Let's see what it looked like ...
We've not spent anything at the grocery store this week ... for the next 2 weeks though we plan to do a 'basics' stock-up. After that, we'll be back to the type of 'hunkering down' we did in January and February. We made such progress on our goals during those two months and that really gave us motivation to keep on keeping on. We have a really, really big 'impossible on paper' kind of goal for the year and we plan to work like it all depends on us and pray like it all depends on God, because it does!
One of the basics on our stocking up list is to purchase plain flour in bulk. You won't find self-rising flour on the list because as soon as what we have on hand is used up, we'll be replacing it with 'home-made' self-rising flour on an as needed basis using this formula ...
Per 1 cup of plain flour, add 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Mix all together and use as a substitute for self-rising flour.
It's a really good idea to post this formula on the inside of a kitchen cabinet door or somewhere where you'll have easy access. I'm all about making my more frugal life as doable as possible. If I have to 'move mountains' to be more frugal, chances are it won't last!
Other items on my basics stocking up list are:
Salt; Baking powder; Baking soda; Sugar; Dry milk; Olive oil; Honey; Maple Syrup; Peanut Butter; Cheese; Milk Chocolate Chips; Pasta; Basmati Rice; White Vinegar; Apple Cider Vinegar; Oats
With these items I can create all kinds of things.
Our electric bill came this week, and it was down from $193.86 to $177.94. We were happy about that as we continue on our journey to lower our power bill. That's a $15.92 decrease from last month's bill ... we'll take it .... and yes, that $15.92 is going to be applied to a debt! Every little bit counts and adds up over time.
That's all I have for this week. Our break from strict hunkering down is more than halfway over and we are rested and ready to get back to our plan. Honestly, not a lot has changed in our day-to-day living this month though. We're still making frugal choices and doing frugal things which all adds up over time just like chipping away at adding to savings and paying off debt.
How did you do last week, I can't wait to read your comments!
One more thing, the final lesson in our ladies Bible study on the book of Esther, lesson 23, has been posted HERE.
One more, one more thing ... hubby sustained an injury last week to one of his knees that has left me picking up the slack in what he's unable to do. The result is that my online time is limited right now and I'm not able to answer comments as quickly as I have in the past. Please be patient with me and thank you to those who are keeping the comments going.
until next time,
mrs. patsi @ A Working Pantry
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
Sharing 44 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine, where I share my love for God and His Word through my personal Bibe study. Physical preparedness is important, but not near as important as spiritual preparedness. Ladies, join me over at From This Heart of Mine and study God's Word with me.
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Good Morning, Patsi,
ReplyDeleteWe are praying for you and your husband. Please take extra special good care of yourself as you go through this time of extra workload.
Great savings on your electric bill. I also do the same thing with regards to self-rising flour. I also do not buy bread flour but keep a blox of just gluten and add the required amount to all purpose for every keep as needed. It sure saves a bit of money on both fronts as well as space. In baking for myself, rather than buy specialty gluten free flour I buy the whole grains or seeds such as, millet, sorghum, psyllium, oats, rice, and grind my own in the high speed blender. This really keeps the cost down as gluten free anything can get quite expensive.
All we need this week are some fresh veggies and fruit for which we will be going to our local Amish and farm markets for and they are very local, so a savings on gas as well. The Amish market has locally grown organic beets for 75 cents a pound( in the stores $3.99 a bunch, which is usually just 3 beets) I will get several pounds, roast them and freeze them for later use in no'mato sauce and side dishes. At that price and availability I will not be planting beets this year and that will free up two rows in the raised bed garden for something else. Have a blessed week everyone. Cookie
Oh no! I am sorry about your Hubby's injury! It is good to have each other to take of when the days are hard. Praying for his healing and recovery and strength for you. (Christopher's Tissue and Bone.)
