Yeah, amazingly overdue post, but it gets busy around here in the summer, as I am sure it does for most people. One of the reasons is that school's out, but imagine my surprise when Sunday's paper had ads for back-to-school sales already. Thing is, if you are the kind to be diligent about rebates, you can buy a ream of paper for a penny after rebate (limit 2 rebates) at Staples if you shop by tomorrow, because that particular sale is for Sunday-Wednesday only. (I would imagine that the rebate deal is good nationwide, but you may want to call your local store to make sure they're participating if you're not sure--would hate for someone to waste gas/time/money for no reason...) There were also back-to-school specials at Shopko, complete with the school supply lists available all neat and convenient for everyone, and pocket folders for $.15 apiece, for one example. Picked up a couple of things and will keep the lists so I can hopefully be as frugal as possible when other sales come up, as I hope they will. Even if you don't want the supplies for school, it's a good idea to have paper, etc., around in the case of an emergency-- for entertainment if nothing else.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer--I had been planning on posting some pictures of the garden, but the last time I could locate the camera it was being temperamental and uncooperative, so it will have to wait. There is greenery in the garden area, but it remains to be seen whether we will get anything edible out of it this year. We have gotten a few strawberries, and there are plenty of green raspberries that the children are monitoring, so I hope they will ripen nicely and we get to them before birds/varmints do.
I am about to put this same link over on my other blog, but feel that it is important enough to include in both places. You may have already read the article, "Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning", but I only received it in an e-mail at the beginning of this month. It's better to prevent an emergency than have one, obviously, but you need to recognize it for what it is--stay safe!!
Showing posts with label extra supplies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extra supplies. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Things are tough all over...
Apparently even in the schools.
Was surprised recently to find out that there was a request for donations on top of regular school fees. I know that the people in schools work really hard with fundraisers, etc., to get "extra" money, but I don't recall ever having a straight-out request for donations sent home. Granted, at this point the "extra" money being requested was not a requirement, but a bit disheartening all the same.
And money needed for any other use doesn't go into food storage/emergency preparation supplies...
On a related subject, there is a collection going on to gather supplies for children who may not have been able to acquire everything they need for school. Since I knew about this beforehand, I was able to get some extra "generally-needed-in-just-about-every-class" supplies for said collection at the really cheap back-to-school sales. Now to get the stuff to one of the announced collection sites before the collection ends this week. Things can be tough all over, but when we help where we can, things can be a little easier...
Was surprised recently to find out that there was a request for donations on top of regular school fees. I know that the people in schools work really hard with fundraisers, etc., to get "extra" money, but I don't recall ever having a straight-out request for donations sent home. Granted, at this point the "extra" money being requested was not a requirement, but a bit disheartening all the same.
And money needed for any other use doesn't go into food storage/emergency preparation supplies...
On a related subject, there is a collection going on to gather supplies for children who may not have been able to acquire everything they need for school. Since I knew about this beforehand, I was able to get some extra "generally-needed-in-just-about-every-class" supplies for said collection at the really cheap back-to-school sales. Now to get the stuff to one of the announced collection sites before the collection ends this week. Things can be tough all over, but when we help where we can, things can be a little easier...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I tend to keep things way too long...
but oddly enough, this habit has worked in my favor the past few weeks. Here are a few examples:
--A few weeks ago, my hair dryer gave out and decided that it had had enough. I guess. All I know is that on a Sunday morning, about twenty minutes before we were to leave the house, it no longer worked. At all. Not a pleasing scenario in the middle of winter. So what to do?
Well, of course I notified my husband, who joined in the mad dash to find something that would help with the situation. At one point he had a little travel hairdryer, but we have not seen that in nigh these many moons, or years, or eons, whichever is closest, and we only had minutes to search. While he searched hither and yon in the other parts of the house, I looked through a stack of my belongings and pulled out my last hairdryer. Not as powerful. Tossed aside a couple of years ago for a newer model. Yet, when I plugged it in, it worked. Took longer than my quits-at-one-of-the-worst-possible-moments hairdryer did in its prime, but it did the trick. We were blessed to find it, since I hadn't remembered I had it, and to find it in time. In fact, I'm still using it. Living on the edge..... :) But it just goes to show, that yeah, sometimes when you think, "I should save that in case I need it sometime," you just may be right...
