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10 Things to Stockpile that will literally Save Your Bacon!

Today, more than ever, I feel the threat of uncertain times and instability in our World. This does not mean I think the Grid is about to go down or the stock market collapse but I am nevertheless worried, shall we say and therefore I take precautions. We all have home insurance so why would having an Insurance policy against job loss be any different?

Do you have the necessary means to keep your family whole and healthy in the case of a Personal Economic Collapse? Do you even know what that looks like for your family?

“In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.”

Proverbs 21:20

So- What does “Stockpile” actually mean?

“Disaster mitigation process in which essential inventory items are identified, procured, and stocked beforehand”.

What it doesn’t mean are underground bunkers filled with shelf stable dehydrated foods with a 25-year life span that will see you through Armageddon. I’m serious.

When you think of “Stockpile”, “Economic Collapse”, “Zombie Apocalypse” does your mind automatically go to “Doomsday Preppers”?

I love that show – It’s hilarious. I don’t think I’ve missed a single episode and I’ve lost count of how many seasons. These are the extreme cases of preparing for disaster scenarios and not all of them are even remotely realistic. I use this show as a basis of What Not To Do.

In the beginning, the early days of my Insurance plan, I would coupon like crazy and go out and stock up on 8 cans of air freshener or scented candles (because – for some reason here where I live in Canada, that’s all we ever seem to get in coupons… Oh! and Baby Ruth Barbecue sauce!) and I would search the five million flyers that came with the weekly local news for bargains. I joined Prepper websites for information on the best ways to get free stuff, fast. I listened to their concerns about the impending end of the World and… It all started to depress me so, I switched it off.

I purchased huge 28 oz cans of tomatoes when they were on sale for $1 a can and decided that canned fruit cocktail and canned milk would save my family. The fact that we don’t use canned tomatoes for anything (I grow fresh tomatoes each year) and my kids can’t stand canned fruit cocktail never entered my head and here I am – four years later and I really should throw those cans of fruit cocktail away because no one will ever eat them, even if the Zombies do come!

So – what should you do to make sure your family can thrive if things go a wee bit out of kilter?

Beware of overwhelm!

Start slowly. You can’t build a years supply of everything your family needs overnight. That’s ridiculous so just stop right now and breathe.

Are you breathing? Good. 🙂

The first thing you have to do is actually Look at what your family eats and uses. In the beginning I signed up for meal plans with ingredient lists but soon found that this was food my family didn’t eat. I kept a journal of the recipes I tried out on them and the level of enthusiasm to which they were met. I polled each member of the house to gauge if this was a meal they might eat again and in the end it was actually really very simple.

I started with a two-week period of meals that we eat regularly (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and snacks, drinks, special items and I listed every ingredient that went into making each one of these meals: eg.

Spaghetti Bolognese and Garlic Toast:

Spaghetti, Ground beef, Pasta Sauce, herbs, Garlic, Onions, Flour, yeast, butter.

After I had my basic list of ingredients and quantities, I calculated how many times we might eat this one meal in a year – Be very conscious of Appetite Fatigue. For argument’s sake lets say it would be once every two weeks so – 26 times in one year.

Calculation:- 26 x quantity of each ingredient necessary for family of four for one meal.

So – 26 cans (or jars) of ready to rock Pasta sauce. 13 x 750g packs of ground beef. 13 packs of dried spaghetti, etc, etc.

Sounds easy enough BUT next comes practicality.

Where and How will you store this stuff?

How much space do you actually have to build your insurance policy? If you live in a one bedroom apartment I can guarantee you a years supply of toilet roll will take over your space and that’s before you get going on your food staples.

Be realistic – can you only store a weeks worth of preps? Considering most grocery stores today only have three days of stocks on hand then one weeks supply of preps in your apartment is going to be amazing. I said earlier Start Slowly and now I’m going to add Start Small. One 4 pack of toilet rolls, one jar of sauce, one pack of spaghetti, one 8L jug of water.

Wait – did I just say Water? That comes from the tap right?

Take a look at New York City after Hurricane Sandy. People had no access to fresh, clean drinking water for waaay too long. The stores were decimated after only a few hours. Man can go three weeks without food but only three days without water so yes – put that on the list.

Oh – you’re a little better off than a one room apartment? You have an entire heated workshop at your disposal. Well OK then. What are you going to keep your preps in? Let me tell you from experience – plastic buckets do not keep out rats, neither do doors, walls, traps… If a Varmint wants IN to your stores, they will get in – You can take that to the bank.

What they are attracted to is smell and so – I started Vacuum sealing my packages and then storing them in Mylar bags and then putting them inside buckets. So far this triple system has worked.

How’s the climate in your storage space? Does it soar up into the 30’s in Mid summer and down below 0 in Winter? That swing of temperature is going to destroy any properties the food may have had.

Do you have a Plan?

It’s always best to plan your purchases around the sales keeping in mind what your family will need or use and then simply add one extra (whatever) to your cart each time you shop. I started with expensive items like Costco club packs of toilet rolls (remember – at this time I was working and we were making six figures) but I also stocked dollar store laundry detergent, cleaning products, shampoo, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes.

I maintained an Inventory of items in categories to keep track and I ROTATED my food stuffs through the house regularly. What I mean by this is, when we needed a pack of spaghetti, I shopped in the storage unit first and replaced that inventory the next time I went shopping. By doing this I could be certain that none of the food stuffs would be left on the shelves long past their use by date (which is the opposite to saving money).

Budget.

I do like that word. Have you noticed? If you can budget and extra $x each week to put solely towards building your insurance policy then that’s great, but what about those people who can barely afford their regular shop right now? Look closely – you can pick up a can of sauce in the dollar store for $1.25. If you can get just one this week you have your start. Next week get the pack of spaghetti from Walmart for $1.00. Look at where every penny of your household income goes and see where you could scrape those extra dollars from. Take a look at my earlier post “How to budget money on a low income” for additional tips and tricks that will enable you to put some funds towards building your insurance plan.

Know when to stop!

This is important. When you have filled your living space with food staples and non-perishables, enough to last five years, to the extent that you are going into debt to fund this new hobby (for that is what it has now become) and you have no room to actually live… this is too far. When procuring one more can of Sardines to round out your proteins stores takes up your mind space… this is too far. When you are now renting additional storage space or DIGGING UNDERGROUND BUNKERS.. this is too far. This is when you call the TV company and I’ll see you on the next season of Doomsday Preppers.

Do a little bit at a time as often as you can. Create a plan and a budget and stick to it. Research storage requirements. Rotate and replace. Know when to stop.

Being able to shop in my storage shed for a whole year for expensive toilet rolls and nice shampoo; Never hitting our meager budget for laundry detergent and softener; Being able to supply Ladies sanitary items to my teenage daughter in the middle of the night without jumping in the van and high tailing it to the 24-hour store; Having clean drinking water when our Well system developed coliforms, shutting us down for a week and a multitude of other blessings is what kept us sane and kept us healthy. We didn’t just survive during our Personal Economic Collapse we thrived.

Here are three ACTUAL products I have in my Knowledge (books) center and in my storage shed. Enjoy!

Anna