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Why I Say Keep What You Eat In Your Stockpile
Why do I say buy what you eat for your stockpile?
Well if you've been following me for a while, you've heard me say that the dozen tins of smoked oysters in tomato sauce, even if they are just 10 cents a tin, aren't a bargain if you don't eat them. Or only use them once a year on New Year's Eve. That $1.20 can be used for a better ROI, return on your investment. Buy what you eat!
I buy what we eat. Actually I buy the ingredients to make what we eat. I put the ingredients to make what we eat, and only what we eat, in our pantry. And I buy them within our grocery budget. Remember, I am a preparer, not a prepper. And ingredients give you options!
I don't have buckets of grains stored, enough for 40 years. You won't find tubs of medicines stashed away in our house. We don't have weapons or ammunition stored, and until we move from the city, we won't.
I am a preparer, not a prepper.
What I do have is a pantry filled with the ingredients to make the food we eat, the cleaning items we use, the first aid items that will see us through most things that can be home-treated, the toiletries we use. The garden supplies we use - the seeds, the spare hose, the tools. The home maintenance things we need and use.
Why? Because we live in a city, in a peaceful country.
Now before you start shaking your heads and screaming at me that I'm so naïve and wrong, wait. Keep reading.
I store the ingredients to make the things we eat and use and need because they are the things that most of the people around us eat and use and need.
When you're telling me I'm wrong and I should be stockpiling anything I can get my hands on, I'm going to say no, I'm not wrong. I am using the resources I have at hand, to build the pantry that will keep my family, and in a pinch, extended family and friends; a pantry that contains things that in an emergency or a crisis, I can use to not only care for us, but to barter for anything we run out of or find we don't have. Because again, most of the people around us live like us. And want to keep on living like us. Especially in an emergency.
The ingredients and items on my pantry shelves are useful to me and my family. They won't go to waste, and they are not sitting there, doing nothing but take up valuable real estate.
Yes, my pantry shelves are very valuable real estate; if supermarkets can put a value on shelf space, so can we folks. I consider my pantry an investment, and the ROI on that investment is huge - think 100% plus. I shop within our budget. I look for sales and specials and bulk deals. I am not afraid to buy generic products. I love to find a "reduced to clear" sticker on something we use. I will never knock back free food, or other pantry items. I grow as much as I can. So the value of the pantry is far more than the monetary investment.
I've published my pantry lists a few times, talked about them lots. You can use the search to find them.
When you stock your pantry, think first about what you eat, what you use and what you need, and stock the ingredients or materials to make those things, not what's on my pantry list. It's your pantry, so it needs to hold things that suit you.
Then, if you have the space, and the cash - remember, WE DO NOT GO INTO DEBT TO BUILD A PANTRY, the idea is to save us money, time, and energy, and, during food shortages, hunger - you can add extras to your pantry.
Right now, adding extras to the pantry is a very wise thing to be doing. The news for months has been full of the possibility of a shortage of medicines and drugs due to the port strike in Sydney (I had an email this week from Aldi to say that due to the ongoing strike, they couldn't supply some of their advertised specials, so it's not just medicines that are being held up). Drugs that are needed for cancer treatments, and to control diabetes are some that are being held up.
This is just another reason to keep the pantry stocked. I'm not interested in the politics of this strike. But I am interested in the fact that there are ships full of items we need, stuck off shore. This, on top of everything else that has happened to Australians this year, is going to cause not just shortages, but hardships. The Cheapskates Christmas Countdown is almost over (it's not too late to join). This year, more than ever before, it is going to be essential if you want to celebrate anywhere close to how you want to.
Then there are the supermarkets. A month ago it was Woolworths warning of shortages for Christmas. This week both the majors are saying they're cutting the cost of Christmas, and starting the Christmas sales early. Hmmm. Call me a skeptic, but seriously, it's not for the consumer's benefit. Chances are if they start their Christmas "sales" now, then if things run out, it won't be a stock shortage but rather everyone shopping early. I shop early anyway, the Christmas grocery shopping is always done by 30th November, all bar the perishables. Just something to think about if you are not an early Christmas shopper.
