Many parents are saying, "I simply can't afford to stockpile food right now."
Unfortunately, many people are just barely surviving and struggling to make ends meet so stockpiling food seems to be out of the question when the electric bill needs to be paid and fuel put into the car. But in the back of our minds, there is this nagging fear that all the talk about a coming food shortage will actually happen one day and we will not be able to feed our families.
Here are a few simple tips to help you get a small food storage started for your family. I know it works because we have done it while on a monthly income of $1000 as a family of six!
We all go grocery shopping, whether it is at a Walmart superstore (my all time favorite for stockpiling groceries!) or a regular grocery store. And I dare say that most of us love sales. I like to shop sales myself, so here is what I like to do.
Allow yourself five to ten bucks to spend towards your stockpile food list every week. That may not sound like much but what will happen is that as you start building up your emergency food supply, you will find other ways to add to it.
Be careful to only stock up on things that have a fairly long shelf life, and things that you use a lot of. A lot of folks are really worried about their food getting outdated, but you really do not have to worry about that. If you have a pretty good food storage going in about a year, you can start rotating items. (for most of us with families, it is rare that food stays stored for more than a few months anyways!) If your family rarely uses stewed tomatoes, then for heaven's sake, DON'T stock it up just because there is a really good sale on them!
For instance, if you use a ton of ketchup and the ketchup is on sale one week, stock up on $5 - $10 worth of ketchup. Next week, it may be salt. Get $5 - $10 worth of salt.
As you build your stockpile of food,try to stick with plastic or metal containers and bottles. It seems almost everything is in plastic these days anyways, but if you have a choice, choose plastic and that way, if you ever have to move everything quickly, you will not have to worry about glass jars breaking, etc.
I know, you can't get pickles in plastic... yet. (And I sure like my pickles...)
But you get the idea. What will happen, and it has happened for many others, is that as you start your emergency food storage in the small ways that you can, you will be amazed at how quickly you will start thinking - "Oh, we can make it without ice-cream this week, and get that case of fruit that is on sale instead"... especially if you make a family thing.
The beauty of starting to stockpile food is that even though there may not be a food crisis within the next year or two, as we build up our storage, we have the comfort of knowing that should even harder economic times hit us, we will be prepared for it... Plus, you save a ton on your grocery bill by getting into the habit of buying when things are on sale!
Viola Bontrager is the author of
Emergency-Survival-Skills.com where she talks about the basics of survival. Visit her blog to learn more about how to stockpile food, emergency food storage, how to make your own emergency kits, etc...
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yesterday! I cleaned it and my son promptly made him some beef jerky. He loves the dehydrator more than I do. It was fast!! This is a great dehydrator. I had a Mr. Coffee one years ago and it took forever to do anything. He had some jerky in just a few hours. So, my shopping list this weekend will include a ton of fruit, veggies, some lean beef, and anything else that I will need. Like lemon juice for treating the fruit. I am so glad that I broke down and bought one. I have been wanting one for a long time. This is going to really help this summer too with stuff from the garden. 
