Preparedness 4.

I am going to post today a little bit of preparedness inspiration and then have a break over Christmas from it as we will all be too busy for extra things.
But this will provide some ideas and some reading to do for when you feel like it and want to plan for next year.

This week I went through my storage jars. I am going to collect more now. I have collected them for years. In the country I can often get boxes of old preserving jars for 50c each. They are thick strong beautiful glass. I don't want to spend money on storage containers I want to use the money on the food. If you know anyone with a cafe, hotel, bakery... takeaway food shop or anything like that ask them what containers do they throw away? Some have seriously strong buckets, lovely jars and all kinds of containers. Probably we all know someone who is throwing away jars and if we can ask them to save them for us we have an incoming supply.

I have a heap that were sold in boxes of six in the cheap shops. They are the preserving jars where the middle of the lid pops out. If you want to pretty them up or use them to give food gifts you can pop out the top, cut a picture to fit and then put it back together with the picture on the top. They look so cute. You could do any theme... (I'm thinking baby shower) but here I have made it Christmas. On some I just tore up some gingham to make bows to go with the gingham pattern on the lids. (I had this from making gingham tablecloths!)

Friends know I love jars so they often come my way. Helen gave me these gorgeous ones as a gift!

Glass is wonderful. Now I know if you live in an earthquake area this might not be so practical. But I love my jars and there are free and cheap alternatives and things we can use for storage that we can collect and they are so handy.

I was so inspired by a blog post I read on Coffee, Tea, Books and Me. Her article called When you have nothing to give was just wonderful.  Brenda mentions a couple of things that make my heart just happy. One is that when she has a little extra money she puts it into things to build up her pantry. Elsewhere on her blog you can read how this has helped them at times. The other thing is about the miraculous way you can make so many wonderful things to feed your family from a few basic ingredients.  If you have say, eggs, flour, sugar, milk... you can make pancakes, scones, cake, muffins, quiche, pie, pasta... it is amazing. then if you might add a few other things on hand the list just goes on and on. When you have no money and need a present you can bake a wonderful cake or a tin of biscuits.

Have you done that? Where things are bare or thin on the ground and you have a cook up and create all these goodies that your family just goes mad for. It is so satisfying. With our pantries stocked it is amazing what we can do.

Every time we DON"T run to the supermarket for a couple of things we save money. And time. Running to the shops for one thing is such a waste. Our pantry saves all that energy and time. Money is a valuable thing but so is our time!
Ronda has a series called Deepening my Pantry and a How I stock up series. All good reading!
If building up your pantry is on your 2015 list here is some good reading for you.

Brandy of The Prudent Homemaker has great frugal living ideas and the most wonderful pantry. They lived for a year when bad times hit from the contents of the pantry!

Food storage made Easy is a really useful site that I like.
Safely Gathered inSafely Gathered in is a website full of good reading. It covers a huge range of subjects on preparedness and is a wonderful resource.
Helen found this one and it is fantastic Survival Mom.Survival Mom This has endless reading and across the top she has a free section which has printables and downloads. I love the LDS preparedness manual.

An old favourite pantry post is from Laine. A well stocked pantry. It is very encouraging.                       A well stocked pantry.

A working pantry blog (on my side bar) is a wonderful read with so much inspiration and information on pantries.

I will resume here when we all are over Christmas and the sales are on! This is when I hope to be able to get some food put away and get the year off to a really good start.

Meanwhile please feel free to add your knowledge and experiences I really appreciate that. Any any good links too please!

I have an aim to have a very well stocked pantry plus emergency supplies by this time next year. I have some supplies now, we would be fine for a week or so. Perhaps aiming for three months supplies would be a good goal. Plus the money saving, buying only on big specials factor.

Have a good week. Nurture your family and yourself. xxx

Random acts of Christmas kindness and easy pickles!

Usually I post on Mondays and today I am very late! Chloe went to Sydney for a wedding that was light night on Sydney Harbour. This morning when I heard about the siege in Collins Street I knew she would be in central Sydney and I didn't know where. She stayed close to there. And I couldn't reach her. As I watched what was unfolding I felt sicker and sicker. Then I heard from her and she was on her way to the airport. As that happened there were reports of explosive devices possible elsewhere in Sydney. So of course I imagined the bridge the tunnels and the airport. Once she was at the airport there were reports the airspace might bee closed! When she finally got on the plane I was still nervous. Well, she arrived safely back in Adelaide mid afternoon. 

