Saying Good-bye to the Garden

I always have mixed feelings when the first hard frost hits - I know I will miss the fresh produce growing right outside my door, but I also know that without yard work, I can put my time to good use doing other projects that have been put on hold.

It's a "best by" date not a "throw away" date -

I've always told people that the date on the cans or milk jugs you purchase are not "throw away" dates. You do not have to throw away the food if you have not consumed it by the date on the package. I have read many articles about it.

There is a new article that has just come out restating this same principle. Americans are throwing away way too much food that is still safe and good to eat! This makes everyone's grocery bill far higher than it needs to be.

Here are the shocking numbers! These come from an article posted on CNN. The original article was written for Time Magazine.

"More than 90% of Americans throw out food prematurely, and 40% of the U.S. food supply is tossed--unused--every year because of food dating."

You could reduce your food spending by at least 40% if you just checked your food before throwing it away!

Instead of relying on the date to tell you if something is bad, there are other ways to check. You can determine if the can is dented or bulging. You can smell the milk or other dairy products to see if they smell sour. You can check for the presence of mold. If the product is discolored or has an off smell then throw it out. But don't throw it out just because it is passed the date stamped on the can or package.

Just imagine all the other good things you could spend that money on - 

Festive Holiday Breads

I have been baking holiday breads for years. A holiday meal isn't complete at our house without some kind of bread on the table. If you need help in basic bread making techniques, you'll want to check out this previous post. If you just need some inspiration, you've come to the right place. I thought it would be fun to share some of the recipes I have used over the years to inspire you this holiday season. Clicking on the titles below will  take you to the recipes and instructions. None of these pictures belong to me - they are what gave me the inspiration to try these recipes in the first place. Hopefully, they will inspire you too.


Squash Braid Recipe photo by Taste of Home

Butternut Squash Braid

You can substitute mashed pumpkin or acorn squash in place of the butternut squash in this recipe. It also bakes into lovely dinner rolls. With it's orange color, it is beautiful on a Thanksgiving table.




Turkey Rolls

The kids always love to help arrange the rolls this way. You can use any of your favorite roll recipes or frozen dough also works.



Apple Fritter Bread

This is amazing for holiday brunch or great to give as neighbor gifts.

Other breads I've made for holidays include Cinnamon Swirl Bread, Breakfast Danish, Crescent Rolls, Buttery Yeast Rolls, Zupfa (braided Swiss bread), Hot cross Buns, and Make-ahead Cinnamon Rolls. Eventually, I may get all those recipes up here on this blog. But don't wait for me. If you feel inspired, search out a recipe and give it a try!

Our First Peach Harvest

We harvested our first peach crop at this house! We planted our little trees a couple of years ago - to the kids that is forever to wait! Everyone had to get in on the action of picking all 8 of our peaches. Next year we hope to get an even bigger crop.

They were sweet, yummy, drippy and delicious! This year we will still drive out to the orchards to purchase enough peaches for canning, but in a few more years, we hope to grow all we'll need.

Summer Field Trip Fun

Where are the lazy days of summer? With all my kids home, I am finding it difficult to find time to do blog posts. How did I ever find time to write a book? I knew the crazy days would hit as soon as school was over so this year I did my best to plan ahead for summertime fun.

In May I put together a list of Field Trips we could take that kept us within an hour from home. I then emailed the list out to many families that we know because I knew my kids would have much more fun (and there would be far less whining) if other kids joined us. I just did the list for June to see how well it would go. I am now in the process of putting together a list for July and August because we have all had so much fun!

The nightly question from one of my boys is always, "What are we doing tomorrow?" We've learned to expect it every night as we tuck him in. Having a list of of pre-thought-out activities has been helpful for all of us. (I'm sure other moms of school aged children will admit that when they are all hounding you for something to do, you just can't think creatively. The other thing that is difficult to do last minute is rally a whole group to go with you.) The field trip list has provided groups of 20-30 people at each activity and all of us have had a lot of fun. It has also helped us explore places around town that we have always thought would be fun to go to but just haven't made it.

