Broke broke broke

Okay, so we're broke. Sometimes I say we're broke, but that usually just means we can't go out to eat or do fun stuff. This is seriously down in the dumps BROKE. The mortgage is due next week and the car payment the week after, and I don't know where either of them are coming from. If the LASIK hadn't been paid for through the flex-spend account, I wouldn't have gotten it, but it's one of those "use it or lose it" things, and when we miscarried, we realized we were never going to use up the money in that account unless we had my eyes zapped.

Hubby had a really hard adjustment to his medication and didn't work. One week of him not working means no groceries. Of course, him being home and depressed means I didn't get to work much either. I work from home, and, well, when you have to take knives from people and take care of two kids and a grown man 24/7, you don't get a lot of work done. And then there's the fact that his older brother doesn't have a checking account and his membership to WoW comes out of ours automatically (which I've been trying to get them both to change for a year) and neither one of us was prepared for it, and dear BIL says he gave us $200 a few months ago -- we both thought that was for past memberships, not for future, but he said yesterday that it was for the rest of the year. So, adding insult to injury, we have just paid his WoW, and some of the tithing money is missing now, and, well, I'm typing this instead of working right this minute.

Tithing. Even when hubby has been inactive, he's paid his tithing. I haven't *not* paid tithing since I started working 4-1/2 years ago. Missed it one month that year and spent six making it up -- haven't done that again since.

This is not a plea for money or begging for anything besides prayers.

In the midst of all this, the kids have been asking for computer games (!) and toys (!) even after we told them there was no money and no groceries for a week. They didn't get it. Small Fry still didn't get it until this morning, when she wanted eggs for breakfast. She used them up yesterday. And I told her we didn't have any left or money for more. She did make the remainder of the bacon -- 11 slices -- which they gobbled up like they'd been starving for weeks. I'll have you know, I did make a lovely dinner last night with things out of the freezer and food storage.

So I made pancakes while she made bacon. How on earth did I manage that with no eggs? Plus, we're also out of margarine and baking soda and milk! A dear friend told me 2 Tbs of cornstarch can be substituted for one egg. I had powdered milk and made some up. Of course, Their Spoiled Rottennesses wouldn't drink that. But I modified my normal pancake recipe, and made it all white flour so Small Fry would eat them. And the coolest part is that all of this is food storage stuff -- which makes me think things will be okay when more bad stuff hits the fan later on (in the world, not just in our lives) because this was so yummy ... wooooo!

Normal:

3/4 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c all purpose flour
3 Tbs sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbs melted margarine/butter
1-1/2 c milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice


Food storage pancakes:

1-1/2 c flour
4 Tbs cornstarch
3 Tbs sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 c vegetable oil
1-3/4 c reconstituted powdered milk
1 tsp vanilla

I may end up making a pancake mix out of this with the powdered milk inside it, so all I really have to add is oil and water. The vanilla is optional.

So, Dear Readers, we may be completely sick of pancakes by next weekend, since we will probably make those every day for breakfast. But we have enough food to get us through. Hubby can pick up some Stouffer's meals at a discount with a paycheck deduction, so I may ask him to do that, too. And we have meat and fruit and veggies in the freezers. So all is not lost, just stressful.

And right now, I'm just grateful I shop sales and make sure there's stuff in the freezers and that I stock up on stuff when we have bigger paychecks. y'know? I need to be better at that and we both acknowledge that we need to stick to our budget better, but I'm pretty sure we'll be fine. Woooo.