Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: March 24 ~ 30, 2019

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All! Hope everyone is doing well today...

I had to pick up the grandsons early yesterday, so haven't gotten much done since then. We did ride the buggy around the farm to check for winter damage - lots and lots of trees down in the woods. It felt so odd to see them - I was thinking 'Boy, there sure are a lot more than I'm used to seeing"; then remembered that we - and the cousins - used to keep them cleaned up by using them for firewood. Then we took a walk back to the lake area - it's been drawn down so what we were able to get to (Papaw was wearing shoes instead of boots) were mostly small creeks. The spring plants are just starting to come up...

And speaking of plants coming up, I was pointed to a couple of good websites yesterday - one is called eattheweeds.com and has good photos and lot of information about edible weeds - that creeping charlie aka: ground ivy is edible in small amounts. I guess if I can't kill it, maybe we can eat it out of existence

The other website is Identifythatplant.com and has some really good photos of 'weeds', as well as information about them such as if they are edible, etc...

I am really looking forward to getting out in the garden - it's just too wet right now and we are still having frost at night frequently. I'm hoping that my 'feral' potatoes - that grew from some that were rotting and were thrown in the compost - come up again in the 2 year old compost pile - I didn't gather too many of them last year as I hoped that they would continue to grow there.

I have been finding more holes in the pantry - which just irritates me to no end as there wouldn't be holes if people would just use the inventory sheets - so I have a shopping list of items to buy when/if they go on sale and have had to pick up a few things at full price to make sure that we have them on hand for normal use.

I have found only a few sales so far this week - Hunts ketchup is on sale 10/$10 and it is also part of a deal that if you buy a total of 10 of any of the items in that sale section, you get a free case of store brand bottled water. I cheat and use ketchup rather than tomato sauce and assorted spices when I am canning home made pork 'n beans - it's both faster and less expensive since I usually buy the ketchup on sale and in bulk. The store is in the same town as the pool, so I should have at least 3 opportunities to do the sale deal this coming week. Ground turkey/turkey sausage rolls are also on sale for 10 for $10; daughter uses these so I will stock up in order to have them on hand for her.

Beef roast is also on sale and I would really like to can another case of beef chunks to stick back in the pantry, but will have to balance that with all the other things going on right now - I'm still working on clearing out the grandson's closets and storage tubs of clothing from last year; I will have quite a bit to be donated as the little one has had another growing spurt. I also need to go through the shoe tubs as well - when seasons change and they are put on clearance for a few bucks, I buy a pair or two a few sizes up for each boy so as to have them on hand.

And speaking of the boys, they are getting wired up - time for me to stuff 'em into boots and jackets and throw 'em out in the yard to run off some of their energy!

Take care all; stay safe, stay happy!

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Hi, Renee! I'm so appreciative of your weekly threads! With most of the topics in the main forum being so taxing these days, I find a bit of solace here. Very relaxing to read about what others are doing as far as preps are concerned. I think I'll hang out in here more often, but I have nearly nothing to add. The other prep sub forums are great, too.

Thank You.

 

[Marseydoats]

Renee, I hear you about the prep holes! I got really annoyed when I realized I was out of toilet paper. Dh will not put things in any logical place. Since I have such a small house, I have shelves that go to the ceiling. Of course the lightweight stuff goes on the very top. Dh can reach all of it. I have to get the rolling stairs. I have a box that I keep all the OTC medicines in because they fall thru the shelves. He puts all the spices in there instead of putting them on the spice rack.
One day while I was at work, he took it upon himself to re-organize the pantry. Well, we still haven't found some of the stuff he moved. I keep animal supplies in one section, and that includes electric fence supplies. The livestock ran thru one of the electric fence gates and broke it, and I had no gate handles. I had to drive 58 miles round trip to the farm supply store. I told him he had better not ever move anything again.
Gas went up 40 cents a gallon last week. I'm guessing because of the Nebraska pipe lines. Groceries continue to go up in price. I'm not able to garden anymore so I just do the best I can.

 

[Deena in GA]

Thanks, Renee, for the websites! Those sound very useful and full of the info that I've been meaning to learn more about. In fact, I may well incorporate it into our homeschooling.

I spent a good part of today, and will be spending more time tomorrow, putting leaves and wood chips on the garden that we're going to let rest this year. Today we also were discussing getting two or three more blueberry bushes and planting them close to the house. Because of the floods, we're thinking about upping the stores of food in the house and thinking of planting things in different ways since we're not going to use the main garden. We do have two long raised beds that we'll use and we'll do more containers too. Our 20 year-old who lives with us is very much on board and is brainstorming ideas too. I love seeing that!

