I can't live without it ! Can I?

 Merry Christmas and Happy New year everyone!  DH and I are finally emerging from the joy that was Flu "A".  I had "something" during the course of caring for DH, but I've been told it probably wasn't the flu.  More than likely what I had was an immune response to the flu being around me at the level it was.  When DH had been sick about 5 days, I began to have a cough.  It wasn't too bad until a week after his onset of symptoms.  Mostly I've dealt with the cough, some sneezing, and a very low fever for one day.  Now he and I both are dealing with the cough, but other than that; are on the mend.  Our Christmas was a small affair.  DH was sick on his birthday, but doing some better by Christmas.  Illness kept us from being able to visit my mom for Christmas as well as being able to see our daughter and her family over the holidays.  We've rescheduled both.  Just as the Grinch learned; Christmas still came.  Jesus was still born in a stable!  Doesn't matter if we celebrate on the 25th or in January.  It's something we celebrate 365 days a year!

  

So as we we're starting to emerge from the flu fun; we anticipated a gift we bought ourselves:  a new over the range microwave.  We purchased it about 3 weeks ago.  It was supposed to be installed yesterday.  We opted to pay to have it installed because I couldn't find a way to remove the old one.  In case you're wondering if we needed a new microwave, well....

So...yeah.  What you can't see it the door is also cracked completely in two places.  The inner working still worked, but I felt like I was getting brain cancer every time I used it.  We had this on our list, but since we cash flow everything, it wasn't a priority, until it became one by getting this bad.  Anyway, there's a reason I couldn't figure out how to remove the old one.  When the man came to install the microwave yesterday; he discovered the person that installed the microwave initially had indeed sealed this thing in.  He could find no access point to remove the microwave.  He left the microwave with us.  We were given a refund on the installation, and called our awesome, fabulous, wonderful handyman, Jerry to see if he could help.  Well we texted him.  As I was waiting for his response, he showed up in our driveway!  He came in to look at the problem to see if he could figure it out.  He did, and was able to remove the old microwave.  Once removed, he didn't have time to put in the new one.  It would have to be added to his schedule.  This guy is so incredibly busy and it's all from word of mouth.  His customers are the ones who have advertised for him.  So I'm willing to wait.  While we wait, we began looking at options other than an over the range microwave.  We began to think it might be better to not have to deal with this in another few years when a new one dies.  Instead we're looking at replacing the microwave with cabinets and a range hood.  Then we would get just a small countertop microwave.  Or would we? 

Wow this has been a long post!  Thanks for hanging in if you did!  

So to the crux of my story.  I've gone 20 hours so far without a microwave.  It's been an eye opener!  I use it to tell time, defrost something quick, heat my coffee, heat up leftovers, timer for baking, and even warm milk for the kitten.  I'm having to reprogram myself to function without it, and it's like trying to function with one hand tied behind my back.  There's a part of me that says I can relearn the skills that would enable me to function without a microwave.  There's another part of me that says "forget that!  get a new one!".  Getting a counter top microwave will take up precious space on my already limited counter space counter.  With a clock, timer, and coffee warmer ( I wanted one anyway): I feel I could function without a microwave.  I would have to change some cooking routines, but I do like the idea of fewer appliances.  

So what do you think?  Should I try to live without it?  Am I nuts?  Wait don't answer that one!  😁

Let me know what you think!  

UPDATE!  Nope!  If only for heating the rice heating pad!

Sickness in the House!

 Merry Christmas all!  

Ours is rather unorthodox this year.  Many of our traditions are being temporarily set aside due to illness.  Yes we found out, rather personally, that the worst flu this year is Flu A, and it's running ramapant through the U.S.  

DH returned home from a tour a week ago yesterday.  He was home two days and said that Thursday "I have this cough".  Fast forward to today and my poor man has been miserably sick ever since.  Woke up Friday morning with a temp of 99.2.  Same the next day, and then it hit.  Three days of 101+ temps.  Add to that no sleep due to excessive coughing, and aches everywhere.  