--More recently we took a trip down to my parents' house, and when it was time to return home, I left a pair of my shoes (the ones I use for everyday use) at their house. I tend to wear my shoes to the point of oblivion, so the pair of shoes that I am using until I am reunited with the pair left behind was in theory supposed to be gone, oh, say, last year. In my defense, I did throw another pair of shoes away at that time, but, true confessions, though I don't remember the exact thoughts I had, I'm pretty sure they went something like this: "I"ll keep these just in case..." Well, "in case" arrived, and they are making a brief and limited showing on my feet. They are no longer pretty, but they are still comfortable... :)
---Ok, and now the part that you have been waiting for, that is actually about food storage. Yesterday, I went to make meatloaf, and found that our cannister of oatmeal was basically empty. Having already measured some of the ingredients for the meatloaf, I was loathe to go to plan B. (Besides, at that point, I hadn't thought of one... :) So I went to the storage room and pulled out a silver food storage packet of rolled oats that we packed back in 1999. Thing is, back when we packed it, the labeling indicated that it would be best to use it within 5 years. Yeah, mathematically, that package was supposed to make its departure by 2004. But more recently I had read this page, and so I ran to the computer to confirm my hopes/memory and found that...wait for it...rolled oats now have a shelf life of 30 years. Now that's a good feeling....glad that that chart is there, and that some of my food storage has a longer storage life than I thought. Meatloaf and a good time was had by all...
Does it always work out this way? Hard to know, if you're still waiting for the part after the "just in case". But it reinforces to me the need to have a spare, if possible, of things that we need, and to know as much as we can about the food that we store. If we have too much of anything, we could just donate it, but if we end up keeping it, the day may come when we or someone else may need our spare, or just something to eat from our food storage.....
--A few weeks ago, my hair dryer gave out and decided that it had had enough. I guess. All I know is that on a Sunday morning, about twenty minutes before we were to leave the house, it no longer worked. At all. Not a pleasing scenario in the middle of winter. So what to do?
Well, of course I notified my husband, who joined in the mad dash to find something that would help with the situation. At one point he had a little travel hairdryer, but we have not seen that in nigh these many moons, or years, or eons, whichever is closest, and we only had minutes to search. While he searched hither and yon in the other parts of the house, I looked through a stack of my belongings and pulled out my last hairdryer. Not as powerful. Tossed aside a couple of years ago for a newer model. Yet, when I plugged it in, it worked. Took longer than my quits-at-one-of-the-worst-possible-moments hairdryer did in its prime, but it did the trick. We were blessed to find it, since I hadn't remembered I had it, and to find it in time. In fact, I'm still using it. Living on the edge..... :) But it just goes to show, that yeah, sometimes when you think, "I should save that in case I need it sometime," you just may be right...
--More recently we took a trip down to my parents' house, and when it was time to return home, I left a pair of my shoes (the ones I use for everyday use) at their house. I tend to wear my shoes to the point of oblivion, so the pair of shoes that I am using until I am reunited with the pair left behind was in theory supposed to be gone, oh, say, last year. In my defense, I did throw another pair of shoes away at that time, but, true confessions, though I don't remember the exact thoughts I had, I'm pretty sure they went something like this: "I"ll keep these just in case..." Well, "in case" arrived, and they are making a brief and limited showing on my feet. They are no longer pretty, but they are still comfortable... :)
---Ok, and now the part that you have been waiting for, that is actually about food storage. Yesterday, I went to make meatloaf, and found that our cannister of oatmeal was basically empty. Having already measured some of the ingredients for the meatloaf, I was loathe to go to plan B. (Besides, at that point, I hadn't thought of one... :) So I went to the storage room and pulled out a silver food storage packet of rolled oats that we packed back in 1999. Thing is, back when we packed it, the labeling indicated that it would be best to use it within 5 years. Yeah, mathematically, that package was supposed to make its departure by 2004. But more recently I had read this page, and so I ran to the computer to confirm my hopes/memory and found that...wait for it...rolled oats now have a shelf life of 30 years. Now that's a good feeling....glad that that chart is there, and that some of my food storage has a longer storage life than I thought. Meatloaf and a good time was had by all...
Does it always work out this way? Hard to know, if you're still waiting for the part after the "just in case". But it reinforces to me the need to have a spare, if possible, of things that we need, and to know as much as we can about the food that we store. If we have too much of anything, we could just donate it, but if we end up keeping it, the day may come when we or someone else may need our spare, or just something to eat from our food storage.....
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