how i created a short term food supply

hello there. today i thought i'd share a bit about how i spent several months figuring out how to create a short term supply of food.

{Are you not familiar with this idea? Please don't jump to super scary thoughts of an underground shelter and canned beans stacked from floor to ceiling... are you looking for a good place to start? read this pretty low key two-page pdf :: link here}

i was inspired to prepare in this way when i considered all my family's work and thoughts that made our emergency savings and get-out-of-debt plan such a success thus far. i realized something that would help us with this emergency preparedness would also be a basic food supply.

now i don't know if we're exactly prepared for some crazy out of the norm long term event {i.e. a zombie world take over - i know that my husband and i will both hold out to be saved by Brad Pitt} however, if it became difficult for us to afford groceries or one of us became very ill the family could make do with what is in our food storage and general food storage plan.

our short term storage also has been a great resource when we are just low on groceries or time when cooking a late night dinner - why not pull out that can of black beans for a protein? then you can replace it with a newer can the next time they go on sale at the store!

A Few Important Ideas that Worked for Me:

+ shopping slowly
now, i know the need can strike at anytime for the use of a food storage, however i found it most manageable when i broke down the shopping into small amounts. partly due to spending constraints, but also because i like to purchase bulk items at specific places. so i started by consider what i'd like to have in my storage and then only putting a few of those items on my shopping list when i knew that i could purchase a little more than the list of what we needed to eat for the week.

+only buy what will work for my cooking
i figured if it was something we wouldn't want to eat we would live without it. like i didn't purchase dried eggs or dried milk. it just wasn't something i was willing to say - yes i will cook with this. instead i put foods on the list i was comfortable with and planned meals with the ingredients that i thought would keep well for our storage plan. and i purchased items that didn't confuse me while reading the ingredient lists.

+use my canning stash to supplement
i enjoy canning food - jams, ketchups, salsa, tomato sauces, dill veggies - so in those went to my supply. and i planned meals or snacks with those items.

+labeling my storage space
i really believe in good labeling when it comes to food storage. i selected one cabinet to hold our extra food items and made a simple list {about 6 pages long} to state what is on each shelf and their expiration dates. this way we can eat food {and quickly replace it} before it goes bad. if there is more than we can manage we also can donate canned goods to a local food shelter before it expires so at least someone can eat it. i also use a highlighter to cross out items that we eat. that way i know quickly what we have and what we don't have on the shelf.  i like knowing what we had in the past so i don't have to go back through and re-brainstorm the initial list of what should go on these shelves.

Inspired? Want to consider making your own food storage plan? Try some of these resources for more tips, hints, and helpful ideas:

Detailed run down of how to start your 3 month food supply {with Valerie of Prepared LDS Family blog} - be sure to read the comments for a few more helpful suggestions

Pantry Shopping List + Key Points List to get you started when considering your short term food supply {with Crystal at Everyday Food Storage}

Ways to look at your 3 month supply as a "working supply of food storage" {with Shelle at Preparedness Mama}

Check out this post with a great 3 Month Planning Graphic {with Tammy from Simply Preparing}

* i've added this post to Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop! ::click here:: to head over and check out all the great information and stories from other bloggers! Thanks to all the hosts and bloggers for sharing in the fun!

cleaners i like to make at home

Oh summer! My perfect season for a serious cleaning around the house. 

During the month of June I was able to organize and deep clean many spaces in our home {as well as a huge declutter!}. 

All of my work made me want to share some of my favorite resources + links of cleaners I like to make at home...

My favorite home cleaners to make {from Young House Love}

the DIY foaming hand soap recipe I use {thanks Katie from Wellness Mama!}

a super podcast from Pure Green Magazine 'Detox Your Cleaning with Authors of Homemade Cleaners'... I actually tried a few of the tips/recipes the very day I listened. Very inspiring!

Put on some good tunes, grab a rag and get to it friends! I've been seriously digging some 

Pokey LaFarge this summer - be prepared to dance while dusting :)

Happy Cleaning!


