Monday Message

"We want you to be ready with your personal storehouses filled with at least a year’s supply. You don’t argue why it cannot be done; you just plan to organize and get it done" (Spencer W. Kimball, August 1976)

The Time to Disregard This Counsel Is Over

"As long as I can remember, we have been taught to prepare for the future and to obtain a year’s supply of necessities. . . . I believe the time to disregard this counsel is over. With the events in the world today, it must be considered with all seriousness. . . . Create a plan if you don't already have one, or update your present plan . . . 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." (L. Tom Perry, in Conference Report, Oct. 1995, 47; or Ensign, Nov. 1995, 36)

It is time to take stock of where you are on your storage and skill building. Some skills are fast to learn, others take a lifetime but keep working on them!

I continue to work on dishcloths to replace mine. I have started on my box of gifts for next Christmas.

My fibromyalgia is in a huge flare right now and makes me slower but I keep pressing on.

I have been blessed over the years to go to yard sales and thrift shops. I have stored items that we would need for a huge savings because I was willing to purchase used. It took time and work to go to sales but you have to know you are doing it for your family.

What have I gotten to help us?

Oil lamps - it seems you can always find them. Once I got them I did not stop there. I got oil and wicks for the lamps, not all at same sale but I new I would need to look for them and we have been blessed with them many times. Like in the scriptures, I keep my lamps with oil in them. They are at the ready. So go the extra effort to be prepared.

Bread pans - I have gotten my pans from yard sales and thrift stores. There is no way I could afford to get them if I could find them now. Most were ten cents each. At thrift stores I have also found French bread pans, pans to make burger buns, a pan to make sandwich bread, pans that are twice as long, pans for roll making, a pan that slides as long as you want, and pans down to tiny. I also found a bread machine as well.

http://frugalmeasures.blogspot.com/2015/03/monday-message_16.html

Cake pans of every type from angel food down to tiny cheese cake pans and everything between.

Mixing bowls, stainless steel bowls, bread bowls.

Crepe maker, waffle irons, even one that makes panini sandwiches and one that turns into a griddle.

Knitting needles and crochet hooks, yarn, knitting machine, sewing machines, fabrics and sewing notions, electric blanket king size for ten cents that we have used for years.

Cookbooks - my favorite bread cookbook was $35 for new, I got it at a yard sale for five cents.

Food savers, canner, steamer canner, jars....

I could go on and on but I wanted you to know that getting things used is just a great tool for being frugal and is a huge budget saver.

I have shown you my bread but there are so many more out there. I thought you might like some different ways you can make bread that being said I want to remind you: one cup of all purpose flour and one tsp of vital wheat gluten makes bread flour!

Also, I selected YouTube videos that take more fiddling to those that take very little. The variations will have you doing great breads at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw07XXTzIxE - bread, just another version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08i8oXpFB0 - how to make baguettes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ZvlKQmm6M - ciabatta bread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVwrTAJtSNk - no knead rolls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vlp1RkJeQCE - ciabatta rolls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-A17hYeZ8w - sandwich rolls using little pans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HndA2UZmTIk - baguettes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUoA-F3sdvw - pretzel bites

I feel that knowing how to make bread and storing the items to make it is a huge boost to skills and storage. Continue to work on both!

Monday Message

Diner-style pancakes from scratch. Recipe HERE.

"More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared." (President Ezra Taft Benson)

I think there are so many calamities going on all over that maybe we should heed this statement by President Benson. Living within our means is so important especially now. There is more need. Are you in a position to help those in need?

I continue to suggest picking up something for your storage every time you go into a store.  If you cannot afford to do this try to do more budget meals and using what you save to build your storage.

Please do not go into further debt, instead work hard getting out of debt.

Try to learn to be content with what you have. Also, learn to stretch what you have. One always thinks when they retire life will be easy, not so! You will be living on a fixed income in an unfixed world.

Here are a few things that help me - I buy in bulk when I can which means 25 lb bags of flour. If you are not doing this you might consider it. Here is how I do it… I get buckets from the bakery in my local grocery store. I get them free. I wash them well and then dry them very well. Then I let the bucket air dry overnight to be sure they are totally dry. Then I pour the 25 lb bag of flour in and on top I place two bay leaves. Then I label and date the lid. The bay leaves keep from getting bugs in the flour. The label tells me what it is and the date which makes it easy to rotate using the oldest one first.

I make bread and rolls and cookies and cakes, muffins, coffee cakes, pancakes and waffles... I think you see if you make from scratch you use flour a lot. I also store whole wheat berries the same way as the flour. I only grind the wheat when I need, it is the only difference.

I glean apples every year I can.

I also can everything I get my hands on - this saves lots of money.

I dehydrate fruits and veggies. When I have one or two pieces of celery or a handful of carrots I dehydrate them. This drying things has saved us a lot.

This brings me to vacuum sealing. This is huge at saving us money. I vacuum seal things I dehydrate. I vacuum seal chocolate chips to last years. I use it so much I keep it on the counter ready to go all the time. I vacuum seal nuts to make them last. Dry things not wet things.

The key thing is when you do things yourself it saves money. So it may take elbow grease and skill building but they're good skills to have.

We had a used dresser given to us that was not in great shape. We cut it down which meant taking a lot of it apart. Then we made it into this bathroom sink. We used front of drawers to open into a cupboard door but closed it looks like drawers.

