Hello Hello!

Hey everyone I just wanted to pop in and give everyone an update. We have been super busy with family stuff and also with school. Even my favorite past time of hard core prepping has fallen to the side momentarily.

I just finished my last final yesterday (Maths) and I think I got a low A so today I am taking advantage of some extra credit work she posted just this morning (haha 134 problems) but I am grateful that any Math teacher even hands out extra credit Math homework because that's pretty unheard of. I take any advantage given to me because that puts me above zero. I already got 2 A's in my other classes and then I'm off until the middle of January.

I have a few videos up on the youtube page but they are not really cooking focused. I will resume that this weekend as well as some canning.

I had an epiphany the other day - but I'll discuss that in my next blog!

Happy December Everyone!

This is how we do it...

In case you missed it...here is the video to recap.
New video coming up tomorrow on today's purchases.

Click here for the latest video!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

No No No November Already? Got Preps?

Wow I cannot believe that it is already November 2011. UNBELIEVABLE how quickly the year has gone buy. It is going to be a mere 3 weeks until Turkey Day. As I did my slide show and recap for the month of October I realized I was so busy I didn't do as much as I usually do. I basically had it in my head that for the months of November and December I was going to kick it into high gear. For the last 11 months I have maintained a minimum of 50lbs of food a week in preps. 50 lbs is a regular week - 100 lbs is a more normal week and 400lbs is a fantastic week.

Some people ask how do I calculate what I need. I have a very basic formula - 1lb of food per person per meal. That is a REALLY high estimate and it assumes waste (there won't be waste) So let's say that it is Mr.Man and Me...for 3 meals that would be 6 lbs. Out of the 6 lbs you have to figure out bread - it takes about 1.5lbs of flour to make 2 good sized loaves and that would be 2 days worth or maybe not in an emergency. So lets say breakfast is oatmeal with nuts with milk and fruit. Morning snack is maybe a half sandwich. Lunch is a bean and veggie salad, and some tacos, afternoon snack is homemade trail mix or crackers and cheese, dinner is some form of stew with bread or rice. Truth be told a lot of these meals extend into secondary meals and I could make 4lbs of food work, but I calculate the 6 because if we start to do a LOT of physical labor we will also be more hungry. It is the easiest formula I could figure out.

Some of the more intensive folks do caloric content, fat content and all that. I'm not into all that because I can do a menu and make something out of whatever we've got. I personally don't think it's fair to tell people to learn yet another thing (caloric intake values) on top of all the other stuff they are trying to learn. I think 1lb per person per meal per day - and just make sure that you have veggies/fruits, protein, grains, cereals, fats. Follow the stupid FDA triangle just change their position. You can't go wrong with the formula. In fact you'll have extra.

So here we go - I had a good head start yesterday for November preps:

3 types of nails - 1/2-3/4 full over 10lbs of nails - only $5 per case. yeah you heard me. Those bostich nails alone are worth well over 50 bucks b/c they sell those about $1 per strip.

I love you Ace Hardware!














8 cases pints $10 each
1 case half pints (straight side) $7.50 ea

sugar at Wally world is still $13.48 a bag.

I went ahead and got a bag it's not getting cheaper that's for dang sure - in fact the price of it seems to be going up everywhere else.




I stopped at target for Halloween Candy and found these notebooks on clearance for 62 cents - I just picked a dozen of the prints I liked - that should keep me in notebooks for a few semesters. yaaay ME.









I found this Mitre box for Mr. Man...I thought 2 bucks sounded good. I don't know much about these things.











I've been wanting egg timers for awhile but they are always so dang expensive - Lucky me I found these last 2 for $3 each. Now I can tell myself onion is for canner, garlic is for oven. I left the bellpepper one. haha.








The staple gun seemed handy mine is just a plastic job. The staples were only $1. Seemed like a good price to me.











I found this at Ace hardware too - I'm just gonna throw it in my backpack...You never know right!











You can see a weird bowl in my photos of eggshells and veggie trimmings - that's my compost stuff from the kitchen lol.

