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 have been trying to rest still. I really hate cold-flus (this was written two weeks ago and luckily we are through it now).

We only got the brutal cold, we did not get the weather they got in the south and up the coast.

This week, we had to kill time waiting for a place to open. We were already near Salvation Army and went in and looked around for twenty minutes. I found cotton yarn for dishcloths for .99, just one, so I went and got it and made this dishcloth...

I think I will get three more out of it, if not more, so that makes this one a quarter - unless it makes more in which case, it would be less.

A similar pattern is free here - https://web.archive.org/web/20140830015947/http://www.groupepp.com/dishbout/kpatterns/grfavorite.html I stopped at twenty stitches and decreased from there.

If you are familiar with knitted dishcloths, this is about the third the size.

The other item I got was some fabric. They have the fabric rolled then taped. This fabric had a blue tag which meant that day it was half off, making it two dollars.

When I got home I opened it up only to find there was damage the whole length four inches from salvages on both sides but I was determined and was creative in pattern placement.

And here is the dress I made with barely any fabric leftover.

So the dress cost two dollars...

The sweater I made a few years ago and was free too as I did it as a test knit, so the pattern was free and the yarn I used was free too.

So building skills is very important!

The amaryllis bulb we were gifted at Christmas is giving us a show every day now...

It's so pretty, we are enjoying it very much!

This week, I switched my carts around. The white one is a bit bigger and I wanted to put my paint brushes in a basket that had three sections. So the white one now has watercolor supplies in it.

Then I put the blue cart next to chair with knitting tools in it.

Build those skills and be frugal and stock up as you can. Things are not getting better any time soon I am afraid.

https://www.wisebread.com/20-great-frugal-skills-and-how-to-get-them

https://zenhabits.net/the-cheapskate-guide-50-tips-for-frugal-living/ - we can't do every one of them but maybe there is some information that will help us.

https://sloely.com/simple-frugal-life-skills/

https://thehappyhousewife.com/frugal-living/learn-a-new-skill/ - this has how to go about learning a new skill.

https://www.christasterken.com/frugal-homemaking-skills/ - how to make the most of what we have.

I hope you all are doing well and staying warm. Watch how people were able to get through that storm and learn from them. I watched a lady years ago tell how they made it through an ice storm. The one thing she said she wished she had was a carpet sweeper, so when I was yardsaling one day, I picked one up for 75 cents. What can you learn?

I am not totally over this cold-flu but on a sad note, both Missy and Tippy Longstockings caught it as well (don't worry, they're better now too!) so there is lots of sneezing on their part and coughing on my part.

Keep trying to outrun those germs!

Missy says she is resting in her bag. She says keep up the good work and if you get sick too, she would share her bag with you.

Tippy Longstockings says if you can't outrun the germs, make sure you get plenty of rest!

Monday Message

"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) 

Day seventeen now with this cold-flu (though this was written two weeks ago and we're all better now). Thank goodness I got the flu shot or it could have been much worse. Missy has caught the cold so she is under the weather too.

I wish things were going better for all of us but it doesn't look to improve any time soon. We are going to have to put our heads down and push on through this hard time.

Keep trying to be frugal.

Keep adding to your storage and remember it isn't all food, it is medical stuff and hygiene things - it covers everything you use at home now.

Also, if you do not eat a food now, don't store that. Store only what you presently eat with a heavy emphasis on the basic ingredients you need to make things from.

Now it is time to learn to bake bread, rolls, all baked goods, cookies as well. So that means you need to store the ingredients for those.

Remember, my story of chocolate cake? I keep ingredients on hand in storage to be able to make the chocolate cake. Get the recipe HERE.

Remember that saying - nothing is ever so bad that it can't get worse. We need to be prepared for that worse.

We can do this a little at a time. DO NOT GO INTO DEBT!! Just pick up a few things extra - a bag of flour, some yeast, some oil, sugar, and salt. With these items you can make bread and lots of baked items.

I saw a lady reorganizing her pantry this week. She said to get rid of outdated things. If it was canned food it is still okay. If it was chips etc. taste them first. Pasta keeps long past that date. Just stick them in a container with a bay leaf. They are good for years and years.

Jars of pasta sauce keep unless that center of the lid is popped up - which I have never seen, so I don't think that happens very often.

Just use your common sense. You will know if something smells bad or tastes bad. Don't be so quick to toss things.

Taco shells, for example, taste stale right from the box but you are to heat them up in the oven.

If you are used to buying muffin mixes, you can make them way cheaper and can store the ingredients to do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ77ojhZvQg - this would be excellent. It is very versatile. The one thing she didn't say on the buckets is they must be food-grade. They are with the others so if you can't find them, ask - same with lids. I wish I could afford many gamma lids. I only have two. And as long as I am mentioning lids, they are sometimes hard to remove, so get a bucket lid opener at the same store but ask where. They are so handy in my old age.  Plus she said you can use gluten-free flour.

This doesn't have to be just muffins. There are recipes for many things.

https://www.budget101.com/recipes/448-convenience-mixes-2/ - this site has so many recipes. If you do the math, you will see that you are overpaying on prepackaged mixes.

I also, for your info, just use regular all-purpose flour. From this, I make my own bread flour: one tsp vital wheat gluten per one cup of flour. So I only store the all-purpose flour. I store white wheat berries and can grind my own, this formula for bread flour works here as well.

This is excellent if using a bread machine or by hand, just don't add extra flour if doing by hand. I did one in my machine and one by hand and you could not tell the difference. So don't disregard this because you might not have a bread machine, but I encourage you to haunt the thrift store for one just to make life easier. I set it on the dough setting and then shape it into whatever I want and bake in my oven.

