Monday Message

"Start now to create a plan if you don’t already have one, or update your present plan. Watch for best buys that will fit into your year’s supply. We are not in a situation that requires panic buying, but we do need to be careful in purchasing and rotating the storage that we’re putting away. The instability in the world today makes it imperative that we take heed of the counsel and prepare for the future." (L. Tom Perry)

I feel with all that is going on, things are a bit not steady. It is a good time to have some ahead in your storage. But more than that, it is just a frugal thing to do. When unexpected things pop up (and they will) you can move funds to cover the unexpected and still run smoothly fixing meals.

We need to have yummy meals that we can make for our family in our storage.

Watch for sales. If you have meals in storage, you can be open to in store sales...for example, when hamburger goes on sale - I change my menu plan and stock up on hamburger. That will make many more meals. It is hard to repackage those ten pound tubes but saves lots of money.

Being frugal means we have to be willing to push ourselves to work a little harder. Would it be easier to pay more? Yes, but my money would not go as far. So even though I am tired and hurt from fibromyalgia, I repackage and freeze it.  This way I am able to next time get things that aren't hamburger.

Another thing I  do is I don't purchase ready mixes and make my own from scratch. I also don't buy name brands. I just think for me green beans taste like green beans unless you can them.

And that brings me to canning things - it's another way I save. I one time read that you should look at the things you purchase in way of things you can grow. Decide which is the most costly and grow those things. Like at the time, potatoes were cheap. They said don't grow those, put your energy into more expensive things like pizza sauce, lets say.

I know it is tempting for example to purchase flour shells or pita bread or even bread instead of making your own, but you save a lot and eat better and tastes so much better.

Do the math and do what you can.

I have been weaving, trying to get this warp used up so I can start another project.

I have continued with spring cleaning trying to do smaller projects at a time.

I put some of my serger thread in these boxes and put tags on for fast finding when needed.

I swiped around the carts - I know, sounds like busy work but I needed to put my unmounted stamps in the light colored cart as it is just a bit bigger and that meant my embroidery stuff is in the turquoise cart. It all worked out but was a bit of work. I did use what I had and thought just how can I do those unmounted stamps better? At first I wasn't sure this would be okay as things go into the tray shelf and meant I would not be able to easily access the two shelves on the bottom.

So I mulled it over. I am trying to make things easier for myself so I don't have to stand on my head to do things. This is why you see so many reorganizing things on the blog. As I am aging with fibromyalgia I need things to be way easier.

So I thought what would help. I had these two plastic drawers from somewhere so I put the unmounted stamps in the drawers that fit good and would work but still too hard to pull out. So I had these two wire drawers I used before - is the only reason I still had them. I took them and turned them upside down  -perfect! Now the drawer sits up high enough to pull straight out, problem solved.

So you can see I can pull it out now for easy access. This is a huge thing. I am happy I hung onto these things. I no longer have the cart to the plastic drawers and had the shelves to a broken cart. So mull things over in your head. Look for things you already have. See how you can make them work. It took me a couple days of thinking what I could do then trying different ways. Now this works so much better.

This week I was given this white plastic drawer and this basket, so I added them in. And on this little wooden shelf, markers have to be stored on their sides for longer life - these, too, have to be at easier access. I need things to be in arm's length and I don't want to hunt for things I need.

So I will continue to find ways to make things easier on my body and conserve my energy.

Missy says take time to ponder it is so helpful.

Tippy Longstockings says match the Kleenex box as a reminder one needs those as well, so put them in storage.