Posted on 12/30/2010 2:24:04 PM PST by Doctor Prepper
So you’ve begun or are beginning the essential process of obtaining and storing foods and supplies. And you’ve done your first assessment of what you will need. In this article, we will discuss the in-and outs of the buying process. It should go without saying that you need to follow good dietary guidelines using the four food groups when making your plans. Now, there are certain advantages to buying your supplies on an incremental basis instead of all at once. Incremental buying doesn’t require as much of an outlay of cash and it doesn’t attract as much attention.
The Importance on How you buy your supplies
(The downsides to obtaining your supplies all at once)
The two extremes in obtaining your supplies could be characterized as the All-At-Once method or by an incremental approach. At the other end of the scale you may wish to just add a few emergency supply items to your normal grocery shopping lists and gradually build up your supplies this is the incremental approach.
First of all, if you’re following this series you will realize that we can’t emphasize enough that you need to Sequentially prepare. One big stock-up of food may be easy, but it also may spoil before it’s used, it would be much better to have a constantly refreshed supply of food at the ready.
Cost
Buying all of your supplies at one time requires a major outlay of cash besides the logistical issues with obtaining and storing that amount of supplies AAO.
Bulk purchases can save you money, but you need to temper that thought with the how much it’ll cost and that certain people and you neighbors may raise a few eyebrows if you run out an buy ½ ton of rice.
Attracting Attention
If you’re like me, when you see a family pushing a overloaded flatbed up to the cashier at the local bulk food store, the thought always goes through your mind ‘What do they know that I don’t’? Most of the time this is really a stock up trip for a growing family, but this type of thing may garner some unwanted attention from neighbors, friends and higher ups.
We know of the moral dilemma of sharing with others, but if you become ‘known’ in the neighborhood as someone who has lots of ‘extra’ food, what’s going to happen if and when TSHTF?
Sequentially buying advantages.
Sequentially buying your supplies means adding a few extra items to you normal shopping lists or going for supply runs in small increments. This will ensure a spreading out of use-by dates, lower costs as well as being much less obvious.
Again, not to continue to rain blows upon a deceased equine, the main point of this series is to get you to determine what you family needs in case of emergency. And to purchase these needs on a continual basis.
Use by dates.
One of the most important tasks when prepping is to research the use buy dates on your supplies. Get yourself a good magnifying glass and a flashlight (or a combo thereof) and learn what is the significance of these dates in prepping.
A lot of the times these dates are simply a CYA measure on the part of manufacturer, but they can impart some very good information on the shelf longevity of your supplies.
If you assume that they all use roughly the same factor in spoilage, you can use this data to compare the shelf lives of different foods you may buy.
As a general rule of thumb, the more Robust the food container, the longer it’s shelf life. The more the manufacturer can be assured that the food will remain preserved in its container, the longer the use by date range.
The longest will of course be canned goods – in a relative sense these are at the higher end of the container toughness scale. The biggest danger has to be that the seals at the end of the can that may fail if dented.
Glass bottles are close second to cans with the Date Intervals getting shorter with plastic packaging, pouches and paper. The other end of the scale would be no packaging at all – fresh fruits and vegetables.
A lot depends on particular food being stored – but this can at least be a start in how you look at buying and cycling your supplies.
But do some research on this on you own – compare the use-by dates of a Canned product with the same food in a plastic container or pouch. There often will be a vast difference in the shelf life these products. There is a downside in taste and texture to the relative longevity of a canned food but that’s just they way things work out sometimes.
The other factor will be the relative robustness of the food within the container - some foods will stand up to the rigors of processing and canning than others.
Always keep in mind that that most stores rotate their stock – most of the time. They will put the new stock on the back of the shelf leaving the oldest on the front.
This is yet another reason to always check the dates on the product.
We have sometimes found out of date products still on the shelves, and while they may still be useable, you certainly don’t want to buy these products for long term storage.
Buy with Cash.
Let’s face facts, your have to assume if there is paper trail that a number of people will know about it.