Fortunately we have a wonderful, great, fabulous doctor.  How great?  I texted his office after hours on Friday hoping he might see it over the weekend.  He called me soon after.  Gave instructions for DH's care and said "Keep me posted".  He had told us to get one of the flu covid test at the store and test him.  Well DH has Flu A.  This is the flu that is putting more folks in the hospital and even in the ground.  So we have a Nebulizer and and O2 concentrator that we bought during the Covid craziness for our oldest son.  Haven't had to use the O2 concentrator, but I made sure I had it ready.  Hubby's O2 kept dancing around the 90 mark.  Yesterday Morning our Doctor called in a chest Xray to a local imaging center, and off we went.  It was normal thankfully.  No pneumonia.  

So I have droned on about this for a reason, really.  

DH and I don't have insurance.  He's retired now, but too early for Medicare.  As a result we cash flow or save up for Medical things.  In this case, we had no Dr visit.  We weren't required to come in for him to tell us something we already knew.  When we got to the imaging center I told the nice lady behind the desk that we weren't filing insurance, and would be paying in full that day.  Our bill was $100.  That's it.  She told me that had I filed insurance; the bill would have been more like $500.  Insurance would have paid $300, leaving us owing $200.  In our case, had this been last year with the insurance we had then.  Our bill would have been $500, and we would have owed $500 because we had to meet our deductible first.  All of this expense doesn't even count the premium we paid with each pay check for the privilege of paying more for Doctor visits.  Now why would this be the case; over charging patients with insurance?  Because when you have insurance and pay your bill by their rules, you're paying for three other patients that didn't pay their bill. 

INSURANCE IS A SCAM!  There I said it.  It is.  Many of the problems in our healthcare system can be laid at the feet of the insurance industry.  Doctors decisions are based on what insurance will and won't cover.  "Pathways" which are a series of doctors orders that are printed up ahead of time for a doctors signature.  Those "Pathways" aren't created by doctors, but by insurance companies.  I had a cardiac pathway when I had my Heart attack 7 years ago.  It was that pathway that told them I should be on a statin to lower my total cholesterol lower than the 146 it was at that time.  Did ya know that total cholesterol less than 150 increases "All cause Mortality"?  That means in increases my chance of dying sooner over all.  Yet the pathway told them to put me on a statin they wanted it lower.  

Our primary physician doesn't file insurance, though we could have used the receipt from paying his bill and file it ourselves.   That is when we had insurance.  Did you know you can do that? You can go in to a medical establishment and tell them you're self pay.  Pay your bill.  Get a receipt, and file it with your insurance company for a reimbursement.  It can go towards your deductible and after that is met, go for reimbursement.  People just assume it's either self pay or insurance, but you can use them together.  Not as great as not paying a premium, but better than playing the game by only their rules.

Because our doctor doesn't file insurance, his decisions are based solely on what's best for each patient.  It's been the best decision we've made.  

We hadn't used the insurance we paid premiums for in about 5 years.  We just held it in case of a hospital stay and paid cash for everything.  I was great, and much cheaper.  Now we don't have insurance, pay no premium, and cash flow everything.  

Okay.  Now that I'm done venting about that!  Cute Kitten pictures for the holidays"

FINALLY!

 Today is the day I finally got into the kitchen to handle some kitchen business!

