image by toastiest

Every once in a while I come across an article online that I want to bookmark, but what with my computer restarting itself for updates and my kids coming along and closing windows, I invariably lose and forget about the link.

If you’ve ever experienced a computer virus that shuts down your computer or some other malfunction, you know the frustration of not having access to online resources.  If those resources include vital information related to preparedness and survival, start printing!  It just so happens that this four-day weekend would make a terrific time to track down valuable articles and begin printing them out.

You’ll need an extra ream of paper, maybe two, an extra ink cartridge, a 3-ring binder, a 3-hole punch, and a set or two of notebook dividers.  Some helpful categories for organizing your information are:

• evacuations
• finances
• food preservation
• food storage
• fuel and energy
• health and fitness
• security
• skills
• water

Websites that have helpful articles, worthy of printing out, are:

• SurvivalBlog
• PreparednessPro
• FoodStorageMadeEasy
• Dr.BonesandNurseAmy

Also, check out my downloads and various survival manuals, my blogroll and our Survival Mom-Blog Ring.

If articles contain photos or other graphics, I usually copy and paste the entire thing into a Word document and then delete photos and anything else I don’t want printed out.

Bookmarking sites just isn’t enough in a crisis.  You want a hard copy of the most important information and you’re going to need it in a well-organized binder, otherwise known as the Survival Mom Binder!  This project should keep you busy until next week’s Action Step!

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by emrank

In the last several days there have been several Cyber-terror threats to critical infrastructure control systems. These systems operate telecommunications, the US electric grid and drinking water systems. Threats like that aren’t necessarily new, but when Homeland Security drops the information, one has to wonder if the threat is more serious than a general understanding that terrorists would like to poison your sippy-cup.

If any of these lurid ambitions became a reality, the punishment inflicted would be devastating. Large power delivery systems are handy targets because they are fewer in number than the many small, stand-alone water systems. And they serve a larger slice of the population. However, power plants tend to be more closely monitored and therefore slightly better protected than water sources. However, even a regional loss of the power grid would soon impact the ability of towns and cities to pump water through the network of pipes into households. The huge pumps that charge city, municipal or rural water systems are electric. Some systems have backup generators and can continue to deliver water even when the power is out…for a while anyway. Eventually, loss of power means that the infrastructure will begin to break down, which will ultimately interrupt the fuel supply that back-up generators rely on. Then it’s only a matter of time.

Far more serious than loss of pumping power, is the threat of terrorist contamination to the water supply. There are several reasons:

§ When it is discovered, it will be far too late for some

§ There is little security for medium and smaller water systems

§ Chemical or Bio-contamination is not a short term problem

§ Most people (or municipalities) can’t even check the water supply

You shouldn’t assume that any water system is safe because of its size. No public system that serves any number of people is really safe. Terror strategy is “asymmetric” and is unconventional and necessarily hard to predict:

§ They could target larger, more closely guarded water systems for maximum kill, or…

§ They might simultaneously target several smaller, unguarded systems to inflict extreme levels of fear and uncertainty everywhere

If it were to happen 50 miles from you, would your hands shake with uncertainty as you give your kids a drink before bedtime that night? Can you be certain that your municipal water supply is safe?

image by themissiah

Other than air, water is both the most essential and most abundant element on earth. However, there is no guarantee that it will remain the most available. Three days without it and your body begins to slowly shut down. An early symptom of dehydration is the inability to sweat which means your body can no longer regulate its own temperature properly. In warmer temperatures without air-conditioning, you can easily begin to overheat, which carries its own set of issues. In a couple of days you will likely experience extreme nausea, dizziness and disorientation resulting from the imbalance of fluids and electrolytes in your nervous system. And, since your blood is about 83% water, it begins to thicken, which places a tremendous amount of stress on the heart. Finally the kidneys and other vital organs begin to fail because of inadequate fluids and diminished blood supply. Not a very nice way to go for sure. Rather than die that way, many would opt to drink Al-Qaida’s poison. But if you give serious thought to water as you prepare, this nightmarish scenario can be avoided completely.