I knew June would need to be a transition month. The kids were used to going to school everyday. They would still be feeling a need for something everyday in June. (It just takes a bit of time to convince them that summer is meant to be slower.) I decided to do about 2 field trips a week a June, transitioning to one a week or so for July and August. I also waited to put together the list for July and August until I could have some input from some of the other moms who were joining us regularly.

Here is a copy of the beginning of our list for you to use as an example. The majority of the field trips have been free or inexpensive so it helps us keep within our "Summer fun" budget.  So make a bucket list of the things you want to still do this summer and invite others to join in on the fun!

 Field Trips for Summer Fun

In an effort to be a little more ready to entertain kids this summer, we've put together a few opportunities for field trips during the month of June. We would love to have families join us. It is always more fun when other kids come along. All of these activities could accommodate large groups so feel free to invite others to join in on the fun.

Thursday, May 31st -9:30am - 4pm Day trip to Bruneau Sand Dunes near Mountain Home - about an hour drive from here. The sand dunes are the tallest in North America. There is fossil hunting, a visitor's center and playing/hiking on the sand dunes. Some people have told me they have taken tabagons to slide down the dunes. I'm sure other sand toys would be well used. Everyone will need to take a picnic lunch. There is a $5 fee per vehicle. Meet at Andrus Elementary Parking Lot at 9:30 am so we can carpool. We'll plan to be back home between 3-4 pm. For more info check out this link. (We leaned a hard lesson this year. Please keep your shoes on because the sand can get VERY hot. One of the boys who was with us burned his feet very badly.) http://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/parks/bruneaudunesstatepark.aspx

Monday, June 4th - 11:00am MK Nature Center (the park where you see the fish through the windows) and picnic lunch at Municipal park in downtown Boise. Meet at the covered picnic area (back by the parking lot and bathrooms) of Municipal park at 11:00am.

Thursday, June 7th - 4:30-6:00 Boise Art Museum - The 1st Thursday of every month admission is free and they do an art experience beginning at 5 pm where the kids can do a directed project for free.

Monday, June 11th - 10:00 am Capitol building tour, Paddle Boats in Julia Davis Park, and picnic lunch. Meet at the Liberty Bell in front of the big staircase of the Capitol Building at 10:00 am. There is on the street 2 hr parking a couple of blocks behind the Capitol if you don't want to the pay the meter. A tour usually lasts about an hour. We will then go to Julia Davis Park and ride the Paddle Boats before eating lunch. The paddle boats cost $8 for 1/2 hour and carry 3 people each.

Counter Top Garden - A.k.a. Sprouting

I'm giving you the sneak preview of what I have been up to the last couple of weeks. We are also preparing for a wedding that will be at our home this weekend so I have been very limited in my blogging time. I will fill in the super easy details of how to grow your own sprouts as soon as I get a chance.

Inspiring Food Storage Blogs

One thing I have learned in life is that even though you think you know quite a lot about a subject, there are others who know more or different information about that same subject. Today I thought I would spotlight a few blogs I have come across that have inspired me to try something different with my food storage. Maybe they can inspire you as well. (Disclaimer: Some of these individuals are into blogging as a way to earn some income. I am not opposed to that at all, but I don't necessarily endorse the products they are advertising or selling.)

Crystal at Everyday Food Storage thinks along the same lines as I do in that she feels you should be using your food storage items everyday. She has quite a few recipes to share and some helpful handouts. One that really caught my eye was this one on making your own mixes. Those of you who have been reading my blog know that I am a huge believer in making mixes so using your food storage becomes easy and convenient. Crystal has experimented with different recipes than I have and she has also discovered using bean puree to replace the fats in her mixes. She and I could have a fun jam session comparing notes if we lived closer. Anyway, you'll have to take a look and try out some of her recipes.

Stephanie, also known as Chef Tess, blogs at cheftessbakeresse. She has recently started working again teaching many different food storage classes so some of her posts are about her upcoming classes. She has been blogging for a few years though and many of her past posts are about different grains, bread baking, gluten free baking, and plenty of other ideas for using basic ingredients. Her blog is a great collection of information that falls under the provident living theme. She paints some amazing looking loaves of bread by the way. Who wouldn't be inspired to try something new? (Photo from her blog.)