About a month ago we had 14 roosters processed.  The plan had been to do it ourselves, but my dh had an unexpectedly long tour and it needed to be done.  So we paid to have them processed.  Can't say I was sad to do it, but it wasn't a cost effective way to raise meat chickens.  However, once we figured in the cost of a lessoned learned; we broke even.  For the past month I've had these boys taking up space in the freezer.  Last week I used up my last quart of home canned chicken bone broth.  It was time.  This will be an on going process, but one that is totally worth it.  Even with the expense of paying to have them processed; the cost of my hoe canned bone broth is cheaper than buying it from the store.  I took our two rooster and placed them in my good size crock pot.  They barely fit.  They had to cook a bit before I could lay the lid flat.  I went ahead and added some celery, onion, salt, carrots, and vinegar.  I covered the whole bit up to the top of the crock pot; covering the birds.  I let them cook over night.  Next day I removed the meat, strain off the broth, and put the bones, veggies, and everything but the meat back into the crock pot.  I added more water to the top of the crock pot, a little more salt and a little more vinegar and let this slow cook for 2 days.  I just strained it off and am now canning 6 quarts of bone broth.  No artificial anything.  This is the stuff colds and flu remedy's are made of!  I had put the first broth into the fridge to keep until the second run was ready.  The first broth had gelled so nice.  This is the collagen we need and people pay big bucks for in a powder.  Save your money!  I will keep doing this until I've gone through all the birds, then I will move on to the two turkeys I found on sale for .57lb.  The deboned meat will go into the freezer or be canned if I'm so industrious.  Chicken or turkey, I can use it in any poultry recipe.  You don't have to grow your own poultry to do this.  Whenever you cook a whole chicken, make use of those bones as well.  This same process can be done with any bone in meat.  Beef broth, ham broth, chicken broth; are all things I can store( freezer or pantry)and not have to purchase from the store.  It requires limited hands on work.  It's, I believe, one of the easiest things to make to save at the store.  Bone broth can allow less meat to be used in a recipe because the broth will add taste and nutrients to meals. 

My second kitchen task; well second and third I guess.  Is to dehydrate!  I bought 5 bunches of celery before Thanksgiving while they were on sale for like .98 each.  I dehydrated all 5.  Do you know that once dehydrated all 5 bunches fit in 1 quart jar?! 

 Crazy!  If you don't have a dehydrator, chopping and freezing is an option too.   Now my dehydrator is full of garlic harvested this year from my garden.  

The dehydrator is full, but it barely looks like I made a dent in the harvested garlic.  This will also be a process until I get through all the garlic.  Once dried I plan to pulse it into garlic powder in my blender.  Voila!  Organic garlic powder for the cost of energy used to dehydrate it.  This comes back every year.  

Homemade pizza is on the menu for tonight, and probably some bread for general use.  My work in the kitchen, home, and garden saves us money, and allows us to eat better to boot.  

10 years ago, before I left my job to come home permanently, a co-worker asked if I thought I'd be bored.  I told her I would have plenty to do.  My job as a homemaker is not one of soap operas and bon bons.  It's a  job.  As it should be.  Make no mistake.  We all work for someone.  We can work for an employer or work for ourselves.  I choose to work for myself, my husband, and my family.  

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I'm not ready!

 Sneaky little thing, the Holiday season.  Normally I'm ready to go.  I can face it's arrival with a smile because I've already started my Christmas shopping.  I laugh at delivery dates because I know I've had ample time to have my gifts arrive.  I feel sorry for those poor souls running around last minute to get their gifts for loved ones.  That is until this year.   This year, I'm a poor soul running around.  I haven't even started.  Well, okay, I do have one grandsons gift.  I bought it in the beginning of the year.  I also have two very small gits; one for DH and one for our youngest son.  The bulk of my Christmas shopping is still to be done.  It starts tomorrow.  However, I will need all my wits to get everything before the Christmas Holiday.

Dh and I set a budget each year; for ourselves and for what we get for family.  We don't use credit cards.  Not even with the intention of paying it off next month. Once we paid those bad boys off, we said never again.  "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" said 18th century writer Samuel Johnson.  Truer words were never spoken.  Especially when it comes to credit cards.  Well, and me.  It's so easy to get out of budget during the Christmas season.  Gifts, paper, ribbon, food, tape, stamps, cards, employee parties, etc., all can throw you off budget.  Balances can become more than can be paid off in a month.  Then what follows is tax season.  Not a good combination.  Before you know it, that balance thought to be paid off in January is still there come next December.  

This year, for us, is going to require some leg work; old fashioned Christmas shopping at brick and mortar stores.  I can get somethings online tomorrow, but the rest won't have time to make it.  I won't have more Christmas money budgeted until the middle of the month.  So the other half of the shopping plan will be after that.  The benefit of that is the closer to Christmas the lower prices tend to go as stores try to move inventory.  It's a gamble, but I look forward to the challenge.

