Assignment #9

Well its the 1st of February. We need to finish up our 1st two assignments. One was to track your monthly spending. Write the figures down and put them in a safe place. I will continue to track, but you don't have to. We will do another "check up" in a few mos. The second was to make a list of your keep on hand items.

Todays assignment is to make a spreadsheet for your list. You can use a microsoft program or a sheet of paper.

You will need 5 columns

Item       How much you use    How many you have on hand   How many you need   What the average price is

Try to keep this copy in your coupon binder or wherever you can have it handy. This will help you at the store when you find a deal. 

Starting to build a food storage

For example, if you use 1 bottle of dish soap a week then you want to fill your storage to have 52 bottles. If you use 1 bottle of laundry soap a month, you need 12. If you use 3 cans of veggies a week you need 156 cans. This doesn't mean go out an buy them today. You wait till the price is right. Most canned veggies are .50¢-.79¢ a can.  If they are on sale for say  3/$1 thats a good deal. if you need 156 cans at .50 each thats $78. If you buy them 3/$1 thats $51. A savings of about $27. 

You can also start smaller.. a 3 mos storage, or a 6 mos storage. The goal is a year. 

To some people the idea of food storage is absurd. Last spring I bought about $80 worth of canned veggies. We had been using some but we try to eat fresh in the summer. This past 2 months or so our grocery budget has almost ceased to exist. Those canned veggies ( along with other food storage items) have helped make many many meals. Had we not prepared for days like this, we many not have been able to eat. We never know what lies ahead in life, but we must do all we can to be prepared.