Monday Message

"As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year’s supply of necessities. I would guess that the years of plenty have almost universally caused us to set aside this counsel. I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness." (Elder L. Tom Perry)  

The years of plenty, have they given us a false sense of security? Will there always be plenty? It is not hard to see crop failures, flooding, fires, earthquakes, volcano activity, short growing season, unexpected freezes...the list goes on. This has been a tough year, it just stands to reason prices are going to go up.

I suggest read up on gardening this winter, get yourself ready to garden by spring. At the same time though start stocking up, don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Believe me, I of all people, understand hard times, being very low income it is very hard to get some extra at the store.

Look at those store flyers. Check what is on a deep sale price. For example, we had a store have spaghetti sauce on sale for .68 for the large can and no limit on it. If this was something you liked then plan your meals to be more frugal, like soups and breads or meatless meals, etc. Use the difference and stock up months worth, not just one or two cans. Yes, you might be busy and tired but sometimes you need to push through to help stretch the funds. I haven't seen pasta sauce on sale very often, so now if you stocked up on that then you now have stuff you can make so your funds can be used on the next good priced sale.

Easily one could get cookies and frozen things, splurge your money and it will be gone. The food will be gone quickly, then what? Don't allow yourself to do this. Instead, buy the staples to have on hand to make the cookies. I have yet to meet a store bought cookie to even come close to a homemade one and that includes the bakeries. The last bakery cookie I ate was the nastiest thing ever. All I could taste was greasy nastiness and the cookies left oil marks. Yep, don't go there... 

Try these, yum!

Use your Saturdays to make things ahead. When I am busy I stir up triple batches of cookies and roll them into logs and freeze them to be a slice and bake. Nothing like having a horrid blizzard going on and baking a sheet of cookies.

Mostly anything you see in the stores you can make at home. I think cooking from scratch has gotten a bad wrap. Keep the very basics always at hand and it becomes cheaper than running out for things and if you have kids they love to help.

In the past it was a way of life to have fully stocked pantries.

We could learn a lot from the past.

https://www.thedollarstretcher.com/frugal-living/food/how-full-pantry-saves-money/ - this could be a jumping off spot.

https://www.home-ec101.com/stocking-the-emergency-pantry/ - good to read.

https://gumbo-lily.blogspot.com/2008/10/stocking-pantry.html - this has a list you could build on.

https://ourfrugalfamily.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/stocking-your-pantry-on-a-budget/ - this has an interesting way to think about stocking up the pantry.

Also being frugal means using it up not tossing it out.

https://ivaluefood.com/resources/cooking-eating/creative-ways-to-use-leftovers/ - this has good info.

https://treasuredmom.com/how-to-use-leftovers/ - you would never wad up cash and throw it away.

Look for ways to save. In these pictures I dried the skins from tomatoes, something considered waste, and dried them. Of course I washed them well before blanching. Once dried I ground them into a powder in my blender for use in many things like soups, bread etc. Practically zero waste.