Homemade gifts are also part of that budget/plan.  Everyone from the mail man to my siblings will receive a homemade gift from me.  Usually in the form of a baked good or candy(my butter toffee).  If I have enough time while DH is away, I might be able to make our traditional Pj's for Christmas eve.  One year I decided not to give Pj's on Christmas eve.  I thought the kids were tired of it and already knew what the gift was anyway.  I was wrong.  They missed not having the Pj's on Christmas eve.  So I've gone back to it.  If I don't have time, I'll need to buy them, but if I can make them from fabric on hand, I can save that bit.  I may end up buying the t shirt tops, and making the pants.  

So we'll see what I can get done.  Sewing will be my major project while DH is away.  The most important part that I hope is taken away from this post is please, please, please

A)  Have a budget, even if it's tiny, to work with for the Christmas season.  Homemade gifts are awesome!  I have recipes on my pages for "how to's", playdough, and other treats.  Google is a great resource too!

B)  DON'T USE A CREDIT CARD!  Even if you have and follow a budget, don't do it.  Don't put yourself there.  If you can't afford gifts for your entire family, let them know and focus just on you, your spouse, and your own kids.  

***The pictures are pictures of present and past fur babies in our home.  The top is current.  That's stitch.  Next is Wolly.  We lost him 12 years ago.  I miss him every day, and last is Nermal.  We had her for 22 years until 7 years ago.  Now we have 2 dogs and 4 cats in our little house because apparently we're nuts!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Love to all!

Discombobulated!

 It's been a while.  Sorry, again.  No this time it is literally time that has gotten away with me.  You see DH has left his full time nursing job to partially retire.  I say partially because he's actually taken another position as a professional wrestler!  I still shake my head at that one.  So my routine is kind of up in the air at the moment as I refigure our schedule.  I had the routine down pat.  Monday through Friday it was up to make his breakfast and lunch while he would get in a morning workout.  Then off to work he'd go( hi ho, hi ho).  While he was gone to work I'd had some project I'd work on: garden, baking, house, sewing, errands.  Then I'd have wrapped the project up and be settling down for the day by the time he got home.  All I'd need to do is fix dinner and my day was done.  Weekends were a slow start as we'd enjoy coffee together in the morning.  Maybe we'd work on something at the house together if needed, but often times we'd go out, mostly to antique stores, or just for a drive.  

                                    

Now that schedule is up ended and we're both trying to navigate this new routine.  It hasn't really become a routine yet, and not sure if it will while he's touring.  Yes.  He tours.  So I have one routine when he's home and one routine when he's gone.  I get a lot done while he's gone.  Not because he doesn't help when he's home, but because I want to just spend time with him when he's home.  Plus when he's home I have to stop what I'm working on for meals and such.  Contrary to what one may think, I do skip meals if I'm engrossed in something.  I may stop and grab a piece of fruit or cheese if I'm getting hungry, but not stop what I'm doing.  With hubby home; I have to actually stop and figure out a lunch.  It's a worth while trade off.  I miss him when he's gone, and that's another reason I get so much accomplished.  When he's gone I work to make the time pass.  

So needless to say Being out of my routine has thrown other things out of a routine; Blogging, baking.  Even calling my mother!  I know!  See, you're in good company.  I usually call her once a week at least.  I did finally get a chance to call her yesterday.  I said "did you forget me"?  To which she replied " almost, but not quite".  In my defense, DH and I went up to her house last week for a breakfast with her and my other siblings.  

So I'd love to be able to share some frugal tidbit I've been working on, but I'm too scatter brained to think of something.  Right now we're cleaning things up to put up Christmas decor.  I've got my tree up, just not decorated.  That will come Thanksgiving night.  Then the rest of my Christmas decor will follow.  

One thing I can do is share some links to previous posts about preparing for the holidays.  So here ya go!  

Christmas in hard times.

Crafty stuff 

Working within a budget

Thanksgiving Essentials You Can Make Not Buy!

