Food storage not so crazy after all?

I am sure many of you have already heard these stories, but I thought they would be worth mentioning here on our 'food storage' blog. The idea of storing basic food and water to drink and eat doesn't seem so crazy anymore, does it? Between the earthquake in Haiti and the winter storms back east, they can teach us all a great lesson or two about being prepared!

Thankfully, the people back east were lucky to have a warning that the storm was coming. Most natural disasters come without any warning--this is when we will really find out if we are prepared or not. Better to prepare before, and not have to do last minute shopping and fight the crowds.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from a few news articles I found interesting:

Supermarkets 'ransacked' as snow storm smacks Washington

WASHINGTON (AFP) – As the second big snowstorm of the winter began dropping flakes on the US capital Friday, panicked parents grabbed their kids early from school and headed home to brace for what locals are calling "Snowpocalypse."

Many stopped off at supermarkets to stock up on last-minute provisions, but found others had already beaten them to it, emptying shelves of everything from soup to Super Bowl snacks and sidewalk salt.

Holly Bailey, a writer who lives in Washington's upscale Georgetown neighbourhood, described scenes of chaos at a local Whole Foods shop as genteel Washingtonians lost their cool in their rush to beat the big snow.

"The parking lot is road-rage central and there are people running down the street with bags trying to get in the store," Bailey told AFP.

"Yesterday, at one point they shut the store because there were so many people inside and they were letting in customers one-by-one as others came out. It was chaos. People were yelling. It was like a scene from a disaster movie," she said.
"I got there at 7:00 am and there were really long queues, and the place looked like it had been ransacked, especially the meat and veg sections," she told AFP.
"People are panicking. The shelves are almost empty. People are hoarding things like bottled water and canned food."

Mid-Atlantic shuts down ahead of huge snow warning
WASHINGTON – Shoppers jammed aisles and emptied stores of milk, bread and shovels Friday as a massive snowstorm blew into the Mid-Atlantic. Forecasters predicted a record 30 inches or more for the nation's capital, and authorities already were blaming the storm for the deaths of father-son Samaritans in Virginia.
In Alexandria, Va., James Ivery, 60, and his wife had already bought supplies but were back at a Harris Teeter supermarket to get out of the house one last time before the storm. Many shelves and bins were emptied of milk, vegetables, eggs and cold cuts. "It just seems like people are panicking."

Kudos to all those trying to prepared BEFORE we are compelled to!

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Great Question!

"I have a question for you. Since you are, of course, preparing for whatever may come.....I am wondering if you have made other preparations other than food storage? I was wondering what kind of house you live in and what you do when there is no electricity for heating, cooking, etc. Do you plant a garden, raise your own animals.....i.e., chickens, cows, etc. for eggs, milk, meat, etc.? I just find it interesting to know to what extremes people are going to. Also, wondering if you've looked into alternative medicines or storing those?"

~Sandra

Great questions! No..I wish I could raise my own chickens (maybe??) and do more of that type of preparation. However, we just live in the out skirts of Salt Lake and have neighbors in our backyard—not a lot of space for anything other than a garden. I try and plant as much as I can in my garden and bottle, dry, freeze, or can the extras of the season. We also have three fruit trees that have proved to be a blessing—free apples, pears, and peaches in the summer. It doesn’t get better than that!

As far as fuel storage, we do have a generator, gasoline, camping stoves, propane heaters, butane stoves, etc. We keep a good stock of fuel that we would need for cooking and heating in an emergency.

I do store basic medicines: Tylenol, Asprin, Vitamins, Cough Syrup, Cold/Flu medicine, etc. Any medicine my family uses on a regular basis (during sick season that is), I try to store a couple extras for an emergency—or if we were unable to have access to them. For those who use prescription medicine it is important to store as many extras as you can in your storage. I for example, have Asthma, so I always keep my prescriptions filled and max out my allowed supply, so I have extras on hand. I know this is not possible with all medicines, but if it is possible, it is a good thing to do.