This was dreadful and terrifying. So I cannot comprehend the horror of what other families are enduring tonight.  I am so grateful on one hand and so sad on the other. Please pray for the hostages and their families.

So this is what I had ready to before all of this...

This post is an interesting mix of pickles and kindness!

We had another week where evenings were dominated by talk of what had happened in the day with our random acts of Christmas kindness. Some were random, others not so much as they were planned beforehand. But they all added up to a lovely week. The highlight winner was again the nursing home. This time Andy took a trip over there. He was armed with a bag of shortbread, chocolates, cards, bon bons and things. He is a good guy to visit a nursing home but he is the one who started this and knows all these people and counts them as friends. When he got home he was beaming. He said it was wonderful. He felt great. They were all so happy to see him and couldn't believe we would give them little Christmas gifts. I am continually amazed how even the littlest things seem big to these elderly and lonely people and how lovely they are.

Last week I mentioned easy refrigerator pickles. To me pickles seem to be a bit of a man thing. Andy loves them. I don't mind them... and a couple of my friends have said the same thing, their husbands go mad over them. Anyway they are very useful. Useful because you always have things to add to cold meats, hamburgers (pickles are so good in hamburgers) and with platters of cheeses, BBQ meats, as a side with a curry etc.

Pickles and other preserves are impressive! I have found people amazed I make jam. To a lot of people any preserve making is just legendary. They apparently don't know how easy it is. But this makes them good gifts! 

When you have too many cucumbers or onions or whatever making these pickles gives you another couple of months to use them. So this can be a major saver. Also if you have lots of something ready in the garden or like me a bag of bargain cucumbers you can use them all up.

These are so easy it is ridiculous. I learned this from Jamie Oliver. His series called Save with Jamie had some fantastic ideas.

Anyway this is what I do but I learned it from Jamie. Not in person unfortunately.

You need vegies that have crunch. So onion, cauliflower, cucumber, capsicum, beetroot, beans, celery, cabbage... anything with a crunch.

You can do a jar of all one thing or layers of different things. It looks flash if you slice things up nicely ie diagonally or with a crinkle cut knife or in chunks or something like that. Some things work as slices others need to be chunks ie cauliflower.

I have a slicer dicer that so quickly slices things up. It is so fast! Plus it has different attachments so I can quickly change and do different cuts for different things. I got it for $20 in a cheap shop after seeing them for $100 online.

You need clean jars and they can have lids or you could use cellophane jam toppers.

Simply cut up your vegies and layer them in your jar. I pack them in pretty well.

Then sprinkle in some things for flavour. You don't have to but it makes it more interesting. Here I sprinkled in mustard seeds. But do what you like... herbs, spices, chilli...

In a big jug mix 1 mug of water (I use boiled water from the kettle when it's still warm) with two mugs of vinegar. It can be white wine, red wine, cider or malt vinegar. Add 1 heaped tablespoon of sea salt and one of sugar. Mix until these dissolve. Pour this into your jar to cover your vegies. Keep in fridge.
The water/vinegar proportions are just 1 to 2 so if you need a lot of liquid use one jar to two jars or whatever is an appropriate amount. However keep in mind the tablespoons of sugar and salt were for a mug and increase those proportionately.

That's it. You just made preserves. Put a date on the jar. You have two months to use them. If you always wanted to make preserves but thought it was complicated you will feel pretty pleased with yourself!

I have to say I love the onions. Sliced onions are so good this way and I will now always keep them as when I cook a steak or burger I just bung some of those on top and it's so handy!

You can use them straight away but if you leave them a few days first the flavour will develop.

The leftover liquid is ok to use as part of your dressing, just use it as the acid part sometime. 

They look very cheerful in your fridge. And so useful.

I have chillies and capsicums coming on in the garden and will watch for bargain vegies especially onions after Christmas. My Dad would love jars of sliced onions so I will do some for him. The plough mans lunch of chunks of roast meat, cheese with some of these would be his idea of perfection.

I would think it will be a busy week for us all. Over the weekend I did lots of wrapping and things to try and get ahead of everything that needs doing! I want to have time to enjoy and cherish the time. And we are helping get my daughter and husband moved on Saturday into their new home for Christmas. 

