That Which Is Useful

I know a lot of Christians who are stockpiling right now. I am seeing a LOT of talk, and I tell you that a LOT of it seems VERY much pre Y2K.

Anyone remember that? We were looking for our first house about that time, and I remember seeing several houses where every spare space was STOCKED with food. Even the bathrooms! I remember laughing and thinking how sad that they did not trust the Lord. And of course, there was no run on the stores, no mass hysteria or any of the other things predicted.

And while I do not expect another Y2K type thing, I do think it is smart to stockpile right now.

Two reasons.

First. The price of food is only going to rise. As the value of the dollar falls, commodities like produce and other foods will rise in price. We have already seen that. And it will only go higher. I do know that in Europe, there are already bans on what kind of foods you can buy and how much of it. There was an interview of a restaurant owner who was complaining that not only had the price of rice (he was the owner of an Indian restaurant and their main staple is rice!) doubled in the past few months, but now he is only able to get a limited amount. He talked about how lucky he was that he was friends with the store owner because he was able to get a little more rice than others just because of the friendship. But even the friendship is not allowing him to get the amount he needs for his store.

Am I filling up every spare room in my house? Not even close. Am I being a better steward and seeking out sales and stockpiling more than usual? You bet! Is it done in panic? No. Is it done in an effort to be a good steward of what God has provided and get the best I can for my money? Absolutely.

Secondly, suppose they are right. Suppose the worst happens. I look back at the 1930's and how many people felt that nothing bad would or could happen. And they were totally unprepared. I would rather be in a position of being able to provide for my family, and possibly even share with others, than scrambling to provide.

But I am not stockpiling on things that I do not use or think we will need. I could stockpile on cigarettes to barter in the future should prices become so high that those who are addicted would be willing to trade food, jewelry or services since they are unable to afford to buy them from the store. That to me is panicking.

But stockpiling on dry beans when they go on a good discount (we love beans over here), or rice (yes, we love beans and rice - the secret is in the seasoning) as well as herbs and spices (the secret is in the seasoning remember?) just means being prepared. It is almost the same as having an emergency fund. You plan for the worst and hope and pray for the best. It is good to have it, just in case. I know that it would have been nice to have an emergency fund when JJ ended up in the hospital.

And even if the worst doesn't happen with the economy and all that, what if the worst should happen privately? Like another month long stay in the hospital, or my husband not being able to work for a period of time?

I have also been more careful about the things we have been bringing into our home.

Yesterday at Goodwill, I taught the girls to look for items made from 100% wool. This will help us stay warm during the winter months AND, if needed, can be felted to make other items. It was HARD to find things that 100% wool. Most everything was either 100% polyester or 100% cotton. We did find a sweater for myself (OH so nice and warm) as well as a sweater for EE. And a shirt (100% merino wool) for beloved.

We also bought some plastic trays (the kind like at a cafeteria). I figure that is MUCH cheaper than washing tablecloths and placemats so frequently. AND it will help keep crafts in one place so we lose less beads and other craft items.

We bought some books for $.50 which I plan on swapping on PaperBack Swap (where I get all my books for FREE! Even if I were to pay 1 cent for a book on another site, I would have to pay near $4 shipping. I pay media rate to mail off my books - $2.32 at the moment, which gives me 1 book credit to get 1 free book. So it is ALWAYS cheaper to PaperBack Swap than to buy.) It is GOOD to have an iPhone or some sort of way to check the internet to make SURE the book you are about to buy is wanted. There were quite a few that I almost bought, but when I checked, there were already SEVERAL of them online. It would have been a waste of money and space to buy and list it for who knows how long!

I also need to go by some bakery and get those buckets every one talks about getting to store grains.

Well hopefully this has been useful to SOMEONE! :) What are things you think are necessary to stockpile? I read one woman is also stockpiling things that are nice for her so that should a time come where the price rises too much, she would still be able to feel like she was not deprived. What are your thoughts? Are you stockpiling?

Making It On One Income

Read this GREAT POST on how this one family makes it on one income. GREAT ideas, some I had not even thought of before.

I DID IT! Chicken Time!!

Well, I did it!! After talking about chicken tortilla soup, I had to do it!

So here is what I did.

We roasted the chicken (a la Alton Brown).

We took everything he had us cut out (minus all the guts, I just could not bring myself to do anything with them at this time - I hope to get over my fear of the innards soon as I know I want to waste as little as possible), plus all the bones (which my husband lovingly took all the meat off for us to eat that night) and the drippings from the pan.

