For a long time I’ve been telling friends, family, and readers how easy and inexpensive preparedness can be. I recently got curious about what a reasonable dollar amount – say $20 a paycheck – could actually do for one’s preparedness. I decided to find out, first-hand, and report the results to you. I’m pretty excited and consider this little experiment a success!
-WiscoDave
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And I'll throw this out one more time: as far as canned goods go, you can get more bang for your buck by going to a discount or canned foods store.
I've found that our local Save-a-Lot sells off brand canned goods for anything from 1/3 to 1/2 the price as Walmart.
Link busted.
ReplyDeleteFixed it.
DeleteNot bad, but he completely ignored large bags of dried beans and some cheap spices. The rice and beans can be flavored in different ways to help stave off burn out of the same foods.
ReplyDeleteAnd for those who may not want (or can't) plop the money down for a propane stove, simple yard grills can boil water when needed.
Yep, dollar tree, dollar general, family dollar all have great prices on canned goods.
ReplyDeleteFood is almost 1/2 price at the Hispanic and Asian supermarkets, too. Restaurant supply companies are also a great place to shop. Easy enough for several neighbors to split up a 20 lb bag of macaroni or a 50 lb bag of rice.
ReplyDeleteYup, you're dead on about the Asian and Mexican markets. A lot of them also sell loose beans and rice so your only choices aren't a set weight. Bring in a 5 gallon bucket and fill 'er up.
DeleteMexican markets here, produce is cheaper and things like avocados, pineapples are actually ripe and reasonably priced. Rice and different beans in 20 and 50 lb sacks. 2 lb cans of bullion powder are around 10 dollars. Herbs like rosemary, cloves, and oregano can be bought by the lb just as cheap. Lard is cheap. White rice gets a lot more palatable cooked in bullion with some rosemary, dried onion, and a couple crushed cloves. Still very, very cheap. Barley or wheat can be cooked the same way Add a pat of butter and its even better. Add beans or refry them in lard and eat on the side. Now is the time to learn how to cook the basic "poor folk" foods well. Most folks have lost that.
DeleteThe thing about boullion powder is that it's great for flavoring white rice which cooks quickly, but it tastes burnt and "off" if you add it to brown rice or beans or anything else that takes a while to cook. So save it and add it in only during the last 10-20 minutes of cooking.
DeleteSome of the Mexican shops that are close to the ghetto charge EBT prices (higher price because the food is free and shoppers don't care) so keep tabs of current prices.
DeleteThe article was worth reading. But I do get tired of having people say that this food or that food is "unhealthy". If white rice were unhealthy 3 billion people would die. Most of this myth comes from people who are religious in their belief of what food is good and what is bad. Often they are vegetarians or worse vegans who cannot stop talking about their superiority of being a vegetarian or vegan. Get over it, food is food unless you happen to have a genetic issue that makes some foods unsuitable for you. I can eat peanut butter and all the sweets I want, some people cannot, doesn't make that food "unhealthy".
ReplyDeleteI think that you are onto something important. There are two reasons to stockpile foods. First, is for TEOTWAWKI. While many preppers have that as their only goal for long term food storage, as we have seen from television shows that show the people with bunkers full of food and water, guns and bullets, etc. But the main reason for storing extra food is far from an end of the world situation.
DeleteThe best and main reason to store food is for times of either a job loss, sickness, and the like, or a time of pandemic when it is hard to obtain certain types of food from a grocery store, or when the supply chains are either cut or slowed.
In a case such as the second one, when you are not just trying to get calories to survive, and are forced to eat anything to get calories to survive, but instead are doing as much as possible to maintain a normal life, including eating the types of food that you are used to eating. So it is a pretty good idea to stock the same types of food that you eat everyday. If you plan on stocking food from Sav-a-lot, or another non brand name food outlet, then you should probably be eating those same types of food everyday, so you can both rotate your storage, and maintain the same diet during lean times.
Myself, there are some food items that are not the same quality as brand names, but for the most part, you can become used to the taste of just about any kind of canned or boxed food, if you really try to. Canned soup is one good example. Unbranded chicken noodle soup doesn't taste like Campbell's soup, but after a few weeks of eating the unbranded soup, you will become used to it. One thing to beware of is that for some of those types of products, you need to be cautious of the amount of sodium.
And as an aside, I have lost over 20 pounds in the past 3-4 months, doing one simple thing. I have tried to take in as few calories in liquid form as possible. I used to drink a lot of sugared soda. Now I will drink diet soda, and water. I didn't weigh myself for quite awhile, probably 2 months, since I wasn't really paying much attention to it. When I did happen to step on the scale, I was surprised, and realized just how many calories I had been taking in, without even thinking. I am not a fanatic about it, and if I feel like I want a sugared Mountain Dew or a beer, I will have one, without feeling guilty, because I know that I won't continue on the same path. Just a quick tip on what has worked for me, even over the holidays.