 Here comes the holiday season!  It's just around the corner!  I've already started to see the commercials for Christmas, and Thanksgiving hasn't even happened yet.  To be fair, Christmas decor made it's way to the stores right after 4th of July, so who are we kidding.  Retailers aren't kidding when it comes to competing for your hard earned dollars.  That includes grocery stores.  I don't fault them for this.  It's their job.  Their job is to get as many of your dollars as they can.  Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to keep as many of your dollars as you can.  This isn't Mission impossible!  It can be done.  You just need to be a little more savvy, and you win.  Part of that savviness is in making more of the things grocers tell you have to be bought.

Many of these recipes I've listed before in one way or another, but I wanted to place them here for convenience.  Both for you and me.  Before you grab a premade, possibly chemically laced bottle, can, or package of something for the holidays; look here to what you can cross off your list.  It's a bigger list than you think!  Full disclosure, I don't know why the next two recipes are highlighted white, but I couldn't fix it so.....

Sweetened Condensed milk

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla

On med/low heat whisk the milk and sugar together. Keep stirring occasionally while the milk mixture reduces by about half ( you're shooting for 14 oz. I weigh mine to get it exact). Once reduced, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Mix well. Makes 12-14 oz and you can use this recipe anywhere sweetened condensed milk is called for.

Evaporated milk

This is incredibly easy.  Simply pour 3 cups of milk into a pot.  On a med low heat simmer until reduced by half.  Use where ever evaporated milk is called for

Cream soup mix

1 1/2 cups dry milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 ts salt

mix all together then cut in

1 stick of  butter.  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.  To use for plain white sauce just use 1/3 cup mix to 1 cup of water.  If you want cream of chicken, use chicken broth, cream of mushroom: open a can of mushrooms and drain, add water to the mushroom liquid to equal 1 cup fluid. Then follow the rest of the recipe.  You can also add 1 cup of cheese and 1 tsp. yellow mustard to make cheese sauce. If you don't have dry milk, you can simply make a white sauce using 2 TBS melted butter, 2 TBS flour, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 cup liquid of choice: milk, chicken brother, mushroom, etc.  This recipe will take the place of your cream of chicken, cream mushroom etc.  I used this recipe last night to make queso cheese sauce for our fajitas.  It was very good, and popular.

Homemade Poultry Seasoning

2 tsp ground sage
2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Marjoram
3/4 tsp ground rosemary
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground black pepper.

Just add everything to a jar and shake well.  Just keep it in your spice cabinet for use whenever you need poultry seasoning.

Homemade pumpkin pie spice

4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Chicken Broth

Cook a whole chicken for dinner.  SAVE THE JUICE FROM IT"S COOKING!  After it's use for that meals, remove the rest of the meat.  Save that meat in the fridge of freezer for other meals.  Take the bones from the chicken, and the cooking liquid from cooking the chicken and place in a crock pot or stock pot.  If you have the giblets, add those too.  Add some celery (2 large stalks), some carrots( one large), half a large onion, couple of tsp salt, and 2 tbs vinegar.  Covered it all with water, put the lid on and set it to low.  Let this simmer at least a day.  If in a stock pot, let it simmer during the day and check on it periodically.  Add water if it cooks down too low.  You want to keep everything covered.  At bed time, turn off, then resume cooking on low the next day.  You want to cook both crock or stock pot, until you can take a bone out and crush it with your fingers.  That means the vinegar has done it's job and removed all of the minerals from the bones, and the broth is now infused with those good for you minerals.  The broth is now ready.  Strain the broth to remove the bones, and vegetables.  The bones are so soft after cooking broth that I will mash up everything, veggies and all and give it to my dogs.  They love it.  Place the broth in the refrigerator to cool.  Remove once cool and skim the now solid fat off the top.  Your broth is now defatted.  This should a make at least a few quarts of really good bone broth.  Bone broth cost big bucks at the store.  You got it cheap cheap!  

Stuffing

Save the heals of loaves of bread, left over hot dog bung, hamburger buns, corn bread, and biscuits.  Keep this stale bread in your freezer.  If you don't have left over corn bread or biscuits, simply make them and freeze to use for stuffing for Thanksgiving dinner.  No one should have to buy( and pay crazy money) for stale bread.  Saltine crackers are also a great stuffing addition.  Use your favorite recipe, just don't buy the dried stuffing.  