Lately, she has been developing recipes for making fully storable, just-add-water meals. These meals go right along with my thoughts on your need to have a food storage meal plan. Check out her posts on the 52 jar method for inspiration.

One last blogger that has inspired me is Suzanne at Chickens in the Road. This blog follows her story as she moves out to a farm and learns to be self-sufficient. She analyzes recipes like I do (I think we could be kindred spirits that way.) and comes up with ways to make them from scratch. I love how her writing lets you see into her mind just a bit to understand better why she makes the decisions she does. She also has some great posts on cheese making. She uses fresh cow's milk to make her cheese, but I know the recipes work with powdered milk as well. For you recipe lovers, she has a portion of her blog dedicated to recipes where readers can share what they have been baking or cooking. With her beautiful photography and great writing style, it is entertaining to say the least.

Hopefully, you'll have some fun hopping over to these blogs and checking them out. One more disclaimer, none of these ladies have made any contact with me or promised any free items in return for mentioning them here on my blog. I just have been inspired by them and thought you might be as well.

Emergency Preparedness - First Aid

The tornadoes that ravaged the Midwest yesterday have me thinking about Emergency Preparedness. I've covered shelter, food, and water recently so today I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the importance of first aid training and supplies.

First aid training is important for everyone. We take a few family nights each year and review some of the basic principles. Check with your local hospitals to learn if there are any classes happening in your area where you can actually get certified. Certification is helpful because you can feel more confident in your abilities to help someone, but it isn't required. There are many sources online that can give you the basic information. The red cross site can actually match you up with local classes or provide online classes that cover the basics. Camp manuals for boy and girl scouts also contain great information.

First Aid kits are important. Many of them even come with some basic first aid instructions. Kits are a great place to start, but usually don't have all the things you would need in a true, larger scale disaster. We have added triangular bandages, big pieces of cloth, large gauze bandages, etc. to our first aid supplies just to be better prepared. We hope they will never be needed, but we want to be ready just in case. You never know when the time will hit that you need it.

Just last weekend we went up sledding as a family. A man on an innertube collided with a teenager who flipped and landed face first on the hard snow. It bloodied his nose and scraped his face up pretty badly. His parents were not right there on the sledding hill. He had come with a few of his friends while his parents stayed behind at their cabin. We were the adults that were close enough to help. One of us ran to the lodge to call 911. We also put a call in to his parents - thank goodness the boy was coherent enough to tell us the phone number at the cabin. (Many families don't have phones in their vacation homes. We were thankful that they did and that the boy had the number memorized.) He had flipped so violently that we were concerned about a neck or back injury so we could not move him. We got the bleeding stopped and treated him for shock while we waited for his parents and the ambulance. We will never know the end of the story, but we are grateful we had our basic first aid kit in the car and the knowledge of how to help him until other help arrived.

First aid training is important for all of us. Having the supplies and knowledge available to help brings great peace to those who are hurt and also to those who are able to serve.

Emergency Preparedness - Food

I've already written a few thoughts on shelter and water needs in an emergency. Today, I plan to share a few thoughts on food during an emergency. You should begin with a goal to put together a 72 hour kit of food and supplies to help you survive a disaster. This kit should be packaged in such a way that you could very quickly load it into your car and evacuate the area if called on to do so. We store our kit in the garage in 2 Rubbermaid bins.

The food in a 72 hour kit should be high in protein and very easy to prepare. We have canned chili and beef stew in our kit since these meals are actually fully cooked so we could eat them straight from the can if we needed to. My kit contains an emergency stove and a little fuel so we could heat a few things. I also have a can opener in our kit so we could open the cans. We also have granola bars, peanuts, beef jerky, crystal light mix, crackers and peanut butter and a few comfort items like gum and hard candy. I have a menu typed up that is included in our kit to help us know how to ration the food to last the 72 hours. A quick internet search for 72 hour kit menu will give you a few more ideas.

Here is our Menu - some of the kids prefer beef stew over chili, so we have substituted for them.

