RESULTS: The February Financial Experiment - Going Cell Only

Okay, okay, I know it's now MAY and I never posted the results of this experiment! 

Well, it's pretty short and sweet... We've been without a house phone since February and we haven't missed it a bit!  No annoying sales calls, no political robo-dialers, no-one looking for me to donate to the charity of the week (how do you even know if those are legitimate anyway?)! 
Every once in a while someone will say to me, "Hey I tried to call you and your phone said it was disconnected."  I then give them my cell number and they'll be able to call me the next time they need to.  Other than that, It's been one of the easiest things to give up!  We saved a few bucks and a bit of my daily sanity.

Best part?  I no longer have to run for the phone when it rings downstairs!  Now... does anyone want to buy a cordless phone and answering combo? 

Jan

Food Storage - Where do you start?

Three posts in a week?  Don't pass out, anyone!



The Shelf Reliance Cansolidator Pantry Plus

 The other day my friend Shirley asked me about food storage and how to get started with it.  Now, I'm a Mormon an I make no secret of it!  But I often wonder what people who aren't Mormon think about us and our desire to store food.  We really aren't nuts, I promise.  There's just something so wonderful in the security that a good store of food.  Plus, we've been counseled by many Prophets to do it, and we kind of like to be obedient.

Our Church leaders have advised us for years to be prepared for emergencies, both financial, physical (temporal) and spiritual.  One of the things they've asked us to do is store a 3-month supply of everyday food, a two week supply (at least) of drinking water, a one year "longer term" supply of staples like whole grains and beans, and (the hardest for us personally) a financial reserve. 

So, when she read about our January Financial Experiment, my friend, Shirley, asked me about it.  She and her hubby are interested in getting started storing some basic food items, "just in case."  They aren't sure how to get started.  She said:

"So how do you do it?  How do you keep it?  Do you continue to use out of your stockpile or just put it away for emergency use (like invasion or whatever reason).  [We want] to buy large quantities staples.  I'm confused on how to put these things away without them going bad and then having to replace them occasionally.  We're brand new to this type stuff."

I wrote up a big long email with lots of resources in it and sent it off.  I imagine it was more than she anticipated.  I have a tendency to spew out large amounts of information at people.  Probably why I like blogging. 

Then I started thinking... maybe there are others out there that don't know where to start and who to ask.  So, I decided to post the information here.  And here it is!

First of all, I think that food storage is fun!  I love the feeling of putting up 40 pounds of apples.  Seeing those jars lined up and gleaming.  It makes me feel safe. I know where my next meal is coming from. 

Getting Started
Not sure what to store? You can keep a short term storage (1 year or less) of just regularly packaged foods.  You can also store foods appropriately for 20-30 years, if you want.  I prefer to have some long term and some short term.  We try to have a 3 month supply of the foods we normally eat on hand. I do this just by stocking up on the things we normally eat.  Then we rotate through it. 

I think the most important things are to A) store only products you will use and B) learn how to use the long term storage products available C) DON'T just buy it and store it away and forget about it.  It should be a contantly rotated and used system. 

It makes no sense for you to store 600 pounds of wheat if you have no idea what to do with it, if you suddenly needed it.  I have a lot of wheat stored.  I have a wheat grinder and make bread every week.  If you suddenly start introducing large amounts of whole wheat into your diet and you aren't used to it, it can actually make you sick (lots more fiber than white flour)!

Planning a 3 Month Supply
The best way to plan a 3 month supply of food for your family is to make a list of the meals you make all the time.  What are your favorites?  Then make a two or three week menu for dinners.  List out everything you need to make those meals and add them up. If you can, substitute canned, dried or frozen ingredients for fresh.  Now you know what you'll need to store for that 2-3 week period.  Multiply it out to make three months.  Now you have a three month supply list.  Once you have Dinner under control, expand the process for Lunch and then Breakfast.  A good website for this method is I Dare You to Eat It.  I have her book and love it. 

Practical Storage
As far as how to store all this stuff, my favorite place for shelving and such is Shelf Reliance.  They are pricey but awesome!  You can sometimes get them at Costco or Costco Online for less.  I have their pantry can racks and love them!  We keep most of our food storage in a big closet under our stairs.  You want to keep it somewhere that not going to get very hot.  It will shorten the life of your food. 

