PREPARING against a financial/catastrophic crisis - SURVIVAL TIPS

[RRuth]

THANK YOU sooo much!

I'll be saving my next Bed Bath Beyond coupon (usually get a $5 off coupon/flyer in the mail every month)... AND stocking up on D batteries.

I'm pretty much not going to invest in a generator. (Too noisy, too much trouble, very expensive, uses up gas and other resources, etc.) With my 1800 - living experience, I pretty much can MAKE DO on any conditions for cooking, light, etc. But having a fan to circulate air WOULD be nice! :thumb

Thanks again!

[Abigail]

THANK YOU sooo much!

I'll be saving my next Bed Bath Beyond coupon (usually get a $5 off coupon/flyer in the mail every month)... AND stocking up on D batteries.

I'm pretty much not going to invest in a generator. (Too noisy, too much trouble, very expensive, uses up gas and other resources, etc.) With my 1800 - living experience, I pretty much can MAKE DO on any conditions for cooking, light, etc. But having a fan to circulate air WOULD be nice! :thumb

Thanks again!

No problem. I get 20% off coupons all the time from them in the mail...ask them about that. My local Bed Bath and Beyond accepts Linens N Things coupons too and vice versa and neither one care whether they're expired or not, AND let you use multiple coupons in one transaction too. Ask your local store about this too; this may help if you want more than one fan.

Abigail

[Abigail]

You can buy MRE's in your local sporting goods store (I've spotted them at Academy.) They are high in protein and nutrition, and best of all, they don't take up space!

Good point on gasoline going bad. I have stock piled on propane (bought cases from Academy.) and we own a campers stove. This is handy for power shortages. My family camps, so they come in handy anways.

Oil lamps are handy as well. During the holidays, you can find these VERY cheap. I've also seen these in the dollar stores as well.

In case there's no running water, hand wipes are good. I buy them in the bottles (Or use diaper wipes.) Bacteria runs rampant from unwashed hands.

I work for a living history museum and am familiar with cooking, cleaning, and storing, like our ancestors did back in the 1800's. For three years I've experienced this living (at least once a week) sweating where there's no air conditioning, cooking from a dutch oven, starting fires outdoors, gardening, MAKING DO with whatever we have.

I have a higher appreciation for our modern day living. After a hot day on the farm, sweating and laboring --- an iced cold Coke, an air conditioned car, and an insulated, carpeted, home is PURE LUXURY!

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!



Ruth

:waveHello again,

I was looking over this thread again for things I may have missed and came across this. You are so right, AND so wise to have come to this realization prior to dealing with a disaster first hand.

I believe you've expressed the key to it all...a newfound appreciation for the little things as well as the major modern conveniences that we all have come to view as "essential." When it's all taken out from under you in a heartbeat, those who have the capacity to "count their blessings" will avoid much of the PTSD and depression that follows disasters. They will then be mentally and physically ready to witness to others and to help their neighbors. I wish I'd been that able during Katrina!

Some blessings to count: I was amazed that my picky kids went after vienna sausage like it was choice steak!! We were all fascinated by the Military MRE's with their chemical heating bags...they really ARE neat; saved having to bother with fuel or heating up the house further (was that even possible??:twitch) by cooking. No cleanup either. They were really a blessing. We also had a newfound appreciation for the fact that we had enough water pressure to FLUSH with. Funny how we take THAT for granted. That can become a MAJOR health hazard too...look at the situation with the restrooms in the Superdome. :puke

When you have time, I'd be interested in hearing more about the "primitive" methods of food preparation/heating/lighting etc. I think it's great that you have first hand experience with using these methods. If there is ever a very long term supply disruption, it would be great to have some pointers printed out and ready...it's the little things that matter. I wouldn't know how to begin to cook over a campfire, or even how to build one properly, for that matter! Once the propane and charcoal were gone, I'd be in trouble!

Abigail

[Maximilian]

I order my stored foods from Safecastle.
https://www.safecastleroyal.com/splashPage.hg

Getting another 3 months supply of food.
Its Mountain House and I eat these on all my camping trips.
Very tasty food and they last for 10 years.

[tygerkittn]

What I noticed is Honeyville quotes a weight for their freeze dried fruit, both before and after being rehydrated, Walton’s, Mountain House and Emergency Essentials quote a number of servings and give a serving size. (to see this on Walton’s website, look under the “labels” section, for Emergency Essentials, click on “Nutritional Information” once you are on the page for the item you want) Honeyville is the only one to quote freeze dried fruits and vegetables by weight. (I am not speaking of bulk items like grains or milk, everyone quotes that by weight).

I ordered about 10 cases of their freeze dried fruit a few years ago because, like you said, it was cheaper per can. When I got the cans I was shocked because they felt so light and empty compared to the Emergency Essentials cans. The freeze drying process should be the same for each, so I don’t think that’s a factor. After noticing this, I eventually figured out a way to back Honeyville’s weight into an apples to apples comparison to their competitors, and there was much less product per can (I don’t recall exactly, but something like 50%).

I still buy other things from them – their powdered eggs are a good value, but I will never buy freeze dried fruits or vegetables from them again. Besides costing me more, I am taking up valuable space with a stack of 50% empty cans. Feel free to buy wherever you want, and any preps are better than none – just wanted to share what I found and see people to get the most for their money.

I went down and shook my honeyville cans (that sounds strange!) and they're not very consistent, the powder cans were completely full, most of the other were about 80% full, (as best as I could tell) and one was only maybe 60%! I also shook the emergency essentials cans, and the powdered ones were completely full and the freeze dried stuff felt about 90% full.
Maybe they're not as bad as they used to be, and before the price hikes they were almost half the price of beprepared, so I don't feel too cheated, but as you said, it's a waste of space. The honeyville cans have nutrition labels, but again servings varied widely, the freeze dried raspberry #10 can had 16 servings and the freeze dried...I can't remember, It was a veggie, I think carrots, had 50 servings in a #10 can..
I wish beprepared would have another sale on broccoli! I got some of their high calorie energy bars, but I'm saving them so I haven't tasted them yet. Too bad they don't have customer reviews like amazon.
I thought a #10 can was the same across the board, I guess it's a case of caveat emptor. Thanks for the tip!
www.trackmyfoodstorage.com is very handy for figuring out how much food your family needs. Amazon is generally expensive in their grocery dept BUT you can get some good deals in bulk, they have instant rebates that change monthly, and manager's specials (I really loaded up on medicine cabinet and hygiene stuff, 6 tubes of Tom's of Maine silly strawberry toothpaste for $3.99, 12 toothbrushes for $5, 4 bottles of Maalox for $6, etc. it's over for now but they keep bringing it back, just click on manager's specials) You can order things so that the cheapest is first, which helps you look for bargains, you can check top sellers and see what bargains everyone else is finding, and you can save items in your cart for later. and every time you go back to your cart it tells you of any price changes, I have 300 items saved, and every now and then it will notify me that something dropped it's price to dirt cheap! They also have Friday specials, I got some individual cereal packs, 96 bowls for about $32, use "individual cereal" for a search word in grocery and list it by price, low to high to find bargains there. They also have Friday specials, only good for that day, sometimes they have grocery stuff in that. The cereal in bowls was really great for camping, just mixed a can of milk with water and poured it over, and it was a variety pack so everyone got their favorites.
That's all I know about bargain hunting! Hope it helps someone!

[tom_roberts]

I really like these kerosene stoves from St Paul: http://www.stpaulmercantile.com/buttrfly.htm

There is also an Amish oven you can use over the stove so you can bake. Kerosene is a very safe fuel and IMO the ideal emergency source for heat & cooking. Long shelf life, not explosive, safe to use indoors w/common sense ventilation (propane and camping stoves can not be used indoors under any circumstances). I have quite a bit stored, some regular kerosene which I have stabilized with PRI-D, some is synthetic with an unlimited shelf life.

Here is a great resource on kerosene, check the "related links" at the bottom of the page: http://www.endtimesreport.com/kerosene.html

:hat

thanks, they are schweet

[No2Flesh]

Those kerosene stoves are really cool.
I also like the lantern.

[RRuth]

If we face an economic/power failure, we will be faced with these same issues and concerns of every day living -- Cooking, cleaning, and laundry. Might as well plan ahead NOW, rather than sit in our darkened homes dirty, hungry, hot, and thirsty.

Ruth

[CelticMist]

Those kerosene stoves are really cool.
I also like the lantern.
Here in California you can't use kerosene stoves.. I have two that I brought with me from Kentucky......... but no where in this city can I find kerosene.. not even in five gallon cans.

They even tell us when we can burn our fireplace in winter and when we can't. If we burn it on the NO Burn days... we are subject to a fine... and its not cheap.

The reason by the way on the "control" is due to the "air pollution" that day. So, if LA and those cities keep sending us their "pollution" those of us up here ... freeze during winter cause it lingers here and causes our air to be in the top five cities with BAD Quality Air. :(

[Abigail]

www.trackmyfoodstorage.com (http://www.trackmyfoodstorage.com) is very handy for figuring out how much food your family needs.


:waveHello tygerkittn; thanks so much for this link. It looks great. What's "Amazon?" is that the big "Amazon.com?" I didn't know they had anything to do with emergency prep. Does that actually prompt you when there are specials?

Abigail