Monday Message

“We live in turbulent times.  Often the future is unknown; therefore, it behooves us to prepare for uncertainties. When the time for decision arrives, the time for preparation is past.” President Thomas S. Monson

http://breadbaking.about.com/od/yeastbreads/r/1loafbread.htm
http://breadbaking.about.com/od/beginnerbasics/ht/kneadhowto.htm

Cooking from scratch is so better for you and stretches our budgets http://frugalliving.about.com/od/foodsavings/tp/Learn-How-To-Cook-From-Scratch.htm

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/simple-waffles-from-scratch-recipe.html - waffles, yum! Make them special.

https://willowcottage.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/surviving-a-layoff-getting-aquainted-with-your-kitchen-part-i/

http://www.beingfrugal.net/frugal-tips-to-survive-a-recession/ - how to survive hard times
https://www.lds.org/ensign/2013/07/powdered-milk-budgets-and-blessings?lang=eng if you have kids, and even if you don’t, this is a must read, I love this.
http://raisinghomemakers.com/2011/homemaking-in-hard-times/ - we often learn from others, reach out.

http://www.simplesimonandco.com/2015/10/art-homemaking-motherhood.html/  - it’s worth it.

Reflecting on our hard times... they have made us stronger, they have made us a close family, they taught us that if you cannot buy what you need you sometimes can make it. Sometimes it taught us how to take out and replace our gas engine, our selves, we learned how to shingle the roof. I learned you don’t carry the full package of shingles up to the roof. Going to church one morning I saw a roofer cut his package and carried only half which never occurred to me. 

When times got tight I learned to make food from scratch, learned to garden, to can and dry our food. For Christmas, if it's a good year for us year we will go on a Christmas date to the used book store to pick out our own book. And I make our Christmas jerky. On a harder Christmas we just stay home and do what we enjoy and I fix a treat. These are when no one is coming home and things I made all year long have been sent. The kids will open their gifts from home while Skyping.
So I guess what I am saying is be flexible and if you are having tight times do all homemade gifts and play with your little ones. Happy memories will still be had and if you have older kids at home, talk to them, tell them it will be a tight Christmas. You just might be surprised by what ideas they can come up with. But do not put Christmas on a credit card, the whole family may suffer more as it takes so long to pay off. 

When we were first married my mother-in-law told us don’t start something you can’t keep up, I'm pretty sure this is her way of saying don’t go into debt for Christmas.

So if you have a tight Christmas have a family conference, plan to make cookies, cards and build snowmen. You can plan a pretty cheap Christmas for wonderful fun.

This is where our skills will kick in.

So if your brakes go out and you look up info on how to do it yourself, trade skills.

http://thehappyhousewife.com/home-management/homemade-christmas-gifts-2015/ okay, you don’t have a hundred days but this will help you stretch your budget.

Jerky

I have a rump roast I have been saving just for our Christmas jerky.
Take it out of the freezer the night before this way you get thin slices. In a bowl, I use glass, put one jar of soy sauce and one jar of liquid smoke, stir then put your slices in moving around to get well covered. Then in to the dehydrator dry till done, about 24 hours, yum yum yum, then we see who will be first to snitch it.

Keep working on your storage. I put in a tub of shortening as it was on sale. So do what you can and live within your means, it brings a peace well worth the sacrifice.