Monday Message

"A cardinal principle of the gospel is to prepare for the day of scarcity. Work, industry, frugality are part of the royal order of life." (Bishop Keith B. McMullin)

"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)

 I think we all have seen the devastation of late just about everywhere we look. Our hearts and prayers go out to them but pay attention and help if you can. Learn what you need to do. As you noticed some people left in the middle of eating with food still on the tables as they had to evacuate on the spot, if you had to do the same are your bug out bags ready? This clip below is very common sense plus, remember to get your winter car kit in your car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIg_gTnwDvs - this just makes the most sense.

How are you coming along with your storage? "What?! Eat your storage???? Eewww!" I think you will agree that it tastes great like this recipe below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNGgIVh-dik&feature=em-uploademail - on the go oatmeal muffins.

What do you have as an alternative cooking method? Check out these methods….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-iyCtFoySk&feature=em-uploademail - cooking methods in times of emergency.

Can we learn from others? You bet. It breaks my heart watching the news and seeing people who have lost everything. Curfews are not to protect possessions but to protect food and water. That is the most important thing, food and water. Not your money or technology or jewelry. Seriously, it comes down to food and water. 

These people are under strain and stress from every side. You can tell that they have to spend hours finding food and water and in this crisis mode it is not a time they can take on learning a skill. This is why I keep pushing you to learn them now before you will need to use them. You need to have a bug out bag before you need it. Why do we put things off????  I wish I knew the answer. I know life is busy but this is more important than being busy. This can be life or death. Some little comfort or no comfort. 

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/13-convenience-foods-can-stop-buying-start-making.html -13 convenience foods you can make.

Funny thing, I heard a commercial for some restaurant in their ad say they cooked all their food from scratch… If they are using this as a marketing tool perhaps we might rethink this. Cooking from scratch is cheaper and perhaps they recognize this, we should use this tool as well.

Cooking from scratch is such a cost effective thing. If you're looking for getting the most with your budget this is such a huge area of savings.

Because of the devastation we can have issue with oranges and tomatoes and other products we get from these areas, just a thought.

We have been warned of things to come. We should be preparing and never be tired of doing good. There is so much that needs doing for those who are suffering.

It isn’t always easy but it is always worth it… I am processing these apples that two friends let me pick and one friend helped me pick. Thank you to them! Would we live without these? Yes, but does it give us a great addition to our eating? A huge yes. Isn’t it a lot of work? A really huge amount of work, yes. It hurts my fibromyalgia and this year the apples are very small but again, if Heavenly Father sends me food I shall certainly put it up.  It hurts me everyday but having apples is a good thing and when you are in tight times one has more than a full time job stretching things, making things from scratch, sewing, mending, making bread then working on gifts for Christmas. This list goes on….

                    

Put up whatever food you grow. This jar holds dried spinach I grew. I use it in soups and casseroles and bread.

Also, put up food that comes your way.

It means going to yard sales and finding things we need, such as this vacuum sealer. Ten dollars well spent. It has helped us so our food keeps longer.

It means learning to sew.

It means learning to knit useful items like sweaters and socks.

It means learning to make bread and cooking from scratch.

It means using our skills to make gifts.

We need to do what we can and do the best we can.

Monday Message

Do you have oil in your lamps?

"Our Heavenly Father created this beautiful earth, with all its abundance, for our benefit and use. His purpose is to provide for our needs as we walk in faith and obedience. He has lovingly commanded us to ‘prepare every needful thing’ (see D&C 109:8) so that, should adversity come, we may care for ourselves and our neighbors, and support bishops as they care for others." (All is Safely Gathered In pamphlet)

"Recent surveys of Church members have shown a serious erosion in the number of families who have a year’s supply of life’s necessities. Most members plan to do it. Too few have begun . . . It is our sacred duty to care for our families, including our extended families." (President Thomas S. Monson- note: the italicized parts were italicized in his original talk)

"Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through the home production and storage, but others as well." (President Ezra Taft Benson)

**Provident Living update: I have been released from my calling as Provident Living Leader. Congratulations to Sister Wells on being called to the position! I know we will all support her in her new calling. The Frugal Measures blog will still continue on for all to draw on its resources and be an inspiration for those looking to build skills and work on food storage :) I hope you can join me in wishing Sister Wells the best in her new calling.   

After reading the quote from President Benson I think we all are currently seeing that there is no lack of need. As time goes on more and more catastrophic things are happening and need is growing very fast.

