In lieu of new posts that I'm struggling to find time to write at the moment (knock on wood that I've gone from losing my job in April to now having two jobs), I hope that a repost below of my "5 percent rule" might offer encouragement to those of you who are having trouble getting started stocking up.
As I stated in my first post on this blog, if you set aside just 5 percent of your take-home pay and use that money to build up your food storage pantry, you can build up a pretty good surplus in a relatively short amount of time.
Let's say that 5 percent of your take-home pay is $25. Last fall I did a little research on how much could be bought for $25 at that time among the items I stock up on as part of my storage pantry:
25 lbs. of frozen carrots at Walmart (which I dehydrate and store in mason jars)
or...
17 lbs. of frozen spinach at Walmart (which I also dehydrate and store in mason jars)
or...
50 lbs. of rice at Sam’s Club (with about $9 leftover)
or...
30 lbs. of dry beans at Sam’s Club
or...
18 cans of canned mackerel at Walmart
or...
4 6-gallon cases of bottled water (because without water, you'll die)
or...
7 cans of Cafe Bustelo coffee at Walmart (coffee is my daily treat to myself and also helps keep my asthma from flaring up--see the letter at the bottom of the page at this link)
or...
a 400-count bottle of naproxen at Sam’s Club (with about $8 leftover)
or...
10 paperback NIV New Testaments (because man doesn’t live by bread alone--Luke 4:4)
