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)
Although prices may have increase, I agree that this list is a good, basic starting point for prepping.
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right, Orange Jeep Dad. As a side note, I've noticed that in just the past month, the price of my favorite coffee, Cafe Bustelo, has jumped about 14 percent at Walmart, going from $3.38 a can to $3.88 a can when I was there last night. I'd have to do some digging for articles, but I've read several articles that have said that Walmart is usually the last place that price increases will occur relative to smaller stores since by virtue of its huge sales volume and number of stores, Walmart is able to absorb costs better and can usually keep from passing on higher prices on a lot of items. So if Walmart prices are going up on food and other frequently-used items, you can bet that the same thing is happening to an even greater degree at other stores.
ReplyDeleteStock up while it's cheap!
I'm getting a lot of "page not found" pages when trying to link to this site.
ReplyDeleteAre there problems between you and whoever?
Bob
III
IdahoBob, I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about, but it looks like the older links I had to articles on SurvivalPrep.net are no longer working. I think the person who ran that blog moved all of the articles to an archive site (which I have listed in my blogroll) and the old links appear to be dead, so I'd guess that anyone wanting to read that site's old posts need to go to the archive site. I've only had brief online contact with the guy who ran SurvivalPrep.net, so I can't say for certain what has happened to the original site, just that it appears it is no longer being updated.
ReplyDeleteIf that's not what you're referring to, please let me know, but no, I'm not having any problems with anyone, web-hosting-related or otherwise.
IdahoBob, if you're trying to link to specific posts, try right-clicking the title for each entry and then copy and paste the link into the place you're wanting to share the link.
ReplyDeleteNope,
ReplyDeleteI am having problems linking up with this site, stockingup.net
Usually have to make the attempt 2-4 times before it actually comes up, otherwise I get a page not found message.
Bob
III
That's weird. Maybe the URL forwarding on stockingup.net is just having issues. Bookmark hungrythirstystranger.blogspot.com and see if that makes any difference, since it'd go directly to the blog itself.
ReplyDelete