I think we had a great turn out, I love that you all are following on-line too, and I feel like we all have really made progress. I have to say to my class though, thank you for your support, your encouragement and your examples of faith in being so willing to jump into this. For some of you I know you are stretching some muscles, and it inspires me.
Today we cleared up a lot of questions. We clarified again, the recipes! What a F.S. recipe really is. I encourage that when really thinking about this, you try to have as much variety as possible. I can tell you that when you are in a position where this is your mainstay, you do not want to be bored eating the same meals over and over.
And even more so for me, I think that if you are using this because of a financial strap, having more variety in what you can make takes away the reality a bit. As a woman, it won't make you feel distraught about your situation.
My mother always said, "There is no greater feeling to a homemaker than to have her cupboards full!" I know that's so true. When I go shopping and I come back and I am all stocked up, I feel like I have variety, I feel like I am successful.
So, when in a situation where you can't freely go out and "stock up" it helps not to feel like your cupboards are bare when your three month is full of different things to pull from.
I remember early on in the process thinking, "well if we have to, we can eat peanut butter and jelly, jello, pancakes, I have my wheat. We will be fine." And yes, you will survive, but it's not fun! And kids complain more! Ok, so do I!
Coupons and deal shopping came up. I like to know what each stores price is for certain items so that when I see a coupon or a sale I can match it up with the best prices. For example. if Kroger has their KRAFT cheese on sale for $2 and Walmart has their regular cheese for $1.98. But I have a coupon for $1 off KRAFT plus coupon to load on my Kroger card and or cell fire card too, then i am getting KRAFT cheese for $1 or less.
Walmart might match or be cheaper in some things but If you are really watching the sales and coupons and know what price each store is selling it for- you can get some real bargains.
We talked about rotation ideas. There are lots of ideas to choose from. I think this can be a hard thing to wrap our heads around, so I want to just give a couple ideas that I think are the easiest.
Besides getting the fancy shelf relience shelving that I would love to have and dream about but can't afford so I have to be creative and do a little more work there are some good tricks. :)
When i come back from grocery shopping, I take my storage items and say I bought can chicken, then I will put that new bought can chicken in the back of the row of can chicken. Then during that week when I make the meal that I will use it in, I grab from the front.
Now getting off subject a bit here, but the question arose, what if you want to use fresh and you are still buying canned, how do i use up the canned chicken?
GOOD QUESTION! You just have to break open a can once in a while to keep it moving through rotation. It is great to make a quick chicken salad with. I put in on our rolls that I make during the week. Makes for great quick go to meal. It is great to throw in your chicken pot pie. And for that day when you forgot to take your chicken out of the freezer! So you can do it easy.
OK, back to rotation. Now this one i have a picture of so you don't get too confused.
What you will do is have the expiration dates that are the farthest from expiring on the left hand side, and the ones that are close to expiring on the right.
When you go to use an item, you will pull from the right only. When you buy new, you will stock on the left only.
Then you will bring the back can on the left, and move it over to the right.
Hope that made sense.
Then there is the rubber band idea, you stick one around an item and when you reach the one with the rubber band you know you have to restock. Personally- I'll pass.
You can do colored stickers, yellow sticky notes, black marker, whatever makes it easy on your brain!
Once you have a handle on how to do your three month, start looking at toiletries. I got 4 pk of Cottenelle Toilet paper for free last week with Kroger sale and coupons. You can really stock up easy on these items when you hit a good clearance. Nice thing about this is when you hit your three month mark for a toiletry item- your done! you don't have to worry so much about rotation. I don't believe they have an expiration on Toilet Paper!
I have loved going to this class, it has kept my fire lit and I am so excited to be sharing this joy of food storage with all my new Food Storage Junkies!!!
Great Job Gals.
For 3 Month Inventory list or other great planning tools, click on this link HERE
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