Bad Times Are Coming And Most Don't See It...Have you Prepared for this?

As of late, people have been shouting from the rooftops, “Be prepared!”  I’ve been a prepper for years, so to me, that is always great advice!  Clearly, the chaos that we have seen in the last 15 years alone shows us that we do need a level of preparedness.

The basic survival elements are shelter, fire, water, and food.  With the proper tools, 3 of those needs are easily created over and over again.  With a fire striker or magnifying glass, you can make endless fires.  With a good poncho, tent or tarp you will have shelter every day.  With a decent water filter, or the means to boil water, a person can have endless clean water to drink.  The only item that we cannot replenish easily and is very hard to come by in nature is food.  Let’s be honest…  There are natural plants, roots and bugs to eat, but I it will not give us the nutrition we need for our day to day survival.  And when it comes to hunting, not everyone has the ability or tools to hunt.  So to me, the number one prepping item we all need to work on stock pile is food.

Now, the chaos we’ve seen in this world varies in scope and location.  We’ve seen:

1) Economic Disaster (stock market crash)
2) Natural Disaster (tornado, earthquake, sink hole, mud slide, tsunami, storm, etc.)
3) Man-made Disaster (BP oil spill, Fukushima, train de-railment, etc.)
4) Personal Disaster (job loss, poor investment, loss of loved one, etc.)

With so many different situations, what exactly are we preparing for?  All of them!  Food is the one resource that will carry you through any situation.  Having food on hand can not only help you through a disaster, it can help ease your financial burdens during a job loss or financial crash.  Let’s look at the different ways you can start preparing today!

Preparing On A Budget

Many of us want to be prepared but cannot, due to cost restraints.  I have a plan for you that can keep the price low and can also spread the cost out over time.  You may not be able to spend $150 on food in one week, but you may be able to spend $20-25 a week over several weeks.  $25 worth of extra food can go a long way if you buy the right things.

Let’s start off with a budget of $150-175.  By purchasing smaller amounts over several weeks, you should be good for 6 months’ worth of emergency food.  Since this food is not deemed long term storage food, the stock will have to be rotated.  In other words, as you open and eat, replace with new from the store…  If you half your portions, it will last much longer.  I normally purchase at least 6-8 packages or cans (peanut butter, crackers, oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc.) to keep on hand at all times that we rotate through.  The good thing is that you will have food that you normally eat every day and not packaged foods that may not taste so great.

What Food To Purchase

Dry Goods:
Pasta, rice, instant potatoes, pancake mixes, cream of wheat, grits, oatmeal, (unbleached and unbromined) flour, powdered eggs, carnation instant breakfast mix, crackers, baking soda, yeast and powdered milk.

Meat/Protein Goods:
Large chicken bouillon cube container, same for beef bouillon cubes, canned chicken ($1.79/large can at Walmart), beef jerky, summer sausage, peanut butter and pinto beans (you can also get a variety of beans just to mix things up).

Canned/Bottled Goods:
Tomato sauce, Jars of jelly, various sauces and salad dressings to cook with, olive oil, honey, cheese in the squeezey cans, cases of canned fruits and vegetables.  Applesauce jars and sweet potatoes are a must as they are super cheap and offer good vitamins.  Sweet potatoes/yams offer the best vitamins.  (Make sure you buy food without High Fructose Corn Syrup.)

Additional Items To Add Variety And Fat Content: 
Granola bars with chocolate (cliff bars has the most fat content), instant jello puddings and pop tarts. These items are also moral boosters.

You Should Get These Spices To Make The Food More Palatable: 
Sugar,salt, pepper, season all, minced onion, parsley, butter flavored powder, garlic, and powdered soup mixes.

Necessary Items:
The majority of these foods stretch a long way and the right combination like brown rice and beans gives you the perfect protein combination.  You will definitely need protein sources or you will hurt your body.  That is why I always add high fat content items to my gear like bouillon cubes, powdered eggs and milk, canned cheese, peanut butter and the granola bars.

Why those items?  They are hardy meals that are super cheap, readily available, and easy to make.

Mix And Match

With these foods, you can create a variety of combinations to make meals more tolerable and diverse.  For rice and cream of wheat, you can add different variations to make the food different and appealing every night.  For one night, cook the rice with chicken or beef bouillon, for another night, use some butter flavored powder with salt and pepper, on another night, mix in one of the soup mixes and cut up some meat to add in.  You can do similar things with the cream of wheat (butter flavor with salt and pepper, sweet flavor, or add cheese salt and pepper).  So something that is actually pretty bland can be made interesting.

If Price Is No Object

If you are looking for pre-packaged, long term food storage (20+ year shelf life) you will need two things: money and the space to store large containers.  If those two prerequisites are not a problem, I offer the following suggestions. 

http://www.augasonfarms.com

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com

After all our research, these companies offer a good selection and decent prices.  As an example of great tasting food that can be used in a variety of ways, we recently bought 16 pounds of dehydrated vegetable from Harmony House Foods for $149.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Dried-Vegetable-Soup-Mix-16-lbs_p_1928.html

For other items like this, I have included several specific recommendations below:

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Vegetables/Dehydrated-Vegetables/Dehydrated-Potato-Slices10-LB-Pail-UPC-78716-11173

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Long-Grain-White-Rice44-LB-Pail-UPC-78716-00134

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Eggs-and-dairy/Country-Fresh-100-Real-Instant-Nonfat-Dry-Milk14-LB-Pail-UPC-78716-90882

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Eggs-and-dairy/Dried-Whole-Eggs-approx.-71-eggs-10-Can-UPC-00946-90161?limit=100

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Eggs-and-dairy/Butter-Powder-10-Can-UPC-00946-90363?limit=100

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Meat-Substitute-6-Pack-Everyday-Size-Cans-UPC-078716081350

http://www.augasonfarms.com/Meats/Meat-Substitute-Kit-3-10-Cans

Helping Others:

Most do not realize that a box of cream of wheat has over 30 servings and it only costs around $3.  The same is true with oatmeal, rice and pasta.  When people are in need, you could easily help others to get through what is coming.  When a person has nothing, a box of cream of wheat will give them at least (1) meal a day for 30 days.  Imagine buying 10 boxes of cream of wheat for under $30 and it would feed 10 people for a month?  You would be helping others and you may be building a group who will help you in your need.  Imagine a whole neighborhood having food and helping each other with work, protection and companionship?  If you got their back, they may help guard yours.

Conclusion:

I hope this overview helps you pick the right plan for your food prepping.  I’ve tried to balance nutrition, substance, flavor and price.  Right Is my list perfect?  Probably not, but it works well with my family and my budget.  We have to remember that times are hard and we all need to “get it done” while saving money at the same time.  Will the food be monotonous?  Sadly yes, but we need to remember that in a disaster, life as the norm is gone and we will need to do all we can to survive.  As an American, it is easy for me to forget that the majority of the poorer nations of the world are lucky to eat a hand full of rice every day.  This plan could help you survive and make it through some tough times.

More Tips and Tricks:

For more tips and tricks, check out  www.discreetprepper.com.  On our site, we offer survival gear, survival/prepping videos and articles from survival specialists.  We trying to create an on-line prepping communities, so check us out on youtube and facebook .

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcYaqzNTifN6jtC-kA9ZrBA

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Discreet-Prepper/1622908847926575?ref=bookmarks

Let’s save some lives!