Starting to get Organised

One of the things that has been done differently in many respects since I stopped work, particularly more so from September of last year is that I have not had the ability to go food shopping on the scale I am used to or to stock food like I did previously.  i.e. putting stuff up as it became available for a rainy day and in months where we had heavier bills having the opportunity and capacity to live out of the pantry and the freezers with only the minimum fresh ingredients being bought and so less pennies being expended.

As we had a shed problem with no roof felt (a storm had blown it off at a time when there were no spare funds) and as OH could not get out to the shed to get this fixed he took the unilateral decision to switch the freezers off (not that there was much in there) but he did this and told me after the event.  I was furious as he had no concept of how I stocked the pantry and the freezers yet still expected me to feed him/us.  Yes the electric needed to go off for safety reasons i.e. with no roofing felt on the roof of the shed it was dripping onto the electrics, but if he had told me what he had planned I could have done something with what was left. I hate waste of any kind. We have been without the freezers since then, although the electrical situation has been sorted.

Having to do things differently has certainly caused me some angst, but at the end of the day you can only do what you can do and each household is extremely different to others, has individual criteria and needs as well as different tastes.

I am generally an easy going person who rolls with the flow, but when it comes to food now that is another matter entirely.  If I have food in the pantry and the freezers I am secure in the knowledge that we can eat. May not be what we fancy but somewhere there is a decent meal to be had, nothing fancy often simple and honest, but we can eat and we can eat well. 

To tell the truth I have been lost without the freezers.  However I will have them back on soon, and will be able to start the process of re-stocking the freezers again.  Perhaps in the greater scheme of things it will be the best time to start the re-stocking as I will be able to take advantage of all the fresh produce about.  However I am used to buying in fresh veg and if I am not going to use this up in time I would quite simply prepare it for freezing and use  at a later date.  As I have said I do not like wasting anything.

However, I will be returning to my previous ways of stocking the freezers, the pantry and keeping the fridges stocked with fresh goods as well as fresh home made goods.  This works best for our household, and in the longer term I think I have proved to OH that the way I stockpile food works in for us.  We shall be going for a big re-stock shortly.  

I would mention specifically that I do not do all my shopping in one particular shop. I have loyalty to my family's needs and my own purse strings. I look around, work out whether an offer is a genuine offer or not.  I know I am not working at the moment, but this is something I have done for many years and is not just a reaction to being out of work.  It is something I have done for years.  I always have an eye on the future as well as providing for the here and now.  It is an investment of time but it does pay dividends.

I have also discussed with OH the fact that I need a set amount of household pennies per month and that which is not spent will go over to the following month.  I do not want this budget in a bank account; if it is in the bank account it can easily end up being spent elsewhere so I want this in my hand.  There are basics that I have in the house which are my set basics and I refuse to be without. I want these funds  accessible and available to go and pay out cash for as and when offers become available.  If the cash is in the tin you know what you have to play with and you can plot and plan.  I also hope that with careful buying to save up towards Christmas this year with any savings from one month to another going into a separate pot.  

The idea behind this is that I will be able to buy those foodstuffs in the run up to Christmas without having to pay any Christmas surcharge on "Christmas foodstuffs" which whether you realise it or not always happens especially in the last ten days before Christmas.  The supermarkets and stores up the prices which is very unfair.  I am therefore aiming to get most of what I want sourced and stored for the end of November this year apart from the fresh items that is.

At Christmas the bank account can be hit quite badly, what with presents and then food on top.  We do not put it on a credit card here, we learned that lesson when the children were younger and squared ourselves up.  It is all well and good treating the children but if you are having to pay all year for it then that is not sensible especially when there are always other calls on the purse strings.

This is also one of the reasons why from the end of August/the beginning of September each year, I start putting up a few bits here and there for Christmas.  This includes base ingredients such as dried fruits and baking ingredients for Christmas cakes, puddings, home made mincemeat as well as a nice foods that you would not  normally have.

In reality this is a re-stock of the pantry which gives me the choice of what I can do and gives me the optimum range of ingredients to cook with over the Christmas period.  It is not just for Christmas but stretches well into the New Year as well. Staggering the food buying like this helps with the budgeting on all fronts considerably.

However to start with you have to invest set sums and often getting this together for an initial large shop is a stumbling point.  I may in reality have to do a little at a time, buy more than what I would need for a month, use a little and then add some more another month and build it up slowly.


My main priority at the moment is the meat situation and this is where I will start my main large shop with meat for the freezers and basic go to veg like peas, carrots, that sort of thing.  However I will discuss this further in another post.

I also need to re-stock a lot of the pantry and stock up on vinegars, oils, sugars, salt that kind of thing.  Anything that I will use for preserving, cooking and baking.  It will all come in time and with a careful bit of juggling here and there.

Rome was not built in a day but it is extremely satisfying and gives me a real sense of security when everything is stocked up to capacity.  Once this is done I then start using up and winding things down only to repeat the cycle later on.  As I have said, the rewards are food security, less time spent in shops, I go shopping in the freezers and the pantry and if i want fresh items they are sourced at my local veg shop which also saves me money in the long run.  Many items of which I turn into preserves for the pantry shelf.  This allows me to take advantage of seasonal specialities and we have the taste of summer in the middle of winter.

I appreciate that this is not everyone's way of doing things, but it works for us in the longer term.  You have to invest some time initially, but then for the best part it runs itself.  I do utilise different methods of preparing food like batch cooking/baking and freezing and also preparing home made pies, shepherd's/cottage pies and depositing them in the freezer as I go along.  Sometimes you need a quick meal to put on and what quicker than a home made Shepherd's pie/cottage pie with a thick cheese crust on top.  Simple food works the best.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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