It is a Wednesday in October, and a mom is counting days instead of dollars. By her calendar there are about 11 days until her family goes back to the food pantry on the 18th, and everything she cooks until then has to come out of what is already in the house.
She shares her kitchen day in a video on the channel @lifewithmisty1. She is feeding a family of four, “well, and five because I feed Mila.”
“So, we should be okay until we go to the food pantry,” she says, then adds that they will be using up a lot of the freezer until then.
Last Pack Of Pancake Mix Becomes Breakfast, And Leftover Chicken Becomes Lunch
Her morning starts with the last of a pack of pancake mix. She adds butter and an egg, finds she is nearly out of water and uses a little milk instead, and says it does not make much, “but it will do. Working with what we have.”
The rest of the chicken from the night before, when Mila ate dinner with them, turns into chicken salad. She packs it with crackers for the guys’ lunch, and saves the rest for herself since she does not like pancakes.
A Tour Of The Freezer Shows Soup, Bread, Green Beans And Frozen Bananas
She opens the freezer and reads it out loud. There are green beans, leftover soup, rolls, corn tortillas, green onions, blueberries, more soup and bread, coffee, frozen bananas, asparagus, cheese, jalapenos and more.
“I know it looks like a lot,” she says, but that has to stretch across five people. “We’ll see how long this lasts.”
The Fridge Holds Cabbage, Celery, Oranges, Apples And A Big Bottle Of Ketchup
At the bottom of the fridge she has cabbage and celery to work with. Up above are oranges, apples, tea, pickles, leftover macaroni for Mila’s lunch with an apple, carrots, pumpkin, eggs, tortillas, tomatoes, flax seed, bacon, blueberries, prunes and raisins.
She will have to figure out something to do with the carrots, since they are leftovers for dinner and she is not yet sure what to pair them with. “That’s what I’m working with,” she says.
Dinner Is Cabbage, Bacon And Onion Because It Uses The Fresh Food First
She starts dinner early, trying to use up all the fresh food so it does not go bad. The plan is cabbage, the rest of an onion and the last of the bacon, “just taking all the little bits and pieces of what we have left over.”
That, and the carrots, will be the whole dinner. Nothing else.
The next meal, she says, will be potato and onion, and after that she will split the potatoes up, because she has eggs, for potato and egg and potato and onions. As she says, “we finally used up the cabbage. We used up the rest of the bacon.”
“I Am Blessed,” She Says, Keeping Her Own Hard Days In Perspective
She is careful to keep perspective. She says her family is not starving, adding that it would do them some good to eat less and go without, and that there are people in far worse conditions, including people who live in their cars and on the streets.
“I am blessed that I do not have to do that. Not yet anyway.” The food on hand has to last until the next pantry visit, because the grocery run is not in the budget right now with other bills to pay. Even her shoe has a hole in it, and rather than buy a new pair she wants to see if she can mend it.
Her Plan Is To Practice The Frugal Way Of Living Before Times Get Harder
She says she feels like hard times are coming for many families, and that she thinks 2027 is going to be interesting. Her answer is not to fear it, because “fear doesn’t help anybody,” but to be prepared.
So she is practicing a Great Depression-era frugal lifestyle, “not the dark side of it,” meaning no-spend or low-spend days, using up what you have and patching holes in clothes. She says she does not sew, but she is going to practice anyway.
How To Stretch Pantry Food When The Calendar Is Tight
Cooking from what you have is a skill, and a few simple habits help. Use the fresh food first, such as cabbage, greens and leftovers, and save the shelf-stable and frozen food for later in the stretch.
Write the days on a calendar the way she does, so you know how long the food has to last. Build meals around cheap filling staples like potatoes, eggs and onions, and turn leftovers into a new meal, as she did with the chicken.
Keep a running list of what is in the freezer and fridge and tape it where you will see it, so nothing gets buried and forgotten. Cook the foods that spoil fastest on the first days and let the sturdy ones, like potatoes, onions and carrots, carry the later days.
Small touches make plain food feel like a meal, whether that is a little butter on the potatoes, a bit of bacon with the cabbage or a pot of coffee alongside. And a calm attitude helps, since she says fear does not help anybody.
If your area has a food pantry, check its schedule and plan your stock around the next visit. Neighbors and community groups often share information about pantries and food distributions, so ask around.
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