I grew up in New Orleans, and thus, had Hurricane Season to deal with on an annual basis. Every year, without fail and right before the beginning of the season, we were all educated on being prepared for "The Big One". Part of this preparedness was to have at least two week supply of food and water, along with batteries, flashlights and other basics.
As s single mother, and wanting to stretch my grocery dollar as well as have a good supply of food and hygene materials on hand for when money was tight, I discovered a web site called The Grocery Game, which tracks the rock bottom prices at local grocery stores. If you stock up on what you use, when the prices are at rockbottom on the 12 week sales cycle and combine this with manufacturer coupons, then you can have a 12 week supply of pretty much everything you use and cut your grocery bill significantly. I still belong to the site and my husband is amazed at what I can get for our budgeted money. For example, this past weekend I spent about $150.00 but came home with nearly $300.00 worth of groceries.
So I've been doing basic food storage for a few years now, but I have never really considered storage of at least a years worth of food and necessities. At least prior to the election of President Obama and the havoc he is reaking on the economy. As a consequence, I've been trying to put more away, and replelish what is used, but I haven't really been trying hard.
Last night I watched Glenn Beck, I don't do it frequently as I'm usually busy around that time of day. I do DVR his show, but there's that time factor again, but I'm glad that I caught it last night. He discussed inflation and food storage. I learned a few things that I didn't know; for example, the government is telling us that there is no inflation, yet they don't include food and fuel in those figures. If they did, then the "official" figures would show us to be in inflation.
Well make a trip down the grocery aisles, or fill your tank and you will see that we are indeed in a peroid of inflation, no matter what is being spewed to us on the nightly news. Milk alone, including cheese and dairy as a whole has gone up by a dollar since last year. So has meat and poultry, and vegetables. As amatter of fact, cotton is at it's highest EVER...even higher than it was after the end of the Civil War!
Cotton, Oil and Corn are at all time highs. Your clothing is more expensive, even the oilbased poliesters and man made fabrics. Food is more expensive because cattle, pigs, chickens are all fed with corn. Pretty much everything is pricier because of the use of corn, from katsup to salad dressing to soup to nuts. When I compared my grocery tabs from last year to this year (to date) I saw a drastic increase in prices and smaller quantities in packaging.
So after watching Glenn's show last night, I decided to get more serious about food storage. Not because I think the nation will collapse, it may, but because of the continuing inflation I think that we will be seeing as the economy continues in it's doldrums.
I hit Glenn's website and read his links to the basics of food storage, then after perusing the comments found some other sites that don't complicate the whole process of storage, but give practical information as well as lists and tips on building the stockpile without breaking your budget. Some even show ideas on food rotation and shelving with out having to spend a ton of money on equipment.
Starting with the baby steps, and using my coupons and The Grocery Game, I'm going to build a supply of food and household and hygeneic goods to last us a year or more (You can keep dried goods like rice and beans for YEARS if properly stored!). I think that this will add to our security as a family, knowing that no matter how bad times get, we will at least be able to eat. I'm also going to start a veggie garden and maybe grow an orange tree and some berries, too.
Food storage is something I think that we should all consider, at least have a two week supply on hand no matter what part of the country you live in. Natural disasters aren't discriminatory, and you won't get stuck with empty shelves and panic if a blizzard or hurricane is headed your way.
Food Storage Made Easy
How Do I Store?
How Do I Can?
How Do I Dry?
The Grocery Game
Glenn Beck; Be Prepared
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