ReplyDeleteThere is super deal on oats at Sam's with iBotta if you do that. I am so glad we have a lot of bread flour in buckets because it is out of stock at Sam's and not available to ship either. I agree on the self rising flour. We have had trouble keeping up with that lately and self rising cornmeal as well. Going back to basics on both.
Our crazy deal of the week was 3 pounds of bacon and an 8 oz pkg of diced ham for a total of $4.80 with sale, coupon and senior discount. Hubby and I both did the deal I am happy to have plenty of bacon on hand for our six year old grandson this weekend. As soon as he sits down for breakfast he says, 'Please pass the bacon.' I cannot stand telling him there is no bacon on the table. We are also stocking up on butter with the Easter sales. The price is higher than most years but at least it is still on sale. So with butter I am going to spend all of the grocery budget this month but it is okay.
Our neighbor lost his job this week. He has never been unemployed in 24 years in the work force. I know they do not keep a pantry from comments and the often borrowing of an egg or two. So I am praying about what to do to help or teach through this. Last fall when we were making an apple run for 25 pound bags for $10 I asked if they would like us to pick some up for them and she said no they would never buy that many apples. Even with five teens and older in the house!
iBotta deal seems to have expired.
DeletePraying about your neighbors, Lana, that you'll be given an opportunity to show or teach in a way to help them. With five teens in the house, even knowing how to bake your own bread is a HUGE cost saver. When our sons were teens I baked bread twice per week and can't imagine (with sale prices at $3.49 per loaf) families are managing just the cost of bread now. Maybe you could approach it through those teenagers? If you ask for their "help" they'd learn how to do it w/o any ding to their pride? Just a thought. --Elise
DeleteThank you for praying for them! She is a great cook and does bake bread so thankfully she has those skills going in to this trial.
DeletePrayers for your husband, Patsy, that he heals fully, and for you as you fill in the gaps. I hope you don't mind when I comment on other's comments (it was a problem elsewhere and I try to be sensitive now). We can learn so much from each other. I know I do.
ReplyDeleteNo shopping here this week, either. No meals out. No take home. Weather was nasty, which made it perfect for staying home and hunkering down. I'm so grateful we live as we do to make that possible. Thank you VERY much for that recipe for self-rising flour! I will tape it to the inside of the pantry cabinet. I'm moving away from cake, cookie and brownie mixes, but am known to have 50/50 results with from scratch baking. That will be so useful. Also, thank you for your pantry stock up list. I've concentrated on meats, canned goods, pasta and rice over the past few years, but it's a good reminder for oil and other ingredients. I keep canned milk on hand for baking/cooking, but with dry milk, can put together some of my own baking mixes with fingers crossed. Do you have any small farm or ranch stores in your area? A few here carry 25 lb. or 50 lb. bags of flour, bigger bags of sugar, etc. One little place that sells mainly hay for livestock has an indoor space with those items, as well as lower cost canning supplies.
Question for anyone: I have year old baking powder and baking soda in the pantry; roughly how long does that maintain its leavening? I know best buy dates are a suggestion, not a decree. One more question: Should I store baking powder and baking soda in the freezer the same way I do yeast? Yeast can last years in the freezer. Thanks in advance. Blessings to all for the coming, busy week. --Elise
Elise, I'll get back to commenting on all of your comment later, but right now I just want to let you and others know, that I encourage all of us commenting on each other's comments as long as we stay on topic or somewhat close to it. It's how we learn!
Deletehttps://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-test-if-baking-soda-or-baking-powder-is-expired-tips-from-the-kitchn-111759... Google is a friend ....
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteChef, I removed my comment because it needed clarification. I've used boxed baking mixes for decades at least in part for the convenience and want to try making my own shelf-stable baking mixes stored in airtight containers or vacuum sealed bags so I can just grab, mix and bake vs. testing baking powder or baking soda (which I know how to do) and doing all-in measuring, etc. each time I bake. There are many excellent from scratch bakers; I'm not one of them. Bread being an exception. It would be wonderful--not to mention cheaper--to make my own mixes if possible.