**I'm happy to also note that I just added this blog post to the {Our Simple Homestead Blog Hop #8} click ::here:: to check out some of the great posts featured on this link up! Thanks Tracy for hosting!

Continuing Debt Elimination {It's just stuff...}

Our family has been paying down our debt in an organized way for about a year and a half. Our basic plan has been this:

- Identify all debt.
- Rank debt in the order we wanted to pay it off.
- Continue making needed payments on all debt, but pay extra money on our highest priority debt.
- Keep on going down the list.
- And keep going... and going {and this is where we are...}

So it has finally happened. I feel like we've really tackled our finances and have made sound decisions with money. I'm starting to see the end of the road. We're going to make it. {For awhile there I felt like we were just going to keep paying forever}

If we want this to happen any quicker our next step would be to find other ways to pay down debt. As in make more money and then use that extra money to pay off our debt.

We've decided that getting rid of stuff/making some cash off of it is probably where its at. We've been simplifying for years. Going slowly - maybe too slowly - and as I get rid of more stuff I'm starting to notice all the signs that it is actually time to sell the things that I've kept to "sell someday". I don't know why this seems difficult, but it does. We have lots of friends who sell items on craigslist. My husband has done a few shed clean outs and sold items on facebook too. I'm sure it isn't difficult. But sometimes I've got that emotional attachment.

We are heading in the right direction - recently our family had a yard sale! As in someone else hosted it and we just drove over with a truckload of stuff that we know could have better homes. And we almost sold everything! When we drove away we just kept saying 'our truck is empty, we're going to have so much more room in the house!'... I think I'm pretty on board with clearing/selling our junk {or should I say 'junque' since hopefully someone else will want it?}.


Need some inspiration on this topic?

Check out this Tedx Talk {link here} with Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt

Packing Real Food for Days at Work

With my recent return to daily adventures with a classroom of children {a.k.a. full time teaching} I'm so grateful that my husband and I started to figure out last year how to prepare food that he enjoys eating while at work.

Because a while back when I was doing a daily commute that I'm truly embarrassed of, working over time, and barely keeping my head above water we weren't packing lunches. As in, I'd grab a can of soup or a box of crackers to keep at work and munch when possible and he would go out to lunch daily. Sounds unhealthy and expensive... well, we've made it a priority to figure this out and now we have a the skeletons of a system to pack appropriate meals for the two of us and our work days. I thought I'd share in case it gave some new ideas to some families while packing.

-Breakfasts & Morning Snacks
At the beginning of the school year we made smoothies, muffins, and breakfast bakes to eat in the morning - whether we eat this at home or take to work. This meant some preparations over the summer. We hit up a few you-pick berry farms and froze berries, chopped super ripe bananas. I try to keep coconut milk on hand.

Recently we've been making containers of already prepared veggies and cooked bulk sausage to throw together a quick breakfast right before we head out the door.

When I have an extra few minutes and nothing else prepared I find that fruit and oatmeal is great too. Oatmeal isn't my husband's favorite, so he prefers something with a little more protein or a little more jam {toast is just the vehicle for jam, right?!}.


-Lunches & Afternoon Snacks
We typically pack our left overs from dinner for several of our lunches each week. Other days we might make a sandwich or a super tasty salad. I round everything out with fresh fruit, trail mix, no-bake energy bites {we love this recipe from Ali with Gimme Some Oven}, or other easy prep seasonal side dishes {i.e. different types of potato salads, black beans & brown rice, cucumber/tomato salads, fresh salsa & tortilla chips, quinoa based sides}. Many of these items I can prepare one evening at the beginning of the week or over the weekend so we're ready to go on Monday. Sometimes I make a big pot of soup or chili on Sunday that will only be eaten for lunches that week. And to save time in the mornings I scoop up lunch sized containers when it is finished cooking {less things to do in the morning - hooray!}. Then the only thing left to do is gather all the goodies into our lunch bags!