Other items I try to keep well stocked are hygiene items: toilet paper, paper towels, wipes, shampoo/conditioner, bar soap, liquid soap, laundry soap, dish detergent and soap, toothpaste, extra toothbrushes, cotton balls/q-tips, hand sanitizer, bleach, Clorox wipes (for cleaning and sanitizing), and other basic cleaning supplies.

First Aid items are also an important part of your emergency preparedness supplies (72 hour kits, car kits, etc.). Having a wide variety and different sizes of bandaids, wraps, etc. are important for storage. There are several items that are important to have in your First Aid kit. You can find lists online of important items to store. I will post more about first aid later in the month. This is part of my goal with some of our tax return money--beef up our 72 hour kits and first aid supplies. Watching the people in Haiti helps you realize some of the items you may be low on.

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Last minute Christmas gift ideas

Many of us are looking for those last minute gift ideas to give family and friends. Why not give them a gift that will be practical and useful for the upcoming year. Here are a few gift ideas that are UNDER $20 that make great gifts or stocking stuffers:

Under $10
**Gift certificate to Deals to Meals! As low as $4.95..give your friends and family the gift of saving time and money!
*25lb. bag of wheat, beans, flour, sugar, or powdered milk
*Batteries and flashlights
*First aid items
*Backpacks (for 72 hour kits or car kits--fill them with a few basics and this makes a great gift!
*Basic food storage items (canned or boxed goods)
*Non-electric can opener
*Food storage cookbook or book on emergency preparedness
*Fire extinguisher
*Pocket knife
*Compass or small camping gear
*Mess kits

Under $20
*Small first aid kits
*Flashlights for the whole family
*Jumper cables
*Camping stoves or gear
*Fuel for your camp stoves or grills
*Water storage containers
*Spices and herbs
*Seeds for the garden
*Good quality blankets or sleeping bags
*Car kits
*Bottles/jars for canning
*Ammunition (for hunting or home safety)
*#10 cans of freeze dried foods that can be put in 72 hour kits or in your food storage

These are just a few of the MANY gift ideas that can help your family prepare for a 'rainy day'. There is nothing better than giving the gift of peace of mind. When our houses are in order and our families are taken care of..there is no greater feeling or gift in the world!

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A taste of Pandemic and Panic

This past month has taught me many lessons. First, I cannot imagine how awful a nationwide pandemic would be, and second, 'if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear'.

ALL six of us in our family were hit by the horrible H1N1 Virus. Thankfully it is not a 'pandemic' yet (actually...a reader corrected me, it was declared a pandemic on June 11, 2009), but when you have this sickness you feel like you have the 'plague'. Kids can't go to school, you don't want to leave the house and contaminate others, and you feel plain miserable to do anything but stay inside and...moan! Can I tell you how wonderful it was to have food storage for those three weeks we were sick. The LAST thing I wanted to do was go grocery shopping (I still have only been once in the last month and a half--I sure hope my love for shopping comes back!). Food storage is great for many things, but one of them is for situations like being sick, or in the case of a pandemic, that you don't need to leave your house unless you need to. It was so nice to have food we could just quickly grab and throw together for dinner and food for the other meals of the day. It sure made the three weeks more bearable.

I also re-learned the importance of having a well stocked car kit. During our sickness we were on 'vacation' to St. George for eight days--not that you could call it a vacation being sick in bed. Of course the day we chose to drive home from St. George it was an absolute blizzard. Instead of taking 4 hours to get home, it took us over 7 hours! We were stuck at the top of the mountain (around Filmore I think) and we were in wall to wall traffic. There were cars sliding off the side of the road, people trying to dig out their cars, diesel trucks that slid off the road and other semi's that had slid and covered the entire road so no one could drive past. There was an hour where we did not move an inch. We wondered just how long we would be stuck in this traffic and began thinking of the 'what-if's' of this situation. It made me realize how important the car kit in the back of our car would have been if things continued to get worse. Did we have a way to stay warm? If we had to dig our car out of the snow, would we have the equipment to do it (I personally didn't--I was wearing flip flops--brr!)? What would we eat if we were stranded for a long period of time? Did we have water?

