It's about time for another food storage post

The window seat Brandon made me for Christmas doesn't just hold things on the outside.  It also has a ton of storage space on the inside.  Last week Brandon moved a lot of our extra food from the cupboard under the sink to the window seat.  I think this doubled the amount of storage space in our apartment.  It's weird to go to the cupboard, open the door, and see space instead of cans and sacks and other things.  In case you are wondering, a lot of this stuff is from WIC.  We just don't go through beans, juice, or cereal, as fast as they think we should.  Milk on the other hand we go through like crazy.

Anyway, in honor of having more space to actually store food storage I thought I'd post a few of my food storage tips.  This is from a presentation I gave to my friend's Singles Ward Relief Society a few months ago.  


Before we start I need to define what I consider an emergency.  Everyone always thinks about an emergency as being "The Big One."  Mass property destruction,  displaced people, the break down of civilization as we know it, and so one.  In my mind an emergency can be smaller than that.  Something as simple as a water pipe breaking, the power going off, or even unemployment.  These things are more likely to happen than a huge earthquake, tornado, windstorm, ect.  I'm not saying earthquakes and other natural disasters won't happen.  I'm just saying that it's more likely a power line is going to get knocked down by a tree branch.    

I based my presentation on the suggestions found inside the church's pamphlet "All is Safely Gathered In."  You'd think with a title like that it would be full of detailed instructions.  Instead the thing is barely 4 pages.  Actually is more like 2 pages because the cover is just a picture and the back is just a quote.  I love that it is simple because the ideas behind food storage are simple.  Here they are with my thoughts and anecdotes:

DRINKING WATER:

Storing drinking water is the easiest food storagy thing to do.  You can start doing it today.  Right now.  Just fill up empty water/soda pop/juice bottles with tap water and put them in your fridge.  Ta da, you are done.  

I know that some people are concerned about things like BPA and stuff like that, so if that is you then you don't have to actually drink out of your stored water on a regular basis.  Just keep it in the back of your fridge until a real emergency occurs and I guarantee, when that happens you will be grateful for that potentially BPA contaminated water.   For those of you who are not concerned about BPA here are two reasons that storing tap water in bottles is a good idea.  1.  It's a food grade container.  Meaning it's designed to hold a liquid intended for drinking.  And 2. Tap water is just as good for you as bottled water.  The FDA which is in charge of quality for bottled water just uses the standards that the EPA has already set for the quality of drinking water.  The quality of taste may be different to you, but the quality of purity is the same.   

Here are some extra hints about storing water.  

Store extra water in your freezer.  Freezers work more efficiently when they are full. Also, in case of a power outage everything in the freezer will act as ice packs and keep each other cold longer. So if you have a half-full freezer just fill up the other half with water.  Go do it now.

Place an extra water bottle behind your toilet.  This will give you an extra flush in case the water is turned off and you really have to go.  

These tips wont give you ALL the water you need in case of a large scale water problem that lasts for days, but they will help you out in the small emergencies that, as I said, are more likely to happen.  Don't believe me, here are two experiences Brandon and I had with water.  

The first one happened in February 2010.  I got up, showered, toweled off, and turned on the faucet to brush my teeth.  The water was off.  In the 30 seconds between finishing my shower, and trying to brush my teeth the water pipe for my street had burst.  I was lucky that I'd finished showering.  I brushed my teeth without water, finished getting ready, and headed out the door for work.  It was just a isolated problem so I knew there would be water at work.  Brandon wasn't so lucky.  He didn't have school or work that day and so was home in a house without water.  We'd been lazy and hadn't refilled any of our fridge water bottles so he didn't have any drinking water.  He had to go across the street to the store to fill up a small water bottle and to use the bathroom.  He was very happy when the pipe was fixed in the afternoon and the water was back.  

The second story happened in September 2010.  By then we had moved to our current apartment.  One of the other apartments in our building had a leaky washer hookup valve.  In order to fix the valve the apt maintenance people had to turn off the water to the whole building.  12 apartments were left without water at about 9:00 PM.  Brandon and I had learned our lesson from the earlier experience so we had plenty of water.  It was a little annoying to not have running water, but we had enough to drink and to brush our teeth with. The water was back on by morning.
 