Being frugal means spending less it serves us well.  Sometimes we have to be really frugal we use what we put up if we are blessed with a little more we stock things needed ahead like two bags of flour etc this helps to smooth the harder times.

So what skills you learn now will help you all your life. 

https://www.fastweb.com/student-life/articles/basic-life-skills-you-should-know this might give you some ideas for teaching your kids.

https://acultivatednest.com/homemaking-skills-to-learn-to-make-your-life-easier/ here are a few things you might want to pick from to work on

https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-create-a-frugal-budget-1388523 this has ideas to help you with a budget

http://theparsimoniousprincess.blogspot.com/2013/01/100-more-painless-ways-to-live-frugally_31.html has maybe some thing you never thought of

https://www.frugalwoods.com/2016/01/04/make-a-new-years-resolution-for-just-one-month/ - more ideas here.

Sometimes we think we cannot manage without ___?  But I have found out you can really live without whatever thing you thought you couldn't before. We really can…

Cooking from scratch really is a huge thing. I know I keep saying it but I wouldn’t if it wasn’t.

https://www.thebalance.com/learn-how-to-cook-everything-from-scratch-1388352 - has some good things here.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ - this gal has a terrific site with frugal ideas in the kitchen.

What frugal things are you doing?

Monday Message

"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)

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)

How are you coming on your skills? We need to keep building on basic skills and expand from there. Baking bread, knitting, sewing, cooking from scratch, living within our means, getting out of debt, canning, dehydrating food, all kinds of home production, gardening, crocheting, budgeting, this list goes on and on.

I push skills on you all the time. Having skills helps to stretch your budget.  It helps your family.  It is not busy work. There is so much out there that is trying to grab your attention. If we try to learn these skills whether you feel you need them or not it will be a huge blessing to you and others.

Living frugally is a goal we should all want.

When we have needed things, we looked for them used first. This has been a huge stretching of a budget and a blessing for us.  

Trying to be frugal….

When our girlies were just tykes the sewing machine I was trying to learn on was in just rotten shape so we looked for a used machine. We found one in the paper. The lady could not take it with her as the place they were going was a different electrical. It has been a work horse for me for years and years and years and it's my favorite still. It was ten years old when I got it and since which is thirty more years.

Look at yard sales and thrift stores…

Here is my thrift store blender. It was like new. A couple weeks later I happened in there again and still in its box (pictured on the left) was the food processor attachment. I'm still using them now. If you look under the jar you can see my waffle iron which came from a yard sale. 

I have found two food savers at different yard sales. This one was brand new and still in the package. The other is like new and is a newer one. So you see buying used has served me well.

All my canning supplies are bought used except for new lids.

I found a shower curtain at a yard sale and turned it into kitchen curtains that cost fifty cents. This definitely saved us money.

Every one of my bread pans came from yard sales, most for ten cents. Which brings me to another skill, making bread….

I pushed on learning to make bread. I watched others how they made bread and made it a priority to learn.

So when I push skills it is because I have learned them and they have blessed us. I keep on learning!!  Also buying used has helped us over and over through the years and when I use my ten cent bread pans I feel happy that over the years I got them at yard sales.  I would get the kids’clothes for school used. My reasoning was you can buy a brand new pair of jeans for your kid and one romp outside and they are used jeans. So a quarter beat ten dollars in my book and if you knew how to sew you could be creative in sewing on patches as the need arose.

What frugal things have I been doing this week? I was blessed to pick apples from friends.

I made apple rings. If you have a peeler like this you know it peels and cores and slices the apple in a coil. If you cut top to bottom on one side you get individual rings if you cut in half you get pie slices. After doing the rings I put them in water with lemon juice then into dehydrators. Yes, this year I had 23 trays on two different dehydrators going.

If you look at the top pic the basket is empty. The apples from this bushel fit into this bucket. I did this three times and have three buckets of dried apples.

I picked the peaches and they were about 3/4ths of a bushel, yum! So I will be having to start jam.

These things have kept me busy and sore but remember my deal, if Heavenly Father sends me produce I will happily put it up as my own gardening did not net much for us this year.

I found these great videos to teach you to knit in time to make a knit scarf for winter…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3uEnbYqZSk - slip knot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn3V2KHZSIc - this shows how to cast on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBx5PTdcXdg - how to knit 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j3oOv-ygQk&feature=em-uploademail - purl

So this will help you build a skill. Practice it and make scarves for gift made by you.

So this blog post was heavy on frugal and skill building. I hoped to show things can be gotten used that are very helpful to us and our budget. 

When we first moved here we had no refrigerator and no stove and no money. So what we did have was a microwave, a crockpot that sat on a base, and a freezer. We went along like that till we got some pay. We could spend a hundred dollars for a stove or a refrigerator but not both. So I chose a stove. We borrowed a truck and I looked in the paper. There was a yard sale that had refrigerators for fifteen dollars. They were perfect for worms they said. We bought the better one. It was so old it was from the fifties. So we got the stove and this worm fridge, cleaned them up and felt like we arrived. So you see used things have blessed my family

Keep working on storage. Frozen veggies are on a really good sale. They are my favorite to dehydrate as all the hard work is done for you. Just open and dump on trays and dry. Mushrooms are on sale again. I will do more of those, dehydrating them as I showed before.

I will be doing peach jam.

Tell us what frugal things you are doing :)

Do the best you can!

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.