Granny, thank you for starting this thread. I have the feeling that many will benefit in the long run.
I have been stocking up for a year, now. My pantries got so full, I had to clear our shelf space in my cupbords in the garage. (I could probably feed a ‘family’ of 30 illegal immigrants for a year.)
Right now, people tend to scoff at the thought that we might need to prepare for the future. Not for long, though, I don’t think. Take a serious look at what is happening to our economy, and to the value of our dollar.
What if? Those are the two words we need to remember, here. What if prices continue to rise for food, gas, utilities? What if there are shortages in the grocery stores?
Gas prices are skyrocketing. Close to (or even over, $4/gal. in some places in CA.)
Trucks that have to deliver food to our markets will have to charge more to compensate for that. (Many small trucking companies are shutting their doors because they can no longer make a profit).
Wheat and corn are at an all time high. There are water shortages in some areas. Poultry, beef and pork are rising costs. Remember when bacon was just over a dollar a package? (Like a little over a year ago.) Paper products are going through the roof. And, I don’t see anything that tells me it will get better.
Best to start preparing now, folks. Not in a “dooms-day-the-sky-is-falling-woe-is-me” attitude. Just an attitude of preparedness for whatever may happen to our economy down the road.
What would it take? Just a few dollars more a month to start. Watch for sale items. Two for one’s are usually marked up quite a bit, so know your prices. Check the ads every week, and use coupons - buy necessities that are on sale - make room for extras. Know what your family needs, and pick up one or two more of that necessity, each time you go to the market.
Don’t panic - or go overboard. Just slowly, start building a little bit of security for you and your family.
You can do it - and I hope (and pray) that it will go to good use - even if you have to say ‘yorkie’ was wrong, and then give it to a food bank next year.
What would it hurt to be prepared?
You are correct, all the way.
I am glad you are storing food, if you remember to rotate it, it will serve you well.
It took me years to convince my brother to put my bed frame on cement blocks, so boxes could be stored under it.
It works, amazing amount of storage space.
Look around, do you have a card table set up for holding this or that? replace it with sealed boxes of the newest foods and put a pretty sheet over it.......you may want a piece of thin plywood or that brown hard board on top of the boxes, under the sheet, if you need a hard surface.
I was born on a poor sharecroppers farm in Texas, if the crop was good, we got the extras, once a year, the rest of the time you made do with what you had.
So, I have always been a stockpiler and it has paid off more than once.
It is those unexpected things that makes you wish you had even more stored, as, when Bill walked in one morning and asked if I could take him to the hospital, [over 40 miles] as he thought he was having a heart attack.
It was 2 years before he could work again.
At that time, we lived in Wellton, AZ, then it had 200 people and almost no jobs for me.
We made it and my case lots helped, to take us over the hump to a job and survive.
I've always done that. I love it when they have to get the manager's key to unlock the register because it took so much money off. It's better than winning the lottery.
Mr. mm is always giving me a (little) hard time about all I have stocked up, but it's there when we need it and when there's a need, I can donate a bag of non-food groceries to help someone out. Food isn't always what's needed by people in financial straits. Toilet paper can be quite appreciated and doesn't spoil.