Let me start this by saying I am not Morman, nor do I know any people of Morman faith in my real life. I have read their statements of faith and I cannot agree with what they believe..BUT..I found the differences are smaller than what I thought they would be. There are many things about the Morman faith that I admire and respect; their focus on family, community, preparedness etc. So I choose to focus on those things and will learn from them in every way that I can...and we'll leave the matters of salvation to each of our personal faiths.
If there is any one group of people who have a firm understanding and plan for Food Storage...it is the Mormans! :-D Their faith teaches that they should have at least a years food supply for the entire family. This is not just a matter of faith though...but of sound common sense, and in todays economy the value of Food Storage is almost priceless. If you google "LDS Food Storage" you will have hundreds of websites of which to choose. Can you imagine what a burden would have been lifted from many families today if they had only had a planned food storage?? So many people out of work, for so many different reasons...but they all have the same worry..."How will we eat? How will I feed my children?" Food Storage is really a matter of prudence, one which we would be wise to observe.
So I have begun working on our pantry. I have focused on stocking up on the loss leader sales at our local Kroger and then storing them. I have only bought things that I would have normally bought with the exception of canned fruit...I saved so much money that I was able to invest in that, which I normally can't afford.
According to some infaltion experts the price of groceries will be going up significantly in 2011...that is not the news that people want to hear, but I believe it is the inevitable and necessary course that we will have to take. Sugar in particular will be going up quite high...so I am stocking up on that as much as I can. This past week at Kroger a 5 pound bag of sugar was $1.98...I bought 5 bags. We don't eat alot of extra sugar in things as it is. I don't bake lots of cookies, cakes etc...but there IS sugar in baking bread...and if it all hits the fan I want to at least be able to bake bread! While I was at it I picked up an extra 30 pounds of flour too.
My plan is to prepare to have the absolute basics...and then to flesh that out with food thats would make life a whole lot more enjoyable and nutrious. I am planning for reduced electricity, or none at all...and trying to figure how I would handle that situation.
Kroger has just finished one of it's Mega Events. Most things were "buy 10 and save $5." Things like Campbells cream of chicken or mushroom soup were only 49 cents! Broths, soups, diced tomatoes, canned fruit...and more all for 49 cent a can. I bought things like 60 cans of diced tomatoes, 30 cans of cream soups, 30 cans of canned fruit. By the end of two days shopping I had saved exactly what I spent...so I got $500 worth of groceries (and that was all our regular stuff too) for $250!! Next time they have a Mega Event I'll be stocking up again...and even more so!
My next goal to work on is menus. Food Storage is something that needs to be planned. I don't need a ton of one thing only to find I'm short of some necessary ingrediant to finish the meal. I also have to keep in mind that I may not be able to get fresh ingredients to go with the meals...and I may have limited power as well. What can I store and cook that would be fairly easy?? These are the meals that I need to plan. I'll be checking out several LDS Food Storage cookbooks for ideas...again learning from those who have mastered this instead of trying to reinvent the wheel here ;)
There will be more and more posts on this. I will be sharing what I buy, how much of it I buy, just how many I'm preparing for, other preparations I'm making, and how I plan to store it all. Any insight, tips, ideas for this you may have...please leave a comment and let me know!
Dia Duit, dear ones!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Oh, How I have Slacked!
Dia Duit, dear ones :o)
I'm been MIA for quite some time now haven't I? I'm sorry about that...tis life I suppose...and it was a season of me having to learn a lesson. Things have slid downhill rather rapidly around here. Isn't it always amazing how hard we have to work to get things back in order and how quickly it all comes undone?? I have been learning what perseverence means...and the story of the Tortise and the Hare has been playing in the back of my mind alot. That and the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Between the two of them it's been a jungle!! lol
The house has fallen into an untidy state. Flylady...Flylady...oh where have you been?? Well truth be told she's been right where she always was...right in my inbox leaving me encouraging emails each morning. She has done what she could...I deleted her without even opening. Today though I will ask her to forgive me...and I will humbly accept her help in getting out of this C.H.A.O.S. Things have not gotten as bad as they were before I found her...which is encouraging...and I'm finding it MUCH easier to declutter and get rid of things...but there is still much to do.
The realization that I must train these young ladies while they are young if I don't want them to struggle with these same things has been coming to mind more often. Sometimes it's easier to make a whole bunch of adjustments at once. I know most say just take baby steps and a little bite at a time...but sometimes I really think it's easier to just rip off a big ol hunk and do it all at once. When taking just little steps it seems easier to slip back into the old habits because nothing else has really changed. So a big hunk of change is getting ready to happen here...I think it'll be rough at first...but that we'll quickly get the hang of it and in the long run it will be easier than the never ending changes. More on this in another post :o)
I've been preparing for alot of potential changes in the way we live. Most of them are politically motivated. Quite frankly I don't think our country is going to be able to keep treading water as it has been lately...I think we're going to have some hard times coming soon...and it's my job to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be. I'm fully confident that God will provide, that He will never leave us or forsake us...but I also think He expects us to use the common sense that He has given us. A friend posted a quote on her Facebook page not long ago and it has really made a lasting impression on me. I'm sorry I don't remember who said it...but it was "There will come a time when winter asks what you did all summer." We do know that winter is coming...what are we doing this summer...and I dare say I think it might be fall now.