Online Resources
Like I said before, our Church and it's members are big into food storage and being prepared for emergencies.  The Provident Living website talks about the four important aspects of being prepared and "living providently":
Main Family Home Storage Page - the longer term supply link has some good info on storage life and containers
Family Home Storage FAQ page
Family Home Storage Calculator - A calculator to figure out how much of long term grains/beans to have

The Home Storage Center
The LDS (Mormon) Church also runs places called "Home Storage Centers".  We call them canneries :-).   Anyone can go and purchase long term storage goods there.  You don't have to be Mormon to go there.  The products are there to serve people not to make a profit so it's usually a good deal.  Plus it's packaged properly.  It's in the same building usually as our Bishop's Storehouses which are the Church's welfare facilities.  Usually when you go, you actually do the work of canning your products yourself.  But each one is run a little differently.  You'd just have to call them and ask.  Explain you aren't a member of the Church and I know they'll be helpful and explain it all.  You can get a lot of good stuff there, wheat, rice, beans, dry milk, sugar, flour, dehydrated apples, carrots, onions, macaroni, oats, spaghetti, potato flakes and some other things.  All packaged for long term storage.
Home Storage Centers in the Western United States - You can just call the number listed and see when they have time available for you to come in.
Home Storage Center Order Form - the current order form for the home Storage Center.  Lists all the products, the storage life and packaging available.

Commercial Websites
Some good commercial places for information or to purchase supplies are:
Emergency Essentials
Walton Feed
Honeyville Grain
Most or all of these places will also do group orders if you get a bunch of friends together to order. 

I hope you find this information helpful.  If I could give you one piece of advice to get you going it's this: Start small, store for one week, then two weeks, then a month.  Remember, how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time!  Wow, that's kind of a gross saying now that I think of it...

Jan

The February Financial Experiment - Going Cell Only

It's time for me to share with you what our February Financial Experiment is.  We have finally gone cell phones only.  I never felt super comfortable going without a home phone but over the past year I've slowly been convinced to go with out it.  Here's why:

First, Victor and I both have iPhones.  We always have them in our pockets. Why on earth do we need another phone on top of those?

Second, our upstairs phone died so every time the phone rang downstairs, I had to run for it.  Usually, I didn't make it.  That's when the third thing comes into play.

Third, 90% of the calls we would get were sales, surveys, charities, or political recordings.  I can't tell you how annoying it was to run for the phone ten times a day only to have it be one of those calls. 

I think #3 was really the final kicker for me. 

So, there are some concerns about going without a land line.  My SIL asked me two questions when I told her I was making the swtich. "How many calls will you be missing because you don't hear your phone in your purse or another room?" and "What about 911 service not being able to find your house?"

So, the first concern about missed calls was really not applicable to us.  First of all, I almost always have my iPhone with me.  I'm pretty much a jeans and t-shirt kind of gal so I always have a pocket to slip it into.  It's just become a habit.  Secondly, I missed way more calls on my land line!  See #2 above.  I do have to get into the habit of having my ringer on.  I usually have it on vibrate and I sometimes don't feel it.  But I'm getting better. 

The second concern is a big one.  Luckily, were recently given an AT&T 3G Microcell.  I discovered as we were setting it up that it comes with E911 service.   When I make a call that connects through the Microcell, it reports my address!  Concern resolved!  You might look into your cell service to see if it can use E911.

Well, I'll let you know how its going in a week or two.  So far, I've not missed the land line a bit!  Of course, it probably would have been good to tell my mother that I was doing this beforehand.  Oops!  Sorry, Mom!

Jan

RESULTS - The January Financial Experiment - No Shopping

Well, here it is most of the way through February and I'm finally posting the results of this experiment!  Sorry it took me so long.  If you'd like to read about the start of this experiment, scroll down to the next post or click here.

We learned a lot in January as we tried to live off our food storage.  In order for the experiment to be meaningful I did a few things as we went along.

1. I kept a list of everything we ran out of on my kitchen counter so it would be handy when I needed to jot something down.
2. I made notes of what I did when we ran out of something.
3. I planned our meals at the beginning of each week so I wouldn't be stressed and staring into the pantry each night.
4. I allowed myself to go shopping when absolutely neccesary.