	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Breakfast	1 granola bar 1 fruit snack 1 apple cider	1 oatmeal 1 apple cider	1 oatmeal 1 juice packet
Lunch	Ramen soup Crackers	Beef stick Applesauce Nuts	Chili Crackers
Dinner	Pork & beans Applesauce	Ramen soup Crackers	1 apple cider 1 applesauce 1 granola bar
Snacks	4 pieces candy 1 piece gum	4 pieces candy 2 pieces gum	4 pieces candy 2 pieces gum

Add to your kit:

1–2 gallons of water

Be sure your family kit contains:

Small stove and fuel w/matches or another way to heat your food

Mess kit or small saucepan and utensils

Can opener

What is important is that you include items that everyone will eat, especially when you are responsible for young children. They are not old enough to understand that they have to eat even if they don't like what you have. The food should be rotated about every 6 months to make sure it is fresh. We pull it into the house and the kids take the snack items in their lunches and I put the canned items in the pantry to rotate through with meals at home. We then restock the kit. By having the kids help with this process, it gives me an opportunity twice a year to talk about our emergency planning. A few weeks ago, we were reading about earthquakes and one of the kids said, "But we'd be OK right Mom - we have what we would need." I was able to assure them that we had planned as best we knew how.

It was one of those moments that makes you grateful you take the time to go through the preparations.

Once you have your 72 hour kit taken care of, then you should begin planning a 3 month meal plan and collect the food you would need to feed your family for a longer period of time. Many recipes and ideas already posted on this site will help you in that process. Each family cooks and eats uniquely enough that your food storage should not look exactly like anyone else's. I've really found over the years as I've coached many through the process, that taking the time to make it your own plan gives you confidence that you could cook the food and that your family would eat it. This confidence brings a great deal of peace to the entire family.

After you have food in a 72 hour kit taken care of then you need to work up to a 3 month supply or more.

Emergency Preparedness - Water

Water is probably the most important item to make sure you are storing to be ready for an emergency. We can live longer without food than we can without water! It is also important for sanitation purposes.

At the very minimum, you should store 3 gallons of water per person. This is meant to be part of your 72-hour kit and should get you through 3 days. It is better to plan on a 2-week supply of at least 14 gallons per person.

Many families have enough in their hot water heater. This water has already been treated and is very safe for drinking. Everyone should learn how to shut the water heater off from receiving new water in case the source is contaminated during the emergency. You should also learn how to drain it to access the water.

If your water heater is not large enough to hold what your family will need, there are many other options for safely storing water.

A quick search on the internet will lead you to appropriate information. This blog post is not meant to share all the details for proper storage, it is meant to encourage and inspire you to do something to build your supply.

In addition to the water that we store here at the house, we also have a backpacking water filter that will allow us to filter water from the nearby river and ponds. We store a large package of coffee filters as well. The backpacking filter will remove all the harmful bacteria, but it will not remove the floaties. By straining the water through a coffee filter it will be easier to drink.

For more on how we store and rotate water, you can check out my post from last Spring.

FEMA also has some good information on their page here.

Obedience Brings Blessings

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have been counseled to prepare for future times of need by storing food and other essential items. This counsel has been repeated many times over the years. Here is a story of the blessings that came to one family as they were obedient to the counsel.

Sister Cherry Lee Davis and her family gained a testimony of home storage through experiencing an emergency firsthand. Brother and Sister Davis were converts to the Church and knew about home storage, but they did not intend to start their own program for a while. Because they planned to move a long distance to a new home, they felt it would be foolish to bother with home storage at that time. However, Sister Davis often fasted and prayed for guidance. Without realizing it, she began a food storage program. Each time she went to the store, she bought a little extra of some foods. Before long the kitchen cupboards were full, and she had to store foods in the bedroom. When her husband asked her what she was doing, she replied, “I guess I am storing food.” When he asked why, all she could reply was, “Because I have to.” She could not give any more reason for her actions than that. She said, “The more I prayed about it, the more of a compulsion I had to buy groceries. Deep inside me was the comfortable, rewarding feeling that I was being obedient.”

Sister Davis learned ways to prepare some of the foods she stored by attending demonstrations, by reading, and by practicing making various recipes. When at last she felt that these foods were well prepared, another impression came to her to buy more and more food. She described her reaction: “‘Why?’ I asked in prayer, but there was no answer. I just had to get more. So I did, confused and bewildered, but obedient. I could just see the space this food would take in the truck we intended to rent [to travel to our new home].”

