Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I don't think we have to imagine very hard how things could go horribly bad.

They are saying on the news that our grocery prices are going to go even higher and that power bills will be higher as well. We should start preparing now for things to go high.

I remember now years ago, I can't remember when exactly, but I always tried to pick up flour (remember I buy flour in 25 lb. bags) well I went to get the flour and the price was higher than it used to be $4.64 and was two dollars higher. I asked the clerk and he said it was seasonal. What? It's not seasonal. It was summer and he said just wait, it will come back down. I am still waiting. It has always just gone up. It hovers around ten dollars now.  

I went ahead and got the flour that day. I wasn't happy about it but I did not wait for prices to come down. If I had I would have no flour and still be waiting. I tell you this to say higher prices are here to stay a long while I am afraid. So don't just sit around waiting. You must be working diligently to keep building a storage even if you have to pay a bit more. 

Our income has not raised (we are on social security). So that for us means that I get less for the same budget for groceries. I imagine it is that way for most people. I either do not get all we need or I find more frugal recipes and fix more frugal meals. It means I can waste nothing. We do not eat out, so people who still eat out could go out less and add to their grocery budget. Is it hard to tighten the belt?  Yes, it is but sacrificing for our families is what we do.

Build those skills!!!

Last week, I mentioned three things to do for homework. Are you working on those? I went ahead and did them with you.

I made a loaf of bread from this RECIPE. (I like to use an electric knife for slicing. I got mine at a yard sale but I have seen them at thrift stores). Do you need one? No, you can slice your bread with a serrated bread knife. The other thing I do is I slice my entire loaf at the same time. This helps the slices stay good otherwise bread gets harder to slice as the days go by. This bread freezes well and having it sliced makes it way better. If you have done the bread, notice the jam... in the picture is the strawberry rhubarb jam we talked about a while back. You can get the recipe by typing strawberry rhubarb jam in the search space. You will want to learn jam making.

I mentioned checking out this book from the library if you don't already own it...

I am reading it along with you.

Then I mentioned knitting a dishcloth as homework too with the tutorial to help you along every step.

I am knitting a dishcloth with you. I am knitting my favorite pattern but you are learning another of my favorites.

I have been working on the knitting machine. Learning this skill is difficult but I push on.

So do not wait, just dig in, and build your storage and learn your skills that would be most helpful for your family. 

Missy says do whatever you can, your family will be blessed and so will you.

Tippy Longstockings says don't wait for things to get better, we have to do the best we can now.

Monday Message

"Start now to create a plan if you don’t already have one, or update your present plan. Watch for best buys that will fit into your year’s supply. We are not in a situation that requires panic buying, but we do need to be careful in purchasing and rotating the storage that we’re putting away. The instability in the world today makes it imperative that we take heed of the counsel and prepare for the future." (L. Tom Perry)

We need to not put off learning skills and putting in storage. I know it is hard and I know money is very tight but even if you pick up a few extra things when you get groceries, like a box of pasta and can of pasta sauce, it adds up. What I try to do is, when I can, I will get a bag of flour one month then sugar the next time I get groceries and so forth. Can I do this every time? Nope. Sometimes it is a box of salt or a jar of peanut butter. Just do the best you can. Money is tight for us as well as most I fear. 

I try to make what I get stretch very far, leaving a little extra that I can get something for storage. I get our groceries once a month. I plan very frugal meals so I can get something for storage and can stretch what I have.

Missy is horrified that the prices keep going up so she suggests the site below...

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/the-cheapest-meals-to-make-on-an-incredibly-tight-budget.html?utm_source=convertkit&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Sequence+-+669454 - I really like this gal, her site has much to offer.

Remember, do not waste anything today. I made burritos using leftover taco meat from when our kids visited a couple weeks ago. I placed the leftovers in the freezer. So remember to do that with those leftovers. Also, when I put away leftovers after a supper, I will make meal plates from this food and freeze. All this helps to stretch your dollars.

When you have just five green beans left, do not toss them. Put them in a container, juice and all, then every little veggie leftover, add it to this. When the container is full, time to make a tasty soup. And if you have been working to build your bread making skill, make rolls to go with. That sounds great to me! If you have a little rice, add it as well. There's so much we can do!