Need a few reasons to pack your lunch? We realized that when packing our lunch we save money - at least $30 to $40 a week. We typically enjoy the food that we are eating more than what we might pick up at a deli. We also found that we created less food waste since we would eat the food we cook (just because it was so convenient since we already spent the time to pack it up).



Need more inspiration? Check out this link of lunch prep tips and recipes from Lisa at the 100 Days of Real Food blog:

10 Recipes to Freeze for School Lunches

Frugal Living & Eliminating Debt {Final Update for 2013}

With yesterday starting off the final month of 2013 my husband and I had a "budget + finances" talk over coffee. We typically drink something warm when discussing finances in order to pretend like we're enjoying the conversation. 

We were so excited to find that we paid off many more debts than we expected to this year... and saved quite a bit of money too {paying off over ten thousand dollars of debt that was not already part of our monthly payments and saving over ten thousand dollars for a rainy day!} 

I suppose there are better ways to do it, but our simple plan of paying off our highest interest rate bills first seemed to work for us. Which means that I'm calling this goal completed... and a total success!

As for the savings, one thing we did about half way through the year was make a savings goal and act on it. We thought about what we could realistically save each month... taking into account what we might spend on monthly bills, but also what we'd have to work hard {or spend less} in order to save. Then we put away that money before we could even spend it. In fact we treated it as a bill that we had to pay to our savings account.

This worked really well for us and we will most likely keep this same plan for next year too. 

Saving Summer Produce: Tips for Freezer Meals

One task I've been taking on this summer is making meals ahead of time before heading back to work. Lucky for me I'm a teacher and I put in my year's worth of work and hours during about 10 months of the year. Between finishing a year of school, living an academic year, and preparing for a new school year about 10 months of my time is spent working and planning and thinking about some of my favorite people.


One bonus is that there are two months that I do not report daily to work. I can use this time to garden, vacation, and prepare our home for the year ahead. This summer I am attempting to pre-make many {freezer} meals for while school is in session. This will cut out the need of convenience foods to be purchased by our family. I'm sure we'll still buy bags of tortilla chips or the occasional frozen pizza. But I already know that one night a week I will dedicate my evening to meetings at work... this makes me want to try and save us some cooking/prep time and have a few meals ready to go.



Here are some tips I have concerning "freezer meals":

Consider what your family will eat - Often I want to have loads of variety for my family to choose from, but then I end up with prepared dinners that never just "sound good" in the moment to heat up. So if you know that pizza, chicken noodle soup, and lasagna will get eaten then maybe those are good meals to start with when you begin to make a dinner stash.

Consider who will be making these partially prepared meals - I make sure to have some meals that are simple for me to throw in a crock pot on my way out the door in the morning... this will be perfect for those nights that both I and my husband will be coming home just in time for dinner. I also am preparing a few things that will be finished in a way that is easy for my husband to get our dinner ready - such as 30 minutes in the oven or grilling chicken when he gets home from work.

Labeling - Be certain that you have properly labeled all meals. If any food in the freezer seems mysterious it may never be chosen for dinner.

In-depth Labeling - I'm serious about the labeling. I even write the cooking directions directly on my frozen meal packaging. This way if I'm not home my husband will still know what to do with the food he has selected for dinner. In fact this year I've added suggested thaw times and name items that we prefer to serve with those specific meals in case we need to check for  Parmesan cheese or tortillas prior to pulling out a certain dinner from the freezer.

Proper Storage -  Be sure to seal all containers and decrease any risk of freezer burn. Because no one will want to eat that...

Bulk Prepared Main Items - One idea I had was to pre-cook chicken to freeze. I have no other plan for this chicken currently, but knowing that I can pull out one or two chicken breasts from the freezer and have them thaw and be ready to add to any recipe I want will save lots of time when we're scrambling for a late dinner. We don't eat much beef at home but I'm sure if your family prefers a different type of meat you could make it work for you. I also chopped a few bags of peppers, tomatoes, and prepared corn for the freezer that will be easy to just throw in any type of dinner I select.

