Sunday, September 21, 2008

Stockpiling Food

You need to start stockpiling food
You can do a lot if you start early. Unfortunately, “early” might have been yesterday. Now we're way past early, and you need a reasonable plan to get food supplies that will store well and don't cost too much.You've probably already realized that buying up extra cans of soup at the grocery store is a really stupid way to spend your preparedness money. You need a better plan. Every $10 you spend at the store might feed a person for a few days. You need more leverage, where you can spend $10 and feed a person for a few weeks.

Buy extra, use FIFO

Go ahead and buy more food than normal when you are out shopping, and set it aside. Use the “first in, first out” rule to eat your older supplies first. Keep rotating your supplies so you never abandon food way in the back.

Buy ingredients, not prepared foods
Ingredients such as salt, honey, oatmeal and wheat will last a lot longer than prepared foods like TV dinners, cereals, and food mixes. Naturally, as you purchase food ingredients, you will want to practice actually using them!

7 comments:

Homekeeping Heart said...

Carolyn,
You've given some good advice here!
I have been putting more thought into putting food by, lately. Due in part to some of the things I've read here and on other blogs. I think it is very wise to store up supplies for the future, whether or not we have some kind of disaster ahead. We must do as the ant does consistently.

Rue said...

I've always done this. You just never know.

rue

Anonymous said...

I like your blog. Alot of practical advice for those of us who want to make sure our homes are ready for anything. Thanks for commenting on my blog.

Susie Q said...

Always great advice! i have always been one who stockpiled as I found sales. I have been teased about it but we rarely ever run out of things, especially during the Winter or a storm!

Love,
Sue

Bebe said...

Hi Carolyn!
Thanks for visiting with me yesterday and entering my little giveaway! It's great to see you again, my friend! You have some really good advice on here about the food! Grocery bills today are so high and I am shocked lately at how much vegetables are at the store. Definitely growing my own this winter!!
Lots of hugs and milkbones for your doggies,
Bebe :)

Anonymous said...

Our stockpile has helped us in many a lean times. Dh works construction. He is now on salary as a superintendent but that wasn't always the case. He worked his way up from a laborer to that position and when he was just on payroll, the times were lean in bad weather.

I've been couponing heavily since 1998 and use the same binder now that I did then to sort and store my coupons.

Thanks for stopping by blog!

Laura

Chiot's Run said...

Another great way to put food by is to plant a garden, then at least 75% of the year you'll have fresh food from the backyard (and if you practice seed-saving it's practically free). You can also can & freeze a lot of the stuff you grow as well.

We should also learn skills for long term survival: hunting, growing, preserving, seed-saving, foraging. These skills can get us through lean years, not just weeks.

This year I have foraged about 250 lbs of free food (not only saved me money, but gives me the satisfaction of knowing I can provide for myself).