Last week, I wrote about self-reliance, and then I was a speaker at a self-reliance fair last Thursday.

When I got home from the fair, I had several things happen, that prompted my experiment. First of all, someone had given me half a box of Frito chips and when I came home one of my children complained that they were "yucky" chips and why did I bring those home. Then another child complained because we were out of milk and even though it was late, they wanted me to go to the store and buy milk.

A couple of other things happened and well...I just sort of lost it! I decided then that I wouldn't buy milk for one whole week just to teach my spoiled children a lesson!!

See...the older children suffered a lot. There were many times we did not have money and so we just had to make do.

The younger ones have had it much easier. They always have milk, yummy cereal, etc. Occasionally, we will make do without, but not for very long.

After 3 days without milk, though, my husband and I talked about it and we decided to NOT BUY ANY GROCERIES FOR A MONTH or even more unless we are absolutely dying!?!

Here is a journal then of our life, living on our food storage.

The last time I bought groceries was on May 31st, Memorial Day. If I had known then that I was going to do this experiment, I would have been much more careful as to what and how much I bought.

By Thursday, June 3rd, we were out of milk. For breakfast I made Chocolate Malt-O-Meal, which is a great item to have in one's food storage as you only add water and sugar and is real easy to make. We didn't have any marshmallows, though, so I heard complaints about that.

We had leftovers for supper, as Maria's birthday had been Tuesday and I had made a large pot of the Taco meat, rice, and beans.

Friday, June 4th, I made breakfast burritos. I am usually really lazy for breakfast and just let them have cereal and milk. Having to come up with breakfast is something that I have not had to do for sometime now. We still have bread, so sandwiches for lunch and toast for those who want a snack. For supper, we ate at a wedding shower that we had gone to in Kansas. It is always great when someone else feeds my crew.

Saturday, June 5th. Today I made powdered milk in the blender. I like Sanalac, and I always mix it in the blender as it makes it smooth and eliminates lumps. I then put it into a plastic pitcher and refrigerate it so it is cold. My husband likes warm milk, but I definitely do not. I even put ice in my milk if it is not cold enough.

I also called around to see if I could find a dairy where we can buy fresh milk. I had been planning to do so for more than the 3 years since moving here...I guess drinking powdered milk is a good motivator.

In addition, there was a foul smell by the pantry and my husband asked me to go and investigate. Well, the electrician had been here yesterday, and had been working on my mom's section. Somehow, the breaker had been flipped off on the pantry and our small freezer had been off since yesterday.

I had to throw away the meat inside it. It wasn't much, but still, since we are NOT buying any right now...it means even more stretching.

For supper tonight, I cooked two rabbits that we had in the freezer. I used the Spanish Turkey recipe. We ate the meat with leftover rice and beans.

I made Arroz y Leche/ Rice Puddin' tonight while we were watching a movie, so we would have it for breakfast in the morning.

Sunday, June 6th. Today, we had Rice Puddin' for breakfast. After church, I made Spanish rice, took some of the beans and made them into refried beans and then made PUPUSAS. Pupusas are a homemade corn tortilla that is filled with a meat, cheese, and sauce mixture. Yum! I plan to make a video on how to make them, but they are a great food. You can feed a crowd with very little meat and cost and they are one of the best Spanish foods of all time!

We had company over so I fed 18 people today.

I made Snicker Doodles after the meal, but ran out of white flour. (Honestly, I thought I had another 25-50 pounds of flour in my pantry). I do use whole wheat, but like to mix it with some of the white flour.

Anyway, I did not have any whole wheat flour ground, so I had to open a bucket of wheat and grind some to have flour.

The cookies came out yummy! Much better than I thought being 90 percent whole wheat.

(Just a note: I used to have a wheat grinder that used a filter, sent dust into the air, was hard to clean, and took forever. Then I bought a Vit-a-mix blender. It comes with a dry container and you can grind wheat quickly...no mess, easy clean up...it's great!!

Another note: If you do not have beans or wheat in your diet, you need to introduce them little by little. The reason you get gas when you eat them is that your digestive system simply is not used to them. Once you start eating them 2-3 times a week or more, you will become used to the roughage in your system and will NO LONGER make excess gas. Not only that, but they will clean out your colon and intestines, making you healthier and less likely to get cancer. But they also fill you up, so you eat less sweets and snacks and then lose weight. Have you ever noticed that after eating Spanish food that you usually don't need a dessert?)