Many of you have asked if I had sufficient food for my family and some of you have even OFFERED to donate staples to us during this difficult financial time in our life. How sweet are you guys? I just am so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from all of you (most of whom I have never met in person!).
This post is to assure you I have food in my pantry, refrigerator, & freezer. Thank goodness for my stockpile. With the help of coupons, I've been building this up for over a year and instead of donating to others, we are eating from our own supply. Our church has always taught us to put away food for a rainy day. I keep 4-6 months of foods we normally eat in my house and then another 6 months of long term food storage (rice, beans, flour, etc.) You can learn more about it here.
Now onto my food stockpile photos...
I have a healthy supply of pasta. Last count was over 30 boxes. We eat pasta a few times a week, so this gets rotated through quite often.
The canned goods section. I'm sure you recognize the free items from your own stockpile - the Chef Boyardee from Target, the La Vic salsa and Vlasic Relish from Bashas.
More free things - Goldfish Crackers, Snyder's Pretezels, Kraft Mac & Cheese, etc.
And the cereal shelf.... this is a double stacked shelf, meaning even though you only see 11 cereal boxes lined up, there are actually 22 there. We are good on cereal for a while. A funny side note... that box of Frosted Flakes does not actually contain Frosted Flakes. I keep stuffing that box with bags of regular Special K cereal. You see, my 2 year old daughter knows that box as "Buzz & Jessie cereal" because that's one of the boxes with the Toy Story codes in it. She doesn't necessarily care what type of cereal is in there, she just knows it is coming out of a box with her favorite characters on it. So, she gets "Buzz & Jessie cereal" and I control her sugar intake. Ha. I wonder how long I can keep this charade up...
I'm still working through my Ragu stockpile I collected from Wags sometime last year.
We always have a supply of Betty Crocker fruit snacks for my husband and his siblings. I don't care for them - they get stuck in my teeth. Oh, and the Juicy Juice stockpile I acquired from Target just a couple of weeks ago.
My freezer. More freebies... Lucerne cheese, DiGiorno pizza, Breyers, Mission tortillas, & Toaster Strudels. And that Thrifty's Chocolate Malted Crunch Ice Cream in the bottom right corner, is the most amazing ice cream you will ever eat. I am not a big ice cream fan (it hurts my teeth), but I cannot resist that stuff. We had family in town for Labor Day & they bought a carton of it to share. Yum. I'm so happy there were leftovers for me to hoard after they left. :)
Oh, and the never ending supply of Pillsbury Biscuits from Fry's. Don't worry, even if things get really bad around here, we'll have monkey bread. :)
A bunch of you have emailed me to check on our job hunt and see if we need anything. At this point, we are still hunting down any good job leads and have eliminated all extra expenses. I have also spent the week becoming an expert on the systems for AHCCCS (Arizona's State Health Insurance) and Arizona Unemployment. There is a lot of assistance out there for families just like mine. I have to confess I never thought we would need it, but I am sure glad it is there now that we do. We are considering a lot of different options, but are still just taking one day at a time, hoping just one of the hundreds of resumes we are sending out will hit the right person. We feel your prayers and appreciate the sincere love of strangers. Thank you all for your kind words, personal experiences, & genuine concern.
If you don't see regular posting from me, please know I am using all my time searching for employment and assistance help. I wish I had the spare time I had a few weeks ago to hunt down deals every day, but I need to buckle down and figure this out right now. Heck, maybe I should write a post about all the assistance available for the people of Arizona. It is truly amazing. I will continue posting my regular stuff - Monday Mail Call, Wednesday's "My Favorite Deals" List, and of course any shopping trips I make.
Enjoy your weekend and stop to remember the heroes of September 11th, 2001.
Wow look at you go, I am super impressed. I have been telling myself I need to get our 3 month supply together for a couple years and just couldnt get my act together. But now, through couponing, I have found it so much easier and am well on my way. One day maybe I will even get to work on my year supply! Yay for modern day prophets & revelation.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you do for fresh fruit/vegetables?
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to give you another idea with the biscuits that we do. Little pizzas. You just kinda flatten the biscuit put pizza sauce and pepperonis (or your choice of meat) cook and then top with cheese. Not bad when most if not all is free!
ReplyDeleteAlia- couponing is the only way I was ever able to get my act together with food storage. You'll be there before you know it!
ReplyDeleteAnon- I wish I could stockpile fresh produce! Instead, I get the cheapest produce available at the grocery stores or I head to the Superstition Ranch Market. They have amazing produce at super low prices.
Grant Fam- that is such a great idea! I already do that with mini bagels, but with biscuits? Sounds tasty! Thanks for the great idea!
ReplyDeleteOk, it's kind of scary that our stockpiles are almost identical! Great minds must share great taste??? :)
ReplyDeleteYOU READ MY MIND!!! almost every day i remember to myself, "ask arizona savings to post pictures of her stockpile...INDULGE ME!" way to be a psychic! :) amazing. :) and...i had a hunch you might belong to that "church." i do too. :)
ReplyDeleteas always, thank you for your posts, and prayers your way. you seem awfly optimistic...keep it up. :) good things your way.
Coupon Goddess- I am always so honored when you comment on my blog. :) I always see you get amazing grocery deals and pray to the coupon gods that Shaws will open an Arizona branch. No luck yet. I agree- we both have great taste!
ReplyDeleteGates- I am glad I was able to grant your wish! I've been thinking about it for awhile, but always forget. I'm glad I seem optimistic to you. Being mopey is not my style, even if there isn't really any good news to report. I figure - it is what it is, and I'm going to carry on. And cross my fingers for employment. :)