During my absence I've had alot going on...My Daddy came to visit for several days. The princesses and I went to visit my Daddy at the beach. I went to visit my sister for a wonderful Celtic Thunder concert. We've had alot of extra chores around here preparing for winter. I've learned to knit. There's just been "lots"...I'm sure you all know how that goes ;)
So I'm back to Simply Living Simply :o) Not that I ever left it...but rather rededicating myself to it's pursuit. Posts will be much more frequent now...and if you find what you read helpful in some way I hope you will share with friends and family who might also gain some sort of insight or encouragement from it. If there is an area of particular interest to you please send me a message...I'll be happy to share my thoughts/ideas/opinions/habits on it if I'm at all able!
Dia Duit, dear ones!
I'm been MIA for quite some time now haven't I? I'm sorry about that...tis life I suppose...and it was a season of me having to learn a lesson. Things have slid downhill rather rapidly around here. Isn't it always amazing how hard we have to work to get things back in order and how quickly it all comes undone?? I have been learning what perseverence means...and the story of the Tortise and the Hare has been playing in the back of my mind alot. That and the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. Between the two of them it's been a jungle!! lol
The house has fallen into an untidy state. Flylady...Flylady...oh where have you been?? Well truth be told she's been right where she always was...right in my inbox leaving me encouraging emails each morning. She has done what she could...I deleted her without even opening. Today though I will ask her to forgive me...and I will humbly accept her help in getting out of this C.H.A.O.S. Things have not gotten as bad as they were before I found her...which is encouraging...and I'm finding it MUCH easier to declutter and get rid of things...but there is still much to do.
The realization that I must train these young ladies while they are young if I don't want them to struggle with these same things has been coming to mind more often. Sometimes it's easier to make a whole bunch of adjustments at once. I know most say just take baby steps and a little bite at a time...but sometimes I really think it's easier to just rip off a big ol hunk and do it all at once. When taking just little steps it seems easier to slip back into the old habits because nothing else has really changed. So a big hunk of change is getting ready to happen here...I think it'll be rough at first...but that we'll quickly get the hang of it and in the long run it will be easier than the never ending changes. More on this in another post :o)
I've been preparing for alot of potential changes in the way we live. Most of them are politically motivated. Quite frankly I don't think our country is going to be able to keep treading water as it has been lately...I think we're going to have some hard times coming soon...and it's my job to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be. I'm fully confident that God will provide, that He will never leave us or forsake us...but I also think He expects us to use the common sense that He has given us. A friend posted a quote on her Facebook page not long ago and it has really made a lasting impression on me. I'm sorry I don't remember who said it...but it was "There will come a time when winter asks what you did all summer." We do know that winter is coming...what are we doing this summer...and I dare say I think it might be fall now.
During my absence I've had alot going on...My Daddy came to visit for several days. The princesses and I went to visit my Daddy at the beach. I went to visit my sister for a wonderful Celtic Thunder concert. We've had alot of extra chores around here preparing for winter. I've learned to knit. There's just been "lots"...I'm sure you all know how that goes ;)
So I'm back to Simply Living Simply :o) Not that I ever left it...but rather rededicating myself to it's pursuit. Posts will be much more frequent now...and if you find what you read helpful in some way I hope you will share with friends and family who might also gain some sort of insight or encouragement from it. If there is an area of particular interest to you please send me a message...I'll be happy to share my thoughts/ideas/opinions/habits on it if I'm at all able!
Dia Duit, dear ones!
Friday, August 20, 2010
More Thoughts On Saving Money
This will be more of an exhortation and encouragement than it will be practical advice...but we must challenge the way we think and the way we normally do things every now and again to be sure we have not slipped off the course we need to be taking.
The biggest hindrance I have found to saving money is peoples attitudes. Lets be real here...you could save more money if you really wanted to. I don't need to hear your excuses...trust me I have enough of my own ;o) But it is what it is...the truth.
I have known women who complained about how little money they had for this and that...but stocked up on soda and juice bags for their kids. I have known people who complain that they can't afford groceries and go and apply for food stamps...but smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and drink a case of beer a week. Seriously? They're not broke, they just have their priorities wrong.
And let me just say up front...I really don't care if you smoke, or drink, or buy soda and juice bags. I would encourage you not to smoke...it will kill you...but I smoked for a decade, I understand too. What I won't do is listen to you complain about how you have no money.
People feel entitled. I don't know why...someone lied to them I guess. And if someone else hasn't lied to them they seem to have lied to themselves. They have decided that what the "feel" about something and what they "like" somehow equals a justifiable need in their life. That's just not true!!
I cringe inwardly when I hear people say "Oh I NEED my." No they don't...almost never do they "NEED" it. They desire it, they want it, they like it, they wish they could have it...but they don't NEED it. I can hear you already too.."but I need my coffee in the morning"...no you don't. No more than I do. I drink a pot of coffee a day...but if tomorrow all coffee disappeared I wouldn't die (I can't promise anything for those around me for awhile, but that's a different story ;) ) . Coffee is not a NEED, it's just a really strong want. But the reason I cringe is because the people who really believe that...are believing a lie. A lie that says that their wants are needs. Those false needs become little false idols.