Have a wonderful week! xxx

Feather your Nest Friday. 12 December 2014.

This week had some spending. I guess I have to expect that at this time of year! But two expenses are medical and it has made me think about when unavoidable medical bills come at a time when you have other things to deal with. I am going to work on growing our emergency fund next year.

Anyway here we are so close to Christmas and the end of the year!

This week I made lots of progress with my posting parcels, gift wrapping and general organisation of all the things that need doing!

I saved quite a bit of time and petrol by thinking things through and combining trips and events.

I made refrigerator pickles. These are great to use up excess product and a way to preserve things that might get wasted. My husband loves these! They take about two minutes to make! Cucumbers were on a big special which is why I made them.  I will share this method soon as summer harvests really start when it is most handy. I made a few jars. This one I layered so it's like a salad in a jar.

This week I made Melting Moments. I made a double batch. This is the recipe.

Melting Moments.
250g butter melted.
1/3 cup icing sugar,
1 1/2 cups plain flour,
vanilla essence.
Melt butter and stir in other ingredients. Roll into balls. Squish slightly with a fork and bake 20 mins in a lower oven about 150degrees.
Stick them together with pale pink icing if you want.
Really good!

 I used these as several gifts after packaging them in cellophane bags. They are quick and easy to make.

I saved money with a little trick. I have always loved biscuit moulds. You can get amazingly beautiful shortbread moulds. I loved one that was just under $50. Now you can use a biscuit forcer but not all recipes work with them. So sometimes I am still wishing to press an image into a biscuit. The good old fork to press cookies down works pretty well. Here's an idea to get a fancy imprint.  If you look at the bottom of pretty glass or crystal vases, candle sticks and glassware often there is a pretty pattern in the glass. Old style vases like these...

I have heaps of them but you can get them at op shops so cheaply. Underneath see if they have a pretty pattern...

Well, there is your biscuit mould! I just rolled my dough into rounds. Once my baking tray is covered in them I just squish each one with my vase.  If the dough is too sticky and is sticking to the glass keep dipping it into flour so it is dry and press.  You get a pretty imprint that bakes in.

Once you discover this you start running around looking under all your vases and candle sticks! Some have amazing patterns! How useful! Well now I look to what I can use to press in patterns and haven't bought anything expensive. After I did this I thought a bit of glazed cherry would look lovely as the centre of the flower! Next time...

Thanks to my friend I discovered a new op shop. This will be handy next year. Also a fruit and vegie shop nearby with fantastic prices and specials.

I have to say being busy impacted the household this week. I need some days home to restore the balance! The atmosphere suffers. So over the weekend I hope to make things quite, have the pretty lights on and have lovely evenings. Starting tonight!

So it wasn't a perfect week by any means! And next week my daughter and son in law are moving house! It will be nice when they are in their new home for Christmas and that is all done!

Have a lovely weekend. It does get a little like this at this time of year. The shops are so busy, everyone is in a hurry...  But we don't want to miss the moment because of it. I want to enjoy and celebrate Christmas and appreciate all the wonders of it. We had had a wonderful year really with so many things to be thankful for! 

How was your week? What did you do to feather your nest and save money? I hope it was good and the weekend brings some rest and rewards! xxx

Preparedness. Part three.

Progress is being made!  Last week I cleaned out the cellar. I went down there with my vacuum and cleaned, wiped things down and boy was it dusty. This is why wine cellar bottles of wine are covered in dust apparently! Also all of this going up and down got me used to it. I don't find it scary anymore and that is a good thing!

So my goal of doing something every week towards building up my pantry and emergency supplies was achieved by cleaning out the cellar, establishing strong basket to use for carrying things up and down.

Also I added hand wipes, pasta, tins if tuna and batteries to my supplies. Already in week three I can see that by doing something every week it is amazing how you can see your progress and how it adds up! My mission is to fill all my jars over the next few weeks as well.

Last week I stuck all important and emergency numbers on the inside of a kitchen cupboard and another list to refer to when and if we know something is going to happen... it could be a storm is coming or it could be anything but the circumstances where there is a warning and time to prepare. I know in QLD when a huge cyclone was coming there was a couple of days to prepare. But that can happen in all kinds of circumstances. How to use wisely that period of grace to prepare?  Having a plan is so helpful. Rather than run around in a panic you know what to do and you can even give everyone tasks to get it done and in time.
But what? What would you do if you knew you were going to be snowed in, flooded in, or there were going to be shortages of something? Of course this is going to vary according to the weather, your families needs, the impending problem, your pets and a heap of things. So you have to tailor make this list to your family and home. Now we don't always get a warning but when we do it is good to make the most of any time it might allow us to prepare. 