Are we tired? Yes, most of the time we are but don't give in to takeout or going out. This adds up. You could get a lot of storage for that amount. And I don't think it would taste as good knowing that.

Here are some videos worth watching... I watch videos while walking on the treadmill - just a tidbit about me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t8wWynGicY - she shows how to do the building a pantry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr0_NDanG5o - very nice to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSO5ZtjAtQ - how to find space.

How are you coming on skill building? 

I have had a fun time with family visiting these past two weeks. We enjoyed very much our time with them.

I am still learning on the knitting machine, taking it one step at a time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vB9UvBx9xc - here is a good tutorial on knitting a dishcloth. I suggest you start here. The yarn is cheap, has to be a cotton yarn she will tell you but I suggest this. Once you learn this, you can make many for your home and for gifts.

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/crocheted-dishcloth.html - here is a crochet version of a dishcloth if you prefer. Note, it is from the site I like, she is so good.

Try to learn these. They will be addictive after a while and very calming to do, way better than store-bought.

Things are getting pretty stressful out there. Try to not watch so much of the news and such on these things.

Get along with others, even if they don't believe like you do. Missy and Tippy Longstockings are showing you how. It is a hard time, don't waste your time stressing. Don't worry about tomorrow. Prepare for it. Learn the skills that can best help your family. If you have kids, boy or girl, have them learn to do a dishcloth as well.

Don't throw away leftover yarn from making these. Use them in the next or all in one as a Franken-cloth.

Think outside the box!

I like how in the make-it-do video, she didn't care if things weren't perfect. She did them anyway.

Keep looking for a dehydrator, food saver, canner and equipment, and jars.

Times will be getting harder so I want you to check this book out from the library as a homework assignment as well as working up a dishcloth. Read the book. I will as well and we will do this together. And I really want you to learn to make bread and store the ingredients to make it. Get your family used to eating it - way wonderful toasted I say! Be on the lookout for a bread machine. I saw one the other day for eight dollars at Goodwill but I have seen them for less too. Use the bread recipe in this booklet.

I can't afford to store bread flour as well as all-purpose flour. So I make my bread flour by using 1 tsp. vital wheat gluten to one cup of flour which equals one cup bread flour - this is what I use.  

I store wheat berries in my storage and grind them into flour. I store vital wheat gluten as well to go with the wheat and I use it in my all-purpose flour as well.

Feel free to get bread flour if you want but this is the route I went due to our low finances.

If you do not want to use a bread machine, that is fine too. Just do the same recipe and do by hand but do not add any more flour. You will be tempted but don't.

Here again, get the kids involved. It is a skill they will appreciate having and the money saved.

I know this sounds like a lot but a lot is going on and we need to step up our learning.

Remember to store the ingredients to have in your storage the ability to make bread items...

So when I buy flour, it is a 25 pound bag. I get all-purpose, it is around ten dollars right now but that will change I am sure. Refer back to Missy's picture of being shocked over prices.

Again, I only store all-purpose flour so I can make the bread items and another time my chocolate cake, another time might be cookies.

I need my flour to be versatile. 

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2020/05/monday-message_25.html  - you can see in this post my sliced bread. I use an electric knife that most people use for slicing turkey. I see them at thrift stores a lot. This will also help the switch from store-bought to homemade.

Missy says we need to do the best we can to learn skills and be as frugal as can be.

Tippy Longstockings says, give the things on your homework list a try:

1. Make a dishcloth

2. Read the book and take notes that you could do

3. Make bread

You can do it!

Monday Message

"Those families will be fortunate who, in the last days, have an adequate supply of food because of their foresight and ability to produce their own." (Ezra Taft Benson)

We need to build skills.

As much as I hate gardening, there is more to gardening than putting seeds in dirt. So there is a large learning curve. Take time to learn this skill. It is a try and fail thing too - what works, what doesn't.

I am here to say, I do not know it all for sure, I am still on the learning curve.

The weather makes a huge difference and pests - there's so many moving parts.

