Walls Street Journal Article-Sounding familiar??

Load Up the Pantry
April 21, 2008 6:47 p.m.
By: Brett Arends

I don't want to alarm anybody, but maybe it's time for Americans to start stockpiling food.
No, this is not a drill.
You've seen the TV footage of food riots in parts of the developing world. Yes, they're a long way away from the U.S. But most foodstuffs operate in a global market. When the cost of wheat soars in Asia, it will do the same here.
Reality: Food prices are already rising here much faster than the returns you are likely to get from keeping your money in a bank or money-market fund. And there are very good reasons to believe prices on the shelves are about to start rising a lot faster.
"Load up the pantry," says Manu Daftary, one of Wall Street's top investors and the manager of the Quaker Strategic Growth mutual fund. "I think prices are going higher. People are too complacent. They think it isn't going to happen here. But I don't know how the food companies can absorb higher costs." (Full disclosure: I am an investor in Quaker Strategic)
Stocking up on food may not replace your long-term investments, but it may make a sensible home for some of your shorter-term cash. Do the math. If you keep your standby cash in a money-market fund you'll be lucky to get a 2.5% interest rate. Even the best one-year certificate of deposit you can find is only going to pay you about 4.1%, according to Bankrate.com. And those yields are before tax.
Meanwhile the most recent government data shows food inflation for the average American household is now running at 4.5% a year.
And some prices are rising even more quickly. The latest data show cereal prices rising by more than 8% a year. Both flour and rice are up more than 13%. Milk, cheese, bananas and even peanut butter: They're all up by more than 10%. Eggs have rocketed up 30% in a year. Ground beef prices are up 4.8% and chicken by 5.4%.
These are trends that have been in place for some time.
And if you are hoping they will pass, here's the bad news: They may actually accelerate.
The reason? The prices of many underlying raw materials have risen much more quickly still. Wheat prices, for example, have roughly tripled in the past three years.
Sooner or later, the food companies are going to have to pass those costs on. Kraft saw its raw material costs soar by about $1.25 billion last year, squeezing profit margins. The company recently warned that higher prices are here to stay. Last month the chief executive of General Mills, Kendall Powell, made a similar point.
The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food.
A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That's soaking up some of the corn supply.
You can't easily stock up on perishables like eggs or milk. But other products will keep. Among them: Dried pasta, rice, cereals, and cans of everything from tuna fish to fruit and vegetables. The kicker: You should also save money by buying them in bulk.
If this seems a stretch, ponder this: The emerging bull market in agricultural products is following in the footsteps of oil. A few years ago, many Americans hoped $2 gas was a temporary spike. Now it's the rosy memory of a bygone age.
The good news is that it's easier to store Cap'n Crunch or cans of Starkist in your home than it is to store lots of gasoline. Safer, too.

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Earthquake Preparedness Tip

A tip from Sherry....

You may be interested to know that I attended a Sandy City Community Coordinators' meeting yesterday. The speaker was Barbara Salsbury who is nationally and internationally known for her expertise in emergency preparedness. She lives in Sandy. Her big push was for each individual in Sandy to take personal responsibility for their own emergency preparation. She stressed a three week supply of foods that can be eaten right off the shelf (freeze dried foods are the exception as you can add water and reconstitute them) so forget cooking all that wheat and beans. She has been through a 6.5 earthquake and was without any source of power, light, heat, phone, personal comforts for three weeks before help came. Her survival secret - chocolate covered raisins! She said have some treats for those stressful times. All kidding aside, she was adamant in the instant food supply. Sandy City will be sending a preparedness booklet to all res idents to help them evaluate and prepare their homes better. We got a rough draft but more will be added before the final edition is sent. Barbara is the major contributor to the book. She also has published Preparedness Principles which is a treasure trove of good information. The cheapest place to get a copy is to go on line to http://www.cedarfort.com/ where it is around $8 plus tax. The price on the book cover is $26.99!

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LDS Home Canning Centers

People have asked how I know the prices of the LDS Cannery food--here is the link so you can see what prices they offer. I ONLY buy items from the cannery in bulk. The price of the food goes up considerably if you can it into the #10 cans. The food will last longer if canned, but the rate my family goes through food, I have never had to worry about that.
Price list:
http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7977-1-4352-1,00.html
Here is the link to find the nearest Cannery to you:
http://www.providentliving.org/location/display/1,12568,2026-1-4-39291,00.html

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Three dinners for UNDER $5 a piece!