Pie crust

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2/3 cup lard or butter.  Please don't use shortening, and make sure the lard you buy isn't hydrogenated.  I use butter most of the time.

6-7 TBS cold water

Mix flour and salt together.  Cut in the butter until it's crumbly.  There shouldn't be a piece bigger than a pea.  Make a well in the center.  Add the cold water a TBS at a time, tossing it into the mixture.  It you need t add a little more water, add just enough to get a nice dough that doesn't crumble, but isn't sticky.  Divide in to two pieces.  Roll out each onto a floured surface.  Makes two crusts.  You can flour parchment or wax paper and roll the crust out on the paper, then roll and freeze or refrigerate until needed.  

Baking powder

2 TBS Baking Powder

2 TBS Corn Starch

4 TBS Cream of Tarter

Mix all together in a jar.  Use as you would any store bought baking powder, only this will work way better.  Much cheaper.

Brown Sugar

Mix in 1 TBS of Molasses into 1 cup of granulated sugar.  You can blend this to mix, or use your hands to mix well.  Use just as you would any store bought brown sugar.  Way cheaper this way.

Powdered Sugar

I've actually done this.  I know it sound crazy, but to make powdered sugar you need to put a cup of sugar into a blender and blend on high.  You'll need to stop it periodically to loosen things up, but it works.  

Okay.  That's all I can think of at the moment.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it here.  Please comment if you know of something I've missed, have a question, or just want to say hello!

Could be now, but definitely for future use.

 So not waxing political.  I'm just wanting to give some tips and tricks to folks who are currently on food stamps and facing no food stamps for November.  This information, while initially for current EBT recipients, is also useful for anyone facing a financial emergency that takes grocery money out of their bank account.  I've been there.  I've been on food stamps.  When my daughter was a baby I was on food stamps for a few months after the company I worked for closed and moved to North Carolina.  I took a job at McDonalds to get off of them. I will say this.  Be careful who you let control your food, housing, and healthcare. These are things that are essential for living.  It's best to be in control of them yourself.  

Okay.  All that being said; there are times when there's no choice but to get help from Uncle Sam.  This post is to help strengthen you and your family during that time as well as those in a bind financially.  I've been there too!  More than once!  

**When it comes to scratch cooking, I have many recipes on this page, as well as "How to's".  

Regardless of food stamp "money" or your own money, these tips will help you get through any financial crisis. First lets get you through this one.  

1.  Food Banks/Pantries- I know it's not ideal, but look at food banks in your area.  There are also churches that have food pantries.  Many of these offer canned or shelf stable products to people in need.  This is because they can be donated and stored until they are given to those in need of them.  In the food pantry where I served, we always tried to think of staples with the boxes: canned vegetables, canned meats, peanut butter, oil, salt, flour, sugar, etc.  With those items many different meals can be created.  

2.  Scrounged money-  Your family has to eat, so if you have a few dollars, great.  If you don't, some things will have to go by the wayside so groceries can be brought in.  Streaming services that are about to come out; cancel them.  Any unnecessary expenses need to be put on hold: gym membership, hair dresser, nail salon, date nights out, etc.  Your family eating takes priority.  When funds are available again, these services can be reinstated.  You may actually get a better price when you come back!

3.  What do you have on Hand? - Take an inventory of what you have in your pantry, freezer, and fridge.  Think of what you need to buy to make a meal out of what's already there.  