DeleteSorry to hear about your tax bill. I didn't think they went back that far!! --Elise
Elise you can look into "Make A Mix cookery" by Karine Eliason, Nevada Harward & Madeline Westover. Lots of good recipes for mix from scratch. You know I would have given the same answer as Chef Owings about how to check viability of baking powder or baking soda; because I thought that was your original question.
DeleteThat's why I added clarification, LaurieS. Thank you for the book title. To be more clear, I wondered if Patsy or any other readers make/use their own baking mixes and can share approximately how long the leavening in them stays effective. Not just for myself, but for silent readers here. By now we're all pretty tech savvy. At least enough to use Google or search for books at Amazon, but it's not quite the same as shared real life experience in my humble opinion. Many of us follow frugal blogs like this one for that very reason; most readers never comment at all, but are still reading. Thanks again. And thank you, Patsy. Hope your husband is feeling a little better. --Elise
DeleteJust a gallon of milk. I think the feds, state and school got together and decided to check back over 12 yrs to see if anything was missed on our taxes. Really 2012??? I don't even have the tax paper to look at. ANYWAYS. We also found when you close a business and you sell equipment for more that it was as deprecated... that's income so no taxes were paid on it but we did get the truck paid off. Best deal I could get to pay off $15,000 in taxes was through a credit card installment plan.. 3 banks wanted $2,000 more in interest than the installment plan with the credit card. I don't usually use the credit card but Son 2 talked me into to just checking.
ReplyDeleteTerri from Blue House Journal here...If I don't put it first, I forget to 'sign' it. I had a carton of half and half sour. I could've taken it back to Aldi and gotten my money back and a free carton, but I didn't want to wait and do that. Instead I combined that with 3 cups of milk that had just begun to 'turn' and made four pints of yogurt this morning. It's nice and thick, and I used my own homemade yogurt as the starter. I also made bagels this week and a loaf of bread. I saved $20 with those three things.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about your husband's knee.
Dear Patsy and first of all praying your husband's knee injury heals quickly and for you as well doing far more to keep up with things around the home :) . You did well with reducing the electricity bill by so much and then applying that to savings too. Well done on not spending anything on groceries too but eventually we all need to stock up on the basics. Hoping your impossible kind of goal on paper is achieved too.
ReplyDeleteIn the kitchen we are continuing to cook all our bread from scratch in the bread making machines, using up all those little bits and pieces of cooked meats from roasts we had in stir fry meals and our blanched and frozen veg from our gardens that we need to use in meals.
Grocery wise we had a similar low spend week and not seeing we need anything for this week other than what we purchased and will add in what we spent on the 15th till now which was in total $21.36. We will need some powdered full cream milk shortly though.
This week I have banked $436.44 towards our car purchase in dva allowance fuel money & money we got back for accommodation in Brisbane that we didn't need in our budget as we had heaps of fuel money set aside already but I did add around $270 to the fuel budget from that.
We will have some expenses coming up as one LED fluro in the kitchen has stopped working and another one in the tool shed as well but we have a spare so may be able to salvage the starter and or the tube from that to get the other one going without replacing the unit. We will be up for an electricians bill on at least one light though.
Hope everyone meets their goals they want to achieve in the coming week of hunkering down.
Lorna.
Still trying to keep on doing frugal things. I did have a nice and cheap grocery hall using digital coupons and coupling the coupons with ongoing sales. This month has been difficult to stay on track due to health problems and medical bills. Things will get better. I just need to keep my focus until all of this has passed. I love to read your posts. This gives my much motivation. Thank you so much.
ReplyDeletePatsi, I hope your husbands knee heals up quickly. Sending my prayers.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recipe for the self raising flour. I taped it to my cupboard door. We continue to be frugal here. Hubby does like to eat breakfast out but I don't so much so we stay home :)