THREE MONTH SUPPLY OF FOOD

I'm guessing that freeze dried meals that last 30 years aren't part of your daily diet.  Then why do you think you need to go out and buy them in order to have "food storage?"  Same with having large amounts of wheat, oatmeal, dried beans, etc.  If you don't eat it now, then you shouldn't start your food storage by buying it.  (More power to you if you do eat those things on a regular basis.)  

Your initial food storage should be made up of things you already eat. Think about it, if there was a small scale emergency which would you open up first: a 5 gallon bucket of wheat, or a can of fruit cocktail?  If there was a large scale emergency I think I would still eat my regular food first.  

Not having an ingredient when you need it can be considered an emergency.  Brandon and I always try to keep an extra box, bag, can, or whatever of everything we like to eat.  For example we try to have a jar of Miracle Whip that we are using and then an extra one in the back of the fridge for when the first one is empty.  Then once we open the second one we add Miracle Whip to our shopping list.  It's so nice to always know that we have an extra of everything on hand.   

When Brandon quit his job we knew we didn't have enough food storage to get us to whenever he got a new one.  But we did have some food storage.  We are very grateful for the food that we received from the Bishop's Storehouse.  But we are also very thankful that there were some things we didn't need to ask for.  We still have sugar, tomato sauce, pineapple, fruit cocktail, and a few other things that we bought at case lots sales when Brandon did have a job.  

And I can say that having relied on the Bishop's Storehouse for most of our food for the past 4 1/2 months there are some things I'm going to make sure we stock up on. Namely; chips, Lynn Wilson Burritos, and pepperoni.  I've missed those things.

    

THREE MONTH SUPPLY OF NON-FOOD ITEMS

This topic isn't covered in the "All is Safely Gathered In" pamphlet.  I think it should be.  You need to have extras of all your non-food items.  Things like shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, household cleaners, tampons, make up, etc.  Life as you know it depends on these things.  Think about how big of an "emergency" it would be if you got into the shower, got your hair wet, and then realized you were completely out of shampoo.  

Even if you weren't in the shower it could be considered an "emergency."  And what if it was several days until payday?  You'd still go out and buy the shampoo today.  And you'd possibly notice a lot of other stuff to buy and end up spending more money you don't have.  But what if you had an extra bottle of shampoo tucked away in your closet? All you'd have to do is grab the bottle and make a note to buy more when you got paid.     

Brandon was unemployed for 4 1/2 months.  Through that whole time we had enough deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, soap, make up, and face wash stuff.  I'm glad too because I'm really loyal to my brands and I just don't know if I could have used the Bishops Storehouse 2 in 1 shampoo and conditioner.  I would have been grateful for it, but I probably would have hated my hair for 4 1/2 months.    

And what about a large scale emergency?  Will any of this stuff be useful?  Heck yes.  Having things you are used to is important to help maintain your emotional state during a disaster.  I often joke that I'm putting mascara into my 72 hour kit because if there is a disaster I want to look good when they interview me on the 6:00 o'clock news.  

FINANCIAL RESERVE

Brandon never would have quit his job if we didn't have 3 months of savings in the bank.  Thanks to a large tax return last year we were able to pay off our jeep, but some needed/fun stuff, and then put the rest into savings.  We knew we had all of our expenses covered in case of an emergency.  When Brandon started being treated like slave labor we told each other that if one more thing happened he would quit and we'd live off the savings while looking for a new job.  The "one more thing" ended up being a schedule that required him to be gone 10 hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  We did not like the thought of what a lack of any regular weekend days would do to our marriage or our ability to be active in church.  So with a lot of faith he turned in his two weeks notice.

And we made it!  It got a little dicey at the end, but Brandon was able to earn extra money doing handyman jobs. We had enough money to pay all our bills in full and on time the whole time he was unemployed.  Plus were were able to fully participate in church meeting and activities.  Best of all, our marriage improved because I was no longer married to a zombie.          

