Preparations Update

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So.........I tried to do this, but it jumped me to Walmart. Is Rite Aid part of Walmart....???
SouthCentralUS said:
Rite Aid Pharmacy had DAK Hams for $3, and if you spend $34.99, shipping is free. I ordered 10 hams and 2 bags of dried fruit. I should receive them Monday. I think the sale is still on. 10 is the limit on the hams.
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Tank-Girl said:
It's ALL my wheat and grain product stockpile.
The culprit seems to be a small odd black beetle with a long nose and then the humidity.
There are cobwebs and mould inside the "sealed' dry pasta, Asian noodles, rice and flour.
And it seems a army of cockroaches have followed in behind.
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I have bug-prone food packages in a non-working fridge. It seals, but that's no guarantee against bugs. A couple years ago I had to throw out a bunch of bug infested food.

So now I buy those Hot Shot No-Pest Strips that you aren't even supposed to use in the house, let alone around food. I cut them into pieces, put a piece in the top (freezer compartment), and a piece in the bottom (fridge compartment). Unused portions are stored in sealed storage bags. When the used pieces dry out, I replace them.

They probably put unwanted fumes in the food, but I'd rather have the food than the bugs. They definitely keep the bugs away.
 
What I've been doing this week, which has me worn out and I'm not finished yet!

First, the backstory is needed.

Before Covid, I just did ordinary stocking up. Take advantage of sales, and try to make sure I had enough of everything until the next sale. Back in those days, sales were predictable, so it was easy to time everything.

Then Covid hit.

At first, no huge deal. Lots of panic buying and empty shelves, but I figured all that would fizzle out and things would more or less get back to normal. But as it turned out, it didn't fizzle out, prices start going up, and there are shortages that don't seem to be going away anytime soon.

So I figured I better step things up a bit.

Amazon always has cases of canned goods of of one kind or another on sale cheap, so, depending on how much and what kind they are, I started buying from 1 to 3 cases of whatever they had on sale cheap. (Before Covid, they would have bulk flours, pasta, rice and all kinds stuff like that hitting rock bottom prices frequently, but that hasn't happened much in a couple of years).

So, anyhow, I got a lot of cases of canned stuff last year during some great sales, but since it looks like the food situation in the world is deteriorating (Ukraine war, droughts, etc), I started thinking I better speed things up while I can, because sooner or later there's going to be such a shortage that there won't be any sales, and maybe not a lot of money to buy food anyhow.

It surprised me in view of inflation, but in January through April of this year Amazon had all kinds of amazing sales on canned soups, meats, and a few other odds and ends, so I have cases and cases of those stacked up all over the danged house.

Then last month, Amazon had massive sales on canned beans, and I ordered a crap-ton of them, all kinds of varieties. The one in the picture was not subscribe & save, so I already got it and it's sitting on the living room floor. The rest are S&S and I'll be getting them on or around Friday. They'll be in heavy boxes and I wonder what in the world the UPS guy will think when he starts rolling all those boxes on a dolly to my porch!

This is getting serious, so I figured I better get a place fixed up to store all those cans.

There's this funny long skinny room off the living room. It has a window, and I don't know it's original intention. My mother used it for a walk in clothes closet. For the last several years, I've used it as a junk room, and boy, did it get junky.

I have a shelf unit in there, and I got everything off the shelves (mostly just stuff to toss), I still need to clear the top. But I got some of the canned stuff on there. No way that unit is going to hold everything, so I'm clearing out one end of the room where I'll probably just have to stack cases in a corner.

I have a lot of rice, pasta, and other starchy stuff stored, and quite a few cans of vegetables, condiments etc in my regular kitchen pantry. And coffee. LOTS of coffee.

The way I figure it, if food prices double or something next year, I won't have to buy a lot. I'll be able to stretch out whatever I buy with what I already have. I should be good for the next 3 years, at least.

PS: the shelf unit looks crooked in the pic, but it's not. My phone photos are always awful.
 

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Was supposed to take the wifes car for a new windshied this morning. Right before we were leaving the house they called to tell me the windshield didn't arrive. Couldn't explain why they didn't call last night to let me know so I didn't miss work. CRICKETS...., got to work about 9:15... :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:


EDIT:
Mods I screwed up and posted this in this thread. I meant for it to go in the RANT thread. Would you move it please?
 
