May 3 Relief Society spotlight updates

Most Sundays I am given some time to give a tip or review something already covered so I can see how the work is progressing. I will update the information I have given as I get the time.

The first miniclass I taught had to do with looking at storage from the point of view of thinking "meals" instead of "pounds". I have given this class in the Nibley 6th Ward and two other Wards within our Stake. I have been asked by another Ward in the Stake to give it in their Ward in June. As soon as the date is firmed up, it will be noted here in the blog. Many folks have inventoried their home storage and even created a week's worth of menu items. Some seem a little "stuck" with writing out the recipes and calculating the amounts of ingredients to make the recipe once, then multiplying that by 13 weeks if it is going to be served once. It would be multiplied by the number of times served by 13 weeks, if it was served more than once in the week.

Another area of "stuckness" is the difficulty with prioritizing what is to be purchased first. Think of it this way: if the meal you are going to serve contains the following - hot cereal, milk, toast, jam, butter and a drink - which is the most important food in the list? You would probably say it is the hot cereal. Then this is the item you should purchase first. If you had to, you could eat just the hot cereal and live. If you purchase the jam, butter or drink, you may have real problems in feeling like you've had enough to eat, with energy and with overall health. Only you can decide which one is a priority and what you are going to spend your money on first. If you are having difficulty with writing the recipes and doing the calculations so you can fill out your food grid, call me 363-0091. It will take us less than 30 minutes to complete that part of your home storage plan. It will be 30 minutes well spent. You will leave with a home storage list of foods that you have and the amounts you still need to get. You will know where you are in the process every step of the way. Remember that you only do this part of the process once until you get additional funds, and then you can modify your home storage plan.

Two Sundays ago I brought in my can opener from home and displayed it as part of my Spotlight in Relief Society. The point was that if you are going to store your food in number 10 cans from the cannery and/or any cans from the supermarket, you are going to want to have more than one can opener in your possession. What if the first one breaks or gets very dull? You are stuck unless you have a spare or TWO!

One of the web pages that comes up as part of Netscape sometimes has some really good "frugal" ideas. One was to purchase a gallon of windshield washer fluid, which normally sells for less than $2.00 when on sale. In fact I purchased mine for $1.79 at the end of winter. I also went to the Dollar Store and purchaed 2 empty spray bottles for $1 each. I used a permanent Magic Marker and labelled each of the bottles and then filled them with the solution. I now use this to clean all of my windows and mirrors. It is less than half the cost of Windex and cleans faster with less streaking or need to clean the same spot again. Please note the warning on the bottle of windshield washer fluid that this contains chemical that are highly poisonous. If you have children that are curious and may ingest any of this, then don't do it now. Wait until they are older or on their own.

Don't forget to have Post-It Notes on the insides of your cabinet doors so that you can mark the date you began using a new tube of roll of whatever. Once you finish with the tube or roll (of toilet paper, for instance), then you note the end date and calculate how long that product last before you needed to begin using another one. This will help you estimate how many rolls of toilet paper, tubes of toothpaste, containers of deordorant, bottles of shampoo, bags of flour or sugar, bottles of oil, etc. you use and how much you will need to buy for either 3 months or 1 year.

Please, please, please start gardening even if it is only in a flower pot on your porch or on your windowsill. Growing even some of your own food is imperative now while gardening supplies are available. It is important to try this to see what happens and what kind of help you may need. There are always neighbors or people in your ward you can turn to for help or to get answers to your questions.

Challenge for this Sunday: see how little shampoo you actually need to use to get your hair clean. You may be really surprised at how much shampoo you have been using that you didn't need to use. Do the same with the toothpaste.

When your bar of soap becomes a sliver and you get the next one out to use, wet the sliver and the bar of new soap and push them together leaving them to dry that way. I do this in the shower while the new soap is really wet and full of lather. The sliver then adheres really well and whe used in subsequent showers ultimately gets completely used up. Don't forget to unwrap new bars of soap as soon as you purchase them so they dry out. They will last longer in this drier state.