I thought often about my readers this weekend, as we just easily transferred into “food storage mentality” and took everything in stride. Having done it for years means that we are used to smoothly moving right into that, using up the fresh or making it stretch, and then relying on what we have carefully put away. I know, however, from some of the messages I got from some of you over at the Facebook page, things were not as seamless as you hoped, with you recognizing you did not have enough milk, or forgot to get something important like dog food. That is the reason we do these things, is to show us where we might have gaps in case there is a REAL emergency and you need it—which can be anything from a natural disaster, to power outage, to even long term like losing a job and needing something to fall back on!

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I promised you that I would be sharing our meals and meal plans with you for the rest of the time, and while each day will not be devoted to specifically blogging about the journey, I will certainly be candid with you. We have enough milk in the house to get through another week possibly with kids, and starting a week from today I will be stretching it further with powdered milk. Since I can my own cheese, and many other items, have a busy garden, and lots of homecanned goods, I know we can weather the two week period just fine with a few adjustments.

I was thinking yesterday though, what if we had no access to water? In this time of year, things are very dry, and while we have a lake nearby, and a Berkey water filter, we have never done a test run on how that would turn out. I am thinking the Handy Hubby and I will be running a quick experiment on that later this week, and seeing how hard it really would be to tote our own water for the family.

So, one of the other things I wanted to share with you is how we roll our leftovers into other meals for the future. I have talked about how we keep a gallon bag full of veggie scraps in the freezer to make soup. While that would not be the best choice during the summer, I know I could put some hot nourishing soup on the table for my family in an hour if I needed to, and if we had nothing else. I also save little extras, like the small amount of oatmeal left in the pot from breakfast, and add it into muffin mixes for the following snack or breakfast the next day. Rethink how you use things, and how you can use them in other dishes! You will quickly find that your grocery bill is going down, as you realize the abundance you have on hand.

I was talking to someone the other day who was horrified at this concept. She has four children, and told me “her family refuses to eat leftovers so she throws them out”. I shared with her some of my ideas and she was “disgusted”  by the idea. And this was the same person who minutes earlier was talking about how they need to find ways to cut back on the grocery budget because they are facing a serious job loss in a couple weeks! It is hard sometimes to see that, and know that sometimes people can not see the value in something until they have no choice but to experience it, but I think that is in her future.

What about you? What are a few money-saving tips you can share with other readers when it comes to slicing that grocery bill?

Blessings to you and yours, 

~Heather <3

Meal plans for this last weekend through today:

Saturday:

Breakfast was Refrigerator Oatmeal with canned blueberries and cinnamon

Lunch was Grilled Cheese sandwiches that had chicken and ranch added into the sandwich, and the kids also had canned peaches for an addition.

Dinner was Enchiladas, with homemade tortillas, simple rice and black bean filling, canned cheese over the top, and purchased enchilada sauce we had in the pantry. For dessert we made Strawberry bars with canned berries, and a streusel topping.

Sunday: 

Breakfast was the rest of the pan of Strawberry bars, topped with some whipped coconut milk topping (just take a can of coconut milk, take all the solid white out of it, and whip it with a little sugar to make a mock whipped cream)

Lunch was the Handy Hubby’s homemade Brats, topped with my new recipe for Spicy Peach Pepper topping (Coming tomorrow), and we sliced up a couple peppers from the garden that were ready for eating.

Dinner is Angel Hair Pasta with Parma Rosa—which is Alfredo sauce, a can of diced Italian tomatoes, can of mushrooms, 1/2 diced onion, and basil. Since Saturday is my baking day, we will also be having garlic bread sticks to go along with it.

Monday:

Breakfast is cereal and milk (this is something we only allow a couple days a week because cereal is so expensive!)

Lunch will be hummus and chips, with a side of peaches that are home canned from last year.

Dinner is Shredded Ranch Chicken sandwiches (home canned chicken shreds with homemade ranch seasoning added, put on homemade bread buns), a salad from the garden, and pudding.