What is Grandma's Ingenuity?

Well, like the rest of the mid-west we have been hit my the recession (depression).  My husband and I bought a house this past summer and things are tight.  When we moved here, we decided to make a "Lifestyle Change."  Everyone laughed when I said it, people told me it wouldn't work, so here I am executing my plan.

I grew up with grandparents who lived through the depression.  When I began housekeeping, 10 years ago, I wanted to model my house after my grandma's.  Somewhere along the way, I lost track of my way of doing things and began listening to everyone else.  I wanted to make sure we had  new everything, the latest everything, until illness struck and sent us into bankruptcy with the rest of the world.

I survived an eight month battle with viral encephalitis, but lost our house and cars.  So, we packed up, combined households (with my parents) , had another baby, and came back from the brink of disaster. Here we are, 5 years after my illness and 3 years after our bankruptcy.

When we moved to our new home, we had to start over. The house had been a rental for 20 years and required three full months of remodel. Most of our stuff has been in a storage unit for 3 years, half was ruined by water damage.  We had sunk all our money into the house and had no money for new furniture or window treatments. So, I had to think, what would my grandma do?

She was the original queen of recycling. Washing foil and food storage bags for reuse. Having a compost pile in her back yard for grandpa's garden. Their theory of no sense in throwing a good piece of furniture away if it can be recovered. Paint things you already have to match your new decor. Never waste anything. I have begun doing those things and will post pictures and how-to's along the way.

But today, we have a more pressing matter in another part of the house, the issue for the next two weeks:

My Fridge

I will start my blog in the kitchen.  I have a severely low budget for groceries and four mouths to feed, so I have to be creative and healthy. I have seen lots of blogs about coupons, easy meals, etc. This is just about a family trying to make it.  I will post what my refrigerator looked like before grocery shopping this week, so you can see where I stand. I am guessing, I am not alone with the empty fridge. I will post tonight what I fix for dinner.

Wishing everyone a full fridge in the future......