Cricket

I bounce my jars on a folded dish towel as I fill them at the 1/4 and half mark. It helps me fit more in. If I bounce too hard the dogs think it's a knock at the door and start barking.

We are debt free, no mortgage, car payments, or credit debt. When we bought out first home, we bought one with a mortgage payment we could afford on one income. We paid extra on the principal every month, even if it was only $50. Financial freedom is not owing anyone. I am grateful to God that we were stringently frugal as we paid off debts. No magazines, no fast food, no subscriptions - you get the picture. I always bought in bulk and took advantage of sales. I knew the sale cycles. If tuna went on sale twice each year, I bought enough to last us for six months. I kept a spreadsheet to track our food and non-food grocery spending. It was my personal challenge and kept me focused. During the 90s I fed our family of four, including two teen boys, on an average of $50 per week for food. I'm still proud of myself for that Inspired by Amy Dacyczn's Tightwad Gazette (I still have the compendium) I was creatively thrifty. For instance, I reused the inner bags from boxes of cereal. It was nice, thick waxed paper! I still reuse bags, foil, and other household items, use smaller amounts of detergents, and use other thrifty habits I picked up over the years. I can, dehydrate, and freeze foods. Having pre-made, homemade convenience foods is wonderful. I enjoy batch cooking. Sewing, crochet, knitting, and fiber spinning are skills I've acquired, but I can't say they have been money savers. Actually, I admit to having quite a hoard collection of tools, fiber, fabric, and yarn. Great topic Mother! I can't wait to see other folk's frugal habits!

Congratulations on your Spring harvest!! I need to get my garden in, at least some radishes. It's snowing here right now.

Yes! I bought a new Whirlpool stove that has an two dual-sized burners, one that is extra large for canning, and a large capacity oven. A local family-owned appliance store had it in stock and delivered it two days after I placed the order. Lowes and Home Depot were either out of stock, or had delivery dates so far out I would not have had delivery before this week, plus they charged more for delivery. I was relieved to have competent English-speaking delivery men to install the new stove, and remove the old one.

Wow!!! There's providence for you! I'm so happy for you!

I have trouble with grip/ hand strength. My hack is putting rubber bands around bottles to help me hold on to them. It’s especially helpful with shampoo and conditioner bottles that might be wet. In 2016 I fell and broke my ankle in our attached garage. My husband is hard of hearing and couldn’t hear me calling for help. I had to crawl up the step into the house until I was in where he could hear me yelling for him. After that I got an Apple Watch and enabled the fall detector, in case I fell and couldn’t call for help. I can also use it to make calls like Dick Tracy! The watch can also monitor heart rate and take an EKG. That came in handy when I was having long bouts of arrhythmias and could capture them on EKG and bring printouts to my cardiologist. Still wearing the same watch, I fell outside in August, breaking my left shoulder. I managed to sit up, leaning against the house amongst the azalea bushes like a garden gnome. I used voice commands to the watch to tell Siri to call our home phone. DH answered and I could tell him to come out and help me. I never go outside or to the garage without my watch on. I take my phone in the bathroom with me when I shower. There nothing worse than being hurt and unable to get help.

A local Martins store had hams and 80/20 ground beef on sale so I stocked up on Wednesday. I bought two hams and 21 pounds of ground beef. I also got an eye of round roast (ouch- pricey) to stash for DH’s birthday in June. I now have four meatloafs (meatloaves?) frozen, ready to thaw and bake, three packages of hamburgers DH grilled (we had burgers for dinner that night, too), six packages of meatballs (I baked two pans of meatballs), and five one-pound packs of ground beef added to the freezer along with two hams and the roast. To make more room in the chest freezer I took out two whole chickens that had been hanging out in the bottom. I stewed them and ended up with nine quarts of home-canned chicken soup. The bones, plus some bones from a prior baked chicken dinner became six pints of bone broth that I canned today. This will save us a lot of money in coming months, especially with rising food costs and supply chain issues.

Dee, I think it was prompted by rising food prices. There have been several prepper- focused YouTubers warning about rising prices using Aldi as an example, and many folks commenting about significant price jumps on shelf-stable Aldi products like pasta sauce and canned vegetables. Apparently many Aldi stores are limiting how many of certain items a customer can buy. It strikes me as Aldi's way of saying, "Hey, we still charge less than the other stores, even when we raise prices!"

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem like a good sign that Aldi's CEO felt the need to send this message right now. The bolding is their emphasis, not mine.

Dee, will you post the custard part of the pie recipe? Pretty please?

Annarchy, My prayers for you and hubby continue. Go ahead and cry your eyes out. Once he's home you'll be too busy! When my DH was unexpectedly diagnosed with a brain tumor (that was successfully removed) for the two weeks between diagnosis and surgery I worked a flexible schedule so that I could be home before DS went to his evening classes. I was getting no work done as I spent all my time at the office crying so I could put on a brave face for DH when I got home. And we could FEEL all the prayers being said for him - for us. I hope you feel our prayers for you and your husband.