So many things to think about, especially here in Utah, now that snow season is upon us. There are many important items to have in a car kit, but some of the basics are the following:

*A backpack (buy them for cheap at the D.I) Something easy to carry if you needed to take it with you.
*Food & WATER (quick snacks--granola bars, fruit leather, high protein items if possible. They have high calorie bars that are great for emergencies sold at Emergency Essentials)
*Light Source-flashlight and batteries, flares
*Warm clothing--old coats, jackets, rain gear, gloves, hat. The survival blankets are also a good idea to have in your car kits to stay warm.
*Shoes or boots (if you are going to or from work and wear dress shoes, this is very important) Put your old sneakers or boots in your trunk.

There are MANY more items you could store in a car kit, but these basics would go along way if you were stranded some where.

Here is a link to a site that has an even more detailed list of items to have in your car kits: http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43798/article.html

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7 Day Challenge--win great prizes and test your preparedness level!

Are you REALLY prepared for an emergency? Our friends from the website www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net are hosting an annual 7 DAY CHALLENGE to see just how prepared we all are! They will be offering prizes, giveaways, and great information to all those who sign up for this challenge. Deals to Meals will also be giving away a THREE MONTH FREE MEMBERSHIP every day of the challenge. Sign up and see how you can have the chance to win a FREE membership to our service. The GRAND PRIZE will also recieve a FREE year membership to Deals to Meals (among many other great prizes!).

It is FREE to sign up for the challenge, and is a great opportunity for each of us to test our preparedness skills and find out the areas we need to improve. Why wait for a real emergency, let's take the opportunity this month to practice what we have been preparing for :)

Sign up on their website www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net/7day/ so you can recieve more information on their 7 Day Challenge and find out what you need to do! (When you sign up, feel free to enter Deals to Meals in the Referrer box so they know our readers found their website through us) Thanks!

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A great bargain at Cabelas!

I have been looking at propane heaters for awhile now and was thrilled about the deal I got today! This Mr. Heater Big Buddy is a GREAT item to have for emergency preparedness. This heater runs on propane and can be used in an enclosed area, such as your home, a tent, garage, etc. This makes it the perfect option for keeping warm when your power is out. We have a generator, but would rather use our fuel for keeping the freezer/fridge cold and not have to use it for keeping us warm (in the event the power was out for an extended period of time). This heater can run off of the small propane canister, or you can buy a hose and hook it up to the larger propane tanks you keep on your grill. Either way, it will run for about 12 hours on two small propane canisters (that is running it consistently, which you wouldn't need to do). (Make sure to have several propane canisters in your storage--last time I priced them out, Costco was the least expensive place to buy them).

Anyway, these heaters are regular priced at $139.99, but are on sale at http://www.cabelas.com/ for only $119.99. Besides this sale, they have a special that when you spend $100 you get FREE shipping OR when you spend $150 you get $30 off (see website for details). Basically you can buy another item for around $30 and get it for free. For those who are on Cabela's mailing list, they also just mailed out coupons for $20 off a $100 purchase and $10 off a $50 purchase. With these combined savings, it makes this heater the PERFECT Christmas gift!! I had the coupon/mailer, went to Cabela's, had them match the online price of $119 (they do that--cool!), got the $20 off...making my heater ONLY $107!! Fabulous! I am not sure how long the $119 sale will continue, but here is the link below if you want to order one online:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/common/search/search-results1.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&selectedPerPage=&hasJS=true&_D%3AhasJS=+&_D%3Asort=+&sort=all&Ntt=mr+heater&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&Go.x=20&Go.y=15

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Great Christmas gift ideas that can help you be more prepared

Here are a few GREAT gift ideas for the holidays. There is something for everyone, on any budget:

