...is the stage we're at, with no debt except our mortgage and our son one year from starting public school. We've started having conversations that start out "next year when we don't have to pay for daycare..."
It's a strange place to be. For years and years we've been the notoriously cheap folks, the ones that give each other household appliances for Christmas and buy all our clothes at thrift stores, with nothing visible to show for it (the lack of credit card debt isn't really something that other people know unless you tell them.)
Now we're at the place of having most of our security goals met and getting into rewards part. Or at least thinking about the rewards part.
I do stock up on food, but not because I can't get to a store in bad weather, I just don't want to go out in bad weather! I did learn a hard lessen last year. There was a great sale on meat. My gameplan was to stock up the freezer, which I did. A week later we had a bad snow storm, which knocked out power for about 5 days. I wound up losing most of the meat.
Now I have extra canned goods, etc., so I could probably stay home a few days and be fine.
I have to agree with the above commenter - reinstalling is the surest way to speed up your system. And cleaning your registry has minimal to no gain, with a large chance for something going haywire.
I've bumped up my water storage in case of emergency (though our emergencies are more on the level of blizzards, so we ought to have a backup heat source instead).
But since I can and dry so much in the fall, we generally have enough food to feed an army from August-March, and a normal amount of food the rest of the time except for April-May when there's hardly anything in the house - this year i'm trying root-cellaring as well, to try to make sure we have enough local food to get through til our first garden greens in June. In the past we've bought fresh produce from the grocery store in early spring when it's expensive and doens't taste very good.
What are the odds that I will need more than a couple days of food, not very high. What are the odds that when I need those foods the power would have gone out (including my freezer), pretty good. So in order to do this effectively, I would need a generator, the food on hand and a lot of space.
I would rather "save' for the emergency of lay-offs and car repairs than end of the world stuff. Just seems more likely. But I do have a full freezer (stuff bought on lowest price), it is full to give us an extra bit of funds if we should lose our jobs.
Where I live, we very occasionally get a serious blizzard that keeps us indoors for a couple of days until the main streets get plowed out - so as long as the cupboard is not completely bare, I'm fine.
We also get some significant flooding in spring, but the city is pretty well protected by a floodway system. In the fifty plus years I've lived here, flooding has never interfered with access to food supplies.
What I'm more likely to face is a financial problem, but when money is short, what you really need is money, not a basement full of canned goods. And serious stockpiling ties up money that you can't use for other things, like paying the rent.
I live in an apartment with a smallish kitchen and limited storage space. I suppose I could stash some stuff somewhere, but I like to feel like I'm living in a home, not a warehouse. I also don't have a vehicle, so I mostly just pick up the food I need for the next four of five days. If something is on sale for a really good price, and it's not too bulky or heavy, I may pick up a little more than I need - say an extra bottle of dish detergent or tray of chicken pieces - but that's about it. There is only so much weight you can haul up three flights of stairs in a granny cart.
Now if I lived somewhere hurricane-prone, I might take a bit of a different approach, but even so, a basement full of sodden foodstuffs and a freezer full of rotting meat is not going to be a lot of help.
And one more thing - God help you if you ever have to move and you've got a two-year stockpile of food for a family of four.
I don't currently stock up, though I usually have about a week's worth of food (but not water) on hand effortlessly. It's a little crazy how I have no water stored for emegencies, though. Anything can happen, and I shouldn't always take for granted that the tap water will flow 100% of the time!
I would like to keep much more, but I have a few weeks of food stocked for a bad time. My storage space limits me right now, but ideally I would have about 1 year of stocked food in rotation.
I think food storage is an incredible smart idea. Unfortunately, we barely have enough space in our apartment for the food we have. But in our old house, we had a chest freezer, and it was great to be able to stock up when food was on sale. With snow storms and swine flu and all these crazy things going on, it's helpful to know you don't need to go out to purchase food.
I was amazed to find a lot of people blogging about preparing for The End Of Life As We Know It. Peak oil and climate change are worrisome enough without trying to stockpile supplies in my garage or basement. I buy more if I find an item at a good price, but I also don't eat the canned beans until the ice cream and cookies are gone. I hope we have some warning before a catastrophe strikes, because I won't be in very good shape otherwise.