Okay three months of savings is a little daunting, especially without the aid of two kids to give you a huge Earned Income Credit.  So how do you do it normally?  The same with anything else, start small and with what you can do now.  If all you can save is five dollars then Save The Five Dollars!  Don't procrastinate starting to save just because you can't save a lot.   

And you aren't just saving for a rainy day.  You could be saving for a sunny day too.  One of the greatest moments of my life was when I bought my wedding dress.  I'd spent several hours picking out the dress, the veil, the shoes, and the jewelry.  Another girl had been there almost the whole time I had.  When it came time for us to pay for the dresses she was on the phone begging her dad, "Please Daddy, they need me to pay now so it can be altered.  If you pay for this one thing I won't ask you to pay for anything else.  Pleeeeeeease." I don't know what his answer was.  I was too distracted by the thrill of handing my debit card to the cashier and knowing that I was paying for my own dress with my own money.  

One more tip about saving money.  Keep a few dollars in cash in your wallet.  ATM's and card swipy machines wont work if the power gets knocked out in an emergency.  You'll want that money just in case you do need to run to the store -which hopefully you wont because you will have everything you need already stored at home.

Even if there isn't a disaster there may be another type of situation where you need cash.  When Brandon and I took the girls to the Copper Mine we were surprised that the entrance station only took cash.  We aren't cash people (it's too easy to spend without any accountability) so this could have been really annoying for us.  Luckily Brandon usually has a few dollars tucked away in his wallet so we were able to go see the mine without backtracking to an ATM.    

LONGER TERM SUPPLY

The final thing the pamphlet discusses is a to establish a longer term supply.  This is where you buy food like freeze dried meals, giant drums of dried apples, and other things that come to mind when you usually talk about "food storage." I didn't talk about this much in my presentation and I wont spend too much time on it here.  It's something I dream about, but it is not fiscally or physically possible to achieve right now.  I'll just quote what the pamphlet says, "Do not go to extremes; it is not prudent, for example, to go into debt to establish your food supply all at once."

I love food storage!

I used to think that food storage was for old people. Or at least for people with basements with space to store lots of food. Then I got married and moved into a married student ward. The first week I attended the ward the Relief Society lesson was on food storage. The teacher asked everyone to share the ways they practise food storage. I was amazed as I listened to young, poor college students share what they did to have extra food. The strategies they used weren't spectacular but they were practical and appropriate for the stage of life we were all in.

Since that day almost 4 years ago I have come up with several of my own food storage strategies. Here they are in no particular order. These pictures are from our most recent stock up shopping trip. (We were getting pretty low on some stuff)

1. Be ahead This is my main strategy. I always try to have one extra bottle, box, tube, canister, or whatever of everything I use. That way I never really run out of anything. If I use the "last" of the miracle whip I can grab the extra jar in the cupboard. It saves me from running to the store for random things. During our most recent food storage stock up trip Brandon and I bought enough things to have 3 extra items on hand of the things we use like salsa, syrup, and formula.

2. Buy what we use Despite the recent disaster in Japan I still think it is much more likely that we will suffer from a reduced income rather than a natural disaster. So Brandon and I don't have any MRE's or other "emergency food." Instead we have stocked up on the food we know and love. We have lots of chili, canned tomatoes, cream of mushroom soup, baking cocoa, etc. We also have lots of non-food things like dishwasher soap. I make sure I have enough makeup and other beauty supplies to last awhile.

3. Take advantage of case lots sales Our first food storage item was a case of tomato sauce that we bought for about $3 at case lots. We always try to buy at least one thing at the case lots sale. I like the sales because buying cans in cases makes them really easy to put into my cart and to store at home.

4. Don't get hung up on trying to find the best deal. I know there are people who are able to keep track of the all the store that are having sales and use coupons to buy tons of food for pennies. I am not one of these people. Maybe one day I will become one of them, but not now.

For now I keep track of the sales at one store - Smiths Marketplace. I've been shopping there long enough now that I know when things are a good deal. When I see something on sale - and it is something I use - I will buy it and maybe several extras. Sure it might be cheaper somewhere else, but I don't have the time or sanity to bother with finding out about the sale, driving to the store, and trying to find the item in an unfamiliar place.