*A GIFT CERTIFICATE TO MY FOOD STORAGE DEALS!! (Information coming soon)
*First aid kits
*Flashlights for the whole family
*Jumper cables
*Fuel for your camp stoves or grills
*Camping stove
*Shovel
*Water storage containers
*Water purifier (such as the Katadyne)
*Heavy duty work gloves
*Warm winter clothing
*Spices and herbsseeds for the garden
*Nice heavy duty blankets or sleeping bags
*Car kits/back packs
*Bottles/jars for canning
*Dutch oven
*Solar-powered radio (or solar radio/flashlight combo)
*Wheat grinder (hand held or electric)
*Ready-made 72-hour kits
*Pressure cooker (small)
*Dehydrator
*55-gallon drum for water storage
*Rotating shelf systems (small)
*Large solar oven
*Generators (for information on these, read a Popular Mechanics article here)
*Extra gas canisters filled with gas for your generator (fill up now that gas prices are low :)
*A chest or stand up freezer
*Space heaters
*Extra extension cords
*Snow shovel
*Propane Lanterns
*Rope
*Tent
*Other camping supplies
*Giving basic food storage items for Christmas is also a great idea! Bags of wheat, beans, sugar, flour, powdered milk, honey, etc. are all GREAT items that can be bought for under $10 that would be a great gift.

Happy holidays!

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QUESTION: I have decided to store bottled water and use 55 gallon drums for cleaning, bathing, etc. I have not filled my drums yet, because I do not understand the best way to do this. Because I am not going to be drinking it do I need to treat it at all? Have you heard ofthe pumps they sell that go into the drums that supposedly filter and pump out thewater? Do you like them/dislike them? Any info. would be great.

ANSWER: You no longer need to treat water with Bleach because our water is now treated in a way that makes this no longer necissary. The only precaution you will want to take is to NOT have your water (or drums) be touching cement (on the sides or bottom of drum). The water in drums (that you will be storing for cleaning, bathing, etc.) will still be fine for drinking—even without a filter. You could always boil the water, get purification tablets or use bleach if you were nervous about the quality. Even still, I think it is a good idea to have some sort of filtration system in case you needed to purify other water sources. We have a Katadyn water filter (Costco used to sell them, but now I have only seen them at stores like Cabela’s). It was only around $60 and can filter muddy river water into clean drinking water. It is awesome! It comes with a little tube that you put into your water drums and siphon out the filtered water. This is a great thing to have camping and is small enough to be stored in your families 72 hour kit. Water bottles are convenient for drinking, but if you needed, it would be great to have the large 55 gallon drums as well. I don’t think you can ever have too much water ;)

http://www.cabelas.com/

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Tips from fellow food storage friends!

Do you need something to store your food storage items in?


Nancy from Springville has the answer..."I sell used 4 gallon buckets for $1.55 each. They use to have cherries in them and have been pre-rinsed. Great deal and store food well!! I live in Springville. And I deliver to Salt Lake County for a $25-35 fee or if I am going up there for many delivers I only charge $5 per order. They can reach me at: 801-704-9626 Nancy. "



A tip from Miranda for storing water in small spaces...

"My husband and I live in a condo so of course we have no extra space. So when a friend of mine gave me a 15 gal water barrel as a birthday gift and I wasn’t sure where we could put it with out it looking completely out of place (you know cause that bright blue barrel goes with everything J ). My friend suggested that we buy one of those round table tops at the store for about $5 (you know those glass tops that go with the small wooden tables) and turn the water barrel into a side table. That was the perfect solution for us! We just attached the glass top with large scrapbook glue dots (so it is easily removable yet sturdy), threw a table cloth over it and now it holds a few decorations and a desk lamp. (The glass top should even still fit the 30-gal barrel. Your table will just stand a bit taller.) It has worked out perfect for us and I like knowing that even though it is a small amount we still have some water incase of an emergency. "

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WEEKLY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:

Question: What are some already prepared meals/recipes that I can have on hand in case of an emergency?