Now, I must give you a little disclaimer before I give you the results.  I'm a Bountiful Baskets Volunteer Site Coordinator.  Bountiful Baskets is a produce co-op (for info, go to http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/).  I run the distribution site every other week.  For my work, I recieve a large basket of fruits and vegetables.  That absolutely helps with our budget and since I pay for it with my time, it doesn't count for our "no shopping" experiment.  Additionally, even with that basket of fresh produce, we still run out of fresh fruit before the two weeks is up.

So, what did we run out of and what did I do when we did?  Here is the list in the order we ran out.

• Milk - We used powdered milk.  My kids call it "special milk".  It's all in how you present it to them.
• Fresh Fruit - I have stored dried apples from the LDS Cannery.  We love them and it was nice to still have fruit to put into lunches each morning.
• Canned Corn - We had plenty of other veggie options.
• Diet Coke/Soda - This was a toughie!  We just switched to water and drink mixes like Crystal Light
• Toilet Paper - This was the only thing that I actually had to go buy.  There's just no substitute.  My neighbor saw me post about it on Facebook and was going to run some over but we had already gone to the store.  My SIL was going to ship me some even!  Thanks for your support everyone!
• Orange Juice - I try to keep this on hand because Victor is Diabetic.  Luckily we have things like Gatorade in our storage for low blood sugar emergencies.
• Pancake Syrup - We sometimes substitute applesauce on pancakes.  Plus I was able to make our own.  There's a really good recipe for Pecan Syrup in the Ball Blue Book.  I had a jar of that on hand.  So, we had alternatives.  I haven't even replaced this yet.  Oh, and I found a jar of Huckleberry Syrup my sweet MIL had bought us when we were in Jackson, WY last summer.  Delicious!  Better than the fakey maple stuff anyway!
• Crystal Light - So, with a diabetic in the house, all our drinks are diet drinks.  We aren't big water drinkers (working on that) so Crystal Light is our second favorite beverage after Diet Coke.  The girls like it, too.  I had some packets of Cool Aid that I made up with Splenda to substitute.  Not very cost effective but it worked.
• Napkins - We substituted paper towels but those got pretty low, too.  We could have used free ones from fast food places but remember we were not going to eat out either.
• Aluminum Foil - Not much you can substitute for this. We just went without.
• Qtips - Nothing you can sub for this either.  Went without. 
• Oatmeal Packets - Victor takes one of these to work most days and eats breakfast there.  He was most effected by this one.  You can make your own though and we have lots of canisters of oatmeal stored.
• Creamy Peanut Butter - We still had crunchy.  Poor Samantha was the only one bothered by this one.  She is not fond of lots of texture in her food.
• Shredded Cheese - This is one of the staples in my freezer.  It was a little hard to go without but we managed.
• Yogurt - I forgot to write this on the list but this is another thing Victor takes for work.  I have a yogurt maker and made some yogurt from powdered milk.  He wasn't thilled about it but settled for it.

 It seems like a lot but there was really only the one thing that we absolutely couldn't do without.  So, now I wait patiently for a really good sale on toilet paper to stock up.  It was kind of funny.  We got down to one roll of toilet paper in the morning.  I patiently trekked the roll around the house as people needed it.  My dear sweet hubby stopped and got enough packages of TP to last us the rest of the month.  They were on sale for $1 for a four pack and he bought 6.  So, the $6 that we absolutely had to spend for the month wasn't bad!

How about our bonus challenges we gave ourselves?

Dining Out

We did just fine with this!  We did go out one time, just Victor and I.  We went up to the Phoenix area to visit some friends and go to the temple.  We had planned to go to lunch and use a gift card we'd gotten for Christmas to pay for it.  That would have meant we didn't violate the goal of not spending money on dining out.  Unfortunately we were an hour into the trip when I realized that I'd forgotten the gift card.  We decided that a lunch date out by ourselves was just too good to pass out and went anyway.  But we spent only about $20.

No Gas

We did great on not filling the car up with gas!  We used Victor's work truck for any trips over a few miles.  We would have made it to the end of the month except that a couple of days before the end of the month, Victor decided to be nice and fill my car up and get a car wash.  He forgot about the "no gas" part of our monthly challenge.  I guess technically the debit didn't come through on the card until February though.  :-)  I can't complain, it was awfully nice of him.