We can spagehtti sauce each fall---usually 50 quarts. Some is given to family and friends, but we could make do on it for some time. I do not put meat in it. I would check on the shelf life of some products if you are looking at a 2-5 year goal. Even home canned products have shelf lives and I do not know of any that would be safe after the 2 year mark. Also meat, even when frozen is only good for so long. I will not risk my family getting ill from something I have kept on hand too long. My mother in-law has meat in her freezer I swear is 2-5 years old. If she gives us anything to take home, we just throw it away. I would say the same with rice and pastas, as far as how long they can be kept. We do not eat a lot of rice, but we do eat alot of pasta, and I have had some get funky whiteish marks on them; I throw them away.
If there's only one thing that I've learned growing up in southeast Louisiana, is always be prepared. My parents stressed the importance of having emergency food, water, and other basic necessities. Their advice of keeping an emergency stash came in handy especially after Hurricane Katrina. It is so much easier to be prepared before a natural disaster, instead of running to the store at the last minute to get supplies, to only realize that there's nothing left.
I think I have enough food to last me maybe a couple weeks. I just moved recently, so I haven't really thought about stocking up for an emergency in the new place. It's something I probably need to work on though. I don't think I even have bottled water right now, come to think of it!
Oops, sorry for posting completely off topic prior. Feel free to delete. I don't believe in stockpiling food by any means, and it's probably due to my environment of living in a big city. There's alwyas a small diner with a scurrying rat within a couple blocks wherever one goes :)
I have a little garden with a pear, plum, apple, and lemon tree. They have served many a good breakfast. I'd rather eat from my garden, than stockpile from Costco. It's a better use of money, and allows you to eat variably, when you are hungry, and not just because a schedule dictates.
Also, having less food in the house simply makes people eat less. Nobody can resist the tempting cookie jar if placed next to them. Out of sight, out of mind.
We have a set of shelves downstairs next to the freezer where we try to keep a supply of items we use a lot that don't have short term expiration dates. These are mostly things I buy when they are on sale. Canned goods, condiments, noodles, etc. I think of them as emergency supplies for the blizzard of the century or some similar disaster, but it's mainly a question of buying extra when the prices are low.
I'd really like to increase the amount of food reserves we have, but the budget doesn't allow me to get too far ahead.
I think it's nuts to buy that much food!!! I've heard all the arugments on how it saves money, but I disagree we shop 1 time per week for 1 weeks worth of groceries. We tend to buy only 1 ingredient foods, so they don't have all the preservatives and wouldn't last longer then a week anyways. People think we're the crazy ones till they realize we only spend about 250.00 per month for 2 people to eat:) So we may not be "prepared" for an emergency...but we save a ton of money and are much healthier for it:)
I have a number of dry goods stocked up from sales and coupons. I wish I had more freezer space so that I could can and freeze more fresh vegetables. We live in a rural area but grocery stores are easily accessible. I like to stockpile so that I have options for when I don't make to the gorcery store or the budget runs a little thin that month. We are hoping to save up and buy a freezer so that I can really take advantage of the great deals out there!
I'm saving up for a computer emergency, when my faithful 12" Macbook putters out eventually. Too bad I'm starting NOW, instead of 2 years ago. Silly me.
As I never co-mingle my funds, so despite having the money for other things, I have "no money" set aside for the new apple that's beautifully packaged on my bedside table. Need to work for it... it's no fun otherwise.
We plant a largish vegetable garden each year and so I have been processing the harvest for use in winter months. However, current conditions have us feeling like it would be prudent to have several months worth of food and supplies on hand. I stockpile on-sale grocery and other supplies anyway, but it is now a more organized effort. In addition, I do not freeze as much as I did previously, as that form of storage depends on a reliable electric supply. Our emphasis is now on canning and dehydrating the harvest from our garden and I am careful to have a nutritionally balanced array of canned and dried products. We are in the process of creating emergency "go" packs for each member of the family (including pets) in case the need to evacuate should ever arise and we are setting up an emergency communications system with out-of-state family. In short, it is better to be prepared and never need to use it than to be left in the lurch in event of some form of catastrophe.
Our town drive-thru flu clinic isn't quite "stick your arm out and drive away," but it's pretty efficient. It's also massively cool as it's a full-blown pandemic flu disaster drill "dress rehearsal" and every agency in the area (from FEMA and the National Guard all the way down to the Boy Scouts) who might be asked to help out in the real deal shows up to practice their skills.
First we triage them at the entrance to the parking lot by asking them the usual flu shot questions (allergic to eggs, sick now, etc.) and sending the high risk ones (like the poor pregnant lady who got turned away at Walgreens) to park and walk inside (though they would NOT turn you down!). The rest get directed into the double-barreled queue to get their shot. Police officers direct the traffic from the street into the parking lot, then trained CERT and Citizens Police Academy volunteers perform triage and traffic control under the direction of a trained first responder/paramedic.