Good heavens, Annarchy!! I'm praying hard for both of you!

I will buy brand name foods on sale. I have no problem with most store brand items. I'm fine with store brand Krispy cereal or chex-type cereals, but it's gotta be the real Cheerios or Honey Nut Cheerios for me. I'm particularly fond of Chicken & Stars soup. I'll settle for the store brand, but the Campbells does have a richer, tastier broth. I just can't justify paying $1.50 or more per can for Campbells. My inner five-year-old will just have to accept generic. Here lately, I have paid more for some name-brand canned goods because the "best by" dates were significantly further out than generic or store brands. Or the store brand was out of stock. All things considered, I bit the bullet and shelled out the money to get what was available. With rising inflation, I figure by the time the store brand is back in stock, the price will have jumped to what I pay now for name brand.

Similarly, I'm learning to recognize animal spoor. I discovered a big black snake in our garage last year first by the poop, then later finding a long shed skin. Foxes apparently like to do their business on rocks. I never knew our yard had so many piles of deer poop until I started walking my son's two hounds. They seem to look upon deer pellets as a tasty snack. Drop it! Drop it!

I remember Old Maine Bear. Praying for the repose of his soul.

Thank you Mommato3boys! I qualified for Medicare in January. I have been self employed since 2016 and had to buy private medical insurance, until Obamacare came in, then I had no choice but the marketplace. I paid a premium of $987 per month ( AFTER the tax credit) for 80% in network coverage after the deductible. I could not keep my pulmonologist or cardiologist. Specialist copays were $125 per visit. I was thrilled to get Medicare A and B, a part G supplement plan, and part D pharmacy plan. Even with the Medicare quarterly premium and supplement premiums I am saving several thousand dollars per year, and not limited to a network.

I’ve made homemade noodles that are cut and rolled but not fancy pasta. Homemade cooked noodles with some chunky tomato sauce and garbanzo beans is yummy! I’ve also made lots of spaetzle, a German dumpling type noodle squeezed through a spaetzle device. (my grandmother’s) or a colander, or dropped into the boiling liquid from a cutting board using a knife to scrape it off in “strips.” The spaetzle maker is like a potato ricer or a humongous garlic press

Important kitchen tip! We replaced the plastic L-pins holding the kitchen cabinet shelves with metal ones after one of my shelves collapsed. Fortunately, I didn't lose any mason jars of dehydrated foods, but a canister full of popcorn crashed and broke, showering my stove and kitchen with kernels. I wasn't hurt, but it was pretty scary when the shelf full of jars and canisters came crashing down on me. It's been nearly a year, and I'm still finding popcorn kernels.

I'm so sorry Buttercup. Praying the all involved.

I use those plastic bins with the handles on the highest shelves in my kitchen cabinets to hold packets of gravy mixes, crackers, cake mixes, boxes of gelatin and pudding, and other light things. I'm very short, but I can reach high enough on tip-toe to snag the handle on the bins. I'm fully utilizing the space and don't have to drag the stepladder over to reach them. My counter vaulting days are long over, and my hips and knees don't like trying to stand on a chair. In the fridge, I use the thin cutting mats (they were 2 in a pack for $1 at the Dollar Tree when I got them) to line the shelves to catch drips, like under the iced tea pitcher. They are clear enough to allow light to pass through the glass shelves and easy to clean. I love me some dollar-store bins and organizers. The magazine file holders are perfect for vertical storage of paper paper plates, easy to pull out a plate. Like Midnightom, I also use plastic bins to corral and catch drips from my oils and vinegars. I love this thread! Edited to add pictures instead of just links.

My 19 year old stove went crazy this morning with the oven stuck in the self-cleaning fires of hell temp range. It wouldn’t turn off and the outside of the stove was dangerously hot. We had to turn off the circuit then my guys used potholders to pull it away from the wall and unplug it. This afternoon a couple of my friends from church (who I’ve encouraged to prep) were all concerned that I wouldn’t be able to cook for several days until we replaced the stove. One lady worriedly asked, “Do you have a microwave?” I assured her we’d be fine. In my head I’m thinking, “Gurl, don’t you know me? Hold my beer! I have multiple ways to cook for grid down. Dealing with a broken stove won’t even break my stride!” Having a preparedness mindset makes it easier to deal with life’s interruptions, don’t you think? Brand and model recommendations for an electric stove will be appreciated!

Does the chandelier make it a She[ep] Shed?

Paying for Buttercup's friend, and for Snapshotmiki and her husband!

Hot tip: Read the labels on your dehydrated hash browns. Don't be like Cricket. I got a good deal on a huge two-pound carton of the Idahoan brand, only to learn later that they don't keep as long because they include vegetable oil. And as we preppers know, oils can go rancid over time. It didn't occur to me that the product had added oils. I like the Hungry Jack brand, they are easy to pick up in little boxes the size of a school-lunch milk carton. They are great for shelf-stable storage, as they do not contain any oils. I've opened a box after many years and they rehydrated and fried up just fine.