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I Was Shocked!…My Saturday: My Quick Bread Tip and Laundry Report

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I have to admit I am not easily surprised anymore. This week I had a real shock and then, after thinking about it, wondered why I was so surprised. I have been blogging and talking on READY OR  NOT for the past two years about food prices going up. They have skyrocketed for those entire two years. I know there is a severe drought this year and that means more price increases and I am preparing for those mentally as well as physically by stocking up. What I never saw coming was a report on the TV news this week that peach farmers are not able to find and keep pickers. Really? They are paying $200.00 a day, $25.00 an hour! And they can't find pickers. I have seriously been thinking about going and picking myself. I could use $1000.00 a week! Guess what, that means prices will go up.

I have been thinking a lot about the problem of a lack of workers. I have not been able to find kids to help with my yard for a few years now. They may say they are willing to mow, etc. but after one time they won't come back.  I was listening to a radio show the other day and the host asked if our children are being required to grow up anymore. Every caller said no they aren't and all said it was the fault of the parents. What does this mean for the future of self reliant families? Eventually these not-so-grown-up adults will have a day of reckoning. To those still raising teen I would say…"PLEASE don't do this to your kids! PLEASE teach them to work and to work hard." As the owner of a business and the mom of kids who own their own businesses I promise you if you fail to teach your children to work you are setting them up to fail. I will not hire them and neither will any other business owner who want their business to succeed.  Likewise if you fail to teach them to sacrifice you are dooming them to failure. So, our family will hang out the laundry, turn up the thermostat in summer and down in winter, and do all we can to become self reliant. Self reliance gives us freedom to make decisions that are possible only when you are in control of your destiny. 

Yesterday was a very busy day. I decided to clean out the kitchen freezer so I can get my frozen foods better organized, part of my food savings plan which I will explain in a week or two. I discovered several things I forgot I had and even had to throw away a few. Dang! I will get better so that never happens again.

Next I did the laundry. One thing I did not expect when I switched to vinegar as a fabric softener was how white my whites would look. What a great discovery. I am still using up the laundry detergent I had open so the only change has been the vinegar. I got a rope from the garage, a have several, and created a clothes line on my patio. I hung up the first load and by the time the second was washed the first was dry. I did make sure to hang the wash while the patio was in the shade to avoid any fading of the clothes. My second load was white towels (if you have read my ebook Prep Not Panic you know why I only have white towels). I hung those out when the sun was shining on the patio because for whites the sun is a great "bleacher". When they dried I put them in the dryer on air for five minutes. Perfect!

I have decided to make all my own bread for the next year. I love to bake bread and I love…homemade bread but I have not been diligent in baking every week. I also love simplicity so yesterday I dragged out the grain mill, ground wheat, and got busy making up prep-measured bags of my bread recipe. I also thought this was a good time to determine just how far my wheat would take me should I need to rely on my storage to feed my family. I discovered a #10 can of wheat yields 22 cups of flour.  My bread recipe make two loaves of bread and takes five cups of flour. Now I know I can get nine loaves per can.  I got out my recipe, a permanent marker, gallon zip lock bags and all the dry ingredients, except the yeast. I wrote the recipe on each bag so I can easily refill them without dragging out the recipe, and I will know how much of the other ingredients I need when I use the master mix.  Next I placed all the dry ingredients in the bags and placed them into a plastic tub I keep in the pantry. Now, when I am ready to bake bread I don't need to drag everything out and make a huge mess. I also decided to do the same with my cinnamon bread recipe. I make a mean cinnamon bread! Cost to bake two loaves of bread $1.05 (there are two eggs and a cup of milk in my recipe so your cost may be less).Cost to purchase two loaves $4.98. Savings per year: $153.30 (for 1 1/2 loaves per week)

Savings so far:

fabric softener $50.80

Laundry detergent: $74.94

Dryer: $202.80

Bread: $153.30

Year to date…$481.84

 

 

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