Can You Cook Without Eggs, Milk, or Butter?

Tonight I saw a post of Facebook by one of my friends/family who, by the way, has four children that said   "I have no milk and no cheese!  How do you cook dinner without milk and cheese?"  This gave me such a laugh because I can vividly remember being a young wife and mother and finding myself in the same situation!  Unfortunately for my family, that was before my preparedness skills had been developed.

Having a well stocked pantry can save you in more ways than one.  If you are like us and you are totally busy all day, everyday, then running out to the store for one or two missing ingredients is just a pain.  Many of you have young children and know quite well how inconvenient it is to load the kids up and drive to the store for one or two things, so much so that you would almost rather do without!  What if you could find a happy medium like something that would save you when you realize that you are missing one essential ingredient, like milk, eggs, or butter?

I have the answer for you!  It's dehydrated or powdered substitutes.  I know many of you are turning up your nose at the word 'powdered', but please remember we are using it to cook with, not eat as is.  In stocking my pantry for the unexpected, whether it be the loss of a job, an extra high utility bill, or an unforeseen major car repair, etc., these items are worth their weight in gold when I call them into use.

In my personal research and preparation I came across a company, Shelf Reliance, that sells all the essentials in a long term, shelf stable form which will hold for up to 25 years in most cases!  These items can be costly if you try and use them as everyday essentials, but if they are part of your stockpile or 'back-up' pantry then they are well worth it.  Tonight one of my grown kids turned their nose up at the idea of using powdered milk for their cereal until I told on myself and let them know that I've refilled the milk jug more than once with powdered milk and they didn't even notice!  This is really not my normal MO, but sometimes you just do what you gotta do.  My challenge for you is to look at the staples you use.  If you can find them in a shelf stable version then buy just one of each to begin your stockpile pantry in order to save yourself not only an inconvenient trip to the store, but buy just a little insurance as well.

Sidenote:  We've mentioned this site on one previous occasion on this blog.  In case you missed it, let us know in advance if you intend to actually purchase something from them.  We have a way to get you a discount on the items beyond the normal prices listed on the site.  And, for full disclosure, we have no affiliation or involvement with this site or anything like that, we just happen to think they have wonderful products that are tough to find elsewhere.

Frugal Kung-Fu Part 4

Take your Sword of Frugality and slice up your food bill so you can eat healthy... affordably!

Join a Food Co-op!

    Joining a food or farmer co-op of some kind can be a huge benefit and have a solid impact on both the health and budget of your home and family.  If you aren’t a part of one, start searching the internet or asking around for what’s local to you.

Melissa surfed around a little one afternoon and came across a farmer co-op in our area called Farmer's Market Baskets.  Joining this co-op and getting involved with the community there has literally changed our lives.  We began by volunteering twice a week and our involvement has grown exponentially in a very short time.  I am now their delivery driver and take anywhere from 100-150 baskets of produce to various drop off locations around the area.  Melissa and McClane help me run the route and they also cashier twice a week.  We also recently facilitated the opening of a new location across town to continue to expand and spread the blessings.

Another great reason to join a local farmer’s co-op is that while it’s not a guarantee, it’s much more likely that you’ll be eating produce grown at least somewhat locally.  While I’m not going to digress into a discussion about peak oil, believe me when I tell you that the days of the 3,000 mile Caesar salad are quickly coming to an end.

 This house is now overflowing with more fresh fruit and vegetables than we can handle.  Each week we end up with enough fruit and veg for three families and it literally costs us nothing except a few hours of our time.  We fight a constant battle to deal with everything we get before it goes bad.  We dehydrate, can and freeze like crazy people and then see that we give the rest away to family, friends, and neighbors who need it.  A couple weeks ago we ended up with nine huge cantaloupes.  Now, we like cantaloupe, but could you eat nine of them before they go bad?  We actually did, but you get the point.

Obviously not everyone reading this lives in the Kennesaw, GA area, but if you happen to be local, leave a comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch with you about hooking you up with Farmer’s Market Baskets.  You basically get 2-3 times the amount of produce you could get for the same price in the grocery store, or the same amount for half to one-third of the price, however you want to look at it.