False idols and grocery shopping...when was the last time you thought of that? When was the last time you've gone thru the grocery store and thought "have I lost perspective on this item?" I can hear the voices again...I hear someone saying "but Campbell's soups are better." Yup, they may be...but is anyone going to die if you have generic soup instead of Campbell's?? No, I don't think so. But are you willing to remove that Campbell's idol and "reduce yourself" to a generic? ;o) "But I like Campbell's better!"..and my response is "SO!" If you have no money worries and you want to buy Campbell's by all means Knock Your Socks Off!! But if you need to save money you're just going to have to suck it up.
You have to be willing to do without the things the "world" tells you you need...or your kids need.
Do you know what my kids drink? Water! Imagine that...water. They get ONE very SMALL juice cup (not the supersized ones now a days) of Sunny D each morning with breakfast. This is brand new for us..I don't buy juice...it's sugar water. Sunny D was on sale for 59 cents a bottle and a single serving has 100% of their Vitamin C needs. I bought 8 bottles. That Sunny D will last a Long time by only allowing the one small serving a day. Because I have saved in so many other areas I can now do things like this and not have to worry about it.
Later that first day after the Sunny D one of the Princesses asked me if they could have more. I told her...are you ready? Brace yourself....I told her "NO". (I know, gasp!) That same Princess said "But Mama, I want Sunny D" to which I replied "too bad, you may have water." Guess what she drank...yup, water.
My girls don't have fancy snack foods. There's no chips, pretzels, candy, gummies. If they want a snack we can cut up an apple for them to share. I get two $5 bags of fruit a week. They have 5 pounds of apples and oranges in them. So $1 per pound for the fruit. If they don't want an apple or an orange...well, too bad, they can wait till the next meal. No one is starving around here.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I could go on and on, and perhaps I already have. But it amazes me to see mothers in the grocery aisles piling their carts high with junk they don't need and then cringing as they get their bill. I imagine the burden of credit they're probably under, the stress they seem to ooze. And I feel sorry for them. I wish they could see how crazy it is.
We need to change the way we think. We need to do our best to feed our families healthy food in reasonable serving sizes. But we need to keep some perspective too. Food is fuel...it is something to keep us alive. It's not much more than that. It's not just about what it tastes like and what it feels like. It's not even about what we like...everything you eat doesn't have to be something you love. To put things in perspective lets remember that thousands of people starved to death in this world...TODAY. Do you think they would eat a generic? Do you think they would care if it was something they didn't really like? If it wasn't their favorite?
Our food supply is not nearly as secure as people would like to think it is. Our world isn't as secure as we'd like to think it is. We need to realize that things may not always be the way they are now. We may not be able to run to Kroger and get whatever we want whenever we want it. We may not be able to get all the exotic and out of season goodies we've all come to just assume will be there. We may not be able to afford all the things we think we "need."
I want you to think about something...according to the USDA reports we spent just under 10% of our disposable income on food in 2007. In the 1940's and 50's it was over 20%. People in other countries spend up to 55% of their income on food. Imagine next time you go shopping if you could only had HALF of the money you do to feed your family. What would you be buying then? Can you save money now? If you had to? Can you save the money and then use it to stock a pantry...yes you can...and I hope you really consider doing that. Think as you go thru the store. Challenge your ingrained thoughts.
You can save money...but you have to be willing to think differently than you have before and differently than your friends and family. You might have people snicker at you. You WILL get crazy looks in the store when you have 60 bags of veggies, 50 boxes of noodles and 50 jars of spaghetti sauce ;o) But you WILL save money, and you WILL have a stocked pantry. But it all must start with a change in attitude and by putting things back into their proper perspective.
Dia Duit my friends. Not a light and fluffy post, but sometimes we need to be more than light and fluffy.
The biggest hindrance I have found to saving money is peoples attitudes. Lets be real here...you could save more money if you really wanted to. I don't need to hear your excuses...trust me I have enough of my own ;o) But it is what it is...the truth.
I have known women who complained about how little money they had for this and that...but stocked up on soda and juice bags for their kids. I have known people who complain that they can't afford groceries and go and apply for food stamps...but smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and drink a case of beer a week. Seriously? They're not broke, they just have their priorities wrong.
And let me just say up front...I really don't care if you smoke, or drink, or buy soda and juice bags. I would encourage you not to smoke...it will kill you...but I smoked for a decade, I understand too. What I won't do is listen to you complain about how you have no money.
People feel entitled. I don't know why...someone lied to them I guess. And if someone else hasn't lied to them they seem to have lied to themselves. They have decided that what the "feel" about something and what they "like" somehow equals a justifiable need in their life. That's just not true!!
I cringe inwardly when I hear people say "Oh I NEED my
False idols and grocery shopping...when was the last time you thought of that? When was the last time you've gone thru the grocery store and thought "have I lost perspective on this item?" I can hear the voices again...I hear someone saying "but Campbell's soups are better." Yup, they may be...but is anyone going to die if you have generic soup instead of Campbell's?? No, I don't think so. But are you willing to remove that Campbell's idol and "reduce yourself" to a generic? ;o) "But I like Campbell's better!"..and my response is "SO!" If you have no money worries and you want to buy Campbell's by all means Knock Your Socks Off!! But if you need to save money you're just going to have to suck it up.
You have to be willing to do without the things the "world" tells you you need...or your kids need.
