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

"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)

"When will all these calamities strike? We do not know the exact time, but it appears it may be in the not-too-distant future. Those who are prepared now have the continuing blessings of early obedience, and they are ready. Noah built his ark before the flood came, and he and his family survived. Those who waited to act until after the flood began were too late. Let us not be dissuaded from preparing because of a seeming prosperity today, or a so-called peace.” (President Ezra Taft Benson)

It would be wise to be continually working on our storage.

Keep trying to be frugal. Patch those holes and if they're in kids pants they have cute ways to patch.

https://www.nationalsewingcircle.com/video/make-a-cute-monster-jeans-patch-for-a-kid-009661/

I remember being in line at an amish grocery. There was man wearing his coveralls. He was getting a hundred lb bag of potatoes. While I waited I noticed a patch on his overalls. I studied it and noticed the tiny stitches around the same fabric, probably coveralls saved for patches. The stitches were all tiny and even placed there with loving hands of his wife. So learn mending skills, just don’t throw out things.

https://www.thespruce.com/mend-your-clothing-and-save-money-2978474

This week I hitched a ride with hubby as he had a town errand. I stopped at the library and found a Hy-Vee cookbook that all the employees put their favorite recipes in. I have a newer copy from 1999 and the one at library was 1989.  It was free and I am excited. I loved the one I had, now I have a ten year older one that will net many more recipes. I also got my youngest grandson a beginning reading book for free as well.

The book I had is on the right the older and free find is on left.

So look for frugal opportunities.

https://www.littlehouseliving.com/preparing-for-winter.html

We have already started winterizing at our house. A reminder, soon you will need to unhook hoses and nozzles or your things will freeze and ruin all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnRVCKC-Gwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4RPG8SP4Kw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ5c7MW8xKI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnRVCKC-Gwo&t=38s

These videos will help you know what to do with the year-end garden things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8_KM5PWbzU - how to stop buying the canned soup which has gone up in price so bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7ZRYS7D4tQ&t=10s easy to can dried beans to have on hand for convenience.

It is time to sit by the fireplace and start working on gifts…

These are some of the gifts I made last year. Remember, live within your means! Homemade gifts are fun!

Missy says have fun trick or treating but be very safe!!!!

Monday Message

"Store a provision of food which will last for at least a year wherever it is legally permissible to do so. The Church has not told you what foods should be stored. This decision is left up to individual members. . .From the standpoint of food production, storage, handling, and the Lord’s counsel, wheat should have high priority. ‘There is more salvation and security in wheat,’ said Orson Hyde years ago, ‘than in all the political schemes of the world’ (in Journal of Discourses, 2:207). Water, of course, is essential. Other basics could include honey or sugar, legumes, milk products or substitutes, and salt or its equivalent.” (President Ezra Taft Benson)

We are blessed by the wisdom of those who have gone before us, who show by example things that would be helpful.

When storing wheat you need to remember a wheat grinder. Get a corn and grain hand grinder if that is all you can do at first. We were given one to us. It looks like this -http://thewholetruth.org/Res_Corona.asp I bet there are used ones out there.

I love how it cracks wheat and is good in case of no power. Then as you can get an additional one. We were blessed to have been gifted one from my sister. This makes it easier as I have fibromyalgia.  This is the one I have - https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=pvhoOcqs&id=32CCCE4C72D6D2D3F41B1B630BFEE1B1A6E3CE18&thid=OIP.pvhoOcqsyP9zr5TE4-dOQgEsEs&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.topgrainmills.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2016%2f02%2fwondermill-grain-mill.jpg&exph=1000&expw=1000&q=grain+mills&simid=608006313937666273&selectedIndex=53&ajaxhist=0

And also don’t forget to store the wheat. I love love love white wheat. I get my wheat here - https://providentliving.lds.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-order-form?lang=eng

I have also seen wheat at Walmart that is fantastic as well. It is on the shelf with the large bags of flour.

I store my wheat in food grade plastic five gallon buckets. I go to bakery places and get the buckets for free or a small fee. I wash them well and dry well, then I air dry overnight just to be sure. I load into the bucket then I place two bay leaves on top, close the bucket and then label and date it. I then store in the basement and here is what I want you to know - DO NOT store any food storage directly on the concrete. I put a piece of wood between the floor and buckets and other storage.

http://www.mormonshare.com/lds-clipart/crazy-huge-list-of-food-storage-recipes - this is a treasure trove of food storage recipes.

Robert D. Hales passed away and I wanted to add my favorite story he told, it’s message is so important…

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-06-becoming-provident-providers?lang=eng&_r=1

Use your storage, rotating and using and replacing is the best way to have storage.

If children are not used to eating the things you have stored they won’t eat it!! So best to put wheat in your pancakes and breads.  That sort of thing.

Don’t do a "some day" storage do a huge pantry storage you use and replace and keep rotated.

Skills - how are you doing on them?

It is time to get out knitting and spinning and settle in.

https://www.nationalsewingcircle.com/video/sewing-buttons-quickly-and-easily-009028/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=A6199&vsoid=A6199 - this a great button video.

Feels finally like fall and I am trying to learn more on making socks. Here are the two I recently finished. I am now knitting their mates and I am enjoying learning as I go.

Keep working on your storage and skills. It is not too early to be working on Christmas gifts, also be sure to plan for those soon to come snow days.

Gus and Missy say hi and to keep doing the best you can! 

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!