When the Davis family finally moved to their new home, all their furniture and some 15 or 20 boxes of food just barely fit in the truck they rented. By the time they paid for the truck, rented a small home, and paid all their other expenses, they had very little money left. On top of all this Brother Davis had difficulty finding a job. When he did find one, it paid so little that after they paid the bills they had nothing left for food. Then Sister Davis knew the reason for all her food storage—it was actually their food supply for the roughest months of their marriage.

Looking back on those months of eating their stored food, she says: “I smile. I had fought so hard not to store food, and yet the Lord in his infinite wisdom and love had guided and taught me a very valuable lesson in this small miracle of being prepared” (“Our Small Miracle,” Ensign, Aug. 1978, 2)

"Spending Freeze" Periods Reduce Our Wants

New Year's Day comes with resolutions - even if we don't write anything down, we think about things that we want to do better.

I've had a few people ask me recently for suggestions on areas to save money. Spending less is definitely a resolution that many of us make. I thought I'd share a few tips that have worked for James and I over the years.

The biggest tip is to figure out "spending less" not "saving more." We have always been able to save more by focusing on "spending less" instead of focusing on "paying ourselves first." When you pay yourself first and move extra money into savings, you are giving yourself permission to spend the rest of the money. When you focus on spending less, you don't have permission to spend anything beyond bare essentials - we've called these periods of our life a "spending freeze."

During the "spending freeze" periods of our life, it became my job to be creative with what we already had at home so we could put as much as possible towards building our emergency fund or paying medical bills -we had 5 preemie babies who stayed in the NICU, we understand how quickly medical bills can grow. Sometimes these periods lasted a few months or even a year or more before we felt ready to "splurge" again.

James and I had great examples in our parents when it came to stretching a dollar since we both grew up in large families where money was tight. We had parents who were committed to not spending more than they earned - and they didn't always earn that much. It helped to know we could call and visit with them when we needed some encouragement.

So some of what we did to not spend money -

- no purchased gifts - everything had to be made or put together with what we had at home

- no large grocery runs - we bought just the few items we needed to supplement the food storage we had at home

- trade babysitting - we found friends with similar aged children and traded babysitting so we could have a night out (walking in the park or something else just as free for the activity)

- Library runs - we made great use of the book mobile that stopped just behind our neighborhood. We always had plenty of books to read and movies to watch

- borrow what you need - we borrowed camping gear so we could have a vacation, fancy cake pans to give us something fun for a birthday, tools to make needed repairs, etc. Many people are willing to let you borrow items if you just ask

- carpool - my husband put a carpool together to get to work to save gas money - he became good friends with the men he carpooled with.

- alter clothing to fit - I added ruffles to  my daughter's skirts so she could wear them longer. I also cut off pants to make capris and shorts when warmer weather came. A little bit of embroidery can turn an old pair of jeans into something fun and different.

- throw a pot luck - when we were ready for a social event, we invited other families over for a pot luck. It didn't have to be fancy - we just enjoyed the people.

These are just a few of the things we have done over the years. The hardest part of the spending freeze is the first couple of weeks as you are transitioning into it. It is also more difficult as your children get older and want to do more things. My oldest ones are getting good at being creative and finding "free" fun. I hope that means they are learning something.

We have learned some valuable lessons during these periods of our life.

Happiness and joy do not come from having money. Quality of life and relationships cannot be purchased. Relationships comes from spending time together and these relationships build our quality of life.


Discipline is important. It takes a lot of discipline to not spend money.

We don't really "need" a whole lot. True needs can be met for less than we think most of the time.

Pulling together for a common goal builds unity. Our family grew closer during the times we were so focused in this way.

You learn to focus on what you do have instead of what you are missing. There is great power in perspective.

Even now that money is more available to us, we have built good habits and don't spend "just because." Our wants have stayed in line with what we can easily afford which makes each month so much less stressful.

