Monday Message

"The best place to have some food set aside is within our homes..."
"We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week's food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months. . . . I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all.
"Begin in a small way, . . . and gradually build toward a reasonable objective." (Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, Oct 2002 and quoted again in April 2007)

When you are warned a snow storm is coming and you don’t prepare for it, you have a harder time than if you had prepared.

When our prophets have warned us to have food storage and hard times comes but we hadn’t heeded the warning, how can we expect things to go better when trying times come? We must not procrastinate.

Blessings come from following the prophets. I admonish you not to put off working on this.

Also, if you get food your family won’t eat you have wasted your money.

Get basics - flour, wheat, yeast, oil, sugar, salt, powdered milk, then you can make bread at least. Then build out from there.

http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/living-on-food-storage - she has very important information for you.

http://www.theprudenthomemaker.com/blog?view=entry&id=88 - this is a very good read.

One of the dangers we have in our time... ease of life, like we feel life is great/good. There's no trouble paying for groceries or getting other needful things. This is the time when you have good pay checks to get your storage in. I know there are lots of temptations to tug for those dollars. They can be gotten once your storage is in.

At the same time you should challenge yourself to learn to sew. Get this skill up and a machine and supplies. I know I was in Walmart and saw how high clothing is. When you are sewing you are in charge of modesty in clothing.

I can tell you that this is an ongoing skill I work on. Years ago I could see the trends going in a non-modest direction so I started collecting my own pattern library of modest dresses and I don’t like to follow trends that are here today and gone tomorrow. I try to set my own trend.

I also started long ago collecting movies that were wholesome. It has been years since doing that but we have two daughters who know what our criteria is when they get us movies.

I also have collected books, cozy mysteries from yard sales, book sales and free at libraries. Once I read I pass them on to Dick’s mother. 

I also have collected books over the years that are books that help me learn skills.

At yard sales I would find lamps that take oil and bottles of oil for the oil lamps. Were things I might have liked instead at the yard sales? Yes, but time and again these have helped when electricity would go out. We light the lamps and set them on the table. The light could be seen outside where people would drive slow and wonder why we had lights when all others didn’t.

I have fabric from friends and buttons, thread, needles, all sewing supplies. I have worked on this since we joined the church. I got to see the RS building and one room all set up in storage. They had oil lamps, oil, wheat, first aid on their coffee table.

It helped me to see there was more needful things than I had thought.

I collected board games so we would have fun FHE but if the electricity was off we would have the games.

I am still learning and probably will always be doing so.

Yard sales have helped me have things we could not afford new, like my blender was gotten at Goodwill. Weeks later I found the processor attachment, the latter was never used and the blender looked like it was used once.

Food dehydrators were used.

Food saver used.

Used jars are hold my canning and my spices and my vacuum sealed goods.

Even the woodburning cook stove was purchased used. We repaired it and it is hooked up and we have used it even for emergencies.

Used cook books
Used clothing and coats mittens hats

I keep a running list of what I am looking for. I would allow those good buys too like attachments to the kitchen aid, the food grinder   one dollar at one yard sale and the pasta attachments that go with it for a dime at another.

I scored a free paddle for my kitchen aid that scrapes as it goes.

So yes, yard sales and thrift stores have helped me gather items for storage, bug out bags, sleeping bags, portable weather radio, dutch ovens and outdoor means to cook with them.

I know not everyone goes to yard sales and thrift stores and I will admit this took time to collect needed items.

You have to be able to control yourself though and get mostly needed items… flashlights, things needed for home storage. I got our sewing machines used and serger for ten dollars used, knitting machine from yard sale, pickup load of yarn from an auction house, a pressure canner for ten dollars from a neighbor... even today this brand is worth three hundred. A steamer canner brand-new for three dollars at a yard sale, new at a hardware store is thirty….

So I am saying being frugal when you have to is very helpful and being frugal when you don’t have to is equally helpful.

It all saves money. Over the years when we had good jobs we stocked up for our many times when not so good.

This is all about making do with what you have.

I think we would have had a much harder time if I had not been doing these things and bought a new dress or such. It is amazing how this all works out so well.

I haven’t been yard selling for several years but I can tell you that it was a lot of work. I had to stop at many that weren’t good along the way but with my list I moved to fill a lot of things that have been so helpful.

We did this for school clothes and even gifts, some were like new and others we repaired to look like new.

This is all part of being frugal.

So if you have extra dollars instead of getting something new that will be out of style in less than a year, study and ponder what your family will need in the future... food and clothing come to mind.

See if you can find ways to be frugal too. Stick to your budget. Cook more from scratch. Mend your clothes. I am in awe still at being in the Amish market and the man ahead of me was Amish in coveralls getting a fifty lb bag of potatoes. I noticed his overalls had patches on them. I noted the stitches were small and even. Someone who loves him did a loving and caring job and saved them money…we too can do it.

Find ways to save. Find time save trips out. You would be surprised at how much more time you get from combining trips and making menus and a grocery list two times a month or one time a month. For me it is an hour round trip to get groceries just in driving so I go once a month. If I went every week cutting to once a month would save three hours a month just in travel and what time it would take going through the stores. You read that right, stores I usually go to Ames so the stores are close, Sam’s for cheese and nuts, Fareway for flour and meats and baking stuff, Aldis for the rest that sort of thing.

Yes, it takes planning and sticking to the list. I write my list in order of how things are in the store, the only time I deviate from list is if there is an unadvertised special. Then I rearrange the list to allow for the purchase so I stay in the amount I have budgeted.

I encourage you to work hard on developing those skills that are needed…. learn then teach. Try learning with your kids. It used to be kids learned at their mother’s knee. It is a lot harder to learn from a distance.

I know you can do these things.

So analyze your days and weeks and months.

If your husband lost his job tomorrow and it maybe will take a year to get another what would you do?  How would your life change? Would you stress? How long will it take you to learn to do basics and manage with little or no income? What would you wish you had done? It really is better to learn when things are not stressful. 

So start and be ready, have the skills that work with what you have. If it never happens then weeeee! But it could be you, a child, a friend, a sibling, a neighbor…you would be able to share your skills.

Think on it thoough how it would your life change.