How many of you have heard of the book "30 meals in one day"? I have an easier solution for you! Instead of spending a whole day in the kitchen, when you make a meal that works well as a freezer meal--double it and freeze the rest for a later meal. Lasagna is a good example of this. All of the ingredients for lasagna is on sale this week. Make several of them and freeze your extras for later. I don't know about you, but I can NOT stand Stouffer's lasagna. For LESS than a Stouffer's lasagna I made three homemade lasagnas last night and still have extra sauce for my Chicken Parmesan dinner later this week. For those who are meal planner members, I gave them our secret family recipe for homemade marinara sauce--it is awesome!! I make this one day and freeze TONS of it for later. I use one gallon ziploc bag of our homemade sauce and one jar of Prego and it makes the sauce stretch and it hides the flavor of the store bought sauce. Either way--it makes for a great dinner. Add a $1 Dole salad, a vegetable and homemade French bread and you are set--three meals for under $10. I am giving you my Aunt Cheryl's French bread recipe that is SO easy and YUMMY! Last night I made six loaves of French bread and three lasagnas in less than an hour. I freeze the extra French Bread loaves and use them for later meals (like Stroganoff Sandwich-yum!). Here is the French Bread recipe (this amount makes 3 loaves):


2 1/2 c. warm water
2 T. yeast
3 T. sugar
2 T. white vinegar
Add these ingredients together and let sit until bubbly
1 T. salt
1/3 c. oil (anykind will do)
6 c. flour (or a little more if it's too soft)

Knead for 2-5 mintues and then put in the oven with a small pot of boiling water. The water will keep the dough moist. Watch the dough and punch it down when it gets to the top of the mixing bowl. Do this every time it gets to the top of the bowl, as long as you have time to babysit it (2-5 times). Put the dough on a greased countertop and divide into 3 sections. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle a thin layer of cornmeal on the bottom of the sheet. Roll the dough balls into rectangle/long French bread shapes. Slash tops of bread diagonally 3-5 times and cover with a beaten egg. Let rise 30 minutes (or until doubled). Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

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Bread Bargains

Here is a great tip from a lady in Orem. She says you can go to the following stores and get Grandma Sycamore & SaraLee bread for under $1 a piece. For those of you who live in the Orem or American Fork area--this is the place to go. Enjoy!! Keep the tips coming and I will post all of your great ideas :)

"The name of the store is Old Home Bakery Outlet. The address for the location in Orem is 1360 N State St Orem, UT 84057 phone: (801) 762-0253 and the American Fork location is: 66 N West State Rd American Fork, UT 84003 phone: (801) 763-9510. The location for the American Fork store is on a corner...across from Target...but kind of hidden...people might want to call and ask for directions their first time out. These stores carry Sara Lee and Grandma Sycamore...plus many random treats...packaged cookies, doughnuts, etc. at a discount. They always give a free loaf of bread when you spend ten dollars. There are also the Wonder/Hostess thrift bread shops. There are stores in Provo and Orem, but I'm not sure of any further north. The Provo location is: 1180 W Center St Provo, UT 84601 phone:801-373-8192 and the Orem address is 725 E 1000S Orem, UT 84097 phone:(801) 224-9886.

Another great place to buy cheap bread (Grandma Sycamore Bread for $1), bagels for cheap, etc. at the Sara Lee Bakery Outlet at 4700 S. and I-215. The store is just east of I-215 at the first light (it used to be a 7-11 store). The Grandma Sycamore white bread is $1/loaf, and the Grandma Sycamore wheat bread is $1.25/loaf. You can’t hardly make it for that price anymore! They also have tortillas and bagels for a good price! The bagels are $1.25/bag, which sell for over $3 in the stores.

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Food Costs Hit Home--Front Page News Article

Did any of you see the front page of the Desert News? Here is a link to this interesting article that talks about the rising cost of food around the nation http://deseretnews.com/article/1%2C5143%2C695271786%2C00.html. This is another GREAT benefit to having your year supply of food. No matter how high the grocery store prices get, when you have your own "store" in your basement and your freezer stocked with food--it won't matter! I have done a lot of research and talked to people who say that gas prices are only going to continue to go up--when gas prices go up, so does food prices. Lets all make it our goal to get our year supply of food in the next year. People have asked me how long it took me to get my year supply. It really only takes about 6 months to a year. If you are buying a couple of items each week to add to your food storage (the "red" items) and shopping at the two case lots a year (in August and February) then you will have a storage room like mine (or better!). It seems overwhelming but I am here to tell you it is EASY--if I can do it, anyone can :)

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Catch the Vision!

Your Year Supply One Week at a Time

What's for dinner? Let's see what's in the basement "store"... Many people have asked to come and see my food storage room, so....here's the big unveiling :0) There are probably many more organized and well stocked food storage rooms out there, but here is mine.