Most people put a high priority on food as they prepare. Water usually places a distant second…until reality happens. People think that water needs are met, but storage is really a short term solution. If the grid goes down, or the water supply is compromised, a weeks-worth of water simply won’t be enough. When disaster strikes or even threatens, water always vanishes from store shelves almost instantly, so you will need a ready supply at home…but how much? You could make it for a short time on survival rations…about a gallon per day per person. At that rate, a two-week survival-ration for a family of five is 70 gallons…or fourteen 5-gallon containers. That assumes moderate temperatures because your body will need double that amount in peak summer heat or if you are working hard. One gallon means no bathing, no watering the garden or animals, and no cleaning anything, including yourself and your children! That’s just water to drink and to rehydrate dry food. But what happens if you lose water for a month…or a year? If you are prepared, life can be marginally tolerable if you have access to at least 10 gallons per person…50 gallons per day for a family of five, or 1,500 gallons per month! It will be important to return your family to some level of normalcy as soon as possible. Normalcy after a disaster will never equate to the average indoor consumption rate in America of 80-100 gallons per day per person, but 10 to 15 gallons per day per person can be tolerable in the midst of a loss of power and water…whatever the cause.

image by shrff14

The best solution is to consider water storage more of a short-term transition until you have a better source for the volume of water you need to function as close to normally as possible…and to help others who might not have planned as well as you. The best place to get it is from the ground. Cool, clear water…about 55° year-round, filtered naturally by the rocks, sediments and capillaries in the earth just the way God intended. Doesn’t get any better than that!

Filtered water from a ditch can get you by. However, one fifth of the earth’s freshwater (including immense amounts of permanent ice), is flowing through vast aquifers…in some places just a few feet below the surface?

• There are 15 million wells in the United States and growing at the rate of 2,000 new wells per day.

• Using the entire US land mass including deserts and bodies of water, that equates to an average of 4.2 wells per square mile.

If you don’t have a well, you are close to someone who does. All you need is access to a well, and a way to pump it out. Any thinking person with a well has wondered how to retrieve water from it if things get tough. A simple well bucket will work. A hand pump is even better.

The safest drinking water available can be reached through a small hole in your back yard…or maybe a neighbor’s…or a relative’s. No doubt, a chemical or bio-attack could eventually seep into the ground water supply but consider the dilution factor. Most hazards require some level of concentration to be effective, right? Did you realize that there is more water flowing underground than on top? Underground, there are vast reservoirs, rivers and millions of capillaries filtering water like crazy, through sand and silt. The sheer volume of water in the earth is a natural deterrent to concentration.

The best response to news of contamination in the municipality is to immediately pump fresh water from your well into every available container including buckets, the bathtub, and barrels. Use the water you have previously stored first, the fresh water stored from your well second, and additional filtered water from your well last…until you can gauge the seriousness of the situation.

If you can afford it, keep a hand well pump kit ready to bug out. You can always find a well. As you know…where there’s a well, there’s a way!

Corky Baker is co-owner of Flojak, a manual well pump.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by tarap

It may be something you’ve never thought of.  It may be something you’ve already done or have thought of doing, but ACTION is, ultimately, what preparedness is all about.  The survival TV shows are fun, the books and blogs are great, but when the S hits the fan, if you’re still sitting on your duff in front of a computer screen, you’ll be no better off than those who were oblivious.

ACTION STEP:  This week, go through your home, garage, storage areas, etc. and look for things to sell.  That’s right. If you don’t think you’ll ever use it, if you’re sorry you ever bought it, if it has any value at all, round it up and get it sold this coming week.  You’ll accomplish a couple of things.

1.       You’ll have cleaned out areas of your home to make way for stored food and other survival supplies.

2.       You’ll have likely cleared out some clutter you won’t be falling over if you ever have to evacuate in a hurry or ward of invading zombies.

3.       You’ll earn some money to pay off debt, put into savings, buy food storage, buy more ammo, whatever.

4.       You’ll have helped someone else.  Just this week my daughter and I were talking about her American Girl doll collection.  She was more into the American Girl book series, but I bought her a couple of dolls each year.  They’re in pretty good shape but they take up a lot of room, and we know it would make some little girl over the top happy this Christmas to receive a REAL American Girl doll.