Here are some things to consider if you have a warning...

Fill your car with petrol.
Prepare a kit for each person incase you have to leave the house. 
Fill prescriptions. This is on my list as my husband has prescriptions he must have. Imagine running out?
If you think power loss is possible fill the spaces in your freezer with containers of water. Providing it will have time to freeze. This extends the time your frozen food will stay frozen and provide water after that.
Turn your fridge to colder.
Cook raw items that will spoil otherwise.
Clean your gutters, secure items around the yard.
Check on neighbours.
Charge your phones and other things that need charging.
Ensure you have batteries and spare ones for your radio and torches etc.

If you know what you have in your supplies you will also know what you don't have. Have a list of what to stock up on while you have the opportunity. A prepared shopping list would save a lot of time and help you not forget important things in the rush.
Don't forget pet foods. Our pets are small so they are super easy to have supplies for. Chippy doesn't eat much.

Another aspect of this is having a plan in a crisis is better than panicking. People remain calmer. I am better if I have things to do and go about doing them. Constructive activity is a good thing.

Once you start a list over time you can add to it as you think about things and learn more. A basic list is better than no list at all. An imperfect list is better than nothing! This list is next to our emergency numbers list, inside the kitchen cupboard door.

Quite often our own local areas will have information on what to do to prepare for an emergency. Be sure to follow that and to listen for updates and be informed. Our own climates and other conditions have a huge impact on what we need to do. Knowing what stations to tune into for weather updates etc in your own area is really important. Hopefully there is expert advise available to you that helps you with your plan. Last week I said we have loads of candles as part of the decor. I lit some up and realised that the lighting is actually very comforting and being out all the time it takes a minute to light and do the job. My outdoor "chandelier" has solar fairy lights. I could easily bring this inside as well. I have placed a couple of candles to light on a shelf in the cellar with matches next to them.

So that is my progress for the week. I am dying to see some food specials that make it worth buying a dozen of this or that or even a whole box. But pre Christmas just ins't the time. After Christmas I think there will be specials like this.  Several of my savings friends keep a purse especially for use when they see massive savings. So they are always able to take advantage of them. It also means you always have some cash with you. I have started that and any time I feel I saved some money I add a little bit to this purse. Hopefully when I see a great sale I can invest in it. I thought this is a great system.

Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences and memories too of pantries. I love hearing this! Next week I am going on with this on the subject of all the things we can make by having some basic supplies. 

Have a good day and rest of the week! xxx

Random acts of Christmas kindness week 2.

Last week was a wonderful week! I like to think I try and be kind to people and help where I can but this challenge really IS a challenge and it made me look in new places and stretch my imagination further than usual. Doing it I started to think I don't really do anywhere near what I could be doing and I could be doing so much more. Big and small. After one week it's prompted a review of what we do and what we could be doing and some plans for next year. It is also full of demonstrations that giving doesn't have to be about money. In fact handing over the credit card giving can leave you wondering who gets the money and experiencing none of the joy of giving yourself.  It has been a really good exercise for me, so far!

And fun too. Each evening my husband and I sit outside and talk about our days. So the evenings  have become a chat about our random acts of kindness and some of the things that happened this week were beautful. Then we plan and plot other ideas!  Really a lot of fun and the feeling of the Christmas spirit has grown each day.

Andy seems to have an natural aptitude for giving things away so two nights while we talked I sat there and bagged up lollies (one night) and shortbread (the other night) I just bought a huge bulk bag of Christmas sweets and two huge boxes of shortbread to do this. With pretty cellophane and red ribbons it looked Christmassy. Well, they were enough to be a success as each night Andy came home with stories of who he gave them to and of praising up and thanking different people he thinks are amazing and of talking to some homeless people and just nice things.