Do you know what my kids drink? Water! Imagine that...water. They get ONE very SMALL juice cup (not the supersized ones now a days) of Sunny D each morning with breakfast. This is brand new for us..I don't buy juice...it's sugar water. Sunny D was on sale for 59 cents a bottle and a single serving has 100% of their Vitamin C needs. I bought 8 bottles. That Sunny D will last a Long time by only allowing the one small serving a day. Because I have saved in so many other areas I can now do things like this and not have to worry about it.
Later that first day after the Sunny D one of the Princesses asked me if they could have more. I told her...are you ready? Brace yourself....I told her "NO". (I know, gasp!) That same Princess said "But Mama, I want Sunny D" to which I replied "too bad, you may have water." Guess what she drank...yup, water.
My girls don't have fancy snack foods. There's no chips, pretzels, candy, gummies. If they want a snack we can cut up an apple for them to share. I get two $5 bags of fruit a week. They have 5 pounds of apples and oranges in them. So $1 per pound for the fruit. If they don't want an apple or an orange...well, too bad, they can wait till the next meal. No one is starving around here.
Do you see where I'm going with this? I could go on and on, and perhaps I already have. But it amazes me to see mothers in the grocery aisles piling their carts high with junk they don't need and then cringing as they get their bill. I imagine the burden of credit they're probably under, the stress they seem to ooze. And I feel sorry for them. I wish they could see how crazy it is.
We need to change the way we think. We need to do our best to feed our families healthy food in reasonable serving sizes. But we need to keep some perspective too. Food is fuel...it is something to keep us alive. It's not much more than that. It's not just about what it tastes like and what it feels like. It's not even about what we like...everything you eat doesn't have to be something you love. To put things in perspective lets remember that thousands of people starved to death in this world...TODAY. Do you think they would eat a generic? Do you think they would care if it was something they didn't really like? If it wasn't their favorite?
Our food supply is not nearly as secure as people would like to think it is. Our world isn't as secure as we'd like to think it is. We need to realize that things may not always be the way they are now. We may not be able to run to Kroger and get whatever we want whenever we want it. We may not be able to get all the exotic and out of season goodies we've all come to just assume will be there. We may not be able to afford all the things we think we "need."
I want you to think about something...according to the USDA reports we spent just under 10% of our disposable income on food in 2007. In the 1940's and 50's it was over 20%. People in other countries spend up to 55% of their income on food. Imagine next time you go shopping if you could only had HALF of the money you do to feed your family. What would you be buying then? Can you save money now? If you had to? Can you save the money and then use it to stock a pantry...yes you can...and I hope you really consider doing that. Think as you go thru the store. Challenge your ingrained thoughts.
You can save money...but you have to be willing to think differently than you have before and differently than your friends and family. You might have people snicker at you. You WILL get crazy looks in the store when you have 60 bags of veggies, 50 boxes of noodles and 50 jars of spaghetti sauce ;o) But you WILL save money, and you WILL have a stocked pantry. But it all must start with a change in attitude and by putting things back into their proper perspective.
Dia Duit my friends. Not a light and fluffy post, but sometimes we need to be more than light and fluffy.
Saving Money With Dehydrating
Dia Duit my friends! I'm on a roll today ;o)
First let me repeat my previous post...DO NOT waste your money on a cheap dehydrator. The money you spend on Excalibur will be well worth it!
How do I save money with Excalibur?
Well...in several ways. The biggest way is by buying things on sale and then dehydrating them for long term storage. We have a chest freezer...but there's only so much that can be fit in there. I'm also always worried about losing electricity and losing all of my food to spoilage. Another consideration is the cost of electricity and the possibility that we may not always have the current supply that we do now. Already places in the US have rolling blackouts and brownouts. As the worlds population increases along with our love of all things that suck up power it only stands to reason that rates will go up as demand goes up. Personally we have seen our budgeted monthly bill more than double in the 4 years we have lived here. Our usage has only gone up a very little bit...it's just been rate increase after rate increase, after rate increase...up to three of them in ONE year!
So how does this practically look for me?
First of all frozen veggies are cheaper than canned veggies when you work out how much actual vegetable you get. Cans are full of liquid. Even if a can of peas was 88 cent...the same bag of frozen peas for 88 cent would give me almost twice as much. So just knowing what to buy helps me save money. I love canned veggies, I'm the queen of last minute planning...but I pay for the ease of being able to pop it open and have it ready.
So Krogers frozen veggies are usually $1.39-$1.69 depending on what it is. That is for a 12 oz bag. I won't go into my tirade of them putting 12 oz in instead of the 16oz it used to be ;o) No sense fussing what I can not change. Several times a year Kroger puts their frozen veggies on sale for 88 cent a bag. That is an automatic savings of up to 81 cent a bag.
If I were a "normal" person I may buy at the most 5 bags...saving just over $4 and that's it. But I'm not normal ;o) The last time they were on sale I bought 60 bags of veggies! For a savings of...drum roll please...$48.60!!! Now we're talking!! But what on earth am I going to do with all those bags of veggies? I'm going to dehydrate them!!
The Excalibur has 9 shelves in it. I can usually get at least TEN bags of veggies in there at a time. So I only need to temporarily store 50 bags, and I do that in the chest freezer. I immediately start dehydrating things. There is nothing special you have to do...just slice the bag open, poor on the screen, spread them out in an even layer, and call it done! The only vegetable that I have found to be a bit of a pain is french style cut greenbeans...they just get so thin that they'll slide thru the screens and I lose alot of its and bits. Regular and Italian cut greenbeans work great though.
