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MommyofSeven

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Posts posted by MommyofSeven

  1. Last night we had spaghetti.

     

    The plan was for herbed chicken. But I forgot to take the chicken out to thaw before I left to go shopping. Remembered about halfway to the store. As we live rurally turning around and taking it out isn't an option, so I think about Plan B.

     

    On my shopping list from Safeway is four chickens, because they are having a BOGO sale. Thinking we'll get done early enough Plan B becomes to sub one of the whole chickens for the breasts I was going to use. As the day progresses, I realize we won't get done early enough for that. Add to that, that Safeway is out of whole chickens for the BOGO sale. All they have are drummettes and wings. Umm, no.

     

    Plan C becomes to grab a sale ad, because they have a deal for $6.99, where you get a pop in the oven meal, garlic bread, and ice cream. I had forgotten to bring my sale ad, and you need the coupon for it. Go up front to grab a sale ad, and they are out.

     

    Get busy shopping and forget to formulate Plan D.

     

    On the way home, after 4:00 pm, realize I have no Plan D and stop at little local market to find something...anything. Find canned Hunts Spaghetti Sauce on sale, know I have pasta at home, grab some hamburger, come home and cook quick dinner. The Hunts Spaghetti Sauce wasn't bad-we hadn't had it before.

     

    The chicken is thawing now for herbed chicken tonight. Need to take some stale bread out of the freezer for bread crumbs.

  2. Salvation Army takes ragged clothes. They make carpet padding out of it. So if you have clothes that are "too damaged" to donate, or your rag pile, is, well, done, you can stilll donate it to SA (and they will even pick it up in most places) and it is being reused rather than ending up in a landfill.

     

    That ultra concentrated liquid dishwashing soap can be diluted by half and still be just as effective. I once accidentally rediluted an already diluted one and it was pretty useless, but by half definitely works.

     

    I do my dryer sheets in thirds, they still work fine. I think I could reuse them on smaller loads, even.

     

    If you get your girly girl stuff like face cleanser and such at a specialty store like The Body Shop, they will often give a discount if you bring the old container in for a refill. There is a lady here who makes that kind of stuff and works out of a small shop and does it, even.

     

    Those fabric bags that WM and other stores are now selling (for about $1.00) hold way more than the plastic bags and are very useful for other things around the house. I try to buy about 2 per week, we have probably 20 around here, some get used for shopping, some are totes for other things (they hold paper towels and tp very well and stack well like that) such as a spare change of clothes for changing weather, so they are well worth the price and, I conservatively estimate, for my family, by using those for shopping instead of the bags, we save around 500 bags a year. Those Martha Stewart TShirt bags are cool, but not everyone is crafty, rofl. If I tried to make one it would come out looking like a tube or some other lopsided creation.

     

    At the end of the school year, unused supplies are gathered and put in the cupboard for next year. One kid brings home 20 unused pieces of notebook paper, another 80, and another 15, that's a good start for one next year. Individually not enough, but together they add up. Half full bottles of glue, etc are used for home crafts or combined in a single bottle for next year.

     

    Mo7

  3. I had also wanted to add, that I make many pantry items myself. I also keep Bisquick on hand, but it's home made. Stores just fine for quite awhile in plastic storage bags. I also make ranch dressing mix, brownie and cake mix, seasonings, etc to have on hand. That six pounds of bisquick I can make for a buck and change. We go through a LOT of ranch dressing mix so that saves us a tremendous amount of money. We use bisquick for biscuits and pancakes, also saving tons of money, considering how much of that we go through.

     

    Mo7

  4. I do a LOT of stretching here-almost all of my cooking is poverty cooking LOL. I have to feed at least seven for dinners, six for breakfast and 4 for lunch (if all big kids eat at school) on our food budget, plus prep, which is $105/wk right now. When we get our refund check, I stock up quite a bit, which really helps. I am looking at having to decrease my food budget if DH doesn't get on permanent at work.

     

    Every dinner meal has at least one protein, usually 2, because for most meals I use 1 lb of meat or less for casseroles, so I add beans or eggs or cheese.

     

    Almost Every dinner also has two veggies, a bread, and either potatoes, rice, or pasta. Again, not so good for diabetics or carb counters, but the only one overweight in our family is me. My kids don't have video games, they play outside, so they aren't spending time sitting around glued to a monitor.

     

    Every lunch has a veggie, a protein (again, sometimes two) and a starch.

     

    Every breakfast has a protein and a starch and a veggie (sometimes just juice).

     

    We try to have one meatless meal per week. That doesn't always work, cause DH doesn't do meatless very well (although on those days I make sure his lunch has more).

     

    I save everything, too. Veggies go into individual containers right now cause I'm saving them for baby food. Normally I put them together, cept corn separate, because it literally makes me hurl LOL. When I get enough corn, I just reheat it. Fruits leftover eithre get frozen for fruit breads, muffins, or put into one container for "fruit cocktail" with breakfast.

     

    I will admit to buying some processed foods for "baby preps" so we'd have easy meals to cook when it's "one of those days" that happens so often in the first few months. Haven't had to use them much though. At other times, all meals are cooked from scratch.

     

    My kids see cereal as a treat. I only buy it if it's $2.00/box or less, and they only eat it when it's been "one of those nights" or when mom is sick. Otherwise, bfast is home made. When I make pancakes or french toast or muffins, I usually make a HUGE batch so I will have some in the freezer for a quick breakfast. A usual batch of pancakes is 80, french toast is 8 loaves of bread (I do buy bread for sandwiches, which we don't have often, and for french toast), and muffins is 48.

     

    We don't buy treats, either. In the spring I have a huge list of stuff I bake and freeze, then I supplement that with no bake treats for the summer when it's too hot to bake. Fall, winter, spring, I bake treats. I'll do huge batches of cookies and muffins for the freezer then, too, if I have time.