We then added carrot chunks, celery chunks (with leaves), onion chunks (with skin). Then we followed a recipe for Healthy Herbal Chicken Stock which will help us fight off colds and flu this winter season. They call it a tonic. :)

It simmered all night long! Then this morning, I made the condensed cream of chicken soup and used some to make the chicken tortilla soup for lunch and froze the rest of the herbal chicken stock and cream of chicken soup. Which is 8 cups of stock (which honestly is about two soups worth for our family), and about 3 cans worth of the cream of chicken soup.

Which brings me to a question. How do you freeze liquids without using plastic? Everything out there I read said to use freezer bags. I am hoping to move away from those. (Although with the success of using cereal bags around the freezer bags I am really happy and liking the ease of freezer bags, especially for things like frozen veggies.) But with soups I would really like to use something NON-plastic. Can I use canning jars? Anyone with any advice?

Darning

Well, I did it! I have to sadly admit hat when things got a hole in them, I usually got rid of them. But not this time! I just finished darning two pairs of stockings and the crotch of a sleeper for JJ (that we had gotten from the clothing swap). It feels SO GOOD and literally took only MINUTES!

Why and HOW do we ever get the notions that things take longer than they actually do? I mean, when I set my timer for 15 minutes and say to myself I will clean for at least 15 minutes (a la FlyLady) I am ALWAYS amazed at how much I was able to do in such a short amount of time. I look at the sink and think to myself that will take so long to do, I will just wait, I don't have the time. But when I time myself, I get the sink done, wipe down the stove and counters, and even get to organize a little all in 15 minutes!

I used to get rid of things that needed some little TLC (like the holey stockings) because I always thought it would take too much time to fix it. But today I found out that if I do it right away, a stitch in time really does save nine. Nine DOLLARS to replace those stockings!! :)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Found a recipe for Six Can Chicken Tortilla Soup from stockpiling. It looks REALLY good and easy to make. We are about 95% vegetarian. But every once in a while when you find a yummo recipe, you just gotta have you some chicken tortilla soup!

I also found a recipe for Homemade Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup. She mentions making a big batch and freezing (LOVE that!).

Now I just need to find out how to make chicken stock/broth. I was watching some show my husband downloaded off the internet. It was a 20/20 like special from the UK. In it, they were showing how the rising prices of groceries were affecting everyone's budget. THen they had a chef come in and EVERYTHING was made from scratch. VERY 1930's! The chicken was made into a broth by using the bones and onion skins. I mean NOTHING was wasted.

I found a recipe on Tamm'ys for Tammy's Chicken Broth. But I do not see quite what I am looking for. Hmmm...

Maybe I will just have to find a 1930's cookbook. Does anyone know how to make this kind of broth/stock?

PVC Greenhouse

I found some online plans for how to build an inexpensive greenhouse.

I am not sure about doing this. I know that in the past when I have researched greenhouses, they actually require a bit more work than just set it up and let it go. There is temperature and air control. We do have a space heater which can be mounted to a wall (even though this greenhouse would have no walls, I wonder if we could build a small wooden one in there?). I think it definitely requires more looking into.

Has anyone built this type of green house (or ANY type of green house?). Any words of wisdom you can share??

Showers vs baths

I had to laugh when my husband suggested measuring the water meter to see just how much water we saved by taking showers over baths. Have you ever done it?

Make sure all the water is off and will not be running (no watering lawns, no running dishwashers or laundry). Look at the numbers on your meter. Now take a shower. When you are done, go check the meter and look at the number. A couple of days later, when you are needing a bath, do the same thing. Make sure no water is running and check the meter before and after your bath.

I know I was shocked. I mean I knew that showers used less water than baths, but for me, I use about 3-4 times as much water in a bath as I do in a shower! I also noticed that for the kids baths (where I put in less water than I would in a bath for me), it was only about twice as much as my shower (and I take fairly quick showers).

SO the question then becomes, is it more cost effective to have the kids shower or bath? Well, according to my thinking, a bath would use less water for the kids than showers for the kids. Why? We have four kids. :) One or two, I can understand the argument for a shower over a bath. But it seems the more children you have, the more beneficial, water and cost wise, the bath is.

Why? Because they all use the same bath water. :) I use a little less for the littler ones, and then add some more hot water for the older ones once the little ones are out. This has worked VERY well for us

Reusing Cereal Bags

Yep, you read correct.

I was reading on The Dollar Stretcher (an EXCELLENT resource btw) about freezing foods and preventing freezer burn. Someone suggested saving used cereal bags and wrapping your food in that. So that it what I am doing for now. I was going to stop buying boxed cereal (simply because of the cost), BUT if I am reusing the bags, it might just be worth the cost (I am able to get our gluten free cereals for about $2 a box at the discount store).

I have LOTS of ziploc freezer bags from stockpiling at a sale, so I am putting the food in those and then putting the ziploc bags in the cereal bags. It seems to be working VERY well! I feel good about it anyways. :)

Keeping Warm

Well last night we had to do it. We had to turn the heater on. Of course we kept it down at 60, and made sure to bundle up and have extra covers on each bed.

And when we woke up this morning, we had to get out of bed. LOL!

The girls were all in layers. And we dressed up JJ in layers too, all with clothes we got for him at a local clothing swap.

And the momma? Well I have a nice warm skirt hat I put on that stays kind of close to the body. On top of that, I put a denim skirt that is a six gore skirt. It is longer than the cotton/wool skirt I wore underneath, so it covered it up just fine. Then I wore a long sleeve shirt and a turtle neck black sweater on top. And socks too (I still need to find or make some wool socks). I was just fine! I did need a coat when I stepped outside, but i truly believe most of that is because of the wind.

I also wore a homemade crocheted panta to help keep the heat in my head. :)

I must admit that I looked pretty good (except for the extra weight I need to lose). Wearing two skirts did not add any bulk (mostly because the skirt I wore over it was a six gore skirt). I do have another cotton slip that I could wear under the first skirt if I had to. And I can tell the wool socks are going to be a must. But for now, it is good to know that we can keep warm at least to 60 degrees! :)

Spool Knitting, French Knitting or Knitting Nancy

My girls love to finger knit and do it just about anywhere, anytime. It is a great way to knit without having to pay for a spool knitter (or make one yourself).

A post on my other blog reminded me about how to make your own knitting nancy. I have several spool knitters that I have gotten (one is the Clover Wonder Knitter that I got on sale for about $3). But I have never taken the time to teach the girls how to use them. Maybe for Christmas this year, we will give one to each of the girls.

I found a page which has a small amount of patterns, one of them for a doll! (Well, it says "mascot" in the directions BUT remove the hat and replace with hair and you have a doll! I have three girls and most EVERYTHING is turned into a doll!) I have not had a LOT of time to explore the site, but the page does talk about how to find patterns and books and such.

And then this is this site a collection of everything you wanted to know about knitting nancies and more.

Have you found any great free online patterns? Share them in the comments below! I will add more later as I find them. You can always re-find this page by searching for "knitting nancy" or "spool knitting" in the upper search bar of this blog. It searches only this blog.

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Spool Knitting has a GREAT tutorial as well as a GREAT idea for making rugs with little bits of left over yarn as well as old knitted/crocheted afghans and sweaters that are falling apart!

1900's pattern book free online! Included are videos to help show you the different types of stitches. Download the book without the videos.

Three Cute Projects

From spool knitting to loom knitting - GREAT make your own loom tutorial!!!

More Extending Gifts

I talked yesterday about how one mother extended her daughter's Christmas gift by giving her something to do/make, thereby extending Christmas a little longer.

I was thinking of other gifts that extend the present:

• books - that they can read over and over again, even trade with other children when they are done - just like Paperback Swap (where you get free books!) but in real life with their friends and neighbors
  
• paper dolls - they color them, cut them out and play with them over and over again, they can even create new clothes for their dolls. There are LOTS of patterns online, or create your own.
  
• a deck of cards - hours of fun with card games not to mention you can build with them too!
• board games - need I say more?
• blank sketch books and color pencils - for the artist in the child, plus this might make some good decorations!
  
• pattern and fabric to make a doll - there are lots of free patterns out there for fabric dolls and clothes.
  
• spool knitting/knitting nancy kit - give a spool knitter and some small balls of yarn (bits left over from what you have made) and a plastic yarn needle
• kits - where you have to put your gift together in order to be able to use it. But be careful. Buying something that requires batteries is only adding to the cost of the gift!

Do you have any ideas?

Cranberry Conserves, Part 2

Part 1

Well, that was a lot of liquid for those cranberries. While they did absorb some liquid, they did not EVEN absorb as much as I was hoping. I blended it all together with honey and it tastes pretty good! However, I was not thinking and put ALL the water in there. So there is no way it can be used as conserves.

Some ideas:

• Freeze into popsicles.
  
• Swirl into homemade vanilla ice cream
• Make into a syrup to pour on top of pancakes

So, any of those will work and I am sure will taste so yummy! I do have some drying rosehips in the front garden, so I will try it with those nest. I think it will be fun for the girls to take baskets and harvest the rosehips and help prepare them for the conserve. Rosehips are supposed to be a god cold and flu preventer, and with winter coming, it would be a GREAT time to try it!