5.       Try Craigslist first, since it’s free and so easy to post photos.  Try a garage sale, second.  They can be quite a bit of work, but if you have a lot of stuff, it’s probably the best way to go. Be sure to advertise your sale on Craigslist.  If your town or city has a Backpage.com, that’s another great and free way to sell goods.  (You’ll find TONS of guns listed!)  There are even Backpages for Canada, Australia, Ireland, and a few other countries.

That’s your ACTION STEP FOR THE WEEK.  I’ll be posting a new one next Friday.  Now get busy!

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

For many years preparedness never concerned me.  Military survival training, survival/backpacking gear, and a small collection of firearms sufficed as all the “prepping” I may need.  Armed with a plan that included the “Sacred Order” of survival – Shelter, Water, Fire, and Food – I never worried about much.

Author John Heatherly and son.

Fast-forward to 2010. My amazing wife gave birth to our son, our first child, and my view rapidly started to change.  Circumstances led me to quit my job to stay home with our baby while my wife continued to work.  I transformed from “Survival Expert” to “Survival-Mom-in-Training!”

Fortunately the TheSurvivalMom has helped me to update and expand my plans for the Sacred Order.  Here are some examples:

Shelter

From finances to firearms to homeschooling, the “At Home” tab has become part of my weekly routine.

Water

My family now owns a Steri-pen Sidewinder for water purification, and we are looking at the Flojak solution for well-water.

Fire

Here in sunny Florida our main use for fire would be for cooking.  The EcoZoom stoves and the Sun Oven are both attractive options for us, and in time I would like to have one of each.

Food

The tab on the upper-right entitled “The Basics” leads to the “Food” page, and it is a treasure trove:  Long-term food storage, cooking methods, recipes, food products for emergencies, and more are all listed.

In short, my philosophy of survival has always led me to seek simple, effective solutions.  Now that I am a Stay-at-Home Survival Dad, this web resource is helping me to learn and develop with my family’s needs in mind.  I probably should stop writing here – it is time to warm up another bottle of milk and execute today’s first diaper change!

Lisa’s note: You can read my review of The Survival Template here.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

1.  Storing food in buckets is smart because the heavy duty plastic helps to keep out pests, light, moisture, and oxygen, four of the five enemies of food.  Buckets should be made from food safe plastic.

2.  A mylar bag can be used as a liner in any bucket and provides a double layer of protection for the food.

3.  Label the outside of each bucket with the contents, either with a Sharpie, a printed label, or a china marker.  You don’t want to have to open each bucket and mylar bag in search of a certain food.

4.  If you use an iron to seal the mylar bags, check to make sure the seal is tight.  The first time I sealed up dried milk in these bags, I was unpleasantly surprised to find white powder trailing along behind me as I carried them to the pantry.  The cat loved it.

5.  Ask for free buckets at grocery store bakeries.

image by karpacious

6.  Buy oxygen absorbers online.  You’ve seen these absorbers before in packets of dry soup mixes and similar foods.  They literally absorb the oxygen inside a container. (The process of oxidation ruins food.)  Use these general guidelines for deciding how many absorbers to use.

100 cc oxygen absorber                    Large canning jar, 32 ounces

300 cc oxygen absorber                    #10 can

300 cc oxygen absorber                    one-gallon container

1500 cc oxygen absorber                  five-gallon bucket/container

The amount of absorbers needed depends on the size of container but also the amount of head room you leave at the top of the container and the size of the food.  Tiny pieces of food, rice, for example, will have much less oxygen in between rice grains than will lima beans or larger foods, but these guidelines are good for most foods.

7.  If you’ll be sealing a lot of mylar bags, check with Ready Made Resources about their hot-jaw sealer loaning program.

8.  Store buckets a few inches off the ground and don’t stack them more than 3 buckets high.

9.  What to store in the buckets?  Just about anything, including toiletries (these won’t need to be sealed in mylar).  Typically, people store dry goods, such as beans, cornmeal, wheat, and rice, in buckets.

10. If you plan on using some of what you’ve stored in buckets, invest a few dollars in Gamma Seal Lids.  These have an outer ring that snaps on the top of an open bucket and then a smaller lid that is inserted within the ring and then twisted until closed.  These lids allow for easy access to food you’re using and yet provide an air-tight seal when closed and can be used for years.

