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 She said to get rid of outdated things.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.