I have been trying to add a few cans and items a month for my emergency food supply for the past year or so.
I also buy meat when on sale to freeze because prices have been climbing and they go on sale less often.
My supply came in handy with all the snow we had last winter and we couldn’t get to the store. I had been building that supply back up since then but it pretty much got wiped out when the idiots at my local DFS decided to screw with me.
I was up for renewal for both food stamps and medicaid and got all my paper work in on time but it turned into a mess because they kept asking for things I had already provided, my application got “lost”, and a few other problems. They have been having problems there lately and the state has had to come in to clean it up but I don’t think it did any good. I have had my account moved to St. Louis even though I live over 2 hours away.
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So I went a month with out the food stamps and lost about a 5th of the next month. The good news was I got that all this month and I put it to good use.
I have bought several big cans of different food at the local outlet for a major food service company. Most of it in the reduced/damaged area. Most are in good condition and not worried about them going bad anytime soon and the rest I will use over the next few months.
At the Wal-Mart in another town they carry the 28 oz cans of Keystone canned meats. I bought 8 of the beef at $6.28 each. They had been $5 for a while when I didn’t have the money to buy any but my mom had bought a few cans. They also have turkey, chicken, pork and ground beef but we just get the beef. Worth looking for to see if your store carries them as they are just the meat and sea salt.
At Aldi’s I picked up a few cans of salmon and ham. I also get my natural peanut butter here unless I want crunchy and I get that at W-M.
My mom bought a new dehydrator and we will be using that to do veggies. She has a garden but it is mostly tomatoes. The ground hog got the beans and some of the spaghetti squash.
I also stock up on baking staples and plan to buy more when they go on sale around the holidays.
Right now the supply I have bought would feed me for about a month or so but if my family needed food also it would be about 2 weeks. My short term goal is 6 months for me or 3 months as a family. My mom also is buying for storage when she can.
I really need to start storing more water but I keep drinking it.
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I get $189 a month. I’m single, no kids, no car, I have the same Go Phone I bought in December of 2007 and I have several health issues that prevents me from working at any of the few jobs available in my area. I need to apply for disability but I keep putting it off. I live in a house owned by my parents but they are struggling like everyone else.
I rarely buy junk food or even packaged food. Yes I buy some but usually less than $10 a month if I do.
I usually shop sales, look at price per unit and by ingredients. Sometimes it is worth paying a little more to avoid some ingredients. Some items I only get name brand but most store brands are as good or even better.
Most states allow you to buy seeds and food plants and some you can go to farmers markets.
Last time I looked Schwans accepts EBT but I don’t know if that has limits like being home bound.
I get mine at the start of the month and my mom gets her Social security usually at the end of the month. We have an agreement that if a good deal comes up that we can’t pass up that whoever can buy it will and the other will help cover if they run low or out and need something.
In March Kroger had ground beef, half pork loins and corned beef on sale. I got 3 corned beef but they were out of the other so I got a rain check for up to 10 each. When I went back in April I was able to get the ten 3 lb packs of beef but only 3 of the loins. They were nice enough to give another rain check for the other 7. My mom bought those with her money the next time we went because I wouldn’t have had enough. I gave her some of the beef and I got some of the pork. I used up most of this meat when I had the issues with DFS.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to show that not every one uses EBT for all junk food and soda and using it to store at least a few weeks of food can come in handy for various situations from the weather to the government trying to screw things up.
Exactly as this poster has demonstrated, the SNAP/EBT card can go a long way. However, expect the occasional snafu with dropped coverage and lost paperwork.
My friend and I do the bulk of our shopping in the WalMarts of our respective locations. Were there an Aldi close enough to make it worth it, I would shop there too. Ditto the local ethnic market. [Caviat: I will still shop a good deal on packaged products at the local Hispanic market, but never again their “fresh” meats. If it seems too good to be true - it is!]
I also do what I call guerilla shopping in which I catch the weekly grocery store sales. New sales post every Wednesday. The trick of it is to restrict yourself to sales items that are a better deal than the regular prices at WM; also to refrain from adding junky filler-type foods to one’s diet only because of *oh but what a great price*. Hit the sales items like a warrior and fade out to shop another day, LOL.
True, it takes a little prepwork. But - keeping in mind that oftentimes the claimed ‘regular price’ is ridiculously high - I can attest that it is especially satisfying to walk out with a receipt that says I *saved” more than I spent in the store!
With regard to WalMart, lately they have been stretching their JIT (just-in-time) shipping too far. Or more likely, their staff are stretched too thin to shelve products sitting on the docks out back. At any rate, I’ve learned the hard way to build up my own backup supply of oft-used basics like bread and luncheon meat so that I’m not forced to buy a pricier substitute. Hmmmmmmmm, I wonder if that’s part of Wally World’s strategy...
Getting back to the weekly grocery sales, I never pay full price on hamburger any more. You can cook a bulk amount as loose meat, stuff it into freezer bags and fold the bags to form easily separated chunks to throw into soups & veggie dishes. There’s your protein-and-a-vegetable. Just squeeze a bit of expansion room along the edges too, before it freezes hard, while removing all the air you can to prevent freezer burn. I reckon you could do that with any cooked meat you wanted to shred off the bone before freezing.