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During the late 70s and early 80s I spent a couple of years with a food budget of less than $50/month, in today's world it would be like trying to live on less than $182 per month. Think of living on Popcorn, Ramin noodles, Beans, Minute Rice, and cheep canned biscuits. Being hungry made me tend to try to keep food on hand.

Over the last 30 years I have always stocked some food in the basement, when I started we had a family of 5 and I stocked for about 3 months, then I kept adding on staples (mostly inexpensive stable stuff, beans, rice and some canned foods). As my finances improved I put any extra I had into food storage. As the kids left home I didn't change my food storage targets. Then when COVID hit, I heard the stories, stood in 2 hour lines to get into half empty stores. I stopped and looked around at what I had at my disposal, I looked closer and realized that a lot of my food was old. So we made a game of it, we set new food storage targets based on the new reality and we started eating down the old food, using more of the rice, beans, and wheat that we had in the house. We set a strange new goal, not to go shopping for anything for 6 months... Once we started knocking down our old food stores below our targets we started to rebuild our stores, but we kept it separate from our old food, we ate the old and just kept stocking up on new food that was dated and stored in staging areas. Once we cleared off a full set of shelves we restocked them with the new food stuff. TP was a problem at first, but I found you could order that online and have it delivered free (with a minimum purchase) but they had limits. But the limits applied to a single order and I started doing an order every 3 days until I was fully stocked (at our targets). We also doubled our long term dehydrated/canned foods like milk, cheese, flours, and diced/sliced potatoes and veggies. During this time we reduced our fuel consumption by about 80% and we expanded the garden to where we can get a consistent supply salad stuff and tomato products. Tomatoes were a big surprise, we were able to get about 50 pounds of tomato's off each plant during a season. We canned a lot of our meats and vegetables to protect against the dependence on freezers, expecting the grid to become unstable in the future.

Today, we are down to just buying what we have used, much smaller quantities but we don't have any fears when we talk about food shortages (unless they have the potential to go beyond our target time. I do have 1 child within driving distance of us so I base our food storage targets on 3 adults.

When I go shopping now I focus on fruits, berries, bananas, cheese, eggs, and some milk. Meats and chicken are only bought in response to what we have consumed or plan to consume in the next 2 weeks. I do monitor product availability and prices, but it's only to stay in tune to what is going on around us.

Being prepared and expanding our capabilities (our preparations are not limited to food storage) does provide a calming effect and gives me peace of mind.
 
UrbanHunter said:
During the late 70s and early 80s I spent a couple of years with a food budget of less than $50/month, in today's world it would be like trying to live on less than $182 per month. Think of living on Popcorn, Ramin noodles, Beans, Minute Rice, and cheep canned biscuits. Being hungry made me tend to try to keep food on hand.

Over the last 30 years I have always stocked some food in the basement, when I started we had a family of 5 and I stocked for about 3 months, then I kept adding on staples (mostly inexpensive stable stuff, beans, rice and some canned foods). As my finances improved I put any extra I had into food storage. As the kids left home I didn't change my food storage targets. Then when COVID hit, I heard the stories, stood in 2 hour lines to get into half empty stores. I stopped and looked around at what I had at my disposal, I looked closer and realized that a lot of my food was old. So we made a game of it, we set new food storage targets based on the new reality and we started eating down the old food, using more of the rice, beans, and wheat that we had in the house. We set a strange new goal, not to go shopping for anything for 6 months... Once we started knocking down our old food stores below our targets we started to rebuild our stores, but we kept it separate from our old food, we ate the old and just kept stocking up on new food that was dated and stored in staging areas. Once we cleared off a full set of shelves we restocked them with the new food stuff. TP was a problem at first, but I found you could order that online and have it delivered free (with a minimum purchase) but they had limits. But the limits applied to a single order and I started doing an order every 3 days until I was fully stocked (at our targets). We also doubled our long term dehydrated/canned foods like milk, cheese, flours, and diced/sliced potatoes and veggies. During this time we reduced our fuel consumption by about 80% and we expanded the garden to where we can get a consistent supply salad stuff and tomato products. Tomatoes were a big surprise, we were able to get about 50 pounds of tomato's off each plant during a season. We canned a lot of our meats and vegetables to protect against the dependence on freezers, expecting the grid to become unstable in the future.

Today, we are down to just buying what we have used, much smaller quantities but we don't have any fears when we talk about food shortages (unless they have the potential to go beyond our target time. I do have 1 child within driving distance of us so I base our food storage targets on 3 adults.