This video walks you through the process of sealing buckets with mylar bag inserts.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by emdot

Believe it or not, I’m not a worrywart, and in spite of all my research and preparing, I still like to dawdle.  Whenever my back isn’t to the wall, whenever I don’t have a deadline, that’s what I do.  Dawdle.

Last week I was talking with a new prepper friend, and she made the comment, “I think we have about a year before everything collapses.”  Just a few days later I received an email from someone who voiced the same sentiment.  “I think we have until next summer to prepare and then things will fall apart in the fall.”

Is this some kind of prophecy?

Now, neither of these people are prophets nor do I believe they have any inside information.  What they do have, is a deadline in mind, and it’s propelling them to work steadfastly toward being prepared.  This, I’ve realized, has been one of my shortcomings.  With world and national events on a continual rollercoaster, it’s been hard to gauge just how much time we have to prepare, so I’ve reverted to my natural state of … dawdling!  I guess it’s my default setting!

image by Pearl Mountain

So, here’s my tip for maintaining a preparedness mindset.  Prepare as though you have about one year to be ready.  Ready for what?  Well, for some people, you’ll be ready just in time for the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21, 2012.  Others believe our economy is in non-stop spiral downward and next fall is when we’ll see the stock market plummet, for good.  Whatever it is you’re planning for, keep this time frame in mind.

The dilemma of living in two worlds

This may sound obvious, to prepare for hard times, but preppers live in two worlds.  We live in a world where not much has changed.  People are still shopping, eating out, going to work, doing laundry and paying bills.  It’s this world that attracts so much of our attention because, let’s face it.  We do have to go grocery shopping and get to the job each morning.  That laundry isn’t going to take care of itself and those darn bills had better be paid, or else!

However, our second world keeps us focused, in part, on dangerous current events around the world, the price of gold and silver, and gauging about how much time we have until the S, however you define it, hits the fan.  It’s in this world that we learn how to store and purify water, the legality of using concertina wire around our homes, and keeping track of the stockpile of ammo!

Trying to stay focused on both worlds, is no easy task.  In order to be prepared for what is to come, we have to walk a tightrope between these two worlds, and having a goal in mind may be just the thing to keep you moving along and staying balanced.  So, prepare as though you have about one year.  And try not to dawdle, or worry!

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by feverblue

I love getting emails from readers and listeners to my radio show, and I try to answer them all.  This week I received an email from an unexpected source, a single guy.  Now, I’ve always suspected that about 25% of my readers are men, based on their comments here on the blog and from email I receive, but this email was especially meaningful.  The concept of preparedness was new to the writer, D.F., and I’ll let you read his letter for yourself.

Dear SurvivalMom,

I can tell you the day and the hour I started preparing for a disaster. It was just three days ago at 11pm on August 15th that me and a friend were talking about earthquakes and I realized that I didn’t even have one days worth of food or water in my apartment. I didn’t have a single flashlight or even so much as a candle. To say I was woefully unprepared would be an understatement, I was perhaps as unprepared as an individual can be. The realization of how vulnerable I was hit me like a truck. I kind of freaked.

With knots in my stomach I started searching for information on the internet, fearing I would have to wade through a million blogs by guys that think they’re the star of an action movie, thankfully I was very wrong on that point.

It didn’t take me too long to find your site and I was soon reading your post, “Lets help Aimee become a SurvivalMom”.  I immediately started feeling much better (your Momness is powerful). It was such a relief to realize that my first priority was a simple trip to the gas station and the grocery store.  This seems so obvious to me now that I feel foolish for feeling overwhelmed in the first place.

It wasn’t even twelve hours after deciding to get prepared that I had the bare minimum. I left the grocery store with two weeks of water and food, flashlights, batteries, candles, first aid supplies and many other essential items and goods that you and others recommended. I’m a single guy with no children and shopping has always been about grabbing a few ready-to-go meals and perhaps the ingredients for one or two cooked meals.  Shopping with the mentality of preparedness was like seeing a grocery store for the first time!

