Why Having a Well Stocked Pantry Saves You When You Are Sick

    Our family went camping over the weekend.  Our Rachel and our Isaiah were sick.  Rachel was having tummy trouble and Isaiah had a bad cold, which he shared with several of us. Bleck!  By the time Jeff and I got home mid day on Monday, I headed straight to the shower and then to bed.

    Yesterday I could feel it getting worse, so I pushed through and got the essential shopping done.  I'm so glad I did because today I feel like a truck hit me.  A very BIG truck.

    I started out my day drinking some TheraFlu Severe Cold and Cough medicine.  I had picked the boxes that have 6 packets in each one up at the Dollar Tree (I bought them out).  They only cost me $1 per box whereas at Walmart, they were $6.99 each.  I saved $5.99 per box!  I was so thankful that I had stocked up on them and put them in my HBA pantry.

   I knew that I had to stay hydrated and luckily had stumbled upon that amazing deal on Propel where I got the 12 packs for .50 each.  I had bought 2 of them and we did use some while we were camping, but I still have a bunch left.  I am now kicking myself for not buying more of them at that amazing price.  Anyway, I have been sipping on bottles of it both yesterday and today.  Individual bottles of this stuff run about $1 or more at the grocery store.  My bottles are under .5 each.

   Now we all know that colds need lots and lots of tissues to wipe those noses.  Again, I had stocked up on tissues whenever I have found them on sale.  The best deal I ran across was getting the Puffs brand tissues with lotion in them for .50 a box on clearance.  I am again kicking myself for not buying more of them at the time.  I bought 6 of them but now wish I had bought about 20 to see me through for a very long time.

   Everyone knows that soup is the perfect food for when you are sick with a cold.  I have that covered too.  When I make homemade soups, I make big batches of it and freeze some in meal sized portions in ziplock type bags.  I have amassed a variety of split pea, lentil, chicken noodle and veggie beef soups.  I keep the bags in plastic baskets in my freezer.  I pulled some out today and we will have that with some homemade croutons and fruit for dinner.  I do keep some canned soups like tomato, clam chowder and even some chicken noodle on hand also.

  I was thinking today about how blessed I feel to have everything I need here at home and how I paid pennies on the dollar compared to having to go out and buy all this stuff at full price.  We live in a small farming community without a grocery store, so we would have to drive half and hour to get to the store to buy any of these things. That would use up gas and quite frankly what little energy I have right now.  I'd much rather just stay curled up on the couch and let my body rest and recover.