3.  Shop wisely -  You aren't going to have a wind fall of cash despite what you do, so you'll need to be smart with how you spend.  Basics are what you're looking for.  Staple items.  Coke, snacks, "Fun foods" are out.  It doesn't mean you can't have them.  It just means you'll have to make them!  You can do it!  Switch lunch meat for a whole chicken or turkey. Walmart has these on sale right now for .97 lb..  That's cheaper than a whole chicken.  These can be cooked and used just like lunch meat.  You will get many meals from a whole chicken and especially a whole turkey.  Don't forget the bones!  Once you've used the meat on the chicken or turkey, those bones can be slow cooked a couple of days in a croc pot and make broth!  That broth is highly nutritional.  You have kids; they need milk.  Under 2 it should be full strength whole milk, but over two you have the option of stretching 1 gallon of whole milk into 2 gallons of milk.  Mix whole milk half and half with water.  Voila!  2 gallons of milk!  It will be the taste and consistency of 2%.  Flour, salt, sugar, potatoes, onions, carrots, tea bags, etc..  Yes I said Tea bags.  We're in the south Honey!  We drink tea here.  Ya know what?  You can make sweet tea, and still have less sugar than drinking a coke.  Well maybe, some of you southerners like really sweet tea.  I'm a half cup sugar to a gallon of tea type girl.  I know.  I swear I was born and raised in Ga!  However my family came from Pennsylvania laying railroad, so maybe that's it.   So you are looking to fill in gaps with what you have at home.  If you have a question about anything you need to learn to do, You Tube is a cornucopia of info.  Mary's Nest is a great resource.  Nice lady.  

4.  Stretch what you have and buy-  You may think "I have one can of corn.  That's not enough for 6 people".  Well it is if you take that corn and make soup or corn chowder.  Dice onions and peppers in it.  Add it to corn bread.  This is just an example.  The idea is to make what you have go further.  In 1976 when I was a kid.  Inflation was bad.  My parents had 5 kids to feed, and groceries went up over night.  To stretch ground beef, my mom added chopped onion and bread crumbs( from left over bread).  To this day it's my favorite way to eat ground beef.  Our daughter, her husband and our grandson lived with us for about 8 months years ago.  We had 6 adults and a toddler here to feed.  Not a lot of money to spare.  I made a chicken pot pie, actually two 9x11 casserole dishes, with two chicken breasts.  I doubled the carrots, onions, potatoes and celery.  Everyone ate what they wanted and no hungry bellies.  I had no left overs, but everyone was fed.  I did the same thing with frying chicken breast.  I took two large chicken breasts.  Pounded them flat, cut them into strips and double breaded them.  Everyone was full.  Left over meatloaf becomes the meat for chili or spaghetti.  Left over egg/milk mix from french toast becomes muffins for another day.  Leftover mashed potatoes, rice, and oatmeal can be added to muffin batter to stretch the number of muffins.  Stretch what you have!!

 So those last tips are some of the options to get you through now.  The following are so you don't have to have it this hard again

1.  Build a pantry. .  Set aside a place or, if there isn't a set place, use every nook and cranny you can come up with to put food that you are going to begin to set aside.  Like I said in the beginning.  This may not be helpful out of the gate, but it will in the future.  There will always be financial crisis.  Doesn't matter how much you make.  There will always be problems with EBT.  I mean we are talking about the government.  How efficient do you think they are?  

2.  Buy staples!  -  The best thing you can do financially and health wise is to begin to cook all you can( and it's a lot that can be made) from scratch.  Getting away from highly processed food will leave you with massive amounts of food stamp dollars at the end of the month.  What do you buy with those?  More staples; meats, produce, etc.  You can freeze a lot of things, and if you have jars and a big stock pot you can water bath can a lot. Learn to ferment.  The idea here is by purchasing staples and putting it in your area designated to be the pantry or food storage.  You will never have to worry about something happening like this again.  You will have food laid by, and it's like money in the bank.  You will shrug when another government shut down or financial crisis hits, because you will know that regardless of it all, your family will still eat.

3.  Shop sales-  The next few months are the best, in my opinion, for buying staples.  Using food stamp or grocery money to focus on staple items on sale is the best combination to stretch dollars.  Many people don't realize coupons can be combined with food stamps, just as if using cash.  

You may have to be on food stamps for a time, but that doesn't mean food stamps needs to control you.   The same goes for any financial crisis.  You can breath easier knowing you can eat from the pantry, saving the money you would have spent on food for whatever financial need arises.  It's also money in the bank.