Since then I have purchased many of the items I would need to walk the thirty five miles to my sister’s house if I absolutely had to, begun stocking her house with essentials for her (she got right on board with me), her children and myself for a month, purchased a 22 rifle and stocked my car with the beginnings of a 72 hour kit.

I still have a lot to do.  It doesn’t seem like you can ever really be prepared, but three days ago I wasn’t even prepared for a ten minute blackout. Knowing that I’m well on my way to a month (with goals of much longer) of supplies and essentials feels great.

It feels odd for me to offer a tip to someone who has been at this for far longer than I have, but in your post “Seven Lessons Learned from a Two-hour Power Outage” you talked about the initial moments after the power went out being difficult. I’m a control room operator and one of my duties is training people how to do the job. When things go wrong for any number of reasons, I have seen people “lock up” for a few moments before their knowledge and training kicks in. Co-workers lives may just be on the line, and there are many millions of dollars of equipment at risk, every scenario is different and you may not have all the information you need to assess what has happened.  It is understandable why people may freeze. This is why I always drill training operators that if they are unsure in those first few moments to, “check their breakers, their lube oil pressure and their steam drum level”, and after that they’ll know what to do.

It works very well and I’m already drilling myself on what to do if there’s a power outage or in the moments after a disaster “Get dressed, put your boots on. If you’re dressed already then sit down and retie your shoelaces.” By the time I have finished tying my shoelaces, I’ll know what my next step should be.  Of course it doesn’t have to be shoelaces.  Anything simple but practical will do.  God forbid but if I ever see a mushroom cloud while I’m out of the house, people all around me will start to panic, but I’ll be looking for a place to kneel down and tie my shoe laces!

Lisa’s note:  I LOVE this tip! Focusing on a few, concrete activities helps calm the nerves, focus on an immediate need, and gives your brain time to back away from its fight/freeze/flee impulses.   Then you can assess the situation and take action.  Thanks for the tip, D.F.!

It’s taken me a while to get here but I’ve finally gotten to the purpose of my letter. Thankyou! Your advice and the advice from like minded people may just be the most important information there is on the internet. That may sound dramatic, but it’s absolutely true.  The day may come where what I have learned from you already will save my life. I cannot imagine a more noble pursuit than sharing willingly and freely your time, experience and knowledge on such an essential topic with as many people as you can. I felt desperate to find out what I needed to know and there you were, my gratitude is deep and sincere. You’re beautiful.

Yours sincerely,

D.F.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by emrank

Along comes calcium hypochlorite, or ‘pool shock’.  On my FREE Downloads page, I’ve had a tutorial for using calcium hypochlorite to purify water, but came across this video and wanted to share it with you. Cal-Shock 65 is a good product that contains calcium hypochlorite as the only active ingredient. You can buy it at InyoPools.com.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by Don Hankins

The reason even experienced preppers and survivalists are active in online forums, read blogs, and regularly add books to their home survival libraries is because there is always more to learn.  One excellent resource of information is the website of Robert Wayne Atkins, also known to many as ‘Grandpappy’.  His article, “The One Minute Meltdown” is one of the most popular linked-to articles in the history of my blog, and now he’s published, “What to do right now if the hard times have begun and you are not prepared.”

Hard times begin with two scenarios, as explained by Grandpappy

1. You have some money and many local stores are still open for business.  There’s time to prepare and resources are available.
2. Stores are all closed, whether you have money or not, and banks are closed, making it impossible to access any money that you have.

From this point, Grandpappy explains,

Hard times are inevitable. The only things we do not know about hard times in advance are:

1. the trigger event,
2. the severity of the hard times, and
3. the duration of the hard times.