You cannot imagine how happy I was to find this kitchen compost pail for only $7. Supposedly they are upwards of $50. All I know is 7 bucks sounded good to me haha.






I know how gross. i don't care - We like them and they were on sale this week for 99 cents - I had Wally World price match Fresh and Easy - I picked all the ones that expire dec 23 2011 and I'm still gonna freeze them.

I bought 20 pkgs - 10 for my house and 10 for my sisters house. I figure that's enough.




Got some new hair lotion for Mr. Man...2 containers of buttermilk (over $3) not on sale and a 4 pack of the pint jars the fancy ones I like for butter. I don't know why I like the butter in the odd looking containers.

jar lids - 99 cents price match

It was so weird they only had these 4 boxes of lids left in that whole store - super strange.


Pineapple was still 97 cents - so I picked up another 7. That should make at least 15 more pints. That should be good - it will bring our total amount of canned pineapple to 2.5 cases.











Finally I picked up ground lean (93%) for $2.49 a lb that is still expensive to me 5 wks ago ground lean was only $1.69. I also found this Italian Sausage 5for5 but it had an instant $2 off coupon - so 24 oz of Italian sausage for only $3 pretty good. The pork chops are a request from a friend who did us a favor so I'll be making his favorite dish - Pork Adobo!

That's it - that's my kick start - Everyone please go out and do something - do anything. Prices are going up 20-40% every single time I go to the store and I don't care if I do have the money I do not wanna waste it. Vitamins and basic body lotions are horrendously expensive. Please look around and see the silent anger and mortification in peoples faces with only 3-4 things in their cart because they simply cannot afford the things they once ate. Sad.

ps) I have been watching this one dude make excuses why he can't do as many preps as other people because he doesn't have the money and blah blah blah - M****f**** please. I'm just sayin - if you've been doing this for almost 2 years why have your preps decreased? We're on a very tight budget and we make it. Goodness gracious - if you don't have the stomach to be a winner just lay down and take it from the powers that be - HAHA.

October Preps 2011 Recap

This is just a link for any of you who might have missed a few blogs and didn't see what kind of deals I picked up.

Click here for link to video!

I must say October was a very lean month for preps, not just because we had unexpected expenses but also because I was extraordinarily busy with school and some changes in our home.

I'm glad we made it through October!

Everything starts with Effort?

So today they posted the final grade for Lit...I tell you what - I was late ONCE and she gave me an 88 for attendance LOL and most of my papers were 95s and 97s but for the last 2 papers she gave me 90s. Funny thing is I like her - she's been teaching for 30 years and still loves it and has a positive attitude - but I even told her you grade me much harder than you do the other children and she whispered,"because you are more talented." I mean seriously - I would turn in 6-8 page papers with full citations to everyone else's 3 page double spaced babble. HAHA. Nonetheless - I still got my A...I'm just disappointed that it was such a LOW A. It's almost like there's some luck involved.

Then I went to Criticism class this morning and he gave us back our tests and I got another 90. I was like What the Heck? He then said if anyone would like to stay and check their class standing I can review scores. I was really worried after that 90 - but my overall grade is 97% . Goodness Gracious - you see those are the types of scores that I am accustomed to. jeez. As my brother would say an A is an A whether it is a 90 or a 99.

I went to Ace Hardware between classes (I'll put that in the next blog) and picked some stuff up and then took off to Math class. I was on time but everyone was already in there...and grouchy as Mondays usually are grouchy. I got my both parts of my extra credit together to submit it and one of my study buddy's said,"Shhh, how did you do number 15?" I flat out said I'm not gonna do your work for you...so I told the instructor I"m going to give her the formula okay but I'm going to make her do the work. The instructor nodded. After I got all that sorted out I submitted the extra credit for the 1% raise in final grade which was to find advanced polynomials and show formula examples and define applications - meaning what it can be used for. I think I found like 5 types plus 25 subtypes and defined them. The instructor told me NEVER had anyone been that thorough in their research - most students couldn't even find them because it's not something you can google. I laughed and said,"then you should give me 2-3% for my effort." She laughed and said she may just do that. haha.