Hopefully, these thoughts can encourage you or someone you know to hang in there. Sometimes "spending freeze" periods seem to last forever. My advice is to stop window shopping and looking at all you don't have, instead focus on what you do have and count your blessings. On the hardest days, I even wrote my blessings down and hung the list on the fridge to be my constant reminder.

Debt is a form of bondage

No man is truly free who is in financial bondage. ‘Think what you do when you run in debt,' said Benjamin Franklin, 'you give another power over your liberty.'
~~~~ President Ezra T. Benson

Annual Applesauce Making Day

Applesauce is a family affair every year. My parents have apple trees so those of us who live close get together to pick and process the apples. The pictures that follow share just a glimpse of what went on here a couple of Saturdays ago. I think I am still recovering from being so exhausted!

Here my mom is washing the apples and cutting them in half.

We then put them in our steam juicers. This is the step that takes the longest so we pool all our equipment together. We've also learned to cook on our camp stoves to keep the heat outside. You can cook your apples covered with water until they are soft, but this waters down the juice. Using a steam juicer keeps the juice pure and more flavorful. We add a certain amount of juice back into the sauce, but never all of it.

Sarah and Emma are putting the cooked apples through the strainer which spits the peels and seeds out one side and the sauce comes out free on them.

Ben is scooping the sauce into the jars. We add sugar to taste and pour enough juice back in to make it the consistency we like. The kids all look forward to this day. They all like to help a little, but they mostly like knowing they get to spend the entire day with cousins.

 

Here's another shot of Sarah and Emma. This was Emma's first year to help.

We rotated and took turns manning the different stations.

For some of the sauce, we used kool-aid powder to flavor and color it. All the kids love it! Once we have a dozen jars full, the processing begins.

By the time our 12 hour day was done, we had processed 19 dozen jars - that equals 228 quarts! It was a new family record!

Defrosting the Freezer

Once a year, every summer, I learn just what I have stored in our big freezer. I have a pretty good idea since I am constantly rotating items, but when it comes time to defrost the freezer, I find everything that may be hiding. This summer the ice had built up quite a bit since my kids left the freezer open a couple of times after getting popsicles out. Thankfully, I do end up in my freezer a few times a day so it didn't go very long before being discovered.

The first big task requires turning the freezer off and then emptying it out.

We filled our coolers first, and then filled every laundry basket.

As the ice begins to soften, I've learned to scrape at it a bit with a spatula.

My kids love making snowballs in the summer and my neighbors get a kick out of watching their snowball fight in 90+ degree weather. (I've learned you have to make work fun!)

To speed up the process a bit, I pour hot water over the built up ice.

We are making good progress!

After clearing out all the ice, I dry it well with a towel.

Then we restock the shelves! Order has returned to our little part of the universe! From start to finish, it took us just over an hour. The other great thing is that I only had to throw 2 items away because they had gotten lost in the corners and were too old and freezer burned.

A full freezer allows me to sleep better at night because I know our family will be taken care of for quite a while. Hopefully, these pictures inspire you to stock up and count your freezer as part of your food storage. (We do have a generator and fuel to help us get through a longer power outage.)

Don't go into a panic when it comes to preparing

The hurricane pelting the East Coast has us all watching the news a little more closely and wondering just how all those families and individuals are coping with this big storm.

Those who had taken time to prepare beforehand are probably feeling a little inconvenienced by it all, but are not feeling alarm and panic. Hurricanes hit every year. If you live in a region where you know you are at risk for certain disasters, you should take time to prepare for these disasters.

Here is a quote from quite a few years ago. It is still very relevant today.

"Some people have reacted to the theme of preparedness as if it were a doomsday matter. In reality, all six elements of personal and family preparedness are to be emphasized so that the Latter-day Saints may be better prepared to meet the ordinary, day-to-day requirements of successful living.

Our emphasis on this subject is not grounds for crisis thinking or panic. Quite the contrary, personal and family preparedness should be a way of provident living, an orderly approach to using the resources, gifts, and talents the Lord shares with us. So the first step is to teach our people to be self-reliant and independent through proper preparation for daily life."

~~~~ Bishop Victor L. Brown October 1976

We are to use an orderly approach to prepare our families for daily life which includes preparing for possible storms, earthquakes, or other challenges that may require us to evacuate.