Answer: Besides the MRE meals, their are other meals/foods you can have on hand in case of an emergency. Some examples are canned chili, stew, soups, pancake mix, spaghetti and bottled pasta sauce, etc. Pretty much anything that the preperation time is quick and easy to do--nothing more than warming up and eating. Canned food is great because you can warm the food up in the can and don't need to have any other attachments. The other great thing about having a stocked freezer is you will have frozen bread, tortillas, etc.in your freezer, that you can make sandwiches (PB&J, tuna), quesadillas, etc. with not much preperation. Visit our website under the FREE DOWNLOAD tab and download the FOOD STORAGE RECIPES to give you some ideas of easy meals you can make with your food storage food. If the power was to be out for an extended period of time, it's important we have an idea of how we would cook and stay warm. Camping stoves are something most of us have already and would make cooking easy. Costco sells propane and it's a good idea to have several stored for an emergency. When deciding what to add to your food storage, the LDS church recommends starting with a three month supply of foods/meals your family eats on a regular basis. Once you have your three month supply, then branch out and start getting your long term food storage items. Another way I tell people to start your food storage is to come up with several meals you can make from food storage food and build your food storage around those meals/items. Thinking in 'meals' makes it so that if you had to eat and live off of the food in your food storage, you would be able to create meals that were fast, easy to make and ones you know your family will eat. Make sure you are buying ALL of the components of meals so that if you needed to cook something you would have all of the ingredients. Powdered milk is an important one to have. You wouldn't have a way to eat your cereal, oatmeal, or make many recipes if you didn't have milk. People often times forget about spices as well. Spices are what makes food have flavor and taste good. Having a good supply and variety of spices in your food storage will make it easier to make yummy meals as well. Food storage isn't something that sits in your basement and never gets eaten. It is food that you are eating on a regular basis. I think of my food storage as my own 'store'. The items I buy at the store, I try to have a year supply of in my basement. Between a full freezer and fridge (and a generator/gas to keep them going in an emergency) it would make an emergency or hard ecinomic times easier to handle. It can seem overwhelming, but if you add to your storage a little each week (we tell you exactly which items to add each week and how much of each item), you will eventually have ALL of the items you would normally buy at the store--in your own basement/storage! It's a great thing :)

QUESTION: Why don't you charge less for your monthly membership? My friends aren't signing up because they think they can't afford the monthly fee.

ANSWER: I think you have a valid point. However, if you check around for similar services (we are the only ones that offer any help or info. on food storage), ours is BY FAR one of the cheapest! Many companies like My Grocery Deals charge $25 a month for 5 stores, and many other services charge $2 a week for 1 or 2 stores. Many of these companies also make people sign year long or 6 month long contracts. I didn’t want to do that because I feel that if people aren’t saving the $1.13 a week, then I want them to be able to cancel anytime. We also guarantee that if people don’t save $1.13 a week, then we will refund their months membership 100%. I am hoping that people not only save money on their groceries, but that they also save time. It takes me over 20 hours a week price matching, doing research, getting info. on food storage, etc., and I want people to not have to do any of that. I am hoping that all they will need to do is print off their sheet and go to the store. I don’t know about you, but I feel like my time is worth more than $1.13 :) Before we looked into what it would cost to start this ‘business’ we were wanting the monthly price to be even less. With all of the monthly costs, expenses of website designers/programmers, hosting fees, advertising fees, etc. we make under .25 on each email I send out. There isn’t too much more room to negotiate price without losing money. I have learned a lot from this process and want this service to be beneficial to all—I wish I could still offer it for free. I did that for nine months and hope that those who aren’t able to pay the $4.95 a month, would still find the free weekly email helpful. Tell your friends I’m sorry I am not able to make the monthly membership less, but that I hope they enjoy the weekly newsletter and help them understand that if they want to try the service, they can do that at anytime and if they don’t save, I will refund them their money.

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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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