Consider your ingredients - I love using fresh summer produce in these meals that will be eaten in the fall and winter. There is just something special about taking a bite and enjoying that little taste of summer when it is cool and breezy outside. It also allows me to "use up" produce that we might not eat quickly enough if I didn't make it and save it for a different day.

Do you have any tips on making meals ahead of time?

Confessions of a Former Gas Guzzler

Let's get it out in the open... I once spent too much time and too much gas during daily commutes to my past location of employment. I hated it then, I hate it now. But it is a fact of my past.


I'm turning a corner and limiting my need to drive is something I think about all the time.


I figure for all the time spent in my car I've used way more than my share of resources. I now try to figure out ways to cut my driving. This is good for the environment and our savings account!


We live in a pedestrian and biking friendly community so that helps a lot. Whenever I need to head out of our town for errands (the errands which require a car) I try to make one long plan and hit up all the locations at once.  It seems to be working out pretty well and I'm cutting out lots of unnecessary drives.


A huge change we recently made is we've become a one car family. The plan is to possibly purchase an older work truck in the near future and use it for the dirty work around our home and back at the farm {where my husband's family lives}. Which I suppose will once again make us a two vehicle family. But we are very excited for the wonderful gas mileage we get with our smaller car! We've been surprised at how easy it is to make plans to share the one car.


The best part of my personal quest to drive less is that my new job is in walking/biking distance of our home! This is of course one major perk of my new school. Lots of families bike to the school, so I won't be the only one saving gas during the morning commute!


Want some tips and ideas about commuting and biking? Check out these links from the Mr. Money Mustache Blog:

The True Cost of Commuting with MMM 

What Do You Mean "You Don't Have a Bike"?! with MMM

Frugal Living: An Update {Summer 2013}

We started out this year putting ourselves in the driver's seat of our financial life. Things were going smoothly, but totally disorganized. By just looking at our bills and actual debts {and their interest rates} we've been able to focus and pay down some major {to us} debt.

Since January 2013 we've paid off over $7,000 dollars of debt! {these payments were not already scheduled in our payment plans} We're talking done with minimal credit card debt, car payments, and part way through student loans.

And to be honest, we really owe it all to becoming aware of what we were spending. We weren't spending a lot but by finding a few corners to cut we were able to pay down debt.

My take away: It is easy to start planning ways to pay off debt. Just take a look at what you spend in a week or a month. Tracking out going bills and random purchases can be so informative. You may have no idea how much money leaves your pocket - whether as interest fees or impulse purchases.

Needing some inspiration on tracking your spending?
One family's 2012 spending with Mr. Money Mustache

Simple Living: Shaping Happiness

How do I know if I am simple living?

To be truthful, I'm not really sure the exact definition of "simple living" because I believe that everyone has their own interpretation of every type of lifestyle. 

I believe that freeing yourself from too many materials and no longer consuming more than you need is part of simple living. This can easily happen if you are deliberate in your lifestyle choices. Actually think about what happens in your day to day and make real choices based on what is best for you, your health, your happiness. What is best for the Earth and all those beings living on the Earth. It can sometimes be overwhelming when you consider all the creatures and beings on the planet, but intentional choices can be supportive of more than just yourself. 


My husband and I realized we were beginning to fall into the trap of the standard American lifestyle... buying more than we needed, using more than our share, taking steps because that was what we were "supposed to do". We've always been a bit different, but we started to realize that every choice we were making were leading to loads of other outcomes and lots of them were things we weren't interested in including in our lives. 


We needed to slow down. So slow down we did. 


Here are some actual steps that helped us figure out what was important to us and where our energy, time, and money was going:


1. Assess your current life position - We're talking lifestyle, job, love life, debts, education, connections with others (people, animals). Maybe take one aspect at a time and just create an opinion and a vision of what does and should make up your current life roles and energy.