 

[prudentwatcher]

I probably won't be adding much to the preps in the next two months. I am spending the next month getting ready for our one month road trip that is coming up at the end of April. My car is getting preps though---new tires, a new first aid kit, and a variety of small preps--getting ready for a 5000 mile or so road trip. I also have a lot of commitments for the next month, so not a lot of free time.

I did a little rearranging and found a box I had stored boxes of canning lids in. Those are now all stashed together with the other canning lids in the same cabinet. I figure about 120 boxes of regular and 40 boxes of wide mouth. I also moved all of my individual bags of sugar to the cabinet that will hold all of the nonperishable food.

We took the grandkids strawberry picking last week and came home with a big bucket. Still had a lot left as of yesterday so I sliced those up and froze them. I think I will turn those into strawberry jam when we get back from our trip.

I have decided to set Nov 1, 2020, as a deadline to get all my preps up to date. I have a lot of old stuff to toss, some things to stream-line, and a lot of things to inventory. I am working on a list of things I need to do/add/learn. Getting older has certainly sapped some of my energy, so I need to stretch this out a bit. Money is also a factor, so I have to work on priorities. We have been pretty well set on things for a long while, and won't have to do much for some things. But as I get closer to retirement, and the political climate gets stranger by the day, I want to have things as well set and organized as I can get them by that date.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I have decided to set Nov 1, 2020, as a deadline to get all my preps up to date. I have a lot of old stuff to toss, some things to stream-line, and a lot of things to inventory. I am working on a list of things I need to do/add/learn. Getting older has certainly sapped some of my energy, so I need to stretch this out a bit. Money is also a factor, so I have to work on priorities. We have been pretty well set on things for a long while, and won't have to do much for some things. But as I get closer to retirement, and the political climate gets stranger by the day, I want to have things as well set and organized as I can get them by that date.

I had a friend tell me the other day that that was his "get things done by" that date as well. I have to say that the way things are going, it's a good date to go by.

As for me, I'm pretty well satisfied with all of our stocks and plans already, except for keeping everything rotated. I do still buy bulk when I can find things we use on sale which continues to add to my pantry. My rule is that one can't have too large of a pantry.

 

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All! Spent Tue/Wed working, but was able to stop at the grocery store both on my way to and from the city (dentist) to hit the grocery store to take advantage of their buy 10/get free case of water deal. So far, I'm up to 10 cans of assorted tomatoes - fire roasted, garlic and onion, Italian seasoned, 10 bottles of ketchup, and 2 cases of water. I'll be heading that direction today to go to the pool, so will pick up 10 more cans of tomatoes and another free case of water. The Neighbor lady will be with me at the store; if she doesn't want to do the deal herself, I will give her the $ and ask her to do it for me. I've also managed to collect 20 - 1# rolls of ground turkey/turkey sausage for daughter @ $1 at the local store.

I also hit CVS for their Softsoap body wash deal; picked up 4 bottles. I was disappointed to only have 1 - 75 cent off coupon in my papers last week, but did the deal as best I could by 'rolling' the extra care bucks since I discovered we were down to 2 bottles. Started out with one bottle @ $3.49, used a $1 ECB from milk earlier in the week + the 75 cent coupon; paid $1.98 (with tax); received a $1.75 ECB in return. Then I did the deal 3 more times, using the ECB from the deal before on each; paying the same amount; and ending up with a $1.75 ECB at the end.

 

[Deena in GA]

We did an Aldi's stock-up run today. Two overflowing buggies that only cost us $163. Win! It was all food except for an package of socks to keep on hand for the younger grandgirls that we keep. There was a man who got in line behind us that we let go in front of us since he only had a few things. He asked if we knew something he didn't - like the end of the world was happening in the next few weeks. We laughed and told him we have a huge family (true), and that we were a little worried about how much food was being lost in the flooding. He just nodded, but the cashier asked, "what flooding? I didn't know anything was wrong".

 

[Illini Warrior]

We did an Aldi's stock-up run today. Two overflowing buggies that only cost us $163. Win! It was all food except for an package of socks to keep on hand for the younger grandgirls that we keep. There was a man who got in line behind us that we let go in front of us since he only had a few things. He asked if we knew something he didn't - like the end of the world was happening in the next few weeks. We laughed and told him we have a huge family (true), and that we were a little worried about how much food was being lost in the flooding. He just nodded, but the cashier asked, "what flooding? I didn't know anything was wrong".

this is why my usual retort to the sheeple that declare that food prepping is hoarding >>>> it isn't hoarding when you buy something that's plentiful and abounding - when you get in on the bottom of a great stock buy or a real estate deal and make $$$$$ - nobody is screaming to share in that profit $$$$$$$$$$