What amazed me was that only 5 or 6 people submitted the extra credit for plus 5 on your exam and only 2 or 3 people submitted advanced polynomials and even their submissions were a 1 sentence submission with no examples. The ones who couldn't find anything were referred to me on how to do the research. LOL.

It just amazes me how little effort people really put in. I don't get it.

I put that photo up top because that was from our last trip to Vegas the other February. Prior to our prepping life we took 4 weeks off a year to go on trips and vacations. YES a month vacation a year broken into parts. But now that we prepare ourselves and are more socially aware giving up that vacation is part of our effort to thrive. Jeez.

Piece Of Cake - NOT

My brothers so nice - he got me this cake pendant the other day - I love the dang thing it's so cute! I hate to admit it but I thought to myself I could buy at least 10lbs of beef with what you spent for it -but I didn't say anything I just thanked him and Mr. Man is making me a paracord choker so I can wear it. Awesome!

I got through my English Final and it looks like I have an A overall for the class she just has 1 more thing to grade. I took that yesterday - I did a paper on the effects of war on children from the point of being fatherless, orphaned or exposed to depleted uranium. I managed to finish the paper in 2 hours - pretty dang good. I heard some people trying to say that they were going to complete their paper in just 3 pages. I said why don't you just write the 6 pages and do it in less time instead of trimming your writing since there is no limit on length. No one thought this was a good idea.

On Monday I took my second math test so far this semester and I scored a 91. She handed them back today and only posted the grades yesterday. Even though I am a poor student at Math I study very hard because I am determined to get an A. I have to pay very close attention to the lectures, exercises and examples. I told the instructor today that I am very poor at Math and she laughed at me. I told her I'm not really getting a deep grasp of it - because I understand it but I am having difficulty absorbing it. She told me to relax and just keep doing what I do - THEN she gave an extra credit assignment for the test to the whole class which will give me an additional 5 points AND gave another extra credit assignment for a 1% total grade lift if you complete it. So if I maintain pace I will maintain my A - woo hoo - I feel like a thorn has been taken out of my side.

The critical essay class went easy this morning too!

The good news is I finally have Tuesdays and Thursdays off which will free me up for canning and making videos again! Woo Hoo.

Video's coming soon.

Unbelievable...Can't believe I found this stuff today

I got out of class around 430 - and decided to roll by the 99 cent store. I saw a lot of ads for Organic Spinach in town which means a LOT of overstock going to the local 99 cent only's.

We already went through 4 jars of lemon juice - so I picked up 4 more jars.

Yep 99 cents each






I flipped it to check if it was still 25% juice - NOPE it's actually gone up it is now 36% juice.
Awesome.











And it's STILL made in the USA.












They had these half and half organic salad mix packages. I love these coz they are half spinach and half spring mix...I also picked up a cute little Kleenex box for the bathroom - since Momma In Law will be in town in a couple days :)










I was looking for forks for Mr. Man's desk but instead I found these - Foldable Water Bottles non BPA. Only 99 cents each. I figure these would be great in the emergency bag.









Romaine Lettuce (3 heads per bag)
Earthbound organic spinach (9oz bag)

both looked fantastic today...

I can't believe I also found 21 foot parchment for only 99 cents. That is just disgustingly cheap.







Mr. Man loves pork rinds - so I got him a bag. They had Idaho potatoes - so I picked up another bag of those. I also copped 4 cans of water chestnuts (59 cents each) and some Kraft sourcream (expires 11/2011)...

I always get water chestnuts for Momma coz she loves them in her stirfry!

I got a few other things - chapstick and such...the grand total was $23.76. Crazy right?

oh and check this out I was having a conversation with the stockguy - Rafael and he told me that tomorrow they may have the 1lb organic spinach and DAK canned ham also for 99 cents and I should come by after 12. Right On. I might be able to go I might not - we'll see.