When I go shopping now I focus on fruits, berries, bananas, cheese, eggs, and some milk. Meats and chicken are only bought in response to what we have consumed or plan to consume in the next 2 weeks. I do monitor product availability and prices, but it's only to stay in tune to what is going on around us.

Being prepared and expanding our capabilities (our preparations are not limited to food storage) does provide a calming effect and gives me peace of mind.
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Wise! I've always kept a pantry also, but after the past couple years, like you, I've reevaluated and upped some things and fine-tuned a few things. I say fine tuned like it's done - laugh - it's not, but I hope you know what I mean.
This past year, I've helped a younger than me friend get into canning. She's doing awesome! She texted me this evening and she found a blackout curtain for their spare room which got a new set of shelves for some of her food. She's planning and excited for this years crops to start rolling out. She can't have a garden where she is but she's a smart gal and is sourcing many things locally. She's in the Dakotas so it's not as easy as in better growing zones. It's been good for me too because I've had to double check how many of what we eat per year vs. what we have etc.
 
We went actually shopping for the first time in many many months. Drove the 75 miles to the closest city big enough to have a few chain stores (like Walmart).
Wife and I got extra shoes (hikers for me), I got more welding rod, wife got extra towels, sheets, blackout drapes, she also got some extra clothes. Yes, she bought a bunch of plants too.
We didn't buy much at Walmart and they only had 4 registers open. Took a half hour to check out. Told wife I will never enter that store again.
 
Morgan101 said:
I was shopping at Walgreens today, and made a very lucky find. In the travel section I found a "Cotton Variety Pack" A plastic bag about 4" x 6" with 30 Q-Tips, 10 cotton balls, and 10 cotton discs (round about 2" diameter). The bag is resealable with a zip lock top. I thought this would be a great fire starter kit. Add a Bic lighter, a chapstick, maybe a birthday candle, even a book of paper matches, and you are ready to go. All would fit easily. Compact, pretty water resistant. Light. The cotton variety pack was only $1.99. Sadly, I got the last one.
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My one and only camping trip (to Starved Rock State Park in IL) was with a bunch ofmembers of the long defunct Ron Fontaine/Survival Topics. We used an easily obtained firestarter -- TAMPAX. Cotton easily fluffed and readily available. Ok sorry to gross others out but it really was an amazing firestarter.
 
Solar Geek said:
My one and only camping trip (to Starved Rock State Park in IL) was with a bunch ofmembers of the long defunct Ron Fontaine/Survival Topics. We used an easily obtained firestarter -- TAMPAX. Cotton easily fluffed and readily available. Ok sorry to gross others out but it really was an amazing firestarter.
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In more ways than one!!😁 Glad I'm past that age! So I'll add this to keep on topic....prepping is easier without hormone rollercoasters!!
 
Solar Geek said:
My one and only camping trip (to Starved Rock State Park in IL) was with a bunch ofmembers of the long defunct Ron Fontaine/Survival Topics. We used an easily obtained firestarter -- TAMPAX. Cotton easily fluffed and readily available. Ok sorry to gross others out but it really was an amazing firestarter.
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I visited Starved Rock on a business meeting for 7 days back when the dot.com bubble burst and stocks fell. Nice thing about starved rock back then was even the hotel had no internet, no cell service, and no luck saving my retirement fund... "At its trough on October 9, 2002, the NASDAQ-100 had dropped to 1,114, down 78% from its peak". Yep, I remember starved rock, nice place, interesting history, but I'm not going back. Just too many bad memories.

As for fire starters I could see those "things" working well, so will dryer lint and steel wool.
 
local small town walmart finally has some canning jars and klids. not as many as the good old days but more than last year. people were stacking and grabbing. no sign saying any limits yet, . regular canning lids kerr brand 12 pack $2.49. i grabbed some lids.
 
Went to the salvage store with the granddaughters for the 99 cents day. Got lots of deals. They are swamped with Christmas and Easter stuff, so I did buy some to put away. Food deals were dried black eyed peas for 49 cents a one lb package. Pikes ground decaf coffee 99 cents. Bought a cannister of white cheese powder to put away. Then on to Aldi to fill a cart. Older granddaughter went with me, and she was surprised at the prices and the empty shelves. I keep telling her that the kittens have to eat dry food, because they are always out of wet food. That shelf was bare, but the price changed up 10 cents a can on that, too. Aldi tuna is almost the same price as Friskies cat food. Let them eat tuna.
 
Landshark's 1-per-month heart worm tablets are 272mg of Ivermectin which treats a 23kg to 45kg dog.
1ml of Ivormec is 200mg. 1 ml of Ivormec is enough to treat 50kgs of body weight.
Landshark weighs 32kgs.

Landshark is now getting 1 ml of Ivormec in her food every month to treat her for heart worm and intestinal worms instead of the tablets which are getting harder to find and when you do they're stupid expensive.
 
A thought for your preps: We were at an event this past weekend where there were some folks who had their dogs which had had lice. They said they no longer had it but. . . . who knows. I went to Wmart yesterday and grabbed a couple bottles of lice shampoo. When I worked in the schools, if there was a kiddo with lice, I would use it as a precaution, doing the same with this scenario. I know there is a common herb that can be used also but have to look up what it is as I can't remember. Anyhoo, probably worth having in the preps.
 
I keep lice and wart stuff at home in the medical shelf. For a while there, little granddaughter was repeatedly getting lice, and it's horrible to get rid of. She has hair that's not been cut, so it's very long. Turned out that her mom would keep passing it to her during visits. Older granddaughter gets warts now and again, so that stuff is important, too. Just an FYI, the lice shampoo and conditioner comb out stuff is good, but also get the leave in spray to use for a few days after treatment.
 
Tank-Girl said:
Landshark's 1-per-month heart worm tablets are 272mg of Ivermectin which treats a 23kg to 45kg dog.
1ml of Ivormec is 200mg. 1 ml of Ivormec is enough to treat 50kgs of body weight.
Landshark weighs 32kgs.

Landshark is now getting 1 ml of Ivormec in her food every month to treat her for heart worm and intestinal worms instead of the tablets which are getting harder to find and when you do they're stupid expensive.
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Coconut oil controls heartworms!
 
LadyLocust said:
A thought for your preps: We were at an event this past weekend where there were some folks who had their dogs which had had lice. They said they no longer had it but. . . . who knows. I went to Wmart yesterday and grabbed a couple bottles of lice shampoo. When I worked in the schools, if there was a kiddo with lice, I would use it as a precaution, doing the same with this scenario. I know there is a common herb that can be used also but have to look up what it is as I can't remember. Anyhoo, probably worth having in the preps.
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From experience, and from advice of others who deal with it more, Adam’s brand (blue bottle/red top) is more effective than others. Good point, to have it on hand.
 
Update on my new "long term food storage room".

Part of my Amazon order came yesterday. It took the UPS man a couple of trips with his dolly to get it to my porch! That's mostly canned stuff, most of those being beans. The rest is due Monday.

I put the beans on the floor in the far end of the room. The odds and ends canned stuff went on the shelf unit.

Then I started thinking. The reason I started cleaning out the junk room and putting the soup etc on the shelf unit was because I had stuffed all I could get in the pantry off the kitchen, which meant I had rearranged the shelves in there trying to make room. Which in turn displaced my food storage containers and small appliances, so I had to put them anywhere I could find to put them.

Now that I have a new place to put food, I'm going to take the extra cases of soup, meats and other odds and ends back out of the pantry and get my food storage containers and small appliances back under control.
 

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Just a thought, would be prudent to periodically photograph your inventory, and keep the photos "NOT in the Place where the FOOD IS". Or keep receipts elsewhere. Just for proof for homeowners' insurance claims.
 
We are a 2 story house, the food storage area is in the basement and the cooking and working pantry are on the main floor. The wife is unable to navigate the stairs and I am constantly hearing "How can I use what's in the big freezer if I can't see it?" So the pantry and food storage shelves are a fine tuned machine, there is 1 of everything in the pantry and when it runs out, I bring up another one, and put it on the shopping list, FIFO.

But the freezer is a completely different animal, the freezer upstairs isn't big enough to hold 1 of everything and the wife fills it with stuff like breadcrumbs and ginger. I do an inventory and print it out and she forgets to look at it, instead relying on the "honey what can we eat?" It's not like I memorize everything that is in the big chest freezer.

So now I am thinking of getting a small (5-7 cu-ft) chest freezer and putting it next to the upstairs fridge to act as a FROZEN PANTRY (I think I'll copy-write that). What do you think? I must be overlooking something here, is seems too simple.......
 
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