Monday Message

"Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their year’s supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free." (President Thomas S. Monson)

When having debt is like walking under water with weights on your ankles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqhLgg6fRZk&feature=em-uploademail. She a wonderful author this is well worth watching, straight forward in understanding. 

Life is just hard sometimes and so much is out of our control. We should work on what is in our control, putting in a little food, and work on skill building. We have some control over these things. We should not put things off, that never goes well.

We never know what is around the corner. We feel things will always be okay, just little bumps, but when big bumps come along we stress and stressful events make it hard to think clearly. So having storage helps us when big bumps come and knowing how to stretch things is valuable as well.

https://www.thriftyfrugalmom.com/frugal-pantry-staples-to-help-you-cook-from-scratch/ - here are a few ideas.

Learning how to cook from scratch is a huge blessing. Making rice pilaf from a box takes just as long as doing it from scratch and is cheaper than a box. I know when I run across something that costs soooo much with ingredients that actually cost very little, I get a bit angry that they can do that. Like laundry soap. I went years worried about how we could afford to purchase it each time we needed to, only to find out you could make it yourself for so little, that still gets my goat.

So do some searching to see if you can make things cheaper.

I was thinking the other day about commercials. They tell people it is not cool to have dandruff for example, so long before it was a thing people had dry scalps but suddenly you are looked down on because the commercial shows you to do so when in fact using their shampoo makes your hair thin out.

Really, we need to use common sense. All these commercials are trying to show you how you should be, trying to get you to think you can't live without their products. They are trying to make money, I get it. But we don't always need these items.

How many times have you heard that this product tastes just like grandma's..? Really? One should get out her recipe and fix it instead. We have gotten away from how to do things. Even researching for this blog post I am finding so many that say too busy to cook, do this or that instead.

I am not against crock-pots for example, or microwaves, or any of the wonderful things that help us - even the bread machine! I find things used that help me all the time and you can too. What I am saying though, is that if you need to stretch your finances then going out to eat or buying packaged items is not what is helpful.

What you might do instead is plan and do a few things ahead that will help you when you are busy and we all are busy from time to time, but if you are so busy all the time take a step back and look at what you are doing because it isn't healthy to be going like that all the time. Your health WILL suffer and we don't want that.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1114&context=extension_curall  - Seriously, this gets harder all the time to find and it is the best recipe you can find. I timed myself making a creamed soup with a recipe for creamed soup from here and then made a can of soup... did it take the same amount of time? YES! Did the taste compare? No, this was way BETTER!!!!!!  Now that soup is a dollar a can this is way cheaper. And with tariffs ongoing look for it to go up in price.

https://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-helper/ - again this too was hard to find as well and these two sites have the best ever recipes.

I have them printed off and in a binder. So give them a try and then print them and put them in your binder, that way it's easy to grab. Really, this was two very hard searches.

I don't packet them, I find the best way to cook from scratch is to have the basic ingredients on hand.

Going out to eat really is not in our budget so trying to stretch what we have is so important. It's a very helpful skill that will bless your family.

With prices going up we need to do these things to offset the expense.

As the weather cools, try to learn to make bread. Also, look for used bread machines. As you've seen, using them to just do the dough is so worth it! You can let it do all the work while you do your chores.

I make my bread flour using one tsp of vital wheat gluten to one cup of flour as I cannot afford bread flour. This works just the same. However, it is a bit harder to find vital wheat gluten. I use to get it at Walmart, they no longer sell it at both stores near me. Our health food store does carry it and one can order it online. I keep a jar in the refrigerator as my using jar and to vacuum seal it if it is in a plastic bag inside the box, poke it with a pin and put whole bag in a jar and seal it. If, however, you buy it in bulk, put it in a jar then put a piece of paper towel over the powder inside. Completely wipe the rim, affix the lid and seal. This has to be the same procedure for all powdery foods otherwise the particles will suck into the machine and kill it and is not fixable.

More on making your own bread HERE!

Do keep working on your skill building and continue to find frugal tips that will help your family.

https://theprudenthomemaker.com/frugal-accomplishments-for-the-first-week-of-september/ - this gal has great frugal ideas.

Here is my smaller bobbin lace pillow that I made. To have it be more portable, I put it in a basket. My sister had given the bobbins to me as a b-day gift. The pins were from a yard sale for a dime and the thread too came from a yard sale... So if we put our minds to it we can find ways around expensive items while being frugal and loving it!