Thirteen years ago in May we had an awful rain storm that hit in the night and in the midst of that our sump pump blew and our basement flooded with ground water. A lot of our storage was no good and we were blessed to be helped by many. It ruined the furnace and other things we had stored. It was awful, still ground water is better than sewer or river or ocean but still very hard. We were very thankful for the help of others. One would be tempted with the loss of food storage to say, "why would we store again?" and "how did it help?" Well, while it took a lot, we still had some and if we had not started doing it again we would not be able to weather the tight times we have now.

It is very hard work, basically a full time job, stocking food, stretching budgets, cooking from scratch, learning and implementing skills, rotating storage, canning, drying, growing food, vacuum sealing food, and everything else that goes into the many aspects...

Yes, it would have been easier to just quit and spend the money on fun or easy meals but we would be suffering more now and I thank my past self for doing what helps us now.

Persevere on building your skills, they serve me well now also.

Being able to make bread or make my own mixes are skills I have perfected that help me now.

Soon it will be time to do my peaches. Being able to take my own peaches and make jam is a skill that is a huge blessing. You know you want a slice of homemade bread with homemade peach jam on it, now don’t ya…? :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T54apwPkrRg&feature=em-uploademail this year I learned to Norwegian purl as one of my skills. I keep practicing and have become faster.

Knowing how to knit helped me mend a pair of gloves.

http://diyjoy.com/best-diy-sewing-hacks - I thought there were good ideas here.

Being able to sew means that I can make gifts.

http://theprudenthomemaker.com/blog/entry/september-s-grocery-shopping-plans-1 I encourage you to read her post here.

Brandy, like us, is having hard times. If you had hard times right now, have you prepared? We prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Our ancestors would always hope the next year would be better.

Have you priced really nice yarns? I saw a skein of yarn for 38 dollars -- Oh, but they go even higher than that, much higher. There is one I think would be fun to knit, it is 58 dollars. It knits sheep instead of stripes so while I will never ever be able to buy these yarns…that would equal one pair of socks that are 58 dollar socks, not in my budget.           

I can make my own yarn. This is a huge blessing to have this skill. 

Gus is reminding you that it won’t be long now and winter will come. How is your storage? Share comment below so we can all learn from each other.

Keep working on your storage.

Monday Message

"Preparedness, when properly pursued, is a way of life, not a sudden, spectacular program. We could refer to all the components of personal and family preparedness, not in relation to holocaust or disaster, but in cultivating a life-style that is on a day-to-day basis its own reward.” (President Spencer W. Kimball)

A way of life… if you have always eaten what you stored and stored what you have always eaten, you would be able to handle life’s down-turns a little better.

As we look all around us, hard things are happening. We need to be prepared so we can help others. And there is no shortage of need.

How many weeks could you go without going to the store if you have not had to do this? You are blessed but you should take a little survey of what you have and how long can you go. I want you to do it this way rather than actually test it because I want you to keep building your storage.

Ask yourself what would you do after you used up your milk and could not get any, what would you do? Do you have cans of milk? Do you have shelf stable milk? Most of all, do you have powdered milk? What would you do?

I make my yogurt with powdered milk.

What about no eggs?? It happens. I had a friend who emailed me that she was sad she could not make her husband a cake for his birthday as she had no eggs. I wrote back and said that I could help even though we were states apart. I am sure she thought, how?? I told her how to make cake using an egg substitute. There are several out there. I gave her the info and she was able to make her cake. What would you do? Did you even know you could do that?

http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking - I encourage you to print this info and put it in your binder because you can’t always trust that you can get on your computer. And on that note, if you use all your recipes by getting on the computer you need to have hard copies. Always have a hard copy.





So take a measure of what you have and how long will it last your family.

The disasters that happen affects us all.

How are you doing on your storage building? 

The reason I press you into cooking from scratch isn’t only because it is healthy for you but that storing the ingredients is easier. Like I can store the ingredients to make hamburger helper type meals easily but once I stored the packages they were on sale but a year later they all tasted so salty we had to toss them. So it is not cheaper to go that route.



http://chickensintheroad.com/cooking/homemade-hamburger-helper/ - if I give you any helpful info, this is huge. I have this copied off and use it. So much easier, cheaper, and healthier… a side note, there is that powdered milk thing again, perhaps it is important after all.

