Posted on 07/24/2011 1:08:37 PM PDT by Mamzelle
All of my usual stores are rearranging and changing what they put on their shelves. I'm sensing that the big uptick in prices will start to arrive shortly, maybe before Christmas. I'm interested to hear what the impressions of FRugal Freepers. What are you seeing? What will you be buying in quanity before TSHTF?
You’re welcome!
The losers are livin’ the “good” life on borrowed time with stolen wealth. They will soon fall into the giant sinkhole of death and hell, the abyss dug out with Obama’s stash.
Righteousness is the way of truth, and the reward is life. Liars, cheats, and assorted scam artists are following the lead of liar Obama and his host of thieving Congresscritters, straight into the bottomless pit.
Here is the patience and faith of the saints.
I have this in all the flavors offered. I use it in a lot of dishes as seasoning. I find it too salty for a broth, as is, though. I also stock the regular individually wrapped cubed boullion which needs no refrigeration once opened, unlike the Better Than Boullion. The cubes also go into my husband’s Get Home bag.
The canned broth from Aldi’s is for times when water is in short supply. It makes a quick soup base or pan gravy when I don’t have my own stock or adds flavor w/o a lot of extra salt to rice or pasta. One brand from Aldi’s, Chef’s Cupboard, is often available for .49/ea. It heats quickly in an emergency and is good for someone rehydrating after GI illness.
For now, with all the conveniences available, I have the luxury of making stock. I use carcasses,other meat bones, scraps and the liquid from canned/cooked vegetables, using the Better Than Boullion, if I need to, intensify the flavor. I store the canned broth, which has a stamped 2-year shelf life, for when that luxury isn’t possible.
I do have lots of work, just don’t like socialists heh.
In my area, about 10 years ago or so, they went on a crusade to get rid of gravity systems. All it took was one system failure and the septic company had to notify the County Sanitarian. Almost no one got a permit to build a new gravity system. Everything had to be mound or pumps.
So far, it has been 10 years for us on the pump system and we have had one failure. We had drenching rains over a week or so and the ground was saturated. Everyone had cellar/basement flooding. The first tank had just been pumped, but still filled up and the power went out exactly at the same moment as someone flushed the toilet at 2 am. The result was a massive backup into the bathroom.
The circumstances were extreme and hopefully will not be repeated. We have a good generator and I will use the septic system when the generator is running. Otherwise, we just let the genny run to pump out the tank, limit toilet and other drain use and camp in our home until power is restored.
We had a dry well back when our system was gravity. It gave us some leeway in emergencies. The Sanitarian absolutely hates them, though and condemned all the old systems ASAP.
We have two parcels available for a drain field if we ever have to switch back to a gravity septic system. Rebuilding the old drain field would be a chore, but since it was done 50 years ago, it could be done again.
NIDO dried whole milk by Nestle is available in stores with an Hispanic section.
King Arthur Flour has a dried whole milk that takes a whisk and hot water to reconstitute and is more expensive than the NIDO.
I think the Parmalat is ultra high pasteurized, so it is *cooked*. It also really has only a 6-month shelf life and then maybe another week in the refrigerator, once opened.
For cooking, there is also Nestle canned Media Crema table cream. It is really thick and can be whipped or diluted to taste. It is also found in the Hispanic section, comes in very small quantities, is expensive, but is good in a pinch.
Ok - understand. If there were some way we could sponsor dual citizenship for each other, that would be cool. You could come down here and enjoy the pay and taxes, until we flip over to Third World (a year or two), and then I’ll live out my life up there.
LOL.
The second or third day of the heat wave, here, we must have had voltage cuts. My efficient, through-the-wall a/c that keeps 2 rooms w/computers/TV/media livable kept blowing its circuit breaker. The situation lasted about an hour and was early in the day, about right for everyone starting up their appliances and a/c.
I am not looking forward to my July power bill.