Don't go into a panic. Crate a plan and then work through your checklist. Some possible items on your list may be:
     - put together or rotate 72-hour kits
     - keep food and toiletry items at the house that will get you through 3 months
     - determine what is needed to live through an extended power outage and work to purchase these items
     - Create a family evacuation plan. Where would you go? How would you travel? What if your family is in different places when you need to leave? Where will your meeting place be?
   

These are just a few things to consider. I'm sure as you begin to think about it, you will come up with others. Having a plan drastically reduces the panic and anxiety that comes when a disaster strikes.

It Was a Bad Bread Day

All I can figure is I must have left the yeast out of the recipe - I've made more than 1000 loaves of bread with this recipe and never had this happen before! It was so      disappointing - 

If you're just getting started making bread, know that even those of us who have been doing it for awhile have bad days so don't give up - 

Money Saving Habits

Any of you with children will agree that summer is a time that is challenging to get routine things done. My blog has suffered from that challenge. I can't promise that it will be any better the next few weeks, but I am stealing a few minutes today to blog about money matters which is supposed to be my Monday topic. It's been a few Mondays since I was able to snatch the time away from my kids -

Today I want to talk about changing some habits that could end up saving you a good deal of money in the long run. Changing habits is challenging so before reading any more, decide how committed you want to be to saving money. If you are ready to be fully committed and realize that it will require a certain amount of work then read on.

Review Your Insurance Costs - It takes some time to price check. Call around and schedule to have the agents of different companies run some quotes for you. Be sure you are asking about similar coverage levels. We did this a couple of years ago and the company we chose to go with charged a little more for our car insurance but were significantly lower for our home owner's insurance so we ended up saving over $600 a year. To save even more money, we pay the bill all at once instead of monthly. This meant that we had to save some aside each month to have the money ready to cover the entire bill when it comes due.

Check Your Bank Accounts - Many checking accounts charge fees. They seem little $1.00 here and $2.00 there, but these fees can really add up. You are not married to your bank - you don't need to stay with them for sentimental or commitment reasons. Check around and determine which bank can fill your needs without requiring you to pay fees each month. You may also find banks that will pay you better interest than your current one. Go to the work it requires and switch banks.

Limit Your Trips to the Store - Research suggests that you easily spend $20 on impulse buys each time you go to the store. Challenge yourself to stretch out your trips and you'll be saving money at the same time. If you regularly go once a week, stretch it to 9 or 10 days. Get creative with your leftovers. Fill your time with a hobby you enjoy or catch up on some other chores you've been meaning to get to. You'll be saving money and not missing what you could have bought at the store.

Here's just a few ideas. Habits and attitude make a big difference when it comes to saving money. Challenge yourself and see what you can save!

Your wheat will be more valuable than money

The time will come that gold will hold no comparison in value to a bushel of wheat.
~~~~ President Brigham Young

Anyone who has ever been in a situation to rely on their food storage or 72-hour kit will agree with this statement from long ago. All the money in the world can't provide for your family in an event that all the supply lines are cut off.

As James and I have considered the amount of money we need to have saved for our 6 month Emergency Fund, we keep in mind that we have our food storage so we do not need to save enough to cover the cost of groceries every month. This significantly reduced the overall amount we needed to save and helped us reach our goal must faster.

I am also confident that our family likes what we would be eating and I know how to cook it. An organized food storage meal plan really brings a lot of peace.

Develop a "Thrifty" Attitude

There is a wise old saying " Eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without". Thrift is a practice of not wasting anything. Some people are able to get by because of the absence of expense. They have their shoes resoled, they patch, they mend, they sew, and they save money. They avoid installment buying, and make purchases only after saving enough to pay cash, thus avoiding interest charges.
~~~~ President James E. Faust

This quote is meant to give us an opportunity to reflect on how we are doing as we work to develop a "thrifty" attitude. Those of you who know anyone who was growing up during the Great Depression in America will agree that as a whole, that generation lives this quote. They grew to understand the importance of us making everything last. We can learn a lot from individuals who have adopted this attitude.

Good memories in life are not made of "stuff." They come from the experiences we've had and the people we have grown to love.