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1114&context=extension_curall - this is soooo helpful, I put this in several times. I have it printed and keep it with the hamburger helper site above. I keep this mix made up. Goodness me, again with the powdered milk! If you don’t have it in storage, work on getting it. If you have it but do not use it, get it out and start using it. How many times do you reach for milk for a recipe? What if you used powdered milk and saved your milk for drinking and the other for baking? I think that would save you money. If you say eeeeww, I am telling you that I can make homemade puddings, custards, tapioca, and more! Yes, we use our powdered milk. Your family will not notice a difference. You can try it the next time you make pancakes and I bet they will not notice the difference. If you say you are going to and make it sound awful then they won’t try. So see for yourself.

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2015/10/monday-message_12.html - making your own mixes is cheaper plus so handy to have on hand.

These are simply regular recipes that I put dry ingredients together in a jar for convenience if I am making the recipe anyway it is easy to do a few ahead like this.

I try to keep bread mixes ahead for easy fixes. 

Please heed the words of those who know and get your storage built up.

Do the best you can!

Monday Message

"Decide as a family that there will be no vacation or holiday next year unless you have your year’s supply. Many Church members could buy a full year’s supply of the basics from what they would save by not taking a vacation. Take the vacation time and work on a family garden. Be together, and it can be just as much fun.” (Vaughn J. Featherston) *Intended as a suggestion

I know a family that put off a new vehicle purchase till they had their storage in, great example.

"The counsel to have a year’s supply of basic food, clothing, and commodities was given fifty years ago and has been repeated many times since. Every father and mother are the family’s storekeepers. They should store whatever their own family would like to have in the case of an emergency … [and] God will sustain us through our trials.” (James E. Faust)

As we are in tighter times for us right now, I am glad I didn’t put off getting our storage in as that has been a huge blessing to us.

We need to keep up with our skills and keep learning new ones.

One of the skills I am working on right now is learning to make socks fast using any pattern type and using the continental style of knitting. I have two socks going right now. I have just done the heels. These are both second socks so when they are done I will have two pairs.

Of course, I am working on Christmas gifts as well. Having tight times means being frugal here too. 

Another area I am learning is tatting. This last week a friend thought of me when helping a neighbor clean up after her yard sale. The woman did not know anyone who tatted but my fiend Karen Myers remembered that I did so she was given this tin to pass on and this is what she gave to me.  I feel loved thank you, Karen.

I was gifted from our daughter Sarah special yarn so we could make a sweater at the same time which will help us on our knitting skill.  Thank you, Sarah.

Once you learn a skill, keep it up by practicing and even improving it.

These are some of the skills I keep working on...

I'm thankful for people who love us. I have a tub of sock yarn from gifts to me or from yardsales, I am working through those.

I also am trying to spin and weave but had little time this last week to work on those.

I feel like this is all about what I am doing. We want to hear about what skills you are working on.

I continue to make bread and make mixes up ahead for when I bake bread, cinnamon rolls, regular rolls, platz... just whatever is wanted.

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2017/02/versatile-bread-mix.html?showComment=1503696469568#c661276648452873254

https://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/search?q=hamburger+buns

I continue to cook from scratch.

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2013/09/monday-message_9.html

I continue to get free ebooks on www.freereadfeed.com. This has been a fun thing. I check it daily as I have to wade through to find what would be of interest.

You might check to see if there are books on skills you are wanting to learn and free is in my budget.

I have mentioned before, we got rid of cable tv years and years ago and we got Roku. I have never missed those cable bills. So this may be an option. I am sure there are other products but back then that is what we did at that time. We went with Magic Jack for phone calls so the phone is very cheap too. So if tight times is what you are having then these might be something you look into.

http://mrsmaryannshouse.blogspot.com/2007/04/frugal-fridays-eating-well-on-very.html - this article has good ideas.

http://frugaling.org/low-income-lifestyle/ - he takes you through his budget.

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/981029e.cfm - frugal ideas

http://theartofsimple.net/how-we-stopped-living-less-than-paycheck-to-paycheck/ - this had great  ideas too.

https://www.candofinance.com/debt-management/frugal-living-tips/ - good ideas

"There are some who feel that they are secure as long as they have funds to purchase food. Money is not food. If there is no food in the stores or in the warehouses, you cannot sustain life with money. Both President Romney and President Clark have warned us that we will yet live on what we produce." (J. Richard Clarke)

Keep working on your skills. If you don’t have any in mind, ask yourself... do you know how to mend or sew? Can you make warm blankets? Can you cook from scratch? And if you can, go look on the internet for more ways to learn so that your family can benefit. Keep working on your storage. Be like the little ant building his stores for winter.

Do the best you can.