Some things that are very small to begin with get much smaller with dehydrating. I buy alot of the frozen diced onions and green peppers because they make my life easier...I would put down a gallon ziploc bag...tape down the edges with duct tape...and then dry those on the bag so that I don't lose them all when they shrink.
When the veggies are done drying I store them in recycled spaghetti sauce jars, pickle jars, apple sauce jars...if it's a glass jar with a lid I reuse it :o) Later when I have a bigger stash I'll vacuum seal more...but that will be another post.
Another way to save with Dehydrating is on fresh produce.
This week organic celery was $1 a bunch. I wish I had had more extra in my budget...I would have bought them out, but as it was I bought 6 bunches. If you were to buy that much celery and store it in your fridge it would go bad before you ate it....Not so with Dehydrating! :-D I come home and get the meat slicer down, slice up the celery in a matter of minutes...put it in Excalibur...and now I have dehydrated celery for all my cooking...already sliced and ready to go :-D How easy is that??? Oh, by the way...I saved $16.14 with just that.
Buy things when they are in season and dehydrate them so you have them once the season is over and the prices have doubled again.
Another great savings is by not wasting leftovers.
I made cabbage rolls not long ago...but I only needed the nice big outside leaves. Normally the rest of that cabbage would have gone to waste. Not anymore :-D I sliced it up on that wonderful meat slicer...blanched it for one minute...and dehydrated the rest. It is now waiting in my pantry in a ziploc bag for a soup or stew this fall when I will be able to throw it in for added goodness.
By dehydrating I can grab exactly what I need...and not more. Sometimes I don't need a whole bag of corn...now I can just grab a half cup of dehydrated corn and there's no worries and no waste.
There are many other ways to save with Dehydrating...I couldn't possibly exhaust them all here. But this gives you a start and are my biggest savers right now. I'll be back with more another day :-D
Dia Duit my friends!
First let me repeat my previous post...DO NOT waste your money on a cheap dehydrator. The money you spend on Excalibur will be well worth it!
How do I save money with Excalibur?
Well...in several ways. The biggest way is by buying things on sale and then dehydrating them for long term storage. We have a chest freezer...but there's only so much that can be fit in there. I'm also always worried about losing electricity and losing all of my food to spoilage. Another consideration is the cost of electricity and the possibility that we may not always have the current supply that we do now. Already places in the US have rolling blackouts and brownouts. As the worlds population increases along with our love of all things that suck up power it only stands to reason that rates will go up as demand goes up. Personally we have seen our budgeted monthly bill more than double in the 4 years we have lived here. Our usage has only gone up a very little bit...it's just been rate increase after rate increase, after rate increase...up to three of them in ONE year!
So how does this practically look for me?
First of all frozen veggies are cheaper than canned veggies when you work out how much actual vegetable you get. Cans are full of liquid. Even if a can of peas was 88 cent...the same bag of frozen peas for 88 cent would give me almost twice as much. So just knowing what to buy helps me save money. I love canned veggies, I'm the queen of last minute planning...but I pay for the ease of being able to pop it open and have it ready.
So Krogers frozen veggies are usually $1.39-$1.69 depending on what it is. That is for a 12 oz bag. I won't go into my tirade of them putting 12 oz in instead of the 16oz it used to be ;o) No sense fussing what I can not change. Several times a year Kroger puts their frozen veggies on sale for 88 cent a bag. That is an automatic savings of up to 81 cent a bag.
If I were a "normal" person I may buy at the most 5 bags...saving just over $4 and that's it. But I'm not normal ;o) The last time they were on sale I bought 60 bags of veggies! For a savings of...drum roll please...$48.60!!! Now we're talking!! But what on earth am I going to do with all those bags of veggies? I'm going to dehydrate them!!
The Excalibur has 9 shelves in it. I can usually get at least TEN bags of veggies in there at a time. So I only need to temporarily store 50 bags, and I do that in the chest freezer. I immediately start dehydrating things. There is nothing special you have to do...just slice the bag open, poor on the screen, spread them out in an even layer, and call it done! The only vegetable that I have found to be a bit of a pain is french style cut greenbeans...they just get so thin that they'll slide thru the screens and I lose alot of its and bits. Regular and Italian cut greenbeans work great though.
Some things that are very small to begin with get much smaller with dehydrating. I buy alot of the frozen diced onions and green peppers because they make my life easier...I would put down a gallon ziploc bag...tape down the edges with duct tape...and then dry those on the bag so that I don't lose them all when they shrink.
When the veggies are done drying I store them in recycled spaghetti sauce jars, pickle jars, apple sauce jars...if it's a glass jar with a lid I reuse it :o) Later when I have a bigger stash I'll vacuum seal more...but that will be another post.
Another way to save with Dehydrating is on fresh produce.
This week organic celery was $1 a bunch. I wish I had had more extra in my budget...I would have bought them out, but as it was I bought 6 bunches. If you were to buy that much celery and store it in your fridge it would go bad before you ate it....Not so with Dehydrating! :-D I come home and get the meat slicer down, slice up the celery in a matter of minutes...put it in Excalibur...and now I have dehydrated celery for all my cooking...already sliced and ready to go :-D How easy is that??? Oh, by the way...I saved $16.14 with just that.
Buy things when they are in season and dehydrate them so you have them once the season is over and the prices have doubled again.
Another great savings is by not wasting leftovers.