5. Don't ignore the non-food stuff. It is just as much of a disaster if I run out of toilet paper as if I run out of milk - probably more so. So I make sure that we have enough toilet paper. I also keep extra cleaning stuff and soap around.

So there you have some of our food storage strategies. I encourage you to try to save a little bit extra too. The piece of mind is worth it.

Emergency Prepardness Fair

So we had our "baby" on Saturday. We have been working on this fair for about 3 months. It turned out wonderfully. Here are some highlights.

This poster is an abbreviation of our slogan for this calling. The full quote from Spencer W Kimball is, "Preparedness, when properly pursued, is not a sudden spectacular program. It is a way of life." This is really what we strove to show during the fair. That preparedness isn't something you do once. It is something you do everyday.


We outlined the letters on Tuesday. This was super easy for us. (I'm the great granddaughter of a printer and Brandon is the son of a printer.) We used a spacing method for the alphabet that I made up over 6 years ago for Cross stitching. With a little tweaking it worked really well.

Then on Friday night we colored in the letters with these really cool paint markers that we found.
I promise I helped with this too.
Saturday morning we loaded up the jeep with displays, equipment, prizes, and tons of other stuff. I doubt we will pack this much for our 9 day camping trip in 2 weeks.
We even packed my plants.
We spent about 2 1/2 hours setting up and getting everyone situated. Then at 11:00 tons of people started showing up.
Some of the things that helped draw the crowd were the great prizes that we gave out.
The grand prize was a baking starter kit.
We bought some of the prizes with Stake money, but most of the prizes were donated by Lee's Marketplace and The Trailhead.
The only downside was that the microphone wasn't working. So every fifteen minutes Brandon had to yell out the names of the winners.
Lots of people came to the fair. The were able to talk with professional groups and people their own age about emergency preparedness. Here are some of the 20 plus booths.

This display was about making your own bread.I did a display on window box gardening.
Here is a display about freezer jam. (I hung out at this one for a while and sampled all the flavors)
Logan City Fire department came and brought some cool stuff. They even gave out carbon monoxide detectors to those with low incomes (which is just about everyone in a student stake)
Brandon did a booth on camping equipment as survival equipment. He puts it this way, "if the electricity goes out- your evening at home just turned into a camping trip."
We even set up our tent.
We also had a display from the Logan Cannery.
And Questar Gas came with scratch and sniff stickers so you could smell what natural gas smells like.
I was so excited by the number of people that attended. I was surprised at how long the people stayed. There were people who were there at 11:00 that I saw an hour later, still enjoying themselves.
I'm proud that we filled the gym.
And I am proud of how hard Brandon worked. He coordinated most of this event. I helped with the big picture, but it was Brandon that called the volunteers, asked for the donations, scheduled the building, delegated, and oversaw so much. He learned a lot about himself in the process.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time to help setup and take down, and who put together displays. And thanks to everyone who came.

Food Storage

Brandon and I have a simple food storage system. Our goal is to be at least 1 item ahead on most everything.
For example, we have the shampoo we are using and then we have one more bottle waiting in the cupboard.
When the bottle we are using runs out, we grab the one in the cupboard, make a mental note to buy another, and buy it the next time we go to the store to "stock up."
Because of the way the calender worked out we had a smaller paycheck for the second half of February (curse you and your 28 days) and then a long time between the March 7th paycheck and the March 22nd one.
Things got a little interesting at our house.
We used up everything! Deodorant, Laundry Soap, toothpaste, strawberry jelly, toilet paper, baking cocoa, dishwasher soap, sandwich baggies, hair moose, etc.
Luckily we had our extras. I am so glad that we had the forethought to buy things even though we hadn't run out of them yet.
Last night we went to the store and replenished the things that we had used the past 3 weeks.
It is so nice to have a nicely stocked house again.
And since March has 31 days I should be getting a larger paycheck next time. Which means we can stock up even more.

Disclaimer - These pictures were taken last night, but we didn't buy everything you see in these pictures at the store last night.