Did we save money?  Sure, we didn't spend the $200-$300 that we normally spend on groceries.  That's already pretty low for a family of four.  But, there were some unexpected blessings to come out of the whole thing.  Firstly, we are no longer addicted to Diet Coke!  My dad will be so happy to hear it.  Have I had some since?  Sure, but I'm not drinking it every day.  I've even bought some and have some in the fridge right now.  But, whereas I was drinking 2-3 cans a day before, now I might have 1 a day or 1 every other day.  I can take it or leave it.  I hope I never get back to that addicted point!  Secondly, we had a couple of unexpected medical bills come up that needed to be paid.  Normally the unexpected things are just not in the budget and we have to scramble to figure out what to do.  Not this time! 

So, that was it! We survived the month. It certainly helped that there were no good sales at the grocery stores to tempt me with shopping. There were definitly some hard things but we learned so much. It was totally worth it. We'll definitely be doing this experiment again in the future. Hopefully, not because we HAVE to!

I highly reccomend doing this experiment with your family to see where you are with your Food Storage.  It was a wake up call about a few things we consider important!  If you do, I'd love to hear about it! 

Jan

The January Financial Experiment - No Shopping

With the new year, hubby and I sat down and took a hard look at our finances.  Like many of you, we didn't much like what we saw.  We decided that each month we would set a financial goal for ourselves and do an experiment to see what impact it would have on our everyday family living.  For example, early last year hubby decided to start taking lunch to work, both to save money and eat healthier.  After a month we realized what a huge money saver it was.  On top of that, after a few months, he had lost 10 or so pounds.  He's not overwieght at all (in my opinion), but he was thrilled with the results!  So, he kept on taking lunch to work.  It was a positive change all around.

For January of this year, we decided to do an experiment relating to the amount of money we spend on food.   The rules of the experiment are:

1. No grocery shopping, unless something comes up that would be free with a coupon or something like that.  Eat completely out of pantry, freezer, and food storage.
2. No eating out... period!
3. As a bonus challenge, no filling the car with gas.  Hubby's truck gas is paid for by work, so it's just my car this applies to.  The plan is to go anywhere requiring distance in his truck.

We are half way through the month and so far, I've learned a few things.  I'll save my full report for the beginning of January.  Luckily, the grocery stores have been helping me out, their sales have been less than stellar so there hasn't been much temptation to go grocery shopping.  I'm only really tempted when there are good deals to be had. 
My prediction for the end results?  It's not actually going to have a huge impact on us.  We have a lot of food storage.  My kids like powdered milk - I call it "special milk" and they think it's cool.   And my average spending on groceries is only about $250/month since I'm slightly crazed about coupons.  We shall see though.  Maybe I'll be surprised in the long run!  My hope is that, the true result of the experiment will show me what holes are in my food/home storage.  That way I can plan better for the future.

One thing I can't help but say though... there really isn't an acceptable substitute for toilet paper. I'm considering begging hubby to bring a roll home from work today. Hahahaha! Just kidding... really... Maybe I can borrow from the neighbors.



Jan

Search Amazon.com for frugal living

My Back-to-School SWAP Sewing Plan

Have you ever heard of a sewing SWAP? Being in the papercrafting world for so long, a swap has a different meaning than in the sewing world. For sewing SWAP stands for Sewing With A Purpose.  And that's what I'm just about to do!  It's Back-To-School time here in AZ.  And I'm trying to be more provident in my clothing budget.  I know, I know... people don't sew to save money any more, but I'm going to give it a try.

It's only been recently, that I've taken sewing up again.  It's been a loooooooong time since I've sewn much.  Really, since I got married.  The last big project I did before this past Christmas was my wedding dress 10 years ago!  Funny how things change.  Kind of embarrasing to say that I have a BA in Fashion Design but haven't sewn a thing in this long.  Sadly, I've probably lost my pattern making skills.  Who knows, maybe they'll come back some day.  I still have all my old school books, so it's a possibility!

Thankfully, I discovered a wonderful pattern company called Ottobre Desgin a few months ago that has really inspired me.  It's a magazine subscription that comes with 30+ patterns every couple of months.  Lot's of adorable children's clothing!

I even dusted off the old serger.  It took a couple of months to find the foot pedal which was in an entirely different box in the garage.  I have two giant tubs of fabric in the garage, as well, just waiting for me to dig into them.  A lot of it is outdated but, hey, it's nearly vintage now!