I made cabbage rolls not long ago...but I only needed the nice big outside leaves. Normally the rest of that cabbage would have gone to waste. Not anymore :-D I sliced it up on that wonderful meat slicer...blanched it for one minute...and dehydrated the rest. It is now waiting in my pantry in a ziploc bag for a soup or stew this fall when I will be able to throw it in for added goodness.
By dehydrating I can grab exactly what I need...and not more. Sometimes I don't need a whole bag of corn...now I can just grab a half cup of dehydrated corn and there's no worries and no waste.
There are many other ways to save with Dehydrating...I couldn't possibly exhaust them all here. But this gives you a start and are my biggest savers right now. I'll be back with more another day :-D
Dia Duit my friends!
You Need to Spend Money to Save Money
This goes against my grain too, but I am seeing the truth of it all the time.
There are several things that will make saving money on groceries and stocking a pantry MUCH easier. I have learned about all of these within the last year...and they have changed my life!! I am so thankful for those who first shared about them!!
The first is DEHYDRATING. Dehydrating to me was something that was done to beef jerky, and that was it. Boy was I wrong!! The best information I have found on dehydrating is at http://www.dehydrate2store.com . She has all sorts of videos, recipes etc. She made something that was unknown to me before not only understandable...but gave me the courage to try it. I've written before about my dehydrating and how to get the cheaper Excalibur Dehydrator...check my other post. But that $200 is going to save you TONS of money!! And it has a ten year warranty, how can you go wrong???
The second is a Professional Meat Slicer. When you watch the videos at Dehydrat2Store you will see her using the meat slicer. It takes the tedious job and makes it SOOOO much easier. There are things that I could never slice thin enough by hand. And there is NO way I could process as much food as I do without it. I consider it an absolute necessity along with the Excalibur...to the point that when each of our Princesses become a Queen these two things are the gifts we will be getting them. The best price I found was on HSN.com. It was $99 and came with an extra blade.
The third is a Sunday Subscription to your Newspaper for Coupons. The Sunday paper here costs $1.75 a week and it doesn't cost any extra to have it delivered...this way you can't forget to pick them up ;o)
Those three are musts...this next one is not, but if your time is limited it is WELL worth the money.
The fourth is to join http://thegrocerygame.com . I only do one store, Kroger, and it is $8 every 6 weeks. The grocery game does not have stores in all areas, so be sure to check your area. They also have a 4 week free trial. Do yourself a favor and wait until you have a months worth of coupons first. I signed right up and then watched for the first month at all the good deals I could have gotten...if I had had the coupons, which I didn't...it was frustrating. After you have a start on your coupons though The Grocery Game does the all the leg work and figuring for you. It has the sales for my area that week and matches that to the coupons that were in the paper. It also tracks the price trends at the store so I know when to use my coupon for the greatest savings. Honestly there is NO WAY I could have all that info, even if I had the ability I don't have anywhere near that much time....and hence the reason it is well worth the money.
Let me give you a quick example. I didn't need deodorant...it wasn't on my list, so I never would have thought to look for the sales and coupons to match it up. But then I go to my Grocery Game list and see that not only is deodorant is on sale for .88 (a great deal as it is) but that I have a 50 cent coupon from three weeks ago. Kroger doubles coupons up to and including 50 cent. So how much did I pay for that deodorant? NOTHING!! It was completely FREE! I do love free!! :-D I have at least six things of free deodorant stored right now.
There may be a few other things that would make it easier to save money...but these are the basics that I have invested in and have found them to be incredibly helpful and well worth the money. If you don't have the $300 for Excalibur and the meat slicer right away then start with the coupons and the grocery game. Take the money you save and set it aside for those things...I bet you have it in no time!! :-D
Dia Duit, my friends!
There are several things that will make saving money on groceries and stocking a pantry MUCH easier. I have learned about all of these within the last year...and they have changed my life!! I am so thankful for those who first shared about them!!
The first is DEHYDRATING. Dehydrating to me was something that was done to beef jerky, and that was it. Boy was I wrong!! The best information I have found on dehydrating is at http://www.dehydrate2store.com . She has all sorts of videos, recipes etc. She made something that was unknown to me before not only understandable...but gave me the courage to try it. I've written before about my dehydrating and how to get the cheaper Excalibur Dehydrator...check my other post. But that $200 is going to save you TONS of money!! And it has a ten year warranty, how can you go wrong???
The second is a Professional Meat Slicer. When you watch the videos at Dehydrat2Store you will see her using the meat slicer. It takes the tedious job and makes it SOOOO much easier. There are things that I could never slice thin enough by hand. And there is NO way I could process as much food as I do without it. I consider it an absolute necessity along with the Excalibur...to the point that when each of our Princesses become a Queen these two things are the gifts we will be getting them. The best price I found was on HSN.com. It was $99 and came with an extra blade.
The third is a Sunday Subscription to your Newspaper for Coupons. The Sunday paper here costs $1.75 a week and it doesn't cost any extra to have it delivered...this way you can't forget to pick them up ;o)
Those three are musts...this next one is not, but if your time is limited it is WELL worth the money.
