Food Storage-where to start?

[yorkiebeebs]

There's a lot of items lately that are packaged in plastic now rather than cans or glass, and their expiration dates are only a year out instead of 2 or 3. Don't know what's up with that.

It's always about the money. It's alot cheaper to package in cheap plastic than glass or cans.

In my opinion everything is made to be replaced within a year. It makes the companies alot more money for you to replace often then to have a quality product that you can have repaired.

We've had several in our family buy laptop computers only to have to replace them right after the one year warranty expired. The store had to give me a new laptop just before the one year expired because the screen completely fell off, the keyboard needed to be replaced and I can't remember what else.

It's money, money, money and nothing else.

[pam]

I can think of a few circumstances that it would behoove people to have money in savings. What if they don't qualify for unemployment? What if they are self employed? What if they needed to continue with Cobra insurance due to loss of a job? While storing food is for sure of huge importance and can get many families through hard times, having some money in savings will as well.

One article I read on lds.org states that if we don't have at least 1 month of savings to cover expenses we are living beyond our means. That of course becomes a different subject.

[LDSVALLEY]

I can think of a few circumstances that it would behoove people to have money in savings. What if they don't qualify for unemployment? What if they are self employed? What if they needed to continue with Cobra insurance due to loss of a job? While storing food is for sure of huge importance and can get many families through hard times, having some money in savings will as well.

One article I read on lds.org states that if we don't have at least 1 month of savings to cover expenses we are living beyond our means. That of course becomes a different subject.

I don't disagree with having some cash funds. Cash is the most diverse component of storage. My comments were as humans we get tempted easy and having large sums of money sitting around makes it easy to either spend what we shouldn't or run up consumer debt knowing we have that money to fall back on.

I believe that food storage or paying extra on a bill is a form of savings. It is just not as easily transferable and thus less tempting to spend it. When I was unemployed I did not have a large bank account, with a family of 5 it was going out almost as fast as it was coming in while I was working. However because we had a large food storage the funds I did get after I lost my job was able to be diverted to other areas and did not need to go into food. I was able to delay applying for unemployement for over a month because we had enough extra paid on our bills to allow us the luxury of time. That gave me a chance to find a term position in a field I really wanted to try. And again extended my UI benifits for a longer period.

Even now we are extremely tight on money and I have not paid our cable bill for three months yet have not gotten a bill yet. They only send out a bill when you owe money. But I had paid an extra $4.00 each month on the bill and so had created a surplus and now that money is tight that $35.00 a month has been going elsewhere.

Each person has to taylor thier storage, prepardness plan based on individaul need and situation. I don't believe in whole life or universal life insurance, I beilve in term insurance and investing the rest. However someone who has a family history of serious medical problems might be better off getting whole or univeral policies to insure they can get insurance later on in years. Someone in an extremely hot enviorment most likely can't create a large food storage due to heat so they should create a larger cash reserve then someone living in a colder enviroment.

[UrbanFool]

I can think of a few circumstances that it would behoove people to have money in savings. What if they don't qualify for unemployment? What if they are self employed? What if they needed to continue with Cobra insurance due to loss of a job? While storing food is for sure of huge importance and can get many families through hard times, having some money in savings will as well.

One article I read on lds.org states that if we don't have at least 1 month of savings to cover expenses we are living beyond our means. That of course becomes a different subject.

Absolutely. I think you should have 6 months of expenses saved, but not at the expense of food storage. It's easier to buy two cans of mandarin orange for a buck than to put that buck into a savings account.

[UrbanFool]

It's always about the money. It's alot cheaper to package in cheap plastic than glass or cans.

In my opinion everything is made to be replaced within a year. It makes the companies alot more money for you to replace often then to have a quality product that you can have repaired.

We've had several in our family buy laptop computers only to have to replace them right after the one year warranty expired. The store had to give me a new laptop just before the one year expired because the screen completely fell off, the keyboard needed to be replaced and I can't remember what else.

It's money, money, money and nothing else.

I have some items in my storage... like malted milk that I don't use on a daily basis because I like to be able to see my feet. But it would be a tremendous comfort "food" for me in an emergency. I'm thinking about re-packing it in jars with the foodsaver, but don't know if that'll be helping the storage time or making it worse.