People with potential medical complications or concerns are directed to park and go inside. If your dog is in the car with you, we ask you to drop them off at home first or park the car and walk inside due to concerns about the person jabbing "mommy and daddy" getting bitten. The Boy Scouts help direct people who have to park (and little old ladies with walkers) inside, where it looks very much like a traditional flu clinic with everybody from the Red Cross to student nurses from the local community college doing the traditional flu shot things. But the real action is outside!
Out in the parking lot is everything from the usual local/county medical supply vans to military tents and satellite dishes set up to provide communications support. I'm part of civilian ARES (amateur radio emergency service) so we're cross-training with the military (we have a small base in our town) to help the Incident Commander (guy running the show) communicate with every disparate agency helping out that day (police, fire, Red Cross, military, medical, etc.) and also state/federal FEMA officials to get more supplies. Our town Health Agent is usually floating between the inside and outside clinics to monitor progress. We expect in a -REAL- pandemic the majority of our local military personnel will be redeployed to the cities, but a shadow crew of National Guardsmen who also work out of that base with some of the military's equipment will stay to help, so they're training volunteer ARES radio operators how to work with them. Lots of cool toys ... but I digress :-)
The second drive-thru station gives you the forms to fill out (name, date of birth, etc) an collect your $10 for the shot. They're able to process medicare/medicaid reimbursement forms right now, but not private insurance. My private insurance will pay the $10 for the flu shot, but not the $15 copay for me to go to a private doctor, so I just get mine done at the clinic each year. They also tell you to roll up your sleeves here. This station is usually staffed by non-medical Red Cross volunteers.
The third station gives you your shot. You just drive under a canopy, stick out your arm, get jabbed, and move onto the next station. This station is usually manned by a variety of trained medical personnel such as Medical Reserve Corps or military medics.
The fourth station is the reaction waiting area. You're directed to park in a parking lot for 10 minutes where volunteers trained to recognize the signs of reaction patrol along with an ambulance from the Fire Department in case somebody does have a reaction. Civilian Air Patrol handles the bulk of this duty. At 10 minutes, they ask you how you feel, then direct you how to get out of the parking lot and on your merry way.
All told, unless you've got a medical complication necessitating you go inside, we've been able to easily process 1,200 vaccinees in a few hours with an average in and out time of 20 minutes and anticipate we could easily quadruple that number in that same timeframe and get all 27,000 people in town vaccinated by going around the clock or over a period of 3-4 days. People really love it because it's so convenient and they don't even have to get out of their car. We've become a national model for pandemic flu response because it avoids having sick people who have the flu mingling with healthy vaccinees and healthy emergency response workers.
...is the stage we're at, with no debt except our mortgage and our son one year from starting public school. We've started having conversations that start out "next year when we don't have to pay for daycare..."
It's a strange place to be. For years and years we've been the notoriously cheap folks, the ones that give each other household appliances for Christmas and buy all our clothes at thrift stores, with nothing visible to show for it (the lack of credit card debt isn't really something that other people know unless you tell them.)
Now we're at the place of having most of our security goals met and getting into rewards part. Or at least thinking about the rewards part.
I do stock up on food, but not because I can't get to a store in bad weather, I just don't want to go out in bad weather! I did learn a hard lessen last year. There was a great sale on meat. My gameplan was to stock up the freezer, which I did. A week later we had a bad snow storm, which knocked out power for about 5 days. I wound up losing most of the meat.
Now I have extra canned goods, etc., so I could probably stay home a few days and be fine.
I have to agree with the above commenter - reinstalling is the surest way to speed up your system. And cleaning your registry has minimal to no gain, with a large chance for something going haywire.
frugality seems to be the new cult that everybody is following now. i wonder what luxury good makers are going to do with all that stuff they make??
I've bumped up my water storage in case of emergency (though our emergencies are more on the level of blizzards, so we ought to have a backup heat source instead).
But since I can and dry so much in the fall, we generally have enough food to feed an army from August-March, and a normal amount of food the rest of the time except for April-May when there's hardly anything in the house - this year i'm trying root-cellaring as well, to try to make sure we have enough local food to get through til our first garden greens in June. In the past we've bought fresh produce from the grocery store in early spring when it's expensive and doens't taste very good.
What are the odds that I will need more than a couple days of food, not very high. What are the odds that when I need those foods the power would have gone out (including my freezer), pretty good. So in order to do this effectively, I would need a generator, the food on hand and a lot of space.