Christmas

I was reading a story about a couple who lived through The Great Depression. They were married at the time of the writing, but were children during the depression. The husband told of how finances were so tight one year that he had no Christmas. He spent his Christmas evening cutting pictures from magazines. The wife almost cried at hearing that.

While money might have been just as tight for her and her family, she was thankful for the great imagination of her parents. For on one of her most memorable Christmases , she received a tiny cupboard made from three wooden cheese boxes. And inside the drawers were doll dresses her mother had cut out for her to sew together by hand. Her mother had wisely given her something to do, rather than sewing the dresses herself, thereby stretching out Christmas a little more.

Being the frugal mom I am, I already have all the Christmas gifts for the kids this year. In talking to my husband, we will be making these gifts last at least two Christmases. I mean honestly, the kids do not need all those gifts, and definitely not all at the same time. It will be good for them, and us, to move away from the materialism and more towards gratefulness.

Tubes of Toothpaste

The other day we went to clothing swap our church was holding. It was great! We were able to bring lots of clothes that no longer fit me or the kids (that the resale shop was not taking and that I would not get enough money on ebay to make it worth my while) but that were still in REALLY good shape. It was great seeing people walk away with the clothes that we brought.

And thankfully we were able to get all the clothes we need for JJ (our 2yr) for the rest of the winter! And on Tuesday a lady is bringing some more winter clothes for him as well as boots! YEAH!!! :) If only I could have found stuff for my daughters. Oh well.

I was listening to Peter Schiff on the Glenn Beck show talk about buying gold because the value of the dollar is dropping. A caller said he didn't have enough money to buy gold (who does?), so what should he do?

I was intently listening to THIS answer. He said buy and stock up on goods. Things like coffee, cigarettes, food, etc. Goods, physical goods, would be more valuable than money!

Now I had recently started stockpiling, but that was mostly so I could stock up things when they were on sale, thus saving money on things I would have bought anyway. I never thought that someday I might be able to trade it for something else I might be in need of.

As I was cleaning and decluttering today I came across three tubes of toothpaste. I usually throw them away, as they have fluoride in them and we do not use fluoride. But this time thought better. Does it really hurt me to keep those tubes for a future time when I might be able to barter them for something else I need? I can learn now how to make my own toothpaste out of everyday household ingredients. It would be much cheaper to make my own with ingredients I already have on hand AND I can trade the toothpaste for something else I might need more.

Cranberry Conserves

I found a recipe for rosehip conserves and thought what about cranberries?!?! I have a small amount (about 1 1/2 cups) of freeze dried cranberries that I bought a long time back that the children did NOT like to eat.

The recipe said to pour enough apple juice to cover, plus and inch or two. And some cinnamon sticks and refrigerate. In the morning, the dried rosehips will have absorbed all the liquid, remove the cinnamon sticks, add some honey and eat right away.

Well, I don't have enough apple juice. So I did half apple juice and half sweetened water. I don't think cinnaomon sticks will go well with cranberries, so we will just withhold that. I have put them in the fridge and we will see how they come out tomorrow.

The Purpose Of This Blog

Eat it up, wear it out
make it do, or do without
-1930's Mantra

We have become a society that takes everything for granted. The food we eat. The clothes we wear. Not a thought about where it came from or the hard work it took to earn the money to buy it. Why? Firstly because of debt. We no longer have to WORK for anything. We want it, we buy it. Can't pay for it now? Put it on my tab. A tab that when I cannot pay it, I simply declare bankruptcy and don't owe anything.

And secondly, because we have become accustomed to a quick fix. Something breaks? No need to fix it, just goto Wal-Mart and buy another one. One made so poorly and cheaply that it is MEANT to break after JUST enough time to make you think you got your money's worth.

We are a very greedy nation and because of that greed, hard working and honest people like my husband and most likely, if you are reading this, your husband, who work hard for their money and are sure to pay the bills on time as well as build up some sort of retirement - have to suffer.

While I do not know the future, I do know that we are headed for some very difficult times ahead. And while I pray it will never get as bad as The Great Depression of the 1930's did, I feel that this is a good time to look back into that time in history. To learn from the people, their thrifty ways, and to adopt some now before it comes to a point where I have no choice. And hopefully, it will give us a step up above the rest at that time. Allowing us to move forward.

I read their stories and wonder "how on earth did they think of something like that?!" I am pretty sure some of it was simple trial and error. But I am also certain that we simply cannot do it alone. We survive better when we bond together, share our knowledge as well as our things, and learn from one another.

I do not profess to be an expert. In fact, I admit right now, I know NOTHING. I am starting this blog to preserve my journey during this time for future reference, for others who are interested in learning with me, and for others who have been there and want to share.