One Wanganui family has taken their New Year's resolution to the extreme, with a goal of going the whole of 2017 without spending money on food.

Lydia Harvey and Husband Matt and their four children are one month into their year without paying for groceries. Source: Facebook: Lydia Harvey

Lydia Harvey, husband Matt and their four kids came up with the idea of having a zero dollar grocery bill when their youngest child, Ashton, was diagnosed with celiac disease - an allergy to gluten- and a dairy intolerance when he was three.

"I started wondering why our food was making him sick. And then I started asking questions - reading all the ingredients on packets and googling anything that I didn't understand. I realised that so much of what we eat isn't even proper food," she told the Wanganui Chronicle.



Since then Ms Harvey has become focused on locally grown, unprocessed foods, and to keep them going this year her full time job is gardening, cooking and bartering.

Just a month into the year the Harvey family has been feasting on plenty of home-grown summer fruits and vegetables, even growing so much they've been able to give much of it away.

But the beginning of the year didn't get off to a smooth start.

Lydia Harvey made the decision not to stockpile food before New Year's Day, but when they went on a trip to Taupo for the day after, the kids started getting hungry and asking for takeaways.

"It would have been really easy to just stop and buy some chips, which is what we would have done in the past. The thing about spending no money on food is that you have to be really organised," she told the Wanganui Chronicle.

Now the Harvey's are thriving, as well as producing their own fruit, vegetables and eggs, they have become well versed in foraging and bartering for food.

Ms Harvey often bakes for friends, who giver her ingredients in return. She's also helped people with their gardens and in turn has been offered a share of the produce.

"My motto is that if you give freely, it will come back to you freely. We always have so many surpluses, and we don't ask for anything in return, people are happy to give back to us," she said.

Lydia Harvey uses her excess produce from her garden to barter for grocery items during her family's first month without paying for groceries. Source: Facebook: Lydia Harvey

She's reached out to friends on social media offering strawberry plants and avocado trees for a grocery item in return.

Ms Harvey told the Chronicle she's really enjoyed teaching people how to cut back on their grocery bills and save some extra money.