One of the highlights for me was my afternoon at the nursing home. I headed off with a little Christmas tree I bought for $5 and a few decorations. I know Kath had not had her own Christmas tree for many years. And there are no decorations in their rooms at all. Firstly I had to hope she would be there and she was. She was so excited just to see me. I said "I am going to decorate your room for Christmas". This alone was beyond her comprehension. So as we chatted I unpacked the little tree and fluffed it out and it went from looking like a stick to a really nice little tree!

At that point she got quite excited! Ohh "I'm so overwhelmed" she kept saying. Then I added decorations and she just loved it. It was really fun to do and see her reaction. Since she is in bed most of the time I placed and angled the tree in a way she could see it from in bed and the best bits facing her way.

Earlier Kath had told me she loves angels and I made her some angel wings and hung them on at the end. She just loved them and couldn't believe I made them for her!

Once that was all up I said to her now she only needs some presents under the tree and I had brought with me a gift basket I had made up over recent weeks. Kath uses a certain type of hair clips, I had managed to get those, and other little treats.  So I sat the basket next to the tree.

I pretty much lived off her reaction for days. It was lovely.

Another lady we visit, Wilma, I decorated her room with tinsel and she also got a gift basket. I tried to make the baskets look pretty and cheerful. She was equally amazed. I noticed she had not one decoration or card. And the home had no decorations that I saw. Andy is following up, going in there himself for a Christmas visit and he has several men he talks to there as well. They discuss football and cars as far as I can tell. So he will go in with a goodie basket to spread around in a week or so.

During the week was it was our neighbours (over the road) birthday. I knew she had a difficult day and I used ribbons left over from the wedding to add bows to her letter box. They blew in the breeze and looked lovely. I just added a card. Well, she loved it!

Each day was filled with something special because of this challenge, thank you Janine!

This challenge would be the right prescription for anyone not feeling Christmassy. It is just wonderful and makes you step outside of what you normally do to think and see new things. Last week I found myself speaking to new people, getting to know others better and keeping my eyes open, wider than usual. And counting my blessings more than usual.

Now I am excited about this week!

I think, somewhere along the line, we came to believe that giving involved large cash donations. It became corporate style giving. It removed the giving from our hands and we paid someone else to do it! Well, thats how it seems to me. We don't have to have large amounts of money to give. Small acts of kindness and help are giving. And we get to experience the joy. Mother Theresa said "Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love"

Just go out and do small things with great love. That's it. It will be the best Christmas!

Feather your Nest Friday 5th December.

20 days until Christmas! That's what I thought as I wrote "Friday December 5th"
For most of us December is very busy and an expensive month. I love it but it can be too busy and the budget can really take a hit. On the other hand it's a huge opportunity with some thought and planning to save a fortune!

Even if you have not made a present it isn't too late to make some homemade gifts instead of buying them. This would be one huge saving. I tend to do things in big batches, like my Coconut ice which I package into about twenty pretty little gifts. Also I make up several hampers of some of each thing I make. It also allows me to give away lots of small thank you/Happy Christmas gifts.

This week I saved money and built up my home by:

Picking lots of flowers and filling big vases.

Putting up our Christmas tree, decorations and fairy lights. It's created a lovely Christmas atmosphere. Setting the mood is a big thing. It FEELS like Christmas. And we began the Random Acts of Christmas Kindness Advent Calendar. This is so much fun and much of our evening conversation is about what happened in the day and planning ideas! Well, it makes a very happy atmosphere.

Mum gave me a bag of oranges from the river land. Beautiful huge juicy oranges.

A friend who knows I take things to the op shops gave me a couple of bags of things to take with my next  load. She had put aside a black leather bag she thought I would like and other things for me to consider and then take whats left to the op shop. Oh my goodness... this is what I got given to me as a result...

A beautiful black leather hand bag, an Oroton card holder, a mesh evening bag, a Jimmy Choo clutch bag and a sparkly carry all bag. I LOVE them all! I don't know what this haul is worth but something staggering.
Well,  that was so much fun and it is all my style and colours and I will use everything. I couldn't stop looking at it all. It was like Christmas came early.

Andy brought home a lovely bookcase for his office. Side of road find. He is so pleased with it!

I made Lemon Slice. I love this slice. It was for some neighbour gifts, the nursing home and random acts of kindness gifts (and to go with coffee at home)

This is the recipe...
2 packets Marie Biscuits. (or plain sweet biscuits)
1 tin condensed milk,
1 cup butter. (melted)
2 cups fine coconut,
Juice of a large lemon.