Frugal Kung Fu Part 2

How's your Frugal-Fu these days?  Ours is strong.  Here's the second installment of our new Frugal Kung Fu series designed to fatten your wallet without thinning your lifestyle...

Frugal Kung Fu Tip #2:  Quality of Life Assessment

 

        Sit back for a while and think about what you spend your money on.  Then think about the cost of whatever you’re doing or buying, whatever it may be, and think of it in terms of your wages.  Think about the cost of a nice dinner for either you and your spouse or maybe your entire family.  What’s the bill at the end of the night?  $30?  $50?  $90 even?  Think about how many hours of work it takes you to make that much money and, before you spend, ask yourself if it’s really worth it.  Train yourself to think in this manner every time you reach for a store shelf and start to pick something up.  Ask yourself if the amount of time you would have to work to pay for the cost of that item is really worth it.  Maybe you’re on the road a lot and you find yourself in convenience stores for things like drinks and snacks.  Look at what you spend in an entire month on just picking up a soda here and there or whatever it may be.  Then ask yourself if it’s worth it.  If you really take a magnifying glass to your everyday lifestyle, you’ll probably find that you can’t really justify some or possibly many of your habits. 

        I’m not suggesting that you go around thirsty all day because you shouldn’t spend money on a soda.  What I am suggesting is that you find an alternative way to continue doing what you’re doing.  If you’re always popping into a convenience store for a drink, instead, bring a cooler with some ice and a six pack of Coke in it.  Make your coffee at home instead of stopping at the local Starbucks.  Bring snacks and food with you before you leave for the day, which in many cases can be something you couponed for next to nothing if you use Frugal-Fu tip #1.  If you go through a fast food drive-thru with any regularity, stop!   It’s expensive, unhealthy, garbage pseudo-food!  If haven’t seen “Super Size Me” you should.

        Overall, just take a serious look at your quality of life.  We’ve found that we actually have a higher quality of life by not being slaves to 40 hours and our ‘stuff’.  Get off the hamster wheel.  Step back from the newest iPhone and forget the newest Android.  Quit being a blind consumer and try and focus on what really matters like the quality and amount of time you get to spend with those you love.

        If you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to take a quick look at “The Story of Stuff.”  It’s less than 20 minutes and you’ll get a better idea of what I’m getting at here.  It's really worth the watch.  Unless you have something overly pressing to do in the next 20 minutes click the "full screen" link below and learn yerself sumthin'.

Full Screen Version:  The Story of Stuff

Frugal Kung Fu Part 1

Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, but even if we get a raise or a promotion, it's all too often that as we make more money, our living styles and expenses seem to increase at the same rate.  Let's call it life inflation.  Unfortunately, sometimes things go the other way, and these days that's the case for most average people.  That the middle class is shrinking is really just another way of saying that most people are either making less money or haven't increased their earnings fast enough to keep up with the inflation of goods, services, food and energy, and are thus experiencing a decline in their standard of living.

  

            If you find yourself in either of these situations, either you're earning more but seem to still be barely getting by, or the cost of living is out-pacing your income, you've come to the right place.  Today we're going to share with you quite a bit of information that will provide you so many ways to cut costs you're bound to take up at least a few of them.  Let me say first that there is a plethora of "10 ways to save money" type of articles out there.  We've read more of them than we can count, and what we've found in nearly every case is that either the tips aren't relevant (diversify your portfolio and check the yield on your bonds, lol!) or it's something we're already doing.  What we've also found is that the things we do every day to save money that have a real, noticeable impact are entirely missing from these articles.  If you want to start reducing the cost of your daily subsistence in substantial ways, prepare to be amazed (ok fine, mildly impressed) at the things you could be doing that you're probably not.
 
            In this new series, we’ll show you frugal ways to save money without significantly changing your lifestyle.  These aren’t just fanciful ideas, these are things we actually do here in our home every day that keep the wheel spinning for us.  


Frugal Kung-Fu Tip #1:  Couponing

Maybe you’ve seen these ‘extreme couponing’ shows that have come out lately.  We’ve actually never seen any of them (you’ll learn why later).  Maybe you clip the occasional coupon now and again.  However, if you’re not an extreme couponer, you should be.  We regularly go to the grocery store, fill out basket with $150 worth of food, and walk out having paid less than $30.  Sometimes we pop in for a little haul and walk out with $50 or $60 worth of items and pay only $9 for everything.  It’s nice to get 25% off here and there, but when you start being able to get things you need in large quantities and approach an average discount of 80% or more, that’s when it gets good and you’re really start getting ahead.  

