goods, but still wanted sandwich bread from the store. 🙃
I’ve loved all of your ThreeRiversChallenge videos and I look forward to following your videos the rest of the year. It was lovely to see you so enthused and proud of your achievements these past 2 months.
I've learned so much during the challenge. Looking for your video on starting a sourdough starter. Help. Want to do more homemade bread and need easy methods.
I do hope you will still be sharing your cooking!!! I so look forward to whats next. Thank you for sharing with us.
We did the challenge in January. The only groceries I bought was when we signed up to make a meal for a meal train for a family from our church that had a new baby and when it was our turn to take breakfast snacks for Sunday School. The money that I saved let me buy a new freezer so I have somewhere to put the quarter side of beef that I purchased. We are supposed to pick that up the beginning of April. Thinking of doing it again in March just to make sure I have room in my freezers for my beef.
I absolutely feel worse when I eat out. I avoid it as much as possible, tbh. Even when my family wants to get take out I’ll skip it and just eat leftovers while they get something out. Leftovers are my “eating out”; a delicious, nutrient dense home prepared meal without the work of making it 😌
You’re name ‘the happy homestead’ makes so much sense. You always make me happy! So much fun to see your enthousiasm !
I live in a small town in Louisiana. I wish we had the opportunity to get fresh food like u do. I can’t . We only have a local grocery store and a Walmart where I live. It’s only me so I don’t have the money to do what u do. But, I like to watch the videos though.
I think it's a great challenge to participate in. We all could learn from it.
Due to the craziness of the world these days, I was not restricting my grocery purchases these last 2 months. That said, we didn't consume anything I bought other than produce I bought for our rabbits, and a package of asparagus. Most of what I bought was to restock what we were using. When I made my inventory at the end of December I made note of the dates on our meats and then made a list of what needed to be used first. I still have 1 package of trout from that list but we used up all the older meat. My goal was to try quinoa during the challenge because I bought it last year and had been reluctant to make it. I confirmed what I had already suspected… it was meh. But at least I finally tried it. I'm bummed that I still have so much left but I'll sneak it in here and there rather than making it a major component of a meal. I had intended on making soups throughout the challenge and never made even 1 so that was a fail. And I didn't bake bread nearly enough but we had store bought bread in the freezer that had to be used up. Sourdough still intimidates me… around here something has to either bark or speak to remind me to feed it or I sometimes forget! LOL Unless my sourdough has a voice (and a whiny one at that), I am fairly sure I'm going to neglect it. I need to make time to go through your fermenting playlist because I struggle with it. I fermented green beans and okra at the end of last summer and it went moldy. So much wasted time and effort! Not to mention the produce. sigh Growing up we never had fermented foods… or beans… and its really hard to develop a taste for them as an adult. Do you have any suggestions for a bean dish that is less… beany? I don't mind the taste but the texture is what puts me off.
I am so glad you had a great challenge and learned from it. You were my favorite to watch and I watched the majority of people in the challenge. I did the challenge as well and just had so much fun I love challenges. I only had to buy milk and eggs once for a total of $14.12. 6 dozen eggs and 2 gallon milk the first week of February to last til end. 😊
Listen to you – already planning 2023!!! Immediately after the last 2 months. WOW You did gain from the challenge – and I gained a new friendship and tons of info!
I am so glad you said that eating out is fun but that you don’t feel good for at least one day after.. I thought I was the only one that happened to… I cook three meals a day at home. I make all my own breads and bread products. Can my own garden produce… I am finding that with the issues of the world today it feels good to know we have a pantry filled with supplies!!!