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.
Good points,,,
Don’t forget the water,,,
At least a gallon per day per person...
Pointing out that the supposed "teacher" in this case happens to be illiterate..
Oh, I think that's quite relevant.
Go check the skirt on your trailer
Go haul your wife out of the ice house first.
I just don’t understand why like minded individuals on a site attack each other. I’m all about jumping on people. You don’t know who eschoire was. But some people deserve it. Where’s the love on FR? Hang in there and keep posting informative posts. If I wanted to attck someone, I’d go to DU. But I can’t stomach going there. (Been there once).
That’s a good idea, but you should have experience cooking those products without the benefit of the regular utilities.
Lighter and stick matches are one of those things people might not think about, but that has to be in the myriad of extra items you will need.
” Pointing out that the supposed “teacher” in this case happens to be illiterate..Oh, I think that’s quite relevant”
He/she isn’t teaching. The poster is inspiring thought. Take it or leave it. Just don’t piss on everyone elses parade.
No ice houses in Florida and not married to boot.
I understand your anger. You are narcissistic w/ intermittent explosive disorder. Perhaps bipolar with a co-occurriing disorder of obsessive-English disorder(OED). Am I far off??
Folks would take you more seriously if you wrote like an adult.
You insult people by assuming you know something they have not been aware of for years.
You further insult their intelligence by submitting your brilliance in the form of that written by a child.
Good on you for preparedness.
Doom on you for presentation.
No idea, I've never submitted myself to "diagnosis" of that nature.
No ice houses in Florida
There are tons, you may call them "roadhouses" or somesuch, but they are there.
” No idea, I’ve never submitted myself to “diagnosis” of that nature”
You should. It may be worth the co-pay.
That said, I’m going to go something worth my time. Enjoy your evening.
Well, that’s a start at least, maybe there’s hope for you yet.
To 19 - I think it is useful to point out when posts are submitted that are rife with poor grammar. This way the occasional lurker or non-member who looks in won’t leave with the opinion that everyone at FR is an illiterate.
To 25 - LOL. Yeah, tell me again that all conservatives are intelligent!
You may think it ok for a conservative site to feature submitted posts that read as if composed by an uneducated hillbilly but some of us here do not. Some of us do have standards, and good taste.
Or at least good taste.
Is you got enclement wether down their in texas? I hoping not but you get threw it if its a lot of snow. i’m gonna go to a demokrat websight now and laff at how stoopid they is. Don’t be forget to store up on a lot of food cause we wont be gettin any at the store beecus all the food is gonna run out
“You may think it ok for a conservative site to feature submitted posts that read as if composed by an uneducated hillbilly but some of us here do not. Some of us do have standards, and good taste”
Get over yourself. I can provide you plenty of examples of our supposed leaders misspelling or saying stupid stuff. This isn’t a spelling bee. If you have nothing better to do, perhaps you should be tutoring the less fortunate and earning a buck or two.
4 reels no food? i was n the store 2day lookt like
more then i cood eat LOL i’ll post more on myspace LOL
The poster of this thread isn't the leader of anything.
She/he/it presumes to lecture us using ghetto grammar.
Perhaps you allow such persons to lecture you.
I do not.
perhaps you should be tutoring the less fortunate
That is exactly what the poster of this thread attempts
to do, but without the requisite tools. Pity, that.
His homepage says that because he posted it to get under the skin of people like you. If the account had actually been banned or suspended you wouldn't be able to see his homepage.
I guess we can all see why that would be the case, but it doesn’t explain how he keeps on posting.
It explains how gullible some people are.
No, I won’t be ‘getting over myself’. There is a *minute* difference between an occasional lapse in grammar, or an errant word spelled incorrectly and a multi-paragraph composition which is rife with errors. At best, the person who composed it is lazy, at worst the person is a cretin.
How long have you had an account over at the DU???
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