Now is the time to stop shopping for frivolous things - not forever, just till things improve. Shop at home. You might have to hunt for an item you already have but running to the store to get another just wastes money. Use what you already have. Think, I need...an organizational item...and first look what have you got in your house. Then think, what else could I use? Like maybe even just a box. But if nothing will work, go to the thrift store etc. Time to rein in the dollars that leak through the cracks.  Look at this as a challenge. Keep to thrifty ways right now.

Keep working on your skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUa4VBdt7KQ - this gal is helpful on mending and is down to earth.

I would say if you know how to mend things you already have, that is a huge skill. I told you about stopping in an Amish store. I was behind a man and he had patches on his coveralls very neatly stitched. And I thought someone loves this fella very much to patch his coveralls and is very frugal. We can do the same for our families that we love very much.

Which takes you back to when I said storage isn't just food - put in sewing supplies so you can mend those things.

Yes, it is hard right now but look for joy where you can find it. Yes, it is hard work but we are not afraid of hard work.

Those of you who have been here a very long time will remember McGuire. He was such a good cat! And you will remember my husband's mother passed from Covid. She gave her sculpey to my husband and I used just a little of orange and off white and made this brush holder in remembrance of both of them. I picture McGuire sitting on my mother-in-law's lap watching me make this.

It took very little to make it and my husband baked it in the garage in a craft oven. 

It is things we already had and you too can look around. What do you already have?

Someone once said if you are uninspired, go and organize your supplies - this will get those creative juices flowing again.

We are all in this together we will get through it.

Missy says remember others who are having hard times too - an act of kindness goes a really long way.

Tippy Longstockings says, think what you can do before making that purchase.

Monday Message

"Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?" (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I don't think we have to imagine very hard on this.

The world is in some very dark times right now.

We need to work even harder to lift others and to find joy, but we must!

Eight days ago I came down with this cold-flu. Thank goodness we had our shots! I can't even imagine how much worse it would have been as this is pretty bad. I had my 70th birthday sick - not fun at all. If I could market what is coming out of my nose, I'd be rich. It is an awful lot of awful. I am HOPING by the time you read this in two weeks I will be better. It is hard to think being in something this bad. It came on very fast. So if you haven't gotten it, plan some sick meals. That has saved me so much. At this time, hubby is now also getting sick.

I would say plan some projects for when you get it but I truly haven't felt up to it, though I do have some close by.

This new year means different health insurance for us. And oh how we have to wade through woes with that like things not covered, changing to similar meds, hoping they are as good, unexpected medical bills. Thank goodness for storage as February will be a storage-only month. Again, seems we aren't alone in this. It is, I fear, going to be happening more often with these medical things that have gone way out of control.

So if you find yourself fretting getting groceries or it's spotty at best, let me tell you how I get groceries on those few times of late that I have gotten them...

Your first instinct is to get all you want to get because you went without those items. Squelch that right off the bat. When I go to get groceries in these uncertain times, I tell myself what if I can't get groceries next month (I get groceries by the month). There are things we need to have like distilled water for running medical equipment, certain over-the-counter meds like Tylenol and allergy meds - that sort of thing. By the way, my groceries include everything - food and non-food alike.  

Side note - I am very thankful I had cough drops in my storage and Kleenex. So the last time I got groceries, over a third of it was non-food. Normally it isn't, but I kept saying, "but what if something happens that I can't get groceries and shopped" - that what if. And here we are with the something happened.  

If I had just shopped getting easy things or only food items, I would be soooooo stressed out right now as well as being sick. Was it hard to think about groceries that way?? Yes, it was but you have to make the hard choices, we just have to do it. We have to make hard cuts to our budget. Is it fun? No, it is not fun but it is being responsible. We can do hard things! 

I don't see this improving for us. The caps that were on medicine were removed by this administration so I think meds will continue to go up without warning. How do you even prepare for the unknown on a fixed income??  Hard choices - we will all have to make them.

Usually, it just isn't one thing but several that go all at once.

We are never alone. Heavenly Father is there. We need only ask for help. It isn't going to always be what we want but it will be the help we need.

Assess what we have and what we KNOW we will need. This week I was given pants in my size but a foot - no kidding - a foot too long. So as soon as I feel better, I will hem them. We will be blessed. Do I feel embarrassed? Not at all. I feel blessed. We can do these things. This is why I keep stressing to build storage and skills, And why I keep saying to learn those skills before you need them to help you get a leg up when things hit your home.

So miserable - I have made two blog posts now being sick. It is the "too sick to read" sick so I found an artist on YouTube that I enjoy watching as she teaches watercolor. I have been doing that and on one she showed a ceramic cat she made that held her watercolor brushes. So while skyping to get last week's post up and visiting with our youngest, I took a little sculpey in orange and off-white - it took very little and was what my husband's mom gave him when she passed. So I used a little and made a cat in the colors of Mr. McGuire, some of you from the very beginning will remember him - what a good cat! So I formed this cat brush holder to honor him and my mother-in-law. I picture him on her lap looking down on us and being pleased about this cat brush holder.

I am happy with it and he holds my brushes while I am working with them. So that is what you do while you are skyping and don't feel well. My husband took him out and baked him in his craft oven and here he sits, waiting for me to feel better and use him.

My husband is now getting this as well. I expect it will be a rough go of it for us. We have this rule that when one gets sick the other must wait to get sick till the other is well. So that rule isn't working this time.

Winter in my neck of the woods isn't over, so prepare before you get sick to have what you need on hand. Plus, put some leftovers in the freezer because when you are feeling lousy, it is nice to pull it out and heat it and eat it.

Hopefully you can outrun the flu but be prepared either way.

Missy says try to stay healthy and keep working on your storage, every little bit helps!

Tippy Longstockings says keep building those skills - this could be the year you need them the most.

The kittens wanted to put a smile on your face with some pictures of them.