Taking Stock, Re-Stocking.

The holidays are over...the wedding has been celebrated...Alex had his birthday.  All my excuses for living in the bunker for the last month or so are done.  Time to refill the shelves.

Steve and I made pretty good progress yesterday with restocking the shelves...I still need to go to one or two stores to finish up...then we'll be good to go.  For us, this is an ideal time to get our bunker in order - there are no big financial commitments for at least a few weeks, so all of our household discretionary funds can be used for stocking back up.

Is it time for you to examine your preparedness?  If not, when?

Another Good Reason to Have a Bunker...

This month we not only had Steve's birthday, but also a wedding shower, an upcoming wedding AND Christmas. AND moving the newlyweds to Idaho. Oh, and Alex's birthday soon after. That's a lot of extra strain on finances. It's times like this that really make me glad that I don't have to spend too much on food and basic household supplies. I can stretch that food budget a bit to help with the other "incidentals".

An important aspect of this "rob Peter to pay Paul" is that we need to replace and restock as soon as it is feasible - that way we're still prepared for whatever life throws our way. And that's one thing you can count on....life will throw things.

Favorite Bunker Accessory

Tonight is our ward's "Fall Festival". In the past this has just involved games, costumes and trunk or treating. This year they've added a soup and bread cook-off. I think it's a brilliant idea - get something into the kids before the candy.


I signed up a couple of weeks ago to bring soup. I figured I'd make something fabulous and homemade...this morning I downgraded my plans to great and semi-homemade. If you can call "6 Can Tortilla Soup" semi- homemade. I did open all the cans by myself. At home. I decided that it would be safer ( cough, cough) and more hygienic (snork, snork) for me not to have my hands (hack, hack) all over anything.


The hardest thing about making this soup - especially when making a double batch (12 cans), is bringing all those cans upstairs from the bunker. Say hello to my little friend. I found this retired Safeway hand basket at the Hillsboro Goodwill. Little did I realize what a handy helper it would be.

How would you spend $15?

We've been in the Bunker for nearly a week and a half. Steve and I spent a little money yesterday at Costco on totally non-bunker related stuff (engagement pictures, etc..) We didn't spend ANY money on food there. I was slightly tempted, but really, $15 doesn't go very far at Costco.

I may go to the store today. Maybe. We will probably run out of milk this morning - so I could spent 3 or 4 dollars buying a weeks worth of milk. I'm trying to decide what else to buy....

What would you spend your $15 on??

Thrifty Nifty Ideas

So, from the bunker I have made homemade playdough. I did nearly deplete my salt storage, but think I'll be ok for the next week or so.

Playdough is surprisingly easy to make. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, I've have one too many run ins with it being ground in the carpet for playdough to be a friend to me. Never the less, my kids love it.

Playdough

Flour 3 cups
Salt 1 1/2 cups
Water 3 cups
Vegetable Oil 2 TB.
Cream of tartar 1 TB
Food coloring few drops or unsweetened "Kool-Aid" 1pkg.

Mix ALL of the ingredients in a large saucepan.
Cook over medium low heat, until the dough comes away
from the edges of the pan and it becomes difficult to move the spoon. Remove from heat. Cool until it can be handled.
Place on counter or wax paper knead 3-4 times.
Store in an air tight container.

One week in the Bunker

I was sure that being in the bunker this time would be a total slam dunk. After all, I had prior experience and this time we get to spend a little bit of money (if we choose to). Our bunker looked fully stocked. Ready, set go...yeah, go and get sick the very next day.

Here are some of my thoughts about being sick while in the bunker:

• I've been glad to have a freezer with plenty of homemade soup stocked in it.
• I feel less inclined to make things from scratch - I couldn't even smell the bread that I made on Thursday.
• I don't take over the counter remedies very often - so they are not part of my storage.

I was talking to Tia about whether or not buying some Sudafed (or other cold remedy) should count against the bunker. She wisely reminded me that having medications is on the list of things we should have in our emergency preparedness stuff.

I'm glad we're doing this again - and I'm happy(ish) that I will be able to take away a lesson this time...I think our family will be working on our first aid/medical supplies when we exit the bunker.

Systems Failure

Okay, I've fallen and I can't get up. Try as I might we only made it 4 1/2 days in the bunker before all Heck broke loose and I ended up buying dinner. It was either that or committing Hari Kari (don't you have to be able to spell it to do it?) so it happened. I had a terrible, awful, no good, very bad day and then had to run around like a chicken to pick up or drop off my kids hither and yon. Then I had to peel a whole bag of Costco potatoes (my hands hurt too!) before I broke down. But I'm back in the Saddle Again tomorrow - I promise!