2. Decide if that is what you want or are comfortable with - Comfortable in a good way not "It's comfortable so I'll just keep doing it". If something inside tells you this isn't what you want then you are not comfortable. You may not know what you want... but you will probably know what you don't want. Stop doing what you don't want as often as you can in a responsible manner.

3. Try something new - If you don't want something to be the way it has been, change it. Talk to a friend or family member and make a plan. It probably won't be the last time you change something, but trying something new takes courage and it will help you learn something else.

4. Keep evaluating - Keep checking in with yourself. Or check on a different aspect of your life that you hadn't considered before. One part of your life at a time can become better every day.

Frugal Living: No Spend Days

I'm sharing a few successful techniques that we've been using to save money so far this year. Today I want to share about our approach to 'no spend days'...

There seems to be disagreement out there as to whether or not 'no spend days' actually save any money. We have found that implementing 'no spend days' into our weekly routine helps us stretch our 'fun spending money' out over the month a lot easier. So I suppose that the fact that we've limited our monthly entertainment budget is a contributing factor on the money that we're saving. However, it may be valuable to see what a day is like with planning to spend zero dollars. Once you try it you can decide  if it is something that will assist you in racking up dollars in your savings account.

My husband and I chose two days of the week to not spend money. "No Spend Wednesday" and "No Spend Sunday". Now, if something special happens on one of those days (like family comes into town for a visit and we take them for dessert) we just change our no spend day that week (for example No Spend Thursday instead of Wednesday). I don't know if this sounds lazy... but it works for us.

The success for us, is that 'no spend days' forces us to plan out a few things. Like if there is a project we've been meaning to get to we might check on Thursday if we have everything we need to complete that project. This way we do not force ourselves into buying items on Sunday right before our project because we've taken the time to asess what we actually need or how we can make what we already have work before we begin the planned task.

I do believe that 'no spend days' make it easy to cut frivolous spending. Or entice your family to find new fun and free activities to do, or try new recipes at home. We love eating a big breakfast on Sunday which I now use as an opportunity to try new recipes that day.

Some Free Activities to add to your list of what to do on a No Spend Day:

-get a movie from the library
-read magazines at the library
-hiking
-biking
- playing games (maybe with a bottle of wine that you already had)
- spend time fixing something in your home together
- complete yard work
- complete a project that you already purchased the materials for
- baking or cooking
- window shop... shopping can be super fun when you know that you are just looking




Earlier This Week:

{Monday}  A Budget Update

{Wednesday} Food Budgeting Ideas

{Friday} Cheaper Ways to Work Out

Frugal Living: Cheaper Ways to Work Out

In honor of kicking some debt to the curb I am sharing ways that we've cut spending in our home.

Now, something that we've always splurged on was a family YMCA membership. Partly because we feel it is an organization that is good for our community and we wanted to support such a place with our dollars. Also, when you live in Ohio, running during all of December and January doesn't always work, so we haved enjoyed hitting up the cardio-room and the strength training equipment on snowy days.  However, in February we got the unfortunate news that our favorite branch was sold to a swim club and they would no longer allow the current Y members to use the facilities. We've decided to discontinue our membership and find other ways to get in shape this spring and summer.

This change in routine has got us thinking about some thrifty ways to break a sweat. Our first conversation centered around using our bodies and the outdoors... bike, run, hike! Running and walking are definitely some of my favorite ways to enjoy a bit of time after dinner. Walking and biking are two great ways to get around our town. We even use our manual push mower a few times a month on our lawn for the work out and to save on gas (mowers can be so inefficient).

Of course DVD's and loads of online videos can be a great source for an at-home work out. Or you can go the free fitness app route if that is more your speed.

I've just started to check out:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/yogajournal.com-yoga-practice/id272050214

I've done some pairing of the "Twist and Detox" Practice Podcast with some morning juicing... great way to start the day.


http://www.fitnessblender.com/

The "Cardio Kickboxing plus Abs and Obliques Workout" is perfect for a quick sweat at-home (~18 minutes)... russian twists kill me in any work out but definitely here.