An actual receipt from a recent trip to Publix

 Most people imagine that to do this you have to spend hours and hours cutting coupons and figuring out deals and such.  This is absolutely not true.  Melissa spends no more than one hour a week dealing with her coupons, many times it’s more like 30 minutes.

Well here’s how it’s done:  start by visiting websites specializing in extreme couponing.  They have an entire team of people who stay abreast of every sale and every deal going on at every major grocery store.  They also figure out and organize how to put the deals together so they build on each other.  They'll show you exactly what items are on sale and exactly how much each item is going to cost you.  They'll also tell you exactly where to find the coupons necessary to put a given deal together.  If you tried to do all that yourself it certainly would take hours and hours.  These sites do nearly all the work for you.  All you have to do is review their listings, decide which items you want to purchase, and gather the coupons you need for those items.  All the coupons come either from the Sunday paper or are printed from the internet.  Gathering them will be the only time you’ll spend, which is why it will take an hour or less once you know what you’re doing.

Now, let me say, there is a slight learning curve in as much as different stores have different coupon policies.  All you do about that is go to each store's website and you’ll be able to review their corporate coupon policy.  Sometimes it's worth it to have the policy printed out and with you when you hit places like Walgreens and CVS.  You’ll understand the reason for this pretty quickly.  You see, when you walk up to the counter at some of these drug stores and they ring everything up and the total comes to say, $50 or so, then you run all your coupons and it ends up being discounted to $4 the cashier is going to be confused and figure something must not be right.  More than once they’ve called the manager over to review the transaction and believe it or not, the cashiers and managers will sometimes actually resent you for getting so much for so little.  They may even act like they earn on commission or something and try to tell you you’re not allowed to do what you’re doing.  That’s when you show them their corporate coupon policy and make them understand that yes, you are allowed to do exactly what you’re doing.  On the few occasions this has happened to us this has cleared everything up and to this day we’ve never been refused or denied our purchase. 

          By extreme couponing, not only will you save huge amounts of money, you'll end up with large numbers of things you have to have.  We have a large container with probably 50 name brand razors that in most cases were free or close to it.  We have 20-30 each of toothpaste, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, etc., and all of it was either free or cost something like 50 cents each.  This is stuff everyone uses that’s not going to ‘go bad’ because it sits there for a couple months before you get around to using it because you have so much of it.  Stockpiling is a Good Thing!  If you’re not extreme couponing, you’re missing out.  Period.


Sidenote:  If you want all your questions answered and receive a more thorough step-by-step walkthrough of exactly how things are done, we have a class scheduled for this Saturday, November 12, but only one person has registered to attend.  If you're interested and want to learn from a pro, either leave a comment or send Melissa an email.  If we can gauge people's interest we may schedule another class in the future.

Help Yourself Help Others

Around here we tend to stick to a very tight budget.  It’s the only way to keep the freezer filled and the lights on.  Racey was talking to a friend of ours at the market recently, and he made the comment that our little house of cards is dependent on all the little tips and tricks we currently use and if we stopped doing just one thing the house would fall.  To some people that would be too scary and they would chose a different path.  For us it’s the only way of living we've found that makes us happy and still keeps things going.  Now, if anyone reading this feels so inclined to give us a million dollars, we would be glad to change a few things.  But, left to ourselves, this is the plan that gives us the most successful results.

Like all plans, ours needs to be re-evaluated and adjusted from time to time when life circumstances change.  Case in point, we have just acquired two additional mouths to feed with a 3^rd on the way and due here in early January.  One is working full-time and the other lost their job so things are tight all the way around and getting tighter. 


Our little house of cards was built to feed, clothe, and shelter three people, not six!  So what are we going to do?  Well since we are ‘preppers’, we have a surplus of canned food and dry goods that will ease the added food budget crunch.  We converted our bulk storage pantry (which was our loft) into a bedroom and we're in the process of finding a new home for all our supplies.  The shelves in the picture below were put up this summer to hold all the fruit and veg we canned.  Now they hold pictures.... this was not in the plan but I'm glad they are here and can be used in this time of need.