What skills are you working on? Let us know in the comments below!

Making bread is one skill that I think is at the top of the list. "Knowing how" is a skill you will have forever and you can make so many things.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2012/04/four-in-one-bread-dough.html

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2015/07/monday-message.html

Learn to make your own laundry soap....

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2015/06/monday-message_29.html

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2017/08/monday-message_28.html - learning to can is up there too along with all ways to preserve foods.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2019/12/monday-message_9.html - Sewing is huge. You can mend and remake clothing as well as making your clothing. Learning to knit and crochet are very helpful as well.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2012/03/preserving-your-childrens-artwork.html - learning to embroider to decorate your home or useful things for your home dish towels and curtains and on your clothing I even have used to hide a hole in clothing or a stain that wouldn't come out. In this case, I traced off my children's artwork and made pictures of their artwork.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2020/02/monday-message_24.html

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2019/07/monday-message_8.html

I would say that it takes skill to use what you have. Here, I used a bowl for a yarn bowl.

So look around your house and find different uses for things. You will be amazed at what you find and could very well start a trend using something you already have in a different way. Make it a game and see what you can do.

Along with that, learn to be content.

Another skill cooking from scratch...

https://www.gracefullittlehoneybee.com/35-frugal-recipes-to-make-when-youre-broke/

https://www.thriftyfrugalmom.com/homemade-foods-to-make-from-scratch/

https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/

https://www.foodstoragemoms.com/cooking-from-scratch/

Missy says little by little, build those skills.

Tippy Longstockings says she knows you can do it, she is pulling for you!

Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

Well, we certainly have the potential for all these things happening all at one time. There is also some hacking thing going on as well. I watch a podcast that is from the Isle of Skye a few weeks back and they had a hack on grocery stores. I thought that it was a one time thing. It is worse for them being an island. The stores couldn't get their orders filled and the shelves were totally empty.  

Then I heard it happen somewhere else but can't remember. And then two places here in Iowa. It isn't so bad as you can drive to other towns here but this being done at all makes me think they are testing and learning how to do this on a bigger scale. The one store here in Iowa, the owner said she then called their supplier and they cautioned not to be greedy as they have many orders they are trying to fill. Was there more than these two stores? I wonder. Suffice it to say, really be working on your storage so that if this happens in your neck of the woods you will have something in house.  

Since other countries are being hit like us, it just isn't a hit for one but many. I first thought it was a joke but a nasty joke, because Skye being an island has to have stuff brought to the island. I also think they are hitting small unnoticed areas.

So if you are starting out with storage...

https://stockingmypantry.com/how-to-build-a-3-month-food-supply/

https://survivalstoic.com/3-month-food-supply-list/

https://emergencyprepguy.com/get-a-3-month-food-supply/

https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/providentliving/content/resources/pdf/PD60004682_000_Home-Storage-Handout.pdf?lang=eng

https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/food-storage/what-is-food-storage?lang=eng

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/04008_eng.pdf

Getting something in is important and it is good to review and good to take stock of what you do have, looking for holes you may need to work on building up.

Once you feel like you have three months in, work on six months, then a year.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/english/life-help/Personal-and-Family-Emergency-Preparedness-Planning-Guide.pdf

It isn't to scare anyone just be prepared for well, anything. People are losing jobs all over. As one whose husband's job was downsized, I can tell you we have had to live off what we had till another job was found. Unexpected expenses - they say our electric bills are to go way up and they have already started to. Medical expenses, higher insurance, car problems there are so many things that can happen just regularly that adding extra troubles is rotten for sure. But you can buffer that with storage.

My crew here is hard at work helping us with this post...

One thing I did was go through all my recipes and picked ones that could use no eggs if getting them was a problem and recipes I could use shelf-stable items to make. I put these all in a binder...

I have them all in this binder with a table of contents.

I have shown you the system here that I use so you can go through your files and compile, if you wish, recipes that would be made of shelf stable foods. I do can meat but have seen that you can now purchase cans of ground beef or beef and there are chicken, etc. So if you do not can meats, you can find them. I encourage you to learn to can meat as well.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2022/07/monday-message_18.html - Here is my blog with more pages of my binder, of course I put it in a better binder.  And those of you who miss Gus will get to see a pic of him at the end.

