Preparing for Winter

Preparing for winter isn’t for just for the paranoid and old fashioned. It’s not just for those with an earthen root cellar, or acres of gardens, or massive pantries with fancy Pinterest-worthy shelves ready to hold your fancy-pants apothecary style jars with chalkboard labels of organic wheat berries….and the $500 grain mill with which to grind them. It’s also for your regular, everyday, practical family. Apartment dwellers, small families, large families, wealthy families, and anyone in between. That will look different for each family depending on your financial situation, how harsh or mild your winters are, how much storage space you have, and the size of your family. But I firmly believe that everyone should do something to prepare for winter, especially if you tend you have harsh winters. A little something, if nothing else. But something. Around here, we’re doing some winter preps.

Why?

• Hauling 4 kids through sleet, snow, slush, and freezing temperatures in a big ole van to grocery shop for 2-3 hours while very pregnant sounds like nothing short of torture, and I’d like to spare myself as much as possible.
• It’s not abnormal for the men working in my husband’s line of work to fall or get hurt during winter. They work outside on ladders, and do a lot of driving…even in the bad weather. If this were to happen and he had to be out of work for a time to heal, we’d lose our only source of income. Having food stocked up would be one less thing to worry about.
• It’s also not abnormal for us to lose power during a bad blizzard. Or for the roads to just be too bad to go to the store. Again, having food already stored in the house would be one less thing to worry about.
• Also not unheard of? Going off the road, into a ditch, during a storm, and having to wait a while for someone to come tow you out. Having extra food, blankets, and diapers in the van? Not a bad idea.

Now, those are just a few of the reasons why we’re personally making steps now to make winter a little easier. That’s not an exhaustive list. Even if you live in an area with a mild winter, there are still plenty of good reasons to have a well stocked pantry and some back up plans. Income loss, general bad weather (maybe you don’t have harsh winters, but do you face any other kind of harsh weather?), being able to help out someone in need becomes easier when you’ve already got food on hand, etc.

Ideas for preparing for winter on a shoestring budget: 

• Canning. September and October are months of plenty! You can pick apples around here for .80 cents a pound. That works out to roughly $24 for a full 5 gallon sized bucket of apples. Can some applesauce, make dried apples as snacks, and save some for fresh eating. I like to pick a multipurpose apple, such as Cortlands, so that I can have a lot of options.
• Things that are also in season right now, such as butternut and acorn squash, will hold up VERY well in a cool, dark area. I don’t have a useable basement for storing food (too damp), but I do have a small cabinet in our laundry room that stays cool since it’s on an outside wall of the house. Last year I put up some butternut squash from my garden in there and it lasted about 9 months! Squash in the grocery store can actually be very expensive ($1/lbs), but I see a lot of roadside stands around here where people are selling their extra squash for as little as $1 EACH!
• Purchase a membership to Sam’s Club. I hear great things about Costco, but we don’t have one around here, so I can only speak for Sam’s. Things like eggs at Sam’s are even cheaper than Aldi. I couldn’t believe it when I did the math, because I always believed Aldi’s to be the cheapest option out there. However, per egg, Sam’s is cheaper! They sell flour in 25 lbs sacks. If you already have a huge bag of flour on hand and a bad winter storm hits, you don’t have to stress about running out for bread. Bake some homemade bread, and enjoy the added benefit of some extra heat from the oven.
• If you have a wood stove, watch Craigslist for free firewood. I see a lot of people who cut down trees on their property, and then post ads  saying that you can have the wood for free if you come cut it and haul it yourself.  A little elbow grease and some time, and you’ve got heat!
• If you have a pellet stove, buy pellets at the beginning of the season, or better yet, before the season even starts, when prices are at their lowest.  We saved about $60-$100 a month last year with our pellet stove. This year we were able to secure a ton of pellets at a great price at the end of summer, making the pellets even cheaper…hopefully meaning we’ll save even more on heating costs.
• Put together small kits of extra food, blankets, socks, gloves, and first aid supplies to keep in your vehicle. They don’t have to be pricey, and you can do it gradually. One week throw some granola bars in there. The next week, add a few emergency blankets (affiliate link). Just do something. Especially if you have little ones. Being stuck in a cold vehicle waiting for a tow truck is miserable business. It’ll be easier if you have some supplies on hand (especially if your budget is already a tight one).
• Make up a batch of Elderberry and Rose Hip Syrup. Be prepared for cold and flu season. I’ve had so much success with healing my family’s colds faster than ever because of the healing and immune boosting properties of elderberry syrup. I’ve been recommending it to anyone who will listen. It’s seriously amazing stuff!!

Here are a few of my favorite resources for stocking up the pantry and being prepared for bad winter weather:

Compact food kits for the car.

Keeping a well stocked pantry.

Freezer meals for keeping a well stocked freezer (amazing for when a new baby comes, or when you just can’t/don’t want to get to the store. We found an excellent generator on Craigslist for a bargain as a back-up in case we lose power.)

This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They’re all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!

The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.