The fourth is to join http://thegrocerygame.com . I only do one store, Kroger, and it is $8 every 6 weeks. The grocery game does not have stores in all areas, so be sure to check your area. They also have a 4 week free trial. Do yourself a favor and wait until you have a months worth of coupons first. I signed right up and then watched for the first month at all the good deals I could have gotten...if I had had the coupons, which I didn't...it was frustrating. After you have a start on your coupons though The Grocery Game does the all the leg work and figuring for you. It has the sales for my area that week and matches that to the coupons that were in the paper. It also tracks the price trends at the store so I know when to use my coupon for the greatest savings. Honestly there is NO WAY I could have all that info, even if I had the ability I don't have anywhere near that much time....and hence the reason it is well worth the money.
Let me give you a quick example. I didn't need deodorant...it wasn't on my list, so I never would have thought to look for the sales and coupons to match it up. But then I go to my Grocery Game list and see that not only is deodorant is on sale for .88 (a great deal as it is) but that I have a 50 cent coupon from three weeks ago. Kroger doubles coupons up to and including 50 cent. So how much did I pay for that deodorant? NOTHING!! It was completely FREE! I do love free!! :-D I have at least six things of free deodorant stored right now.
There may be a few other things that would make it easier to save money...but these are the basics that I have invested in and have found them to be incredibly helpful and well worth the money. If you don't have the $300 for Excalibur and the meat slicer right away then start with the coupons and the grocery game. Take the money you save and set it aside for those things...I bet you have it in no time!! :-D
Dia Duit, my friends!
Saving Money Makes Me Happy
I promised a post on saving money...so lets see if I can share something that may help others. :o)
First let me say I have always been cheap, frugal if you'd like. It's built into the DNA of my family...I got it from my father, who got it from his...and I suspect it goes all the way back over to Ireland lol. It has gone past the point of necessity to a point of principle. It just feels wrong to pay more for something than I need to. But it's not only something that makes me feel better...I feel it is my responsibility, to God, and to my Darling who works so hard for the dollars we have.
Many of our bills are fixed...I pay the same thing for our cell phone bill each month. Now a truly frugal person could argue that cell phones aren't a necessity...and I agree...but pain meds for surgery aren't a necessity either, they used to do it with a shot of whiskey...there are some things that there is just no need to go back to ;o) We have evolved past that point.
I can't do much about those bills, so one of the only places I can cut back is my grocery budget. For alot of years I just found ways to cut back the actual total. I don't buy junk. There are no chips in my house other than some tortia chips for Mexican soup later this week. There is no soda, cookies, crackers (other than plain saltines), gummies, candy, boxes of cereal, fruit cups, etc...it's just not an option. I have four Princesses...they know to not even ask...I don't get pestered going thru the store. I planned my meals for the week, then bought what I needed to make them. I don't make fancy meals...we don't eat steaks and shrimp. I bought from the sales if it worked with my menu.
But over the last few years prices have just gone up and up and UP. As much as I cut back on the groceries it just never seemed to get me quite as much as it had before. Ontop of that many people have had their salaries reduced. Thanks be to God that we have not had to deal with that. What we did have though is our fourth Princess. :o) So an adjustment was needed once again. It was easy the first year when she was nursing, that doesn't cost anything. She's now almost two and eats as much as her older sisters! lol I hear stories of kids who have half a sannie for lunch...NOT HERE!! lol So I started pouring over the internet searching for ways to save money.
During this same time God started speaking to me about stocking a pantry and having a large food supply on hand. As tough as things have become, I believe that our country is in for a much rougher road ahead. I don't think we're all going to be holed up in shelters etc...but I do think inflation is coming...in a BIG way. Having a stocked pantry and a large supply of stocked food is an excellent way to help hedge against Hyper Inflation. What has amazed me is that as I talk to women from all different walks of life and all over the country they are telling me the same thing!! God has been speaking to them about this same exact thing...but none of us has/had any idea how or where to start.
WWW to the rescue!! :o) As I said, I've been pouring thru the WWW in search of info. And I've found tons of it!! Not all sites are helpful, some talk about it, but never give you any actual practical advice. Others offer tips that just aren't feasible. What I hope to do is write a series of posts and split them up so that it isn't one long book, and so that we can come back to any specific areas more easily. PLEASE leave comments and share any tips you have as well!!
Dia Duit!
First let me say I have always been cheap, frugal if you'd like. It's built into the DNA of my family...I got it from my father, who got it from his...and I suspect it goes all the way back over to Ireland lol. It has gone past the point of necessity to a point of principle. It just feels wrong to pay more for something than I need to. But it's not only something that makes me feel better...I feel it is my responsibility, to God, and to my Darling who works so hard for the dollars we have.
Many of our bills are fixed...I pay the same thing for our cell phone bill each month. Now a truly frugal person could argue that cell phones aren't a necessity...and I agree...but pain meds for surgery aren't a necessity either, they used to do it with a shot of whiskey...there are some things that there is just no need to go back to ;o) We have evolved past that point.
I can't do much about those bills, so one of the only places I can cut back is my grocery budget. For alot of years I just found ways to cut back the actual total. I don't buy junk. There are no chips in my house other than some tortia chips for Mexican soup later this week. There is no soda, cookies, crackers (other than plain saltines), gummies, candy, boxes of cereal, fruit cups, etc...it's just not an option. I have four Princesses...they know to not even ask...I don't get pestered going thru the store. I planned my meals for the week, then bought what I needed to make them. I don't make fancy meals...we don't eat steaks and shrimp. I bought from the sales if it worked with my menu.