We will be stretching the meat order that much further, and the fresh produce we get from the market has become even more valuable to the household budget. 

 I already coupon all our toiletries, personal care items, and  food products that I can’t make myself, but I'll need to be a little more aggressive at it.  We've built up such a surplus in the last year I was starting to get a little lazy.

This is a good example of why Racey and I go to all the trouble to prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.  We are not doom & gloom, apocalyptic, anti-government type people.  We're ordinary folks, just like you, that have other people who, in times of crisis, turn to us for help.  Life’s unexpected changes can happen to anyone at anytime.  We need to be prepared to weather the storm and come out on top. This is not easy for any of us, but it is doable. If something similar happened in your household would you be able to help? 


I encourage you to assess your situation and see if there are areas you could build up in order to be better able to assist family or others in times of trouble.

Snow On The Pumpkin

I woke up this morning feeling all warn and toasty till I climbed out of the bed.  It was a little chilly in the house, so I grabbed the throw blanket off the couch and mosied over to the weather station.  Why I do this I don't know, it's like I need modern technology to confirm my feeling of being hot or cold!  The weather station read 58° indoor and 44° outside.  Technically, this temp qualifies us to turn the heat on or start a fire in the rules and regulations of our self imposed Freeze Yer Buns Challenge 2011-2012.

But with it being 10:30 am., and McClane gone to church, I figured the two knuckle heads that came up with this idea could tough it out 2°.

So I took my blanket and sat down at the computer for a little surfing and what was the first story I came across? Millions left without power and several deaths attributed to rare October snow. What? Rare October snow?!?  Where? Maybe here!  I run and look out our window and then the ferries pop me in the head and remind me I live in the devils pocket here in the south!  It couldn't possible snow till say ... who really knows anymore.  So I'm left with my "Prepper" wheels turning.  If our friends from Virginia to Massachusetts (who normally get a ton of snow) are caught unprepared for this type of event what can we do to possibly prepare ourselves for a tough winter.

Here are a few things I came up with for the average family who traditionally does not worry about things like this, but wants to cover their bases this winter.

• If you have a fireplace have at least 3-5 days worth of DRY wood available even if you don't normally use your fireplace.  If you're not familiar with fire starting, have some type of fire starter logs to help start it and keep it going.  If the power is out you will want some way to warm the house.  Even if you have a gas furnace the blower won't run.
• If you don't have a fireplace and there is no power for a period of time you should have enough heavy blankets for each person in the household.
• If you are lucky enough to have a generator (you know who you are /e sticks tongue out at him) have enough gas to run it for 3-5 days.  This part is very important! What good is this recourse if you can't get the gas to run it.
• Have a full tank of propane for your gas grill.  If you don't have a gas grill you should have at least one or two large bags of charcoal.  Not only can you cook this way you can heat water for bathing of little ones. 
• Have two or three preplanned hot meals in the pantry that can help keep the family warm.  Soups, chili, casseroles, etc.
• Water, Water, Water. Did I mention Water?  If you have no power or it's extremely cold, it's only a mater of time till the pipes freeze.  Bare subsistence calls for at least two gallons per person per day. This amount is what you will drink, cook with, and use for personal hygiene.  If you are like me and either can't afford or don't want a huge drum of water in the garage then at least start saving your empty plastic soda or juice bottles.  Fill and prepare them for storage before there is an emergency.
• For those of you who have little ones still in diapers or Pull-Ups you should have at least one spare package that you don't touch till you are ready to move to the next size.  There is nothing more nerve racking than bad weather and a little one who is low on diapers! The same goes for formula.
• Serve hot drinks, whether it's hot chocolate or coffee, broth, soups, etc.. This is a easy way to keep little ones warm and still get a little food into them.  You can easily heat these things on a gas or charcoal grill if need be. 

I know this seems like a lot to prepare for a situation that might never occur, but remember last year!  We had unusually heavy shows here in Georgia that left a lot of us stuck in our homes for nearly three days.  Racey tried to go out once just to get to a store that's barely a mile away and couldn't even get the car up a tiny little hill because it was so icy.  Remember, it's always better to have and not need than to need and not have.