I would rather "save' for the emergency of lay-offs and car repairs than end of the world stuff. Just seems more likely. But I do have a full freezer (stuff bought on lowest price), it is full to give us an extra bit of funds if we should lose our jobs.
Where I live, we very occasionally get a serious blizzard that keeps us indoors for a couple of days until the main streets get plowed out - so as long as the cupboard is not completely bare, I'm fine.
We also get some significant flooding in spring, but the city is pretty well protected by a floodway system. In the fifty plus years I've lived here, flooding has never interfered with access to food supplies.
What I'm more likely to face is a financial problem, but when money is short, what you really need is money, not a basement full of canned goods. And serious stockpiling ties up money that you can't use for other things, like paying the rent.
I live in an apartment with a smallish kitchen and limited storage space. I suppose I could stash some stuff somewhere, but I like to feel like I'm living in a home, not a warehouse. I also don't have a vehicle, so I mostly just pick up the food I need for the next four of five days. If something is on sale for a really good price, and it's not too bulky or heavy, I may pick up a little more than I need - say an extra bottle of dish detergent or tray of chicken pieces - but that's about it. There is only so much weight you can haul up three flights of stairs in a granny cart.
Now if I lived somewhere hurricane-prone, I might take a bit of a different approach, but even so, a basement full of sodden foodstuffs and a freezer full of rotting meat is not going to be a lot of help.
And one more thing - God help you if you ever have to move and you've got a two-year stockpile of food for a family of four.
I don't currently stock up, though I usually have about a week's worth of food (but not water) on hand effortlessly. It's a little crazy how I have no water stored for emegencies, though. Anything can happen, and I shouldn't always take for granted that the tap water will flow 100% of the time!
Good luck everyone!
We live in North Idaho and have fair amount of power outages during the winter, so yes we always have a good supply of emergency food.
JUST AWESOME ,,, I like all of them ,, Thanks a lot
I would like to keep much more, but I have a few weeks of food stocked for a bad time. My storage space limits me right now, but ideally I would have about 1 year of stocked food in rotation.
I think food storage is an incredible smart idea. Unfortunately, we barely have enough space in our apartment for the food we have. But in our old house, we had a chest freezer, and it was great to be able to stock up when food was on sale. With snow storms and swine flu and all these crazy things going on, it's helpful to know you don't need to go out to purchase food.
I was amazed to find a lot of people blogging about preparing for The End Of Life As We Know It. Peak oil and climate change are worrisome enough without trying to stockpile supplies in my garage or basement. I buy more if I find an item at a good price, but I also don't eat the canned beans until the ice cream and cookies are gone. I hope we have some warning before a catastrophe strikes, because I won't be in very good shape otherwise.
We can spagehtti sauce each fall---usually 50 quarts. Some is given to family and friends, but we could make do on it for some time. I do not put meat in it. I would check on the shelf life of some products if you are looking at a 2-5 year goal. Even home canned products have shelf lives and I do not know of any that would be safe after the 2 year mark. Also meat, even when frozen is only good for so long. I will not risk my family getting ill from something I have kept on hand too long. My mother in-law has meat in her freezer I swear is 2-5 years old. If she gives us anything to take home, we just throw it away. I would say the same with rice and pastas, as far as how long they can be kept. We do not eat a lot of rice, but we do eat alot of pasta, and I have had some get funky whiteish marks on them; I throw them away.
If there's only one thing that I've learned growing up in southeast Louisiana, is always be prepared. My parents stressed the importance of having emergency food, water, and other basic necessities. Their advice of keeping an emergency stash came in handy especially after Hurricane Katrina. It is so much easier to be prepared before a natural disaster, instead of running to the store at the last minute to get supplies, to only realize that there's nothing left.
I think I have enough food to last me maybe a couple weeks. I just moved recently, so I haven't really thought about stocking up for an emergency in the new place. It's something I probably need to work on though. I don't think I even have bottled water right now, come to think of it!
Oops, sorry for posting completely off topic prior. Feel free to delete. I don't believe in stockpiling food by any means, and it's probably due to my environment of living in a big city. There's alwyas a small diner with a scurrying rat within a couple blocks wherever one goes :)
I have a little garden with a pear, plum, apple, and lemon tree. They have served many a good breakfast. I'd rather eat from my garden, than stockpile from Costco. It's a better use of money, and allows you to eat variably, when you are hungry, and not just because a schedule dictates.
Also, having less food in the house simply makes people eat less. Nobody can resist the tempting cookie jar if placed next to them. Out of sight, out of mind.