You may well be muttering under your breath about how it's easy for me to say build a pantry, mine is already built. You need to build it on the money you have. How can I expect you to get a decent stockpile? Well you can build a pantry on the money you have - no extra spending. I had to build mine that way. It takes a while - but hey, that's OK. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a good, well stocked pantry isn't either. So how do you do it? First off do an inventory of what you have, then of what you use. Yes, you'd think they'd be the same, but you know, things happen and sometimes the pantry is filled with stuff you don't eat or use.
Then write a list of the things you eat. This next step takes a little effort - sorry, but you'll have to do it, I can't do it for you. You need to work out how much of each thing you eat or use, and how often. Then multiply it by however many weeks or months you want your pantry stockpile to feed you. So if you use 200g rice at a time, and you eat it 5 times a month, that's 1kg of rice per month, 3kg per quarter or three months, 6kg per six months and 12kg a year. That's just an example, we use a lot more rice than that in our house.
Then every week check the half price sales. When things on your list are on half price, buy at least two. You're not paying any more, so it won't affect your grocery budget.
Always, always look for reduced to clear stickers on things you eat or use, and snap them up. Even foods with only a short time before the use by date can be frozen for the future. Check out bulk prices. Remember though, bulk doesn't mean cheaper, it means more. Remember that just because you're buying more, you may not necessarily be paying less.
If you are offered food, perhaps a neighbour has too many zucchini, always accept them graciously and put it to good use.
And lastly, grow at least some of what you eat. No, don't say you can't because you don't have time or don't have a garden or any other excuse. Now is not the time for excuses. It's the time to be doing. So get some buckets or pots or dig a couple of holes and plant some food.
I will not to tell anyone to keep, buy or grow things they don't eat or use for the pantry. That is just plain false economy. I know you're all looking ahead to, let's see, what have I heard the future called this past week - Armageddon, the Holodomor, mass starvation are three; but when or if these events happen, having things you don't eat and/or use, rather than the things you do, won't help you one little bit.
Now someone suggested in the comments a few weeks ago changing the way we stockpile, because during an emergency our food will change. Well it won't, not if you keep your pantry filled with what you eat, and the things needed to replace them as you eat them.
Stocking what you eat, in ingredient form, will save you from food fatigue in an emergency. Yes, food fatigue is a recognised syndrome. It pretty much means you get sick of eating the same thing over and over and over.
Crikey, that can happen any time - we live in a very affluent country, and we as a nation eat very, very well, going by our waistlines, too well. To the point where we can be bored with the most delicious foods simply because they're common to us, they're no longer treats or special.
I will however, tell you and encourage you to keep the ingredients to make the things you eat on hand so you have choices and variety. A side benefit is you'll be able to maintain good health. Eating the same thing over and over doesn't ensure health, let alone good health. It may fill bellies, but it gets boring quickly and doesn’t do much more than fill those bellies.
I do think that changing the ways things are preserved is a good thing. I'm slowly changing to more shelf-stable foods so the we won't be as reliant on freezers and the electricity to run them.
This means I've ramped up the dehydrators and the canning and bottling. Pressure canning is great for meats - chicken, corned beef, roasts - and prepared meals like spag bol sauce, or chilli, or soups. Pressure canning makes these shelf-stable, no need to rely on the freezer.
I've decided dehydrating is fun. I love that a few hours in the dehydrator ensures a safe, shelf-stable preservation method for fruit and vegetables and mince. Now I know that dehydrating meat isn't recommended, and I'm not suggesting that you do it. I'm not telling you to do it. But I do. And it works for me and my family.
Best of all, it frees up freezer room, and in a power outage (and we are being warned of definite power outages this coming summer) I won't be stressing about all the food in the freezers. Because even with a generator, keeping four freezers and two fridges at temperature is going to be a juggling game I'd much rather not have to worry about.
So this is why I say buy what you eat for your pantry and your stockpile. Makes sense to me. It may or may not make sense to you.
I'm not living in la la land; I am well aware of the social unrest that has plagued our city, our state and our country this year. And I'm doing the best I can to prepare my family and home for whatever the future chooses to throw at us on our budget.
