Living the Pantry Lifestyle - Learning in a new normal

We have been experiencing signs of inflation like everyone else but last week, we received quite a shock.  We pay our heating bill on the budget plan, which means they charge the same amount every month based on your annual usage of natural gas and then in July, you usually owe a little more or you receive a credit. You also find out what your monthly bill will be starting in August.

In the sixteen+ years we have lived here, we have never had our bill go up or down very much.  It has been one of our most stable budget items.  Imagine our shock when our monthly bill for the next eleven months is almost double what we have been paying for so many years.  A change of about 95% in one year!

We have been hearing others say their natural gas bill has gone up and knew there would be an increase but nothing like this.  It seems everything in the world is changing (except the Lord!).  Natural gas was one of the least expensive ways to heat a house.

Our way of life is being changed and I am sorry to say probably forever.  So, instead of getting more upset about it... most of the time... I am asking God for wisdom on how to work within this new normal.  He knew all of this was coming and He also knows how we can do well within this new world.

One of the things I have been doing this week was putting pen to paper and thinking with words and sentences and paragraphs until wisdom kind of popped out at me.  I came up with a list I could look at when planning my budget for food and everyday needs.

It's kind of a Maslow's Hierarchy of budgeting in 2020.  I thought I would share it with you, although it may not translate easily to someone else.  As far as spending food money, I came up with the following which is listed in order of saving money and I would say healthier ways of eating...

• Grow it or produce it myself.
• Buy directly from the farmers.
• Cook from scratch using purchased ingredients.
• Bake from scratch using purchased ingredients.
• Cook and bake with the semi-homemade method.
• Purchase items already made at the store, bakery, etc.
• Eat out at a restaurant or pick up food at a restaurant.
• Have already prepared meals delivered.

I couldn't think of any other options available that I would use and two of them are already not an option.  Given my health situation the past few years, I could not grow food, raise cattle, etc.  I did have a good garden and I would love to raise cows because I love cows.

Given where I live in the country, having food delivered is not an option, anyway. I think there is one pizza place that will deliver out here.  I used to see it drive up to my former neighbor's house.  She was single and worked long hours so she deserved pizza delivery!

Buying directly from the farmers at the Farmer's Market would not necessarily be cheaper but the local dollars would stay local and help the farmer to be able to make a living from his or her work.  I would consider something like my daughter belongs to, a meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  It works on the same principle as the vegetable CSA.

As an aside... I feel the same way about purchasing items at the local antique mall from the different dealers there or shopping a local family owned store.  I'm helping hometown men and women make a living and as far as places like antique malls and thrift stores, I am repurposing stuff that is already made.

I already do a lot of cooking and baking from scratch.  What I need to do more of  now is tweaking meals, using less of what is very expensive and concentrate on what is less expensive but still healthy.  

I've mentioned before that I receive very good ideas from ethnic cooking shows and cookbooks based on other cultures such as Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, etc.  Many cultures have been cooking excellent meals that are healthy and made with simple ingredients for hundreds of years.

You may remember the Food Network show that was based on Semi-Homemade meals?  Professional chefs and cooks mocked it but as she often said in the show, this is the way most home cooks put meals on the table.  I thought some of her recipes were kind of silly, often adding sugar to items that already had sugar in them.

However, she was very correct in that many homemakers begin meal preparations by using at least one or two items that are pre-made.  For instance, I make cowboy casserole with Bush's baked beans after years of using various canned beans.  I found their "recipe" for baked beans added a lot of flavor to the dish and it was easy to put together.

We keep a couple frozen cheese pizzas in the deep freeze that act as a base for added ingredients to dress them up easily if desired.  I also keep pre-made pizza dough (they last a long time the way they are shrink wrapped) from time to time and I usually have naan in the bread box.  It can act as a good base for pizza, too.

I know how to make pizza dough and if I plan ahead, it can be made and left to rise in the refrigerator.  However, pizza is often one of those last minute items I throw together with pantry items.

I have a few boxes of cake mix in the pantry and even (gasp) a couple tubs of confetti frosting.  Just in case the grandchildren are going to stop by that day and I don't feel like baking from scratch.

The thing is... the less someone else has worked to to prepare the food, the less it is going to cost.  Cake mixes are not that expensive.  Even my favorite pancake mix is not expensive. Purchasing a cake already made at a bakery is jaw dropping expensive at times.

Although, if the purchase was for a memory making party, I would consider it as part of the cost for making a memory.  When I was a child, I loved bakery made cakes!  I remember how special they made me feel.

Mostly when I am baking I use flour, sugar, butter, etc. and I keep a good stock of the basics the the freezer and pantry.  I mostly purchase ingredients to cook rather than something that only needs to be warmed up.  I make regular bread in the bread machine but I purchase hamburger and hot dog buns (usually the cheap kind) pre-made at the store.

Sometimes purchasing items pre-made at the store is better than making it at home if you are the only person who will eat something.  The Kroger I go to has an excellent sushi area staffed by professionals.  I love sushi and my husband does not love sushi.  It is far cheaper to purchase a small package of sushi at Kroger than to go to all the trouble of making it for only me at home.  Although, if it were not California sushi, the cats would like it.

Life is a mixture of the different ways we cook and meals are not set in stone.  We don't always know if the cook will have a cold or a homemade dinner is not possible due to a sudden meeting, sports game, etc.  

If anything in this new normal, we have to be FLEXIBLE people of faith.  This is not the same world my mother-in-law lived in when she had dinner on the table at the same time every day but Sunday.  Everyone knew to be home at that time or they did not eat and schools did not schedule practices at dinner time... or games on Sunday.

I can be prepared as much as possible by having tried and true menus each week and looking through recipe books for new ideas that use basic ingredients.  For my menu planning, it not only needs to be flexible according to energy levels but it has to be food we like and that has the fewest preservatives, pesticides, etc. 

This also doesn't mean we don't go out to eat at all but we are being much more careful about where we go and when we choose to go out.  Recently, I had been cooking at home a lot and with my back hurting, I really needed a rest so we purchased our favorite Chinese take out at lunch (for lunch prices) and just had a quick salad I made for dinner.

I stopped for a couple coney dogs at our favorite drive-in on the way home from a doctor's appointment recently.  They are still reasonably priced and quite good but the hot dogs are much smaller than they once were.  We have also noticed a huge change in the waitress staff that brings the food out to the cars.  Some of them are not friendly at all, which is a shock from the way things used to be.

That is one of the reasons we are careful about eating out.  Restaurants and fast food places are a lot more expensive than they used to be and the service is not always the best.  They have higher food prices, higher energy prices, higher wages for employees, and they often have a hard time getting good employees.  Which all come together for outrageous prices for the food and not all that friendly staff.

We treasure local places that are still good and and we will give them our business on those rare occasions we eat out.  Having said that, we have found Cracker Barrel to always be good and I have heard that they still can be trusted when traveling.  Anyway, they had me at biscuits and gravy (although they will never be as good as my mother's).  

I'm still working my way through this new paradigm of high prices, shortages, etc.  However, generations before mine have had to do the same in far more difficult situations than I currently am in.  All suggestions are helpful!

Photo:  These are the bowls I bought recently at the antique mall.  The other two are nesting inside the big bowl.  They are so cheerful.