My sister talked me into having a blog, so we are dedicating this blog to all of the food storage "nuts" out there like me. We are hoping this blog will inspire you to get your year supply, be a place where we can share helpful tips and a place to post our accomplishments and encourage each other to continue becoming prepared. Everyone will store and organize their food storage differently, but the important thing is that we are all working towards our goals.

So...here we go with some food storage tips that work for me--hopefully they will help you to. If you have any tips that work for you (or pictures) email me at Shandra@myfoodstoragedeals.com and I will post them for all to see--or just post a comment.

Where do you begin??

First...you need a way to organize your food--wood shelves, metal shelving, rolling storage units, etc. My husband built these shelves-aren't they cute?? I organize my food storage room into categories. I try to keep all like items together-Legumes together, fruits, vegetables, oils etc. It makes it easy to glance and see what I have and keep an accurate inventory. Remember, grains aren't just wheat, grains includes pasta, rice, cornmeal, cereal, oats, flour, cornstarch, etc.
How do you store your grains? It is more expensive to can all of your grains in #10 cans, so I put them in plastic Rubbermaid totes. I go through my food so quickly, I have never had to worry about weavil or food going bad. The plastic tubs also keep your food dry and away from rodents. It works for me and is an inexpensive way to store your food :) You may think 48 bottles of BBQ sauce is excessive? I don't--I know I will use it in the next couple of years, so why not stock up when it goes on sale for .60 (or .05 each with a coupon)--fabulous! Remember, if you don't get funny looks from fellow grocery shoppers, you are shopping the wrong way :) Buy as much of each item on sale--even if people think you're crazy for having 69 bottles of ketchup (okay, so maybe I am a little!), you will save SO much money in the long run!

Since we all know we live in earthquake territory, my brilliant husband came up with the idea to put PVC pipe into the sides of the shelves to keep bottles and food from shaking off the shelves.

Is anyone thristy? The church recommends AT LEAST 14 gallons of drinking water per person for a two week supply. I have our drinking water in the form of water bottles because they are convenient and easy to rotate through. The water in the drums are for washing, cleaning and cooking. I don't think it is possible to have enough water!

Visit our website under the Free Downloads tab and see the recommendations on storing water. One thing that is important is to not have your water bottles or drum directly on cement. We have a piece of plywood under and on the side of our water drums.

Okay..so you have heard me talk about storing your flour, oats, sugar and wheat in large Rubbermaid garbage cans. A friend who was moving gave us these wierd looking large drums that we keep our "bulk" food storage items in. I'm sure you can't find these wierd looking blue containers anywhere--I know you're jealous of them-haha!--so, large plastic garbage cans should do the trick.

FLOUR: APPROX. 75 LBS. PER PERSON

These large drums holds close to my families year supply of wheat, sugar, oats and flour. I only buy these items once a year (because I buy a year supply when it is on sale for "red/great" prices. I label the individual bags with the date I purchased them (ex. 4/08) to help me make sure I use the oldest bags first. I then take out the old bags, put the new bags in the bottom and then put the oldest bags back on top. If you are only buying them once or twice a year, it's pretty slick! These drums keep your food dry and rodent free--it's lovely (and VERY cost effective).

OATS: 20 LBS. PER PERSON

WHEAT: 100 LBS. PER PERSON

SUGAR: 65 LBS. PER PERSON

Besides the long term storage, it is important to have food in your freezer. Having a 1-3 month supply of meat, butter, cheeses, vegetables, bread, tortillas, seafood, etc. make meal planning MUCH easier. When meat goes on sale for "red/great" prices, stock your freezers and save HUNDREDS of dollars! Many of you are probably saying you don't have room in your garage/home for a freezer. Just do what my sister did and use it as an end table :)

You don't need to have a large deep freeze (although I LOVE mine), you can get a smaller 11 cubic feet freezer for around $250. You will save that much in just a couple months.

Wow! How's that for my first post? I promise they won't always be that long--however, by now you all know I can get a little winded when I'm talking about something I am passionate about :0)

So...what works for you?? Share your thoughts, ideas, tips, etc. and hopefully we can all get excited about being prepared. It is a great feeling! Don't get discouraged if you don't have your year supply. The important thing is that you are working towards a goal. Anything will be FAR BETTER than nothing in an emergency or if food prices continue to skyrocket and the economy takes a turn for the worst. I love the quote from President Hinckley, I think it is so encouraging, he said, "We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week's food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months. . . . I fear that so many feel that a long-term food supply is so far beyond their reach that they make no effort at all.
"Begin in a small way, . . . and gradually build toward a reasonable objective.
Inspired preparation rests on the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, obedience, and a provident lifestyle. Members should not go to extremes, but they should begin."

Congratulations on "begining"!

Visit our website for more tips on food storage: http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.com/

Feel free to pass on this blog or our website to friends and family that are interested in food storage :)

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