Monday Message

"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)

I am starting to see prices going high, so purchases might have to be put on a no-spend time till they get better.

Having said that, we need to make do with what we have and what can be gotten frugally.

Keep haunting those sale flyers for things that can beef up your storage, go to thrift stores for items.

Work with what you have.

I have mentioned this before but I was able to get an almost new knitting machine at a yard sale.

I have a bond knitting machine I got as a gift and later found another one at Goodwill for six dollars which I put together and had learned it well. But this almost-new machine I struggled to learn. At that time, I was taking lessons and my teacher was very stern with me. She kept telling me I didn't need to write everything down but I said I needed to. I was starting with fibromyalgia and retaining info was hard but I did not know at the time that was happening.  

Back to her, she was mean but I needed the instruction. One day she was really mean and she got a call from someone that she argued with. The person on the phone wanted her to go to an auction house so she could price a knitting machine. She turned to me to ask if I could go with her, I said yes. So I drove her there. It was an auction house and they must have cleaned out a studio of sorts so she was looking at the knitting machine. They only wanted the furniture but they made them take everything, so they wanted to get rid of the things and just get the furniture.

I knew I had a hundred dollars that I could use so I told the guy I wanted all the yarn (it was all coned yarn). My teacher was still working with that machine so I went through stuff. I got fifty-two books on machine knitting, there was a plastic drawer thing with fat quarters (aka folded pieces of fabric) all sorted by color. It was a truck load. My husband sent a worker with our truck to come and get it. The man I dealt with at the auction gladly took a hundred dollars for everything I got. My teacher bought the machine she was looking at for seven hundred dollars and we got it in my car.

The worker took the truck load of stuff to our house and we went back to her shop. She was snarky all the way home, she said she did not know why I got all of that yarn since the only thing it would be good for was for a hand knitter. I turned to her and said I am a hand knitter, that stopped the snarky stuff.

I later went back and got the other two knitting machines for fifty dollars.

I tried to set up my mother-in-law with one but her husband was getting Alzheimer's and didn't want it around so it came back to me. Back then, the internet was just starting to be a thing and I was on a knitting list, so I traded one of the machines for a drum carder that I had wanted but couldn't find and a lady bought the other machine, so that money was used to purchase a wood burning cook stove.

So that was the yarn haul. Two cones of yarn still had their prices on them. If I only bought those two cones new from a store it would have cost more than what I paid for all of it.

Not long after I had put on Freecycle that I was looking for fabric and as it turned out a lady had boxes of fabric from her grandma. Our oldest daughter and I went in the truck to pick it all up. Those boxes of fabric filled the truck bed to the top. In the end, it helped the girl and I got free fabric.

So this was the great fabric haul.

This being said, I also got canning jars and lace trims, even scrapbooking supplies from Freecycle.

I tell you this to show you that you can get items for free. Once, I was putting it out there that I was looking for tatting stuff. A lady replied that she was getting out of it and I was able to get her stuff - books, thread, and a few shuttles. I was thankful for everything.

And now that I am older, I really appreciate having it. One reason is that the prices to purchase them new just aren't reasonable anymore and second, I don't have to go into a store to purchase them.

Freecycle is still a thing…so if you are looking for something it never hurts to try this way first and then haunt thrift stores.

https://www.pinterest.com/leilajh/sewing-old-new-clothing-make-over/ - this will give you ideas for old clothing.

Now is the time to be more frugal.

Also, it is time to learn new skills - https://ourinspiredroots.com/cooking-from-scratch-for-beginners/

I checked on canning supplies just to see what was there and all I found were empty shelves. So if you have produce you can freeze it...

https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-freeze-fruits-and-vegetables/

https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/186047/how-to-dehydrate-food-without-a-dehydrator-dehydrate-fruit-and-vegetables-in-oven/ - when I did this before I had a dehydrator, I folded a pot holder and put it in the door to prop it open just a tad.

This week I finished the cardigan for the sheep...

I learned a lot from knitting this little stuff.

My sister and I experimented with making these rolags using a drum carder, it was a success. These will be very fun to spin up.

Gus says stop the presses!

Gus said keep wearing those masks and washing your paws and socially distancing...which he is about to do in his box cave. He says we need everyone to stay alive and be a hero to others.

Missy says she is already socially distant. She, too, encourages everyone to wear masks. She knows some don't like to wear them but wearing masks and getting vaccinated is how we care for ourselves and others.