A new Hobby

I have found a new "hobby"! Food Storage and grocery shopping deals. I know, it sounds pretty odd. However, my love and joy of digital scrapbooking has taken a back seat to this new found "hobby". I know, I can't believe it either. It is true.

It all started a few months ago. Around the end of Dec. I had this feeling that I needed to work on getting my basement cleaned out and organized. A friend of mine called and asked if I had any baby boy clothes for a neighbor of hers. So while I was at it, I gave away the rest of my baby clothes and baby gear. I was able to clear out three shelves in my storage room and it was such a feeling of a weight being lifted off. That got me in the mode of doing more. So I went through a lot of my scrapbooking stuff. Never thought I'd be able to do that. Paper scrapping is how my love of scrapbooking started. However, since I digital scrapbook, I figured I wouldn't miss it too much. I filled (plus some) a xerox box of old scrapbooking supplies and gave them away. Another feeling of relief! AAAHHH... I'm loving that feeling. About a week later, Casey said he was listening to a conference talk and asked me if I would be willing to work on food storage. FOOD STORAGE? Are you kidding? I have no idea where to even start. Way overwhelming to think about a year's supply of food! That week, our enrichment was on saving money and a 19x19 meal plan. This should be interesting. LOVED IT!

Then in February I attended a Pantry Secrets Enrichment. I learned to make bread. This is the most amazing bread. This bread takes me 1 hour from start to finish! Believe it! Unless I make rolls or a braid it will take a few minutes to shape. What really hit home for me on this was when Chandler came home from school the day after I made it and asked if he could have a piece of bread. Bread? Really? Not something he normally asks for, but ok, there's a loaf on the counter. No, he didn't want the store bought, he wanted the homemade. Needless to say, I haven't bought a loaf of bread since then. This bread dough is more than just bread. I can make braids, breadsticks, cinammon sticks, stuffed crust pizza, and more. Another one that hit me was when Chandler ate two slices of the stuffed crust pizza. He hates when I order stuffed crust from other pizza places, he would not eat the crust, EVER! Now it's his favorite! The only trick is, I haven't been able to make it gluten-free. I even had my sister who has celiac try and she couldn't do it either.

I have found a lot of great websites. I have almost got all of my year supply of food. Yes, it is an overwhelming thought, but trust me, if I can do it, so can anyone else! I didn't enjoy grocery shopping ever! Now it's one of my favorite things to do. I look at my favorite recipes. Then I thought about how I could make some of them non-perishable because that's what I needed for my main year supply food storage. Then, I went and bought the ingredients I would need that were in the caselot sale. Now that my main meals are mostly bought, I need to stock up on items that I go through faster (or the kids). Chandler is going to eat us out of house and home and he's only 9. So I need to stock up on cereals, snacks, toilet paper (it's getting there), quick meals, etc. We go through cereal so quickly, but I'm finally feeling like I'm ahead of the game. I look forward to finding the "great deals" for groceries. I can't believe the amounts of money I am saving now. For example, last night I went and bought 6 boxes of cereal (raisin bran, shredded mini wheat, and honey bunches of oats - no sugar cereals here), 3 boxes of 12-count Pop Tarts, and 18 count eggs for...... are you ready to hear how much I spent..... are you sure? $12. Serious! What a great deal - I saved nearly $30. My favorite was about 3 weeks ago. I bought 10 boxes of 12-count poptarts (they make a great after school snack for Chandler who is always hungry), 6 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of choc chip cookies for Casey(ok me, too), 2 packages of lettuce, and 2 bags of doritos for..... $38! I saved $66. Yep, amazing isn't it? My sisters now want me to just buy groceries for them. I have had such a great time doing this. I love coming home and showing Casey the amount of food I purchased and then showing him the receipts.

My sister asked me to come down and show her how I do things. That made me feel really good. It made me feel like I actually may have figured out some of this overwhelming idea. By no means have I got it entirerly figured out, but I am so glad that I have been able to figure out a way for us to save money and get out food storage building. Like I said there are a lot of great websites out there that gave me a boost. I've been busy organizing my cold storage room and my pantry. It feels so good! I really feel like I will be blessed for being obedient to what the prophets have asked of us for so long.