Cutting Waste: No buy February

Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed by the amount of food I have in my storage in the little apartment I have.  Most of the food are from friends leaving Japan but I also brought over some instant meals from Germany in case I miss my national food. Since it was a large amount I only looked occasionally into it leading me to the situation I am in right now where the expiration dates of these items are approaching (March and April). 

Since my budget for this month is also quite tight I thought of creating this challenge for me in February and made some guidelines for myself.

What do I want to achieve with this challenge?

1. To cut food waste 

2. Save money 

3. Find a way to manage my groceries, rethinking consuming behavior 

4. Create more space in my little apartment (by using up food items)

The rules I made for myself:

1. Go as long as possible without buying new food items

2. Budget 1000 yen for food per week in case something is needed

3. Only go to the grocery store twice per week

Methods I want to use for this challenge:

1. Make a wishlist 

2. Use time usually used for shopping to increase my Japanese language skills

3. Write reviews of Japanese food items (and decide whether I want to repurchase in the future)

I will take you along on my journey every now and then by doing some reviews on the Japanese food I've used up if I think it will be valuable to the community.

Also additionally, since I'm feeling a bit of a rush of buying many cute items right now, I'm also including them in my challenge for this February.

Have you ever done a no buy challenge? What is/was your experience with it?