Trigger events can be localized, such as an earthquake or tornado, or they can be very widespread, caused by an economic collapse or war.  This leaves me wondering if, perhaps, the recent downgrade of America’s credit rating may be looked back upon as a trigger event.  Whatever the trigger, desperation will mount.  Grandpappy offers this sobering view of the future:

It really doesn’t matter if you and 5% (or 30%) of the rest in the people in the world can afford to buy food, or if some percentage of families already have an emergency food supply. The people who can’t afford food and who do not have an emergency food supply will not simply sit down and wait to die a peaceful, quiet, extremely unpleasant death due to starvation. They will do the same things today that starving people have always done in the past. It will begin with just a few people in each area reverting to savage behavior. Then you will hear about small organized groups of people who are engaging in savage behavior. Then each geographical region will be overrun by a huge uncontrollable mob of people who are starving and they will do anything to anybody in order to survive.

image by andrew cooke

America hasn’t faced a famine, the dust bowl not withstanding, but a few events have caught my attention recently and caused me to think hard about the food supply of our nation.  First, massive flooding along the Mississippi River damaged valuable farmland earlier this year.  Thousands of acres of land were flooded, washing away spring crops, and many farming families are still displaced.

A recent headline reads, ‘41% of U.S. in Major Drought‘.  Ranchers in the midwest and Texas are selling off  most or all of their cattle because there is no water and grass to feed them.  This may lower the price of beef, temporarily, but until the drought ends, cattle ranches may become ghost towns.  A cow can only have one calf per year.  Even if a rancher is able to hold on to a portion of his stock, it will take a couple of years to build it back up.  And, of course, the drought is affecting crops.  A friend in Texas told me of driving past miles of cornfields filled with dead, dry plants.  The effects of a drought are long-term and very serious.

I can’t think of a single reason why food prices shouldn’t increase or why we might not experience food shortages, even famine, in America someday.  We can import food from other countries, but will they be willing to sell food if they are also experiencing shortages.  And how eager will they be to sell to a country that is trillions of dollars in debt and who no longer has a top-notch credit rating?

Grandpappy, in his wisdom, notes that a complete breakdown may not ever happen.  Governments may still continue to, somehow, keep water, sewage, and power systems running, but the key is to be as self-reliant as possible.  Thinking that our current level of prosperity and comfort will continue forever, isn’t realistic, and to that end, Grandpappy offers lists of essential items to make sure you’re as prepared as possible.

Read the entire article and review his lists here.  It’s great food for thought and a terrific, practical resource.

© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

A storm of a different kind is on its way to America and has already been wreaking havoc with family incomes and our sense of security.  No one knows what the extent of the damage will ultimately be, but moms everywhere are responding to their maternal instinct to gather everyone together.  Since food and meal preparation is part of our responsibility, food storage is a basic step to take in order to keep our families healthy.

image by mullica

Having enough groceries on hand for a period of three months is a good first goal, but if buying enough for three months is too daunting and not in the budget, start with buying enough to have a pantry fully stocked for one month.

If you’ve been losing sleep over the state of our economy or your own personal finances, there’s no time to waste.  Use coupons and grocery store sales to get the most bang for your buck, examine your budget for anything that can be cut (temporarily) until you’ve reached your food storage goals.

To get you started, here are some of the simplest ways to stock up.

1.  Stock up on ingredients to make 15 batches of soup.  That’s a little more than one batch of soup per week for three months. If you make a double batch, you’ll have leftovers for the next day. Buy high-quality bouillon in bulk, such as Shirley J’s chicken or beef bouillon.  I like this brand because you can buy it in larger quantities and it’s double-strength, so you use half of what a recipe calls for.  In addition to bouillon (and yes, you can always make your own stock), buy:

• 1-2 #10 dehydrated potato dices.  This will provide potatoes for both soups and chowders.
• 1 #10 can of each vegetable (dehydrated or freeze-dried) you typically use in soup: onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms, corn (for chowders), mixed vegetables, etc.
• 1 #10 can tomato powder for tomato based soups.  You can also use this to make homemade pasta and enchilada sauces.
• 1 #10 can instant milk for chowders
• Rice, beans, and small pasta can be added for extra bulk, calories, and variety.

image by crd!

2.  Learn how to bake a loaf of homemade bread.  If you already know how to do this, stock up on enough ingredients to make a loaf of bread per day if you have more than four people in your family, or a loaf every other day for smaller family units or individuals.  Keep the recipe very simple, as your goal is to stock up quickly, using every penny and dollar wisely.  You’ll use bread for sandwiches, toast, garlic bread, French toast, bread crumbs, etc.  If you don’t have a grain mill for grinding wheat, buy enough flour for not only bread but other, occasional treats such as cookies.  Before storing the flour, place it in a container with a tight lid and freeze it for at least ten days.  This will kill off any microscopic insect eggs so there won’t be any nasty surprises when you’re ready to use the flour.