It is a little one-shot called 6th Street Market. It claims to sell everything for cost + 10%. $3.76 is the cost out the door. The place gets oddlots as well as lines of inferior stuff. It is a good place to buy some things but most stuff is cheaper at WalMart. The coffee appeared about three months ago and has been restocked a couple of times. I just found the stuff on line at javatimecoffee.com for a picture of the label. I googled "java time" coffee and came up with several sellers of it, all claiming to be "gourmet." Maybe the coffee in 6th St. is all an auctioned leftover shipment or something. Anyhow, it's good stuff.
I cannot imagine relying on household help in times like the ones ahead. Not only would I feel insecure, unless I spoke their language fluently, I would feel uncomfortable that they could speak in my presence w/o me understanding. I have reservations about commercial security companies if the times get really hard, as well.
One of my few remaining luxuries is a monthly house cleaning. Two very conservative ladies I have known for decades and whom I can trust implicitly. I often work side-by-side with them. That said, I don’t even like to entrust the major shopping to my husband. Especially now, with brand substitutions, changes and shortages. He has gotten better at it, but I have prices and quantity/quality information in my head and he doesn’t. I will go to several stores and he usually won’t.
My wealthy conservative friends have stated that they are not going to rely on money and they are all learning, relearning or sharpening their survival skills. Most have come up from poorer beginnings and made their money via hard work in their own businesses. The ones who are politically active have seen their bids for Federal contracts decline or become non-existent. The self-employed professionals are stocking up on items not usually available to the general public and are setting up secure storage for things that would be targets for looters/thieves.
If nothing else, everyone will be beating inflation and shortages and have useful hobbies.
Great information. Thank you.
Should I ‘ping’ reminders to you to catch your blog up? :)
It's called "resets". A major one happens once a year with two mini ones happening twice a year.
They will shuffle out things and flavors that did not go over so well or are no longer trendy and bring in the next hot thing.
I have pretty good luck with mine. Keep it in the original bag in a Tupperware cannister. Only take it out of refrig. long enough to spoon out what I need and then immediately back in refrig. That reduces sweating inside the container.
Using Fleishman’s right now, but really prefer Red Star yeast.
Management would be getting all kinds of clues from HQ about what we can really expect.
I have family highly placed in a very large grocery store chain. Trust me, its a reactive business model. The price of cereal is the price of cereal. The stores don't buy it on the future's market and for many items the manufacturer/supplier "rents" the shelf space from the grocer.
When you get a sales flyer that shows bananas, toilet paper and soda, the price you see is often less than the store's cost. The prices in the flyer are guided somewhat by historical prices, but prices in general are based on what the other guy is selling the same product for. IOW, the prices for products in most stores are set in Bentonville Arkansas.
Hubby is going to till me another garden in a few weeks, once our baby girl gets here and I can move a bit more freely! I’m planting red winter wheat in it. I already have the seed. My project next spring? Beekeeping. I’ve found our local beekeeper’s society and I plan on contacting them in January. My DH just rolls his eyes, but he knows that all my little “projects” like this have so far paid off!
The best bet is to hunt and peck for things to save. Though it takes considerable thought, one way to keep your composure is to timetable.
Start with your geography. Is there fresh water about year ‘round? If not, it would be good to stock up a few water filters, because there is generally non-potable water that could be made fresh. And because people must have fresh water, if there is none, they’ll put all their resources into getting it. So shortages can’t last too long, or most people will have to scram.
So using this type logic, figure out what you must have, and for how long, of each particular thing. You’ll probably discover that a lot of what you were planning to save is not really needed, at least in the quantity you were thinking. And saving up too much just means you’ll have to throw it out.
Make sure you freeze the rice and pasta to kill any bug eggs that may be present or you will be unable to use it.
Thx.....good advice
You can buy powdered milk in advance. It also comes freeze dried in nitrogen packed #10 cans and seems to store well. I just opened some I purchased a couple of years ago and it was good.
May I recommend: http://www.whenshtf.com/forum.php
They were having issues with a virus attack, but it seems to be resolved now. Great stuff there.
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.