Pigpen51
Quote: "Canned goods are bad for morale"
ReplyDeleteTrue. I had a long down-time after a severe injury and practically survived on canned goods, ugh! If you don't "have to" use them, find an alternative. You're welcome.
Huge advantage to canned food is that you can eat it straight from the can if necessary. Can't really do that with raw grains or beans. When you're short on water or cooking fuel or time while on watch, canned food can literally save your life compared to cooking staple ingredients.
DeleteSince he doesnt approve of white rice, he should get brown rice
ReplyDeleteBrown rice doesn't store as long as white rice.
DeleteYou'd be doing well to have brown rice last a year in ordinary storage. Goes rancid from the oils in the bran. White rice can last for decades (just gotta keep the rodents out of it).
I've heard that about brown rice for a long time. I'm skeptical. I've eaten a lot of brown rice that was years past its best-by date with no digestion problems, and it tasted fine. It was stored in an unheated shed, which might have delayed deterioration.
DeleteRice is a general term for tens of thousands of varieties of grain. Naturally, some varieties last longer than others in storage. There are also many different ways of hulling whole rice into brown rice, some are gentle which helps to lengthen storage and some are mechanically efficient but rough on the grain. Rancidity is the result of exposing the oils within the bran and germ to oxidation, so if you somehow keep oxygen away from the rice it won't go rancid nearly so quickly. There's a bunch of ways to do this, vacuum sealing is probably the easiest. Even white rice will start to go stale after a couple of years unless you take steps to store it properly. I've still got some very old white rice on the shelf, it's theoretically edible but tastes like shit.
DeleteDon't waste your money buying bottled or jugged water, unless your home water supply is somehow tainted. If you're hooked up to a municipal water system then your water should be safe. If you have pets, use the plastic kibble-container to store a supply of water, or if you have a litter box, re-use the plastic container. Even if you don't use this water for drinking, you can water plants, flush the toilet, or use for cooking in the event the regular water supply becomes unavailable.
ReplyDeleteAnother great store for bargains is ALDI. They're not nationwide yet, but if you have one in driving distance, some of their items have unbeatable prices...like 62 cents for a can of tuna, or 49 cents for a dozen eggs.
Another cost-slasher is to time when the grocery marks down their meat. I've saved $100's by just timing when to shop.
I've got four empty 5 gallon water cans in my shed. At the first sign of trouble, I'll fill them up. If it doesn't play out, I'll empty them and let them dry out before popping the caps back on.
DeleteThere is no need to empty your water cans, just fill them up to the top so no air and your water will be good for a long time! Remember when storing food or liquids air is your enemy! Vacum seal every thing like Tupper ware purge the air for longevity, in zip lock bags purge the air!!!! grayman
DeleteIf you do decide to buy bottled water, check the recycling number on the bottom of the container (in the triangle) before you stock up. It tells you what kind of plastic the bottle is made of. #1 bottles will store okay for several years but #3 (milk jug type plastic) will spontaneously spring a leak within a few months.
DeleteSorry, meant #2 not #3 plastic.
DeletePersonally, I know longer eat carbohydrates, which his stockpile consisted mostly of.
ReplyDeleteBut I have recently discovered some excellent smoked sardines and herring packed in water instead of seed oils, at Walmart, and that is where I would spend my money.
In fact, I had already begun doing that even before reading this story.
I can not only survive, but thrive by eating nothing but fat and quality protein.
Dietary differences aside, and that is a whole other discussion, I enjoyed reading this, and absolutely agree that more people need to stock up and be prepared to get by whenever supply chains get interrupted.
Tim in AK
Don't stockpile saltines unless you eat them a lot and can rotate them. They go rancid in 2-3 years. Pilot Bread on the other hand, will last forever.
ReplyDeleteAt least you still have a Save-A-Lot (I call 'em Save-A-Peso). They closed the stores in Springfield, Millersville, and up in Franklin, KY. There's still one in Gallatin, and one in Dickson. I work 10 miles from Dickson, & hit that one every month or two.
ReplyDelete--Tennessee Budd
I have 2 "water bobs" - they are 60 gal bladders that are made for a bathtub and come with hand pump.
ReplyDeleteFiltering drinking straws hikers use = a must. You can drink out of a puddle if needed.
Imodium is another MUST. Dysentery will kill you. A big change in diet can mess you up.
And a few #10 cans of freeze dried 25 year shelf life food is very good to have. More costly yes but knowing it won't be expired/bad...