3.  Plan at least 15 pasta meals.  They can be inexpensive and pasta is very versatile.  You can buy 15 jars/cans of ready-made pasta sauce or buy enough ingredients to make 15 batches of homemade sauce.  Plan on eating a hot vegetable and slices of garlic bread with each meal.  This utilizes your homemade bread and hot veggies can either be from your stash of dehydrated/freeze-dried OR canned veggies from the grocery store.

4.  A batch of white sauce is easy to whip up with flour, some butter, and milk.  Add garlic, salt, and rehydrated vegetables for a meal of pasta primavera or served over egg noodles.  12 bags of egg noodles and a #2.5 can of butter powder, along with seasonings, is all you’ll need to add to the ingredients already listed here.  Buy a #10 can of sausage crumbles and make your own sausage gravy served over homemade biscuits.  If you’re stocked up on ingredients for bread, you’ll only need to add a can of shortening for this quick meal.

image by B. D.'s world

5.  Tuna casserole is a simple budget-friendly dinner.  Multiply the ingredients in your recipe times 12 in order to serve it once a week for three months.  Keep in mind that the tuna content has been decreasing, much like those containers of ice cream that keep getting smaller and smaller!  You might have to buy more cans of tuna in order to have the same amount of actual tuna. My recipe includes cream of mushroom soup, canned mushrooms, and sometimes cheese.  Buy 12 cans of the soup, 12 cans of sliced mushrooms (or use freeze-dried mushrooms), and splurge on a #10 can of freeze-dried jack or mozzarella cheese.

6.  The classic meal of beans and rice is versatile and the ingredients can be stored for years.

7.  For more simple dinner ideas, buy 100-day Pantry by Jan Jackson.  Choose a recipe, multiply the ingredients by 12, and start shopping!

8.  Your dinner menu will be complete with soup/chowder 1-2 times each week, a pasta meal or two each week, tuna casserole, white sauce with vegetables served over noodles, and a rice/beans dish.

9.  Oatmeal makes a healthy and filling breakfast and has the added advantage of being versatile.  It’s also inexpensive.  Some stories carry oatmeal in their self-serve bins, along with beans, cornmeal, etc.  Three pounds of oatmeal will provide 30 servings.  Figure out how much you need to buy in order to have an oatmeal breakfast 3-4 times per week, one serving per person, per day.  Buy extra if homemade granola, oatmeal cookies, and homemade granola bars sound good to you.  In addition, buy 6 pounds of brown sugar and/or 2 quarts of honey, extra cinnamon, raisins, and any other add-ins you and your family enjoy.

image by Pink Sherbet Photography

10.  Plan on eating pancakes, French toast, homemade muffins, gravy and biscuits, and eggs for the remaining breakfasts.  Leftovers are good, too.  Keep breakfast quick, easy, and filling.

11.  Cooking three meals from scratch will get old fast.  There’s nothing wrong with planning on canned ravioli, chili, tuna sandwiches, canned stew, peanut butter and jelly, and even Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (stock up on instant milk and butter powder).

12.  Freeze-dried cheese is pricey, but it can be used in quesadillas with homemade tortillas, sprinkled over a baked pasta dish, pizza, and so much more.  When it’s rehydrated, it melts and tastes just like real cheese.  In my opinion, it’s worth splurging on a can or two, and then using it as a luxury ingredient, sparingly.  I keep cheese in my freezer and have started waxing cheese to preserve it longer, but for long-term storage AND a quick way to reach your food storage goal, freeze-dried is a really good option.

Finally, make sure you have at least one alternative way to cook your food and heat up water.  If a Sun Oven is too pricey, many people make their own solar cookers.  Many moms on this blog have been using an energy efficient rocket stove, such as EcoZoom, and find them easy to use.  Should your power go out or energy rates skyrocket, cooking a few meals off the grid will be smart.

What other easy food storage ideas do you have to share?

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