How to do you burn calories while not burning through too much cash?



This Week:

 Our Budgeting Update

 Food Budgeting Ideas

 Weekly No Spend Days

Frugal Living: An Update

This year our family has taken charge of our finances. We're trying not to nickel and dime ourselves crazy, but we're more aware than ever about our spending and payment plans. I am so excited to say that we've already eliminated all of the debt on both of our credit cards! We are now only using plastic for my husband's work travel and when purchasing gas and groceries. Which means we pay off the balance each month. This is easy considering we make very few purchases.

With the excitement surrounding our small successes I thought it would be interesting to share some ways that we are decreasing our spending. The great part of spending less is that it enables us to pay off our next high priority debt quicker. Which luckily for us- all of our remaining debts carry a 5% or less APR.

So this week I'm dedicating my posts to telling about some success we've had so far this year with saving money for our home and lifestyle. And to be honest, I didn't really think we had all that much to cut out. It was surprising to find where else we could save. And I haven't missed the spending much at all.

This Week:

Food Budgeting Ideas

Cheaper Ways to Work Out

 Weekly No Spend Days

Frugal Living: Eliminating Debt Part II

After being inspired by the stories of others {read about this in Part I) my family moved forward with our own plan to slowly eliminate debt from our financial life. And I'm writing a bit more on it today to inspire others. It isn't a big deal plan. We aren't getting too crazy with it...

we have decided to limit some of our "fun spending money". The typical, let's eat at home even more than before, create handmade gifts for birthdays, limit clothing purchases, be mindful of new to us items for our home. {for the most part, we were already doing many of these ideas.} We are also trying to come up with new ways to save a little extra money. Just little changes that if they don't work it isn't a big deal. We still want to have fun, we like good, quality food, and we're not skimping on spending that is important to us.

Something that we weren't already doing was paying off higher amounts of money to one specific bill until it is gone. (shocking right? I swear we are intelligent people.)

For example we would randomly pay extra money to a credit card one month and the next month leave the extra money in a savings account. No real method. We always stash a bit away for "unexpected spending" and each month we pay a bit extra on our house payment - it is amazing how quickly that can add up! (If you have a 30 year loan, and you make one extra payment a year you already knock like 10 years off your payment plan! That is money working hard for you right there!)

So we made the plan. We have prioritized which bills should get our extra cash each month according to our highest interest rates. And our two highest rates should be paid off by the end of next month! Easy way to save money.

I have no idea how long it will take to finish off more of our bills. But I think it can happen. It might just take some trial, error, and flexibility.

Frugal Living: Considerations for Eliminating Debt

Okay, you hate it. I hate it. No one likes to think about "budgets".

Ugh. Get out of here... right?

Well,  I'm no financial wizard. But my husband and I have made some clear choices, guidelines and plans to {hopefully} save money and cut down on our debts.


The gist of the story is this:
You start with an unexpected savings fund. You buy what you need. You pay off what you owe.

How drastic you go... well, that is your choice.

We've already kicked several debt increasing habits over the last year or so. We often cook at home, J packs his lunch most days of the week, we rarely spend high dollars on weekend entertainment. We basically cut out our weekly stop at the coffee shop.


Here are some links I found very inspiring when initiating the conversation of setting financial goals and planning to eliminate debt for our family:


"Start a Debt Free Life" on Kanelstrand: Simple Living Chronicles

And Then We Saved Blog with Anna {who is interviewed in the previous link - listed above}

Eliminate and Avoid High Interest Debt {Rule # 4 of 14} with Trent from the Simple Dollar Blog


Already on an organized budget? Try 50 Tips for Frugal Living with Leo Babauta


I'll continue this conversation in a new post - Frugal Living: Eliminating Debt Part II... because apparently I had more to say than I ever thought I would about living within your means and paying off debt.

What types of resources assist your family in making saving plans? Do you have a favorite way to cut costs or work out a monthly budget?