Crush or process the biscuits. I put mine in a large snap lock bag, squeeze the air out and seal. Then beat it senseless with a rolling pin, then roll that to make it pretty fine.
In a big bowl add your crushed biscuits, melted butter, condensed milk and lemon juice and stir all together.

Press this into a lined (I use non stick baking paper) tin. I use a medium cake tin or small baking tray.
Refrigerate. Ice with icing made with some lemon juice included so it tastes lemony.

Let set and cut into small squares. It is so delicious. My favourite slice. It keeps quite well. I would keep it two weeks although it would be a miracle if it lasted that long.

I took some cuttings of plants I really liked. I have had good success the last couple of years with cuttings, some are now huge plants. One of these is a pink hydrangea.

As I have wrapped presents I have found something for everyone in the collection of things I've made this year. Then add cooking and I have plenty.

The things I am needing for my cellar pantry I have been finding or re purposing. I need a sturdy basket to take up and down and I have used one intended as a hamper gift basket by just using a box instead for the gift. The basket was from the  op shop. It's just perfect for this job. I often find that... needing something then with a pause to look around you find the solution.

I hope you had a good week with some savings and that you count all your work as building up your home. Much of our work is KEEPING what we have already built up nice and fresh and clean. Today I am cleaning and tidying. All the cooking and wrapping etc has taken it's toll and I need to have a bless my home with cleaning day!


Some pictures... some of our climbing roses.

Our streets around us just now are lined with purple. If you park you car underneath it is purple the next morning and as the breeze blows it is like confetti. Just lovely. Adelaide is well known for thousands of these. They are Jacaranda Trees. 

And this is for Mimi. This is a neighbours yard to show you the Hollyhocks. If you look you can see in the middle and at the back how they are around the garden and very tall.

I really love the beautiful streets and gardens. Going anywhere is a joy, walking around is beautiful. 

The bird life is amazing. In winter even ducks and ducklings walk past. I was amazed at first as there are more birds here in the city than there were where I lived in the country. We wake often to Kookuburras' laughing.  All these things add to the joy of everyday. At times there are pink Magnolia trees on the streets around us, just now hydrangeas everywhere with huge blooms and agapanthus blue along the sides of many roads.  It really makes our surroundings lovely. I am thankful of this, it is beautiful. I try and soak in the lovely things I see, watch less news and be grateful.

Have a wonderful weekend. We need some time to refresh and restore. There can be so much on and to do in December that we miss the joy. Feel free to say no to some things. If you know what your number one mission is then it is easier to sort out what to say yes to and what to say you cannot manage this year thanks. We have to do that. If we say yes to everything we can lose everything. Some time to rest, relish the time, plan and sleep gives us a chance to see how beautiful things are.xxx

Beginnings of emergency preparedness. Part two of a series.

Last post I explained how I came to decide to build up an emergency pantry and and some emergency supplies. Since then my friend was caught in a terrible storm in Brisbane. It was so bad the army was called in to help afterwards. Helen told me the Queensland government have been urging everyone to have an emergency plan and supplies and have even had workshops to help people. Each state has its own information but here is part of QLD's which I am reading up on...  It is really good! Everything right down to what to store in your pantry. We should all look up what our local areas advise us to do.  I think printing things out into a folder is a good idea. Once our power was out and the phone hotline was a recorded message saying to go online and follow the advice. Well, that was great if you had power!

https://getready.qld.gov.au/be-prepared

After our decision to get started I worked on a plan. This is developing as I learn more but it's a start.

These are the things we DO have:
Emergency numbers in our phones.
Important phone numbers copied somewhere other than in my phone. If we lose our phones many of us have no copies of numbers and don't know them by heart. 
Copies of licenses, banking, passwords and all that kind of stuff.
A reasonable first aid kit and first aid guide.
A reasonably stocked medicine cabinet.
Gas for cooking when no power.
Candles that would last a few weeks if there was no power. These are mostly part of my decor. Plus matches etc.
Several torches and batteries.
A battery lantern with spare batteries.
A pantry with food that would see us through a couple of weeks.
A radio that will run on batteries. In a crisis a radio that doesn't need electricity is your news of what to do and whats happening. This is how the government lets you know what to do!
I have tons of shampoos, soaps, basic cleaning supplies and don't need to worry about things like that.