But over the last few years prices have just gone up and up and UP. As much as I cut back on the groceries it just never seemed to get me quite as much as it had before. Ontop of that many people have had their salaries reduced. Thanks be to God that we have not had to deal with that. What we did have though is our fourth Princess. :o) So an adjustment was needed once again. It was easy the first year when she was nursing, that doesn't cost anything. She's now almost two and eats as much as her older sisters! lol I hear stories of kids who have half a sannie for lunch...NOT HERE!! lol So I started pouring over the internet searching for ways to save money.
During this same time God started speaking to me about stocking a pantry and having a large food supply on hand. As tough as things have become, I believe that our country is in for a much rougher road ahead. I don't think we're all going to be holed up in shelters etc...but I do think inflation is coming...in a BIG way. Having a stocked pantry and a large supply of stocked food is an excellent way to help hedge against Hyper Inflation. What has amazed me is that as I talk to women from all different walks of life and all over the country they are telling me the same thing!! God has been speaking to them about this same exact thing...but none of us has/had any idea how or where to start.
WWW to the rescue!! :o) As I said, I've been pouring thru the WWW in search of info. And I've found tons of it!! Not all sites are helpful, some talk about it, but never give you any actual practical advice. Others offer tips that just aren't feasible. What I hope to do is write a series of posts and split them up so that it isn't one long book, and so that we can come back to any specific areas more easily. PLEASE leave comments and share any tips you have as well!!
Dia Duit!
Menu for Week of 8-23-10
Dia Duit, my friends :o)
It's amazing what a week or so can do...and a little internet searching ;)
I found a website, and I wish I could remember the name...but I paid $20 (yes I know that's very unlike me!) and got 16 weeks worth of menus...not only menus, but the shopping lists that go with them! I also got a half dozen Ebooks. A couple of them are just short commentaries stating the obvious and not overly helpful. For instance one is about routines...well it tells you how important routines are for 20+ pages, but never helps you make your own :? Oh well. But there was one jewel in there that has just made me happy this week...BREAKFASTS!! I hate breakfast! I mean I like to eat it...but I can't stand having to get up first thing and try to figure out what to feed everyone, the mess it makes first thing in my shiney kitchen...I'd just rather skip it. But I can't, so this Ebook has come to my rescue. It has all sorts of ideas and recipes for making breakfasty things and then freezing them. I'm not much for using the microwave, but to not have to deal with things in the AM...I'll suck it up ;o) I plan on sharing recipes and such as I try them out...look for future posts!!
So I now have an entire weeks menu including Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner! I will list these by day, but in truth I may mix things up thru out the week depending on my mood etc.
Monday:
B- Quiche Cups & Biscuts
L- Sannies
D- Chicken Noodle Soup (Princess 2's request)
Tuesday:
B- Pancakes
L- Hot Crab Dip n Crackers
D- Pesto Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday:
B- Sausage n Cheese Biscuts
L- Taco Soup
D- * Pasta Fagioli
Thursday:
B- Peanut Butter Banana Pancake Rollups
L- eat out..shop shop
D- * Lasagna
Friday:
B- Breakfast Burritoes
L- Hot Dogs and Beanies
D- Chili and Cornbread
Saturday:
B-Bagel Sannies
L- Mexican Beans and Rice
D- Left overs for girls...Date night for my Darling and I :-D
Sunday:
B- Banana Splits
L- Rest of left overs (I will cook enough this week to be sure we'll have plenty)
D- Pizza
It's amazing what a week or so can do...and a little internet searching ;)
I found a website, and I wish I could remember the name...but I paid $20 (yes I know that's very unlike me!) and got 16 weeks worth of menus...not only menus, but the shopping lists that go with them! I also got a half dozen Ebooks. A couple of them are just short commentaries stating the obvious and not overly helpful. For instance one is about routines...well it tells you how important routines are for 20+ pages, but never helps you make your own :? Oh well. But there was one jewel in there that has just made me happy this week...BREAKFASTS!! I hate breakfast! I mean I like to eat it...but I can't stand having to get up first thing and try to figure out what to feed everyone, the mess it makes first thing in my shiney kitchen...I'd just rather skip it. But I can't, so this Ebook has come to my rescue. It has all sorts of ideas and recipes for making breakfasty things and then freezing them. I'm not much for using the microwave, but to not have to deal with things in the AM...I'll suck it up ;o) I plan on sharing recipes and such as I try them out...look for future posts!!
So I now have an entire weeks menu including Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner! I will list these by day, but in truth I may mix things up thru out the week depending on my mood etc.
Monday:
B- Quiche Cups & Biscuts
L- Sannies
D- Chicken Noodle Soup (Princess 2's request)
Tuesday:
B- Pancakes
L- Hot Crab Dip n Crackers
D- Pesto Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Wednesday:
B- Sausage n Cheese Biscuts
L- Taco Soup
D- * Pasta Fagioli
Thursday:
B- Peanut Butter Banana Pancake Rollups
L- eat out..shop shop
D- * Lasagna
Friday:
B- Breakfast Burritoes
L- Hot Dogs and Beanies
D- Chili and Cornbread
Saturday:
B-Bagel Sannies
L- Mexican Beans and Rice
D- Left overs for girls...Date night for my Darling and I :-D
Sunday:
B- Banana Splits
L- Rest of left overs (I will cook enough this week to be sure we'll have plenty)
D- Pizza
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