May's recession proofing

I've decided the hardest thing about recession proofing is spending the money now to make the future easier. Perhaps if one has a lot more money, it wouldn't matter. However, most of the families I know are just as pinched for cash as us. I am taking my own advice (recession proofing is purchasing today -- without going into debt-- those things which may only be more expensive later, as well as performing all necessary auto and household maintenance and repairs... NOW).

I'm already shocked at how quickly prices have risen. When I was at the grocery store yesterday, I was going to buy one bag of Lay's potato chips for Christopher's lunches (I normally only buy them when they are on sale). I had to look twice at the price stamped on the packaged, they had risen by almost $1.00 since the last time I paid full price. Needless to say, I told C. they weren't healthy and I'd be baking some goodies for him to take with him. :)

My husband likes to have Amy's soups for lunches a few times a week. One of them has gone up 60 cents a can since he bought it last month. Yikes...

We're using the tax incentive money and the salary I earned last week to do some necessary house maintenance and "stocking up". A significant amount is going to have the deck professionally sealed. We have always been do- it- your- selfers but there were many reasons we felt getting a professional to do this was a good thing (mostly to avoid the allergy hit and we receive a five year guarantee). I can think of a lot of fun things to do instead of sealing the deck but I know keeping it safe and sound for years to come is very important.

My husband also bought a new spark plug for the lawn mower and got it all ready to go for the new season. He decided when we went out to purchase the filters for the well to buy an extra set for the necessary maintenance in six months. They are inexpensive so this is an easy "stock up".

With my stock up allowance this month, I purchased more Hain's pourable sea salt with iodine (living in the Midwest I feel that important to use in the salt shaker), a box of the course sea salt I use for cooking, tea and coffee (we do have our priorities), peanut butter, jelly, Cheerios at a great sale price combined with a coupon, a large jar of creamer (like Crisco, I don't normally use this but I'll keep it available and give it to the church's food bank if I don't need it), canned soups and soup broth, a large bag of Splenda (used for coffee and tea), the Equate brand of allergy meds, more Seventh Generation dish washing liquid from Target, and a few other items. I also placed my semi-annual order of oats from the co-op.

I plan to make a few more small purchases today. As you can expect, recession proofing takes away funds available for today but it is SO worth it. Most people cannot purchase gasoline ahead of time and store it but we can carefully store some food and sundry items, do needed maintenance now, purchase the next size in clothing and shoes for the kids (always looking for store sales and garage sales), look for additions to the family library at a good price, be on the lookout for Christmas and birthday presents one will need in the future, etc.

I'm planning later this month to start doing some canning again. The one thing I wish I could do now but don't have the money is to have someone come in and help hubby build a square foot garden. Living where we do, it requires not only prepping the soil and building the garden area but fencing it in... too many country critters who would look at it as a buffet! :)

I use my grocery list as a guide for my grocery stocking up. My hubby has a regular maintenance schedule in notebooks (I think I've mentioned before but even former engineers must be extremely organized or they are not happy). Since we are used to buying for the pantry and freezer, then deciding our menus from what we have on hand... just deepening the pantry is not complicated. I've now organized the freezer but I still need to put together a listing of what is in it.

All we can do is... all we can do. We are to operate in wisdom and not fear. I have been amazed at God's provision... manna from Heaven! He has sent it in the form of direct financial gifts in the past, as well as leading us to great deals. Just this week, I found another pair of SAS shoes at Goodwill! I was able to stock up a lot at Kroger last month with remarkable food sales.

I'll write more about what we're doing soon. If you can't do much... do something... without fear... with much prayer. Now, I must go do my Proverbs 31 thing (bringing my food in from afar).

Picture: Country Armoire; allposters.com