From a bit of a stock take and think I decided to add some water supplies to this as that is the first thing we lack. And to build up my existing pantry as much as I can. I had a clean out, re arrange and stock up. I am still doing that. Filling my jars, adding to my canned goods etc.

This week I wrote up all the emergency numbers in a place other than my mobile phone. I will keep adding but I have the basics.
I wrote up a plan of what to do if we know something is coming, a storm, power cut, shortage... (this list and details I will share next post)
I copied what Mum does. She keeps all emergency charts on the inside of her kitchen cupboards. What to do with a snake bite, emergency first aid... it's all on the inside of cupboard doors. We all know it's there and it's right in front of you when you need it.

I added three tarpaulins and three rolls of masking tape to our supplies. This is for in case in a storm windows break. We have a big tree out the back that belongs to the neighbour so this is very possible.

The next thing is to improve our first aid supplies and medicine cabinet. Things get used and not replaced or expire etc so getting that all up to scratch and adding things so that it really is pretty good.
I am just trying to do that even if it is one thing per week. Also since changing cars I realised I have no car first aid kit. So another thing to do.

The Later Day Saint blogs are so helpful. One thing I keep reading is that they encourage you not to feel overwhelmed and do something, however small, to make progress. Feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start can cripple us from starting at all! It is better to do something than nothing. It will add up. And to save some money in the same way, a bit at a time, as you can. Just start. 

Our cellar was set up to be a wine cellar by previous owners. We decided to keep one wall like it is for bottles as that can be water and all kinds of things in bottles and that might fit there. We decided to make one wall shelves and have sealed buckets behind the stairs which can contain packets  etc. 

This is the view when we open the door which looks like floor boards...

Possibly you can see why I found it intimidating. It looks like the pit of doom...

It needs a good clean, it has years of dust, cobwebs down there! But it is dry, no signs of any dampness at all. 

Once it's clean and it begins to fill with good things, I place a nice mat at the bottom and whatever else I can think of to make it less scary and instead an exciting treasure trove! 

Having decided we needed shelves (or to build some) we were out driving and we found this on the side of the road! Sturdy metal shelving perfect for canned goods and all kinds of things. How amazing and what timing! Aside of needing dusting it is perfect! What a bonus and good start. I looked online and metal shelving units for storage were around $200. 

Not everyone has a cellar and we are really lucky to have this. My friend who is also building up supplies has  purchased a metal filling cabinet to use to store food. Laine used to use under the bed spaces. You could use an old suitcase, a trunk, a linen press type cupboard. Install narrow shelves along a hallway, convert a wardrobe or walk in robe to be a pantry, convert book shelves ...you can be inventive. The Prudent Homemaker (a lovely blog) has a section of her shed as a pantry. (and it is one of the best pantries I have ever seen!)

Besides having supplies on hand the extra storage space means when things are on amazing specials you have room to buy up big. Some specials are so good this is your big chance! My friend Helen will see an incredible special and buy 50 cans of this or that. She saves so much money and has one of the best grocery budgets I know. Having storage space allows you to do this. Some huge savings come at times from a bulk buy and it depends on having that storage. 

Next post I am going to cover making a list of things to do if we know a storm, a shortage or an emergency is coming our way. Knowing what to do first can save a lot of time and panic and help us to not overlook something obvious that in a crisis and brain fade we might forget! 

Thank you so much for all the comments and things you shared after my first post on building up my pantry and preparedness. A lot of you have experienced first hand all sorts of emergencies and seen empty shelves from panic buying and amazing experiences. I am really grateful that we can encourage each other. This is a learning process and like all things you learn a bit then you learn a bit more! But encouragement is a big thing. You can know everything about a subject but do nothing. It is better to take baby steps and begin than do nothing and study. We have to put in practical steps. (Says me who has been thinking about this for a little while!) Even if you store one small thing this week and do something that will contribute to better preparedness I will be thrilled as getting the ball rolling is often the very hardest thing, then we get going we are ok!  I often do better when I join in with someone else on a challenge and report in. So that's what I'm doing here with you!

So that is my progress this last week.

This week I will get the cellar clean and sparkly, the shelves installed and some water stored. I am thinking after Christmas the sales will help me get some food stores.

Have a good week and just do a little bit toward your preparedness. xxx