Buying in bulk,,,,,part 4

Greetings!!

As you know my primary reason for buying food in bulk is to save on my grocery budget.  However I do also buy to keep an emergency food supply on hand.  I know FEMA says to have at least 3 days of food set back for emergencies but I have learned first hand 3 days is not even close to being enough.

Ask those who lived through Hurricane Sandy last year,  Hurricane Katrina, various other hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, fires and earthquakes.  It was more like weeks, several, before things started to be restored to normal.  Even if you are not directly hit by a tornado you can be left stranded and without power for quite some time.  The same goes for other natural disasters.

A few years back we had a really bad ice storm which left many without power for as long as two weeks.  For a couple of days the roads were closed.  Nothing was being delivered to the grocery stores and indeed the stores were without power and closed for a short time.  Luckily we did not lose power for long but I was prepared if we were.

When making purchases for your emergency supply you should take several things into consideration. How will you cook or heat the food?  How will you keep your perishables cold?  What can you do to minimize the loss of food if power is out for an extended period of time?  What types of food should you store up for emergencies?

As for cooking or heating food, I usually use my gas BBQ grill.  I always have one can of propane hooked up and another full one in reserve.  I can go quite sometime before needed to replace the propane.  My grill has 3 rows of burners in the grilling part plus on one side it has a stove top type burner.  Only light what you really need to cook in order to save fuel.  For example if you are cooking just a couple of hamburgers you only need one burner for that.  If you are heating soup, just a pot on the stove top burner will do.  Conserve your fuel to make it last.

I also have an old small wood burning stove in the basement.  It has two burning crates for pots.  I have a few cast-iron pans and kettles and keep a small emergency supply of wood.  This is a pretty old burner not in the best of shape so I only use it in emergency cases.  Someday I hope to replace it.  But it will do in a pinch for now.

I have found a nice little trick for keeping my perishables cold at least for a few days.  I keep several gallon jugs of frozen water in my freezer.  When the power goes out, I move half of them into the refrigerator.  The trick is to then not open the doors to the freezer or fridge until the power comes back on.  Or at least not do it very often.  Opening the doors will allow warmth from the room to get in and begin to warm your appliances.  The longer you can keep them closed the longer your food will stay cold or even frozen in the freezer.  I know that by keeping the frozen jugs of water in there my freezer food can stay frozen at least a week if it is not too hot out and depending on how much is in the freezer.  I keep a pretty full freezer, which helps to keep things frozen when there is no power.

I keep a good supply of food that does not have to be refrigerated or frozen to use for our meals while there is no power so I don't have to open the freezer or fridge very often if at all.  I keep a good supply of canned soup.  Easy to heat and actually can be eaten cold if need be.  I do a lot of my own canning so always have fruits and vegetables available to me.  I have a supply of pastas and rice also.  I also can meats.  It is easy for me to open a jar of stewing beef, a can of potatoes, a can of carrots and throw them in a pot to heat and I have a hearty beef stew with not much fuss.  If you do not can you can always buy some canned meat at the grocery store.  That extra protein in your diet will help you a long way in an emergency situation.

I keep a supply of bottled water for drinking and also keep big jugs of tap water for cleaning and bathing, etc.  The water, like the food is rotated out on a regular basis to keep it from going bad.  I keep extra cleaning supplies, bleach and personal hygiene items as well.  And let's not forget toilet paper and paper towels!! 

One of the other things I do is keep extra canning supplies on hand.  In the worse case scenario and power is out for a long period of time I can always start canning the food in my freezer and fridge and keep it from spoiling.  Yes, I would do that on the BBQ grill.  Not the best situation, but it works.  I just recommend if you are doing this in the cold of winter, before removing the sealed jars from the hot canner, carefully carry the canner in doors where it is warmer to minimize the risk of the jars breaking.

One more thing, if you have pets don't forget to stock up on their food also!!

There are so many other things I could write about regarding being prepared for an emergency situation but I think this gives you a pretty good start.  As I said earlier FEMA recommends at least 3 days of food, I personally recommend at least a month, more if you can do it.

I'm not sure what I will write about in my next post, I guess we will just have to wait and see, LOL.

Until next time,,,,,,,Blessings!