Well if you've been following me for a while, you've heard me say that the dozen tins of smoked oysters in tomato sauce, even if they are just 10 cents a tin, aren't a bargain if you don't eat them. Or only use them once a year on New Year's Eve. That $1.20 can be used for a better ROI, return on your investment. Buy what you eat!
I buy what we eat. Actually I buy the ingredients to make what we eat. I put the ingredients to make what we eat, and only what we eat, in our pantry. And I buy them within our grocery budget. Remember, I am a preparer, not a prepper. And ingredients give you options!
I don't have buckets of grains stored, enough for 40 years. You won't find tubs of medicines stashed away in our house. We don't have weapons or ammunition stored, and until we move from the city, we won't.
I am a preparer, not a prepper.
What I do have is a pantry filled with the ingredients to make the food we eat, the cleaning items we use, the first aid items that will see us through most things that can be home-treated, the toiletries we use. The garden supplies we use - the seeds, the spare hose, the tools. The home maintenance things we need and use.
Why? Because we live in a city, in a peaceful country.
Now before you start shaking your heads and screaming at me that I'm so naïve and wrong, wait. Keep reading.
I store the ingredients to make the things we eat and use and need because they are the things that most of the people around us eat and use and need.
When you're telling me I'm wrong and I should be stockpiling anything I can get my hands on, I'm going to say no, I'm not wrong. I am using the resources I have at hand, to build the pantry that will keep my family, and in a pinch, extended family and friends; a pantry that contains things that in an emergency or a crisis, I can use to not only care for us, but to barter for anything we run out of or find we don't have. Because again, most of the people around us live like us. And want to keep on living like us. Especially in an emergency.
The ingredients and items on my pantry shelves are useful to me and my family. They won't go to waste, and they are not sitting there, doing nothing but take up valuable real estate.
Yes, my pantry shelves are very valuable real estate; if supermarkets can put a value on shelf space, so can we folks. I consider my pantry an investment, and the ROI on that investment is huge - think 100% plus. I shop within our budget. I look for sales and specials and bulk deals. I am not afraid to buy generic products. I love to find a "reduced to clear" sticker on something we use. I will never knock back free food, or other pantry items. I grow as much as I can. So the value of the pantry is far more than the monetary investment.
I've published my pantry lists a few times, talked about them lots. You can use the search to find them.
When you stock your pantry, think first about what you eat, what you use and what you need, and stock the ingredients or materials to make those things, not what's on my pantry list. It's your pantry, so it needs to hold things that suit you.
Then, if you have the space, and the cash - remember, WE DO NOT GO INTO DEBT TO BUILD A PANTRY, the idea is to save us money, time, and energy, and, during food shortages, hunger - you can add extras to your pantry.
Right now, adding extras to the pantry is a very wise thing to be doing. The news for months has been full of the possibility of a shortage of medicines and drugs due to the port strike in Sydney (I had an email this week from Aldi to say that due to the ongoing strike, they couldn't supply some of their advertised specials, so it's not just medicines that are being held up). Drugs that are needed for cancer treatments, and to control diabetes are some that are being held up.
This is just another reason to keep the pantry stocked. I'm not interested in the politics of this strike. But I am interested in the fact that there are ships full of items we need, stuck off shore. This, on top of everything else that has happened to Australians this year, is going to cause not just shortages, but hardships. The Cheapskates Christmas Countdown is almost over (it's not too late to join). This year, more than ever before, it is going to be essential if you want to celebrate anywhere close to how you want to.
Then there are the supermarkets. A month ago it was Woolworths warning of shortages for Christmas. This week both the majors are saying they're cutting the cost of Christmas, and starting the Christmas sales early. Hmmm. Call me a skeptic, but seriously, it's not for the consumer's benefit. Chances are if they start their Christmas "sales" now, then if things run out, it won't be a stock shortage but rather everyone shopping early. I shop early anyway, the Christmas grocery shopping is always done by 30th November, all bar the perishables. Just something to think about if you are not an early Christmas shopper.