But I digress, back to my SWAP plan.  Samantha will be starting 2nd Grade in a couple of weeks.  She has to wear a uniform of sorts.  It's more of a very strict dress code than a uniform.  A lot of uniform clothing you can buy around here is either A) not cute/boring (Walmart), B) not unique/everyone else has (Target), or C) too far away for me to shop at/too expensive (everywhere else).  Her shirts have to be plain, have sleeves and a collar, and can be White, Tan, Light Blue, Navy, or Grey.  Her pants/skirts have to be plain White, Navy, Tan, Grey, or Jeans.  Shorts and Skirts have the same color requirements. 

We went through all of her school clothes to see what was still useable for this year.  The answer?  Not much.  When kids wear the same things over and over again it definitely takes a toll on them.  And let me tell you, Arizona red playground dirt does not come out!  Neither does poster paint, marker, dry-erase marker (can't stand that stuff) and a host of other common school stain makers. 

Size-wise, it's a good choice for me to sew clothing for Samantha.  Since Kindergarten, she has grown up but not out.  She's always been very slender due to a combination of being a preemie at birth (4 lbs. 6 oz.), fine bone structure, and genetics (sadly, not my genes).  Her waist is the size of a 1 year old.  I'm not kidding.  She's not to terribly short for her age, however.  That means that normal clothing for her height is massive in the waist on her.  Thank goodness for the advent of adjustable waist pants.  Unfortunately, when you tighten a size 6 pair of pants down to her waist, it's so balloon-y through the hip that it looks more than a little weird.  Lots of her clothing have safety pins in the waist so that they don't fall off her.  That's kind of annoying when you spend $15 on a pair of pants that don't fit.  A funny side note is that she has some capri pants from Kindergarten that still fit her just fine in the waist.  She can now wear them as knee length shorts!  The other problem we have is that shirts that are long enough for her tend to be very large at the neck and shoulder.  So, given Sam's clothing size issues, I figured it was worth trying my hand a making her school clothes this year.  She's still young enough to think that her mom's homemade clothes are cool, so why not?  My pattern making skills have definitely helped me to be able to alter existing patterns to fit her.  For Ottobre, I usually make a size 98 in all the width wise measurements and a size 122 or 128 in the length.  That seems to fit her quite well.  Thankfully, Hailey seems to be about a straight size 110 so no alteration needed there.

Alrighty then, enough tangents, here is my plan:

2 Short Sleeve Shirts
2 Long Sleeve Shirts
2 Long Sleeve T-Shirts (for under the short sleeved shirts in Winter)
4 Pants
2 Jackets/Sweatshirts
2 Dresses/Jumpers
2 Leggings

Hmm.... seems like a lot, huh?  We'll see how long it takes me to get it all done!  Maybe by the next school year.  :-)  My goal is to have at least two outfits done by the time school starts in two weeks.  The rest by the end of August.

Now for the details of the plan with Patterns and Fabrics:

For fabrics, I found several inexpensive pieces and some things I already had to recycle.  The interlock knits, stretch denims and chambray I found at a discount fabric store while on vacation.  The sweater knits and rib knit I found at Walmart on their "Special Buy" table for $1/yard.  I'm recycling an old denim dress and two old pairs of tan/stone pants of mine.  The material is still in really good shape, I just don't have occasion to wear them any more.  Economically, it will definitely be better than investing in the same quantity of clothing at $10-15 per item.

I'm so glad that I've got this now committed to paper... or at least screen.  Now, I just have to get off the computer and start sewing!

Thanks for playing!
Jan

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak

Here's recipe #3 for the day: Slow Cooker Swiss Steak.  This is quite possibly one of the easiest slow cooker recipes on the planet.  You can't go wrong with it!  This is my mother's recipe.  I think this was probably my most favorite dish when I was a kid.  It makes a fabulous Sunday dinner.  In a pinch, make little patties of ground beef in place of the stew meat.  I think my kids liked it better that way!  I've also substituted a jar of spaghetti sauce for the tomato sauce with delicious results.

Slow Cooker Swiss Steak - printable version

2 pounds stew beef, cut into 1 to 2 inch cubes
1 large (29 ounce) can tomato sauce or tomato puree
salt
pepper

Yield - 8 servings

In a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker, place a layer of beef cubes. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper
Spoon tomato sauce over each piece.
Repeat layers of beef, salt and pepepr, and tomato sauce.
Cover and cook on low heat setting for 10-11 hours or on high heat setting for 5-6 hours.
Serve over potatoes.

Perhaps this will become your kids' new favorite!
Thanks for playing!
Jan