     

    Breads for dinners are baked fresh. It's my goal to do two loaves of bread per day in the bread machine, but I think it will be awhile before I get there. We need more freezer space for that, anyway. Then when I have "one of those days" or on errand days, I can just pull some out of the freezer.

     

    I do have some processed stuff in my pantry, but that is for preps. It's rotated out or given away as needed.

     

    I buy as far down the food chain as I can get-no salad mixes, it's cheaper to buy individual stuff. No chopped veggies, cheaper to do yourself. I'm p utting in a garden which will save us hugely on potatoes alone, much less the other stuff I plan to plant.

     

    I use my dehydrator for leftover fresh fruits and veggies that need to be used up. Takes up less space than freezing.

     

    I don't can yet, but plan on starting soon.

     

    I do buy fruits in those individual servings for kids' school lunches, because when I tried sending fruit in containers the containers never made it home. This is more cost effective than replacing containers every week LOL.

     

    I use powdered milk for cooking. There is always a pitcher of it in the fridge. Vanilla really helps improve the flavor if you're using it for drinking.

     

    Mo7

  5. Mt, you could make it-probably cheaper. Do you need info on how to do that?

     

    I use it often for infections. DH and oldest DD are allergic to bleach, so if I'm cleaning and they are home I add a few drops of it to mop water, in the toilet, tub, etc.

     

    Mo7

  6. As a web designer I have to bark here...

     

    When the right click feature is disabled when you view a website, it's because the designer or site owner wants to protect the copyright on his/her pictures. They don't want you to be able to save them, because they own them, or own the rights to use them.

     

    Often, if you can't right click to save the pic, you also can't right click to view the source code, which the designer and/or owner of the site also owns.

     

    For you folks, you're saving the pics cause you like them, or for reference purposes, but people do steal pics and source code and market them as their own, which is why sites will do that if they feel there is some value.

     

    Mo7

  7. The purpose is buying what you can, when you can...and then storing it where you can, which is the challenge for most folks. Even those of us with more room have problems with storage-sure, you can build a shed, but then you have to worry about critters!

     

    Flaja, as a city dweller, what are your primary concerns? What areas would you like to see addressed? Some are talked about in the Urban Homesteading forum, but that is a pretty new forum.

     

    Look around your house to find dead space. Is your closet filled with boxes of off season clothes or stuff klike that? If not, using plywood and bricks you could put together a small shelf system to go under your clothes. Granted, not a LOT of space, but, imho, every little bit helps. What about under your bed? They specifically make under bed storage systems now-canned good should fit in there. Any room under your dining room or kitchen table? Store one or two of those rubbermaid containers under there-you can fit a whole lot of sugar in those!

     

    Let us know what your specific questions are. If they have been answered in another forum, we can direct you there. If not, maybe we can help you find answers.

     

    Mo7

  8. And what a miracle that, that happened! There was a lot of knowledge there.

     

    I have a lot of those recipes as well, just the recipes not the posts themselves(so can't credit the orignal poster ). So if you need something and Cat doesn't see it, I can look for it as well.

     

    Mo7

  9. Oh I have a special place in my heart for Ridgebacks. We had one show up on our doorstep several years ago and he has always been my favorite dog. Of course, we had problems, not being, at the time, familiar with the breed, but man was that dog the most loving, gentle, ferocious guardian we ever had. We had to surrender him when we moved, and I cried for weeks over that loss.

     

    We have one now that showed up who is related to the other one (a lot of people come here to dump dogs, so we have tons of strays running around). He has the same sweet ferocity, tempered with some maturity, as he is older.

     

    When we get land we are going to start a rescue for all the strays that get dumped here. We take them down to the nearest town when we can, but they know us now and won't take them if they are full because they know we live out of that town. They try to find us alternate arrangements, but arent always successful, which is why we have the one now. He showed up one day when it was thundering. RR's dont like loud noises.

     

    Thanks for sharing the pics!

     

    Mo7

  10. Cisterns (including buckets under downspouts) are illegal in Colorado. WE have planned, for when we get land, to bury a system of cisterns and then funnel the downspouts to them. We'd still have to filter the water, as the pvc to funnel the water will have to be at ground level, but it's better than nothing.

     

    In our present home, we have only store bought water, and limited storage space at that. This is one of my primary concerns.

     

    Mo7

  11. Don't get Rhodesian Ridgebacks unless you have a six foot fence, LOL. They are hunters so they have that see something worth chasing and be gone trait that Westie mentioned. I'm partial to them and want more more more of them (I have one now who adoped us who is part Rhodie) but they do chase and they are LOTS of work. So if they were on your list, take them off LOL. When we get land, we plan on putting up a six foot fence around the house area (large yard, but completely fenced off from the rest of the land) so we can get more. They are, by far, the best house dogs I've ever had, even with small children.

     

    I do disagree with Westie on the rescues, because a lot of times people surrender because the dogs were more work than they thought they would be. Yes, you will have initial problems, but IF YOU HAVE THE TIME TO WORK WITH THEM, many problems can be solved, if you are going through a good rescue org, who won't adopt out animals with aggression problems. If you work full time, homestead or have small children, rescue is probably not your best bet, because often these dogs need constant work in the beginning, and lots of follow up throughout their lives.

     

    I've gained a tremendous amount of education on dogs since I first started coming here, and a LOT of that is due to Westie's insightful and informative posts. she posts and then I do more follow up research. She knows what she's talking about and I would take her advice 100% (even though I disagree with her sometimes LOL). You can tell by her posts that she both loves her animals and is capable of spotting their strengths and weaknesses, something that lovers of a particular breed sometimes can't do.

     

    Mo7

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