Disaster Preparedness on a Budget
October 7, 2008 by Katelyn Thomas
Filed under groceries
During Hurricane Ike, I went to the grocery store and it was empty. I live nowhere near Texas, but shipments were affected by the storms and there was nothing inside. No milk. No eggs. No meat. Very little bread. Gaping holes on the shelves. Keep in mind, this was not even an emergency near me!
Well, the whole experience that day made me start thinking about disaster preparedness. What if I got really sick and couldn’t afford to shop for groceries? What if the road flooded out for two weeks? I decided it was time to ramp up my stockpile efforts.
The first thing I discovered was disaster preparedness packagers. They’ll sell you a year’s worth of food for a few thousand dollars. Ummm. Wow.
I started shopping around and this is my disaster preparedness solution…Amazon.com, which carries several lines of freeze dried and dehydrated products. As I earn gift certificates or Amazon offers a grocery code, I’m going to order something to add to the stockpile. I’m only looking for products that have a shelf life of ten years or more and will be selecting the items I get very carefully.
My first purchase? Honeyville Farms powdered eggs. 85 eggs for $25.99. I’ve compared them to the different disaster preparedness sites and there are a lot more eggs in the can. Also, they aren’t mixed with other ingredients to dilute the product.
So, have you been working on a disaster preparedness food stockpile? How do you work it into your budget?
Technorati Tags: disaster preparedness,food stockpile,freeze dried food,dehydrated products
The most thrifty way is to pick up 1 extra can or item for your emergency supply each time you do your regular shopping. Purchase food you would really eat and rotate it as needed.
Plant a garden. Always have clean water in the house. Buy items that run by clacking them up: flashlight & radio. Buy can / dry food on sale. And rotate the food.
Remember it is not a deal if you will not eat it.
You should check out Costco. They have several ‘kits,’ some of which include non food supplies.
http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?whse=BC&Ne=4032064+4000000&eCat=BC|3605|77253|75277&N=4032064&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=77253&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&hierPath=3605*77253*75277*&topnav=