[mrmarklin]

I disagree with this point. I know NO ONE who has ever been able to scrape up six months living expenses. Once people get a few thousand in the bank it gets spent.

We survived 9 months of me not working on Unemployement insurance (I was only earning $9.00 hr previous.) with a family of 5.

We had very little money in the bank. We survived by having ten months or so of food storage, having very little debt and puttng a few extra cents on the phone power etc each month for 3 years.

I know many people who have 6 months of $$ in the bank, and other resources as well. Low debt is a corollary to money in the bank. Have you ever noticed people that have no debt have money in the bank? The Church advocates NO debt. It's in the pamphlet, which apparently none of you have read.

I'll reiterate: 72 hour food supply is your basic. Go for that. It will help you until someone can come to bail you out of whatever emergency happens. Major food storage is all fine and dandy, but the reality is that for the majority of us who live in urban areas, the real limiting factor in survival is water. Who stores two years of that? And where??

All foods have a shelf life, no matter how they are packaged. Which means that unless you are disciplined enough to rotate your storage it will rot. And if you are that disciplined, why aren't you saving money????

I'd lay very long odds that malted milk has a very short shelf life.

[mrmarklin]

Absolutely. I think you should have 6 months of expenses saved, but not at the expense of food storage. It's easier to buy two cans of mandarin orange for a buck than to put that buck into a savings account.

You're kidding, right?????

[UrbanFool]

Not when the next month mandarin oranges are 75 cents each and you never see them again for 2 for a buck. It's insurance against inflation.

We have no money in the bank. We have no credit card or car payments, but we do have medical bills. Every time we get some money saved up, the car will break down or something. It's a cycle that never stops.

[Dbuild]

If you are on a tight budget with no space and are nomadic then you need high calorie, high fat. Forget the grains till you have settled down. 8 years ago (early 20s) I survived on peanut butter for 9 months. I fealt fine other than being homless for 3 of those months and living out of my truck for the coldest part of the year. That kind of sucked. i caught a few fish and had a few odd ball jobs to get me through. I just bought peanut butter. It was enough to get me to spring where I found a job and got a place to rent. Now I make good money, but don't know how long this economy will hold up. I have 160 40 oz jars of the stuff in storage. It was the first thing I started doing when I got the chance. They don't take up much space and would last me a year. I also have an assortment of other foods and grains. But if you are poe then peanut butter is an option. I am 6'3" and am fatter than I used to be. But I maintained a strong weight of 225 pounds for 9 months (215 at the end of winter I think) on a 90% diet of peanut butter. No kidding. If you are little people I am sure that 160 jars would last you longer per person.

The only problem is that these jars are like 3 to 6 years old. I am sure they are still good but I don't eat peanut butter much anymore. I think I will start giving them away and just replace half of them.

That being said, you can live on peanut butter. You can get it easily. If you keep it out of the sun I am sure it will last 10 years? I tried some that was 6 years old. It was fine. Maybe a little more bitter. It does not take up a lot of space for the calorie punch it gives.

[lindapruss]

food storage in a NUTSHELL is a great book. I purchased 2. $19 investment! LDS websites are the best source though. We all know how it feels, that first panic........start small..........just start. I'm broke and living on one small ssi check and it took me exactly one year to have a years supply without going crazy and without making myself crazy. Being a carb lover I got my 2 50 lb bags of HGI Flour from Honeyville grain so I can make bread, pasta immediately. i think it will be very stressful to depend on grinding the first month or so and the HGI Flour has given me the BEST bread ever! Cooking with food storage is a great site too! I am learning how to make flat (indian) bread too. NO RISING! Cook in a fry pan (cast iron) on stove or fire....BREAD YUM! Pasta, no problem...don't need machine, just roll out in a sheet, roll up like a jelly roll and slice..easy peasy. Trust God to give you the wisdom when you need it. We women will all come together and lift each other up! take a deep breath! rejoice in what you accomplish and don't fret about what you don't have. God always provides. He won't have his people begging in the streets.