You may well be muttering under your breath about how it's easy for me to say build a pantry, mine is already built. You need to build it on the money you have. How can I expect you to get a decent stockpile? Well you can build a pantry on the money you have - no extra spending. I had to build mine that way. It takes a while - but hey, that's OK. Rome wasn't built in a day, and a good, well stocked pantry isn't either. So how do you do it? First off do an inventory of what you have, then of what you use. Yes, you'd think they'd be the same, but you know, things happen and sometimes the pantry is filled with stuff you don't eat or use.
Then write a list of the things you eat. This next step takes a little effort - sorry, but you'll have to do it, I can't do it for you. You need to work out how much of each thing you eat or use, and how often. Then multiply it by however many weeks or months you want your pantry stockpile to feed you. So if you use 200g rice at a time, and you eat it 5 times a month, that's 1kg of rice per month, 3kg per quarter or three months, 6kg per six months and 12kg a year. That's just an example, we use a lot more rice than that in our house.
Then every week check the half price sales. When things on your list are on half price, buy at least two. You're not paying any more, so it won't affect your grocery budget.
Always, always look for reduced to clear stickers on things you eat or use, and snap them up. Even foods with only a short time before the use by date can be frozen for the future. Check out bulk prices. Remember though, bulk doesn't mean cheaper, it means more. Remember that just because you're buying more, you may not necessarily be paying less.
If you are offered food, perhaps a neighbour has too many zucchini, always accept them graciously and put it to good use.
And lastly, grow at least some of what you eat. No, don't say you can't because you don't have time or don't have a garden or any other excuse. Now is not the time for excuses. It's the time to be doing. So get some buckets or pots or dig a couple of holes and plant some food.
I will not to tell anyone to keep, buy or grow things they don't eat or use for the pantry. That is just plain false economy. I know you're all looking ahead to, let's see, what have I heard the future called this past week - Armageddon, the Holodomor, mass starvation are three; but when or if these events happen, having things you don't eat and/or use, rather than the things you do, won't help you one little bit.
Now someone suggested in the comments a few weeks ago changing the way we stockpile, because during an emergency our food will change. Well it won't, not if you keep your pantry filled with what you eat, and the things needed to replace them as you eat them.
Stocking what you eat, in ingredient form, will save you from food fatigue in an emergency. Yes, food fatigue is a recognised syndrome. It pretty much means you get sick of eating the same thing over and over and over.
Crikey, that can happen any time - we live in a very affluent country, and we as a nation eat very, very well, going by our waistlines, too well. To the point where we can be bored with the most delicious foods simply because they're common to us, they're no longer treats or special.
I will however, tell you and encourage you to keep the ingredients to make the things you eat on hand so you have choices and variety. A side benefit is you'll be able to maintain good health. Eating the same thing over and over doesn't ensure health, let alone good health. It may fill bellies, but it gets boring quickly and doesn’t do much more than fill those bellies.
I do think that changing the ways things are preserved is a good thing. I'm slowly changing to more shelf-stable foods so the we won't be as reliant on freezers and the electricity to run them.
This means I've ramped up the dehydrators and the canning and bottling. Pressure canning is great for meats - chicken, corned beef, roasts - and prepared meals like spag bol sauce, or chilli, or soups. Pressure canning makes these shelf-stable, no need to rely on the freezer.
I've decided dehydrating is fun. I love that a few hours in the dehydrator ensures a safe, shelf-stable preservation method for fruit and vegetables and mince. Now I know that dehydrating meat isn't recommended, and I'm not suggesting that you do it. I'm not telling you to do it. But I do. And it works for me and my family.
Best of all, it frees up freezer room, and in a power outage (and we are being warned of definite power outages this coming summer) I won't be stressing about all the food in the freezers. Because even with a generator, keeping four freezers and two fridges at temperature is going to be a juggling game I'd much rather not have to worry about.
So this is why I say buy what you eat for your pantry and your stockpile. Makes sense to me. It may or may not make sense to you.
I'm not living in la la land; I am well aware of the social unrest that has plagued our city, our state and our country this year. And I'm doing the best I can to prepare my family and home for whatever the future chooses to throw at us on our budget.
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