You definitely want to avoid this as much as possible, you also will want to avoid using those frequent shopper cards and membership cards from the price club places as much as possible.
If you normally buy your groceries this way, consider this yet another good reason to add a few extra emergency items to you list every week.
You can also go with a two-prong strategy – piggy back some of your supplies on your normal purchases, but also make so stock up runs using only cash form stores that don’t use those frequent shoppers cards.
Consider also that the price club places – Costco, BJ’s, Sam’s Club will sometimes have promotions that let non-members shop at their stores. Take advantage of these – even if you are a member- to stock up on some longer shelf life items suing cash only.
Now, why do we emphasize these points? Well, to be blunt about it, if certain groups have gone and decided that that you may have too much money and want tax it from you, whats would stop them from deciding that you have stocked up on ‘too much’ food during a crisis?
We admit it’s it a bit far-fetched, but why take the chance? Would you like someone to publicize who has ‘stocked-up’ and virtually assuring that an angry mob will show up on your doorstep demanding a ‘Fair-share’ of your food supplies?
Storage
Once your Assessed your needs and have started to buy them, you will need to store these supplies. Like everything else, you are going to need to take into account your own family’s situation, but the first task is to mark the use-by dates in large numbers on the containers or cases. There’s No sense having to squint to see the dates all the time.
In general, you may want to go with a two-tied storage system. Have one pantry with your daily need and a separate setup of your long-term emergency supplies.
In this type of system, you will at first store you more recent acquisitions in long term storage and then shift them to you main pantry as the near their use-by dates.
For you long term storage, consider grouping similar foods and storage containers together – they will have similar shelf lives.
And please, for all that is holly, take a page from the retail food stores and rotate your stock – put the new items in the back and the older stuff in the front. One method would be to buy or construct some can racks that let you put the newer stuff in front and dispense the older items on the bottom.
Ping
Wow,
can you believe its been over 10 years since the 1999 doomsday nutter’s ran amuck buying up all the end of the world stuff?
You fail at it.
determine what you family needs
add a few extra emergency items to you list
you may want to go with a two-tied storage system
you will at first store you more recent acquisitions
shift them to you main pantry
For you long term storage
I’ve read others suggesting you stock up on guns and ammo, which don’t spoil and will make sure you get all the food you need.
> ... you neighbors may raise a few eyebrows if you run out an buy ½ ton of rice.
Not a problem. My wife, who never had enough to eat while growing up, is a food hoarder. She easily has 2 tons of rice stored away. If they stopped selling food tomorrow, we’d probably be good for 2 years.
Cans are not what they used to be. I prefer the fully sealed cans to those that have tabs. Then there’s coffee. Bought 2 large cans only to find out that they have a plastic pull tab seal. Somehow I don’t think these will last long.
My primary WSHTF supply is lead.
And dirt. I have more and more really good dirt. Which I can protect with lead.
Sometime proof reading doesn’t catch all the mistakes – our apologies.
The information we’re trying to impart is more important than whether a typo or misspelling was caught.
Have you done anything to prepare?
Can I freeze white rice, or will that ruin it?
Our? Others helped write this and didn't catch those mistakes?
Have you done anything to prepare?
Well, I haven't written any third-grade quality vanities about it.
The rest I don't publicize.
Freeze it for a couple of weeks in the coldest part of your freezer, then store it in a dark, cool, DRY place, and it will keep for a nice, long time.
Thanks for the response. I’ve had a lot of it frozen for longer than a couple weeks, more like several months. Is it going to be mush?
Part of the reason we are engaging in this exercise is to cajole some people into doing some prepping – some may not have property to grow or hunt their own.
But they need to do something whatever their circumstances.
Wow. Who peed in your Cheerios this morning?
Do you actually have anything useful to add to the conversation?
I don’t consider most folks such a bunch of dumbasses as to need coaching on this stuff.
And if I did, I’d do the coaching in proper English, so as not to seem like a dumbass myself.
Do you frequently need advice from dumbasses?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.