To leave you on a sweet note, enjoy this recipe. It is so yummy. You can switch apricot with any jam you have.

Missy says, you thought I was sleeping didn't you? She says be sure to have supplies on hand for any emergency you may find yourself in.

Tippy Longstockings says keep putting in your storage and remember your pets.

Monday Message

"I wish to urge again the importance of self-reliance on the part of every individual Church member and family. None of us knows when a catastrophe might strike. Sickness, injury, unemployment may affect any of us. We have a great welfare program with facilities for such things as grain storage in various areas. It is important that we do this. But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. Five or six cans of wheat in the home are better than a bushel in the welfare granary." (President Gordon B. Hinckley)

It feels like the world is more chaotic every week I write this blog. Keep working on skill building and putting supplies into your storage.

I know times are hard but I feel we have much harder times ahead. Every little bit helps...it all adds up.

This week I blanched and froze three more bags of asparagus. This is what I mean by doing whatever you can. Three bags isn't much but add them to what I have done and it adds up.

I also haven't been able to bake with this heat so I am dehydrating three trays of sourdough starter, this is my excess or discard they call it. This is what I mean by finding uses for things, do not waste anything. I think we will be happy we did so later.

It is raspberry picking time for me - an ouchie job but I pick, wash, and freeze. Then when it is cooler, I will make jam with them.

Yesterday I went out behind the raspberries to make a path so I can easier pick them. It was a hard job, with so many volunteer trees growing up. I got the pathway cleared though so that will help a lot when picking but still pokes me - owie! But I'm always glad for July Fourth because the raspberries are done by then.

Before I tell you a stress I had, I thought I would show the flowers are pretty this year.   

Okay so you know I am stressing? Building your skills is not always easy to do. I have been trying to learn the Toyota knitting machine.

Yesterday morning, I was looking at it and pushing the carriage across it was getting increasingly harder to push, which was hurting me ever so much. So I was looking at this while pushing the carriage and got just a quick glimpse at the problem. The sponge bar had failed. Now I refurbish my own but when I pulled it out part of the foam stayed in the machine. I had to leave it till afternoon when I could get back to it.

Both cats decided they would sleep on the problem.

I looked it up on the internet and could find nothing on just how to fix this. I only saw one mention of if foam gets in the machine it would be disastrous - well, that wasn't helpful at all.

I put the pen on the bed of the machine to help you see the size of the slots I was having to work with.  It took me four hours of picking the foam out of those slots - very much not easy!

But I stuck with it.

I was able to fix this. I'm hoping it never happens again but if it should, I know how to tend it. So even though it wasn't what I wanted, I did learn from this. Each thing I do is helping me to understand it more.

So if you are working with a skill and getting frustrated, walk away, go look at some flowers, and tackle each step on its own. Little by little you will figure it out. When I try to think of all the steps at once, it doesn't go well and when I am not stressed by a mean teacher, I am learning better, I am not mentally freezing up and can slow down and soak in what I need to learn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWVg6JcpyDI - this is another skill I am wanting to learn.

What are some skills you are wanting to learn?? Let us know in the comments below.

Every morning you can find Tippy Longstockings right here under the floor loom, taking a morning snooze.

https://www.instructables.com/2-Felt-Cat-Toys-Fish-and-Dinosaur/ - here is a neat way to hand-sew cat toys, it is on my too do list pretty soon.

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/153-grocery-staples-that-you-can-make-at-home.html - this is worth putting in here again. We can make things that we may think we can only buy at the store.

https://www.artfulhomemaking.com/homemaking-101/ - this is helpful as well.

https://heartscontentfarmhouse.com/ - great ideas on scratch cooking.

https://www.artfulhomemaking.com/ - great things here.

While you pick a skill to work on, involve your kids so they can learn it as well!

Missy says be wise in how you do things. Take it in steps. No need to do anything all at once.

Tippy Longstockings says try hard to not over do and try hard not to stress, we will all get through this time.