Financial Samurai
We have a set of shelves downstairs next to the freezer where we try to keep a supply of items we use a lot that don't have short term expiration dates. These are mostly things I buy when they are on sale. Canned goods, condiments, noodles, etc. I think of them as emergency supplies for the blizzard of the century or some similar disaster, but it's mainly a question of buying extra when the prices are low.
I'd really like to increase the amount of food reserves we have, but the budget doesn't allow me to get too far ahead.
I think it's nuts to buy that much food!!! I've heard all the arugments on how it saves money, but I disagree we shop 1 time per week for 1 weeks worth of groceries. We tend to buy only 1 ingredient foods, so they don't have all the preservatives and wouldn't last longer then a week anyways. People think we're the crazy ones till they realize we only spend about 250.00 per month for 2 people to eat:) So we may not be "prepared" for an emergency...but we save a ton of money and are much healthier for it:)
I have a number of dry goods stocked up from sales and coupons. I wish I had more freezer space so that I could can and freeze more fresh vegetables. We live in a rural area but grocery stores are easily accessible. I like to stockpile so that I have options for when I don't make to the gorcery store or the budget runs a little thin that month. We are hoping to save up and buy a freezer so that I can really take advantage of the great deals out there!
I'm saving up for a computer emergency, when my faithful 12" Macbook putters out eventually. Too bad I'm starting NOW, instead of 2 years ago. Silly me.
As I never co-mingle my funds, so despite having the money for other things, I have "no money" set aside for the new apple that's beautifully packaged on my bedside table. Need to work for it... it's no fun otherwise.
Financial Samurai
I do store up on some food (cereal, noodles, etc) if I find a good sale. But I should start storing more.
We plant a largish vegetable garden each year and so I have been processing the harvest for use in winter months. However, current conditions have us feeling like it would be prudent to have several months worth of food and supplies on hand. I stockpile on-sale grocery and other supplies anyway, but it is now a more organized effort. In addition, I do not freeze as much as I did previously, as that form of storage depends on a reliable electric supply. Our emphasis is now on canning and dehydrating the harvest from our garden and I am careful to have a nutritionally balanced array of canned and dried products. We are in the process of creating emergency "go" packs for each member of the family (including pets) in case the need to evacuate should ever arise and we are setting up an emergency communications system with out-of-state family. In short, it is better to be prepared and never need to use it than to be left in the lurch in event of some form of catastrophe.
Our town drive-thru flu clinic isn't quite "stick your arm out and drive away," but it's pretty efficient. It's also massively cool as it's a full-blown pandemic flu disaster drill "dress rehearsal" and every agency in the area (from FEMA and the National Guard all the way down to the Boy Scouts) who might be asked to help out in the real deal shows up to practice their skills.
First we triage them at the entrance to the parking lot by asking them the usual flu shot questions (allergic to eggs, sick now, etc.) and sending the high risk ones (like the poor pregnant lady who got turned away at Walgreens) to park and walk inside (though they would NOT turn you down!). The rest get directed into the double-barreled queue to get their shot. Police officers direct the traffic from the street into the parking lot, then trained CERT and Citizens Police Academy volunteers perform triage and traffic control under the direction of a trained first responder/paramedic.
People with potential medical complications or concerns are directed to park and go inside. If your dog is in the car with you, we ask you to drop them off at home first or park the car and walk inside due to concerns about the person jabbing "mommy and daddy" getting bitten. The Boy Scouts help direct people who have to park (and little old ladies with walkers) inside, where it looks very much like a traditional flu clinic with everybody from the Red Cross to student nurses from the local community college doing the traditional flu shot things. But the real action is outside!
Out in the parking lot is everything from the usual local/county medical supply vans to military tents and satellite dishes set up to provide communications support. I'm part of civilian ARES (amateur radio emergency service) so we're cross-training with the military (we have a small base in our town) to help the Incident Commander (guy running the show) communicate with every disparate agency helping out that day (police, fire, Red Cross, military, medical, etc.) and also state/federal FEMA officials to get more supplies. Our town Health Agent is usually floating between the inside and outside clinics to monitor progress. We expect in a -REAL- pandemic the majority of our local military personnel will be redeployed to the cities, but a shadow crew of National Guardsmen who also work out of that base with some of the military's equipment will stay to help, so they're training volunteer ARES radio operators how to work with them. Lots of cool toys ... but I digress :-)
The second drive-thru station gives you the forms to fill out (name, date of birth, etc) an collect your $10 for the shot. They're able to process medicare/medicaid reimbursement forms right now, