Six Months

Have you ever wondered what six months takes in care for your family?? I mean, what is six months of food, clothing, medicines, Band-Aids, pet food, heating oil, toilet paper etc. I have been thinking along these lines of late. Maybe this is due to the economic hardship our country is having?

So what would I need just for hubby and me? Plus I have to remember my daughter and grandson who live up stairs of us as they would also be in need if things got that hard. As is we have been pooling things together and helping each other out.

So yesterday when I was in the bathroom filling the toilet paper roll, I got to thinking, how many rolls of paper would I need to have on hand to last six months? I use the Scott's brand as it last longer around here. I know hubby and I use a roll a week, some times more. But that is with company and visits from upstairs. So for six months we would need at least 26 rolls. My plan is to get three 12 roll packs of TP. That should make for plenty of extra for company! LOL.

Next is how much food do we consume in six months?? This I plan on keeping a one month diary of. That will help me plan for future. I want so store foods that we actually like and eat. I need to do this for the pets as well. I do not know how much to have on hand for them either.

Next I need to work out a rotation system to make sure things are getting used and replaced. It is not good to have things stored and not getting used. They will only go to waste and rot.

Then there are the things like vacuum cleaner bag, soap, laundry soaps, dish soap, cat litter and such. Again I will keep track for a month.

Once I know our monthly use of things I will multiply by 6 to get our basic needs. I plan on increasing that amount by 10% to make sure we have extra for unexpected things.

I need to figure out my six months of sewing and knitting supplies. This will take a few months of tracking to get an average. most gifts we give are home made and I work on things year round. I am doing one quilt at least a month to have for Christmas this year. So that means batting for 12 quilts or more. Slippers, hats and afghans are always welcomed gifts as well. But I am much slower at making those. Oh and knitted dish cloths and hot pad holders! Gotta have cotton yarn for them. I make at least one a week for giving.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me. Lots of planning, calculating and then gathering little by little as we can. Why am I doing this?? Because it helps so with the budget as well as for if we are running low on money. Getting when we have the extra and then when we don't we will be doing fine.

I will be making a data base to track things on. I will try to post it here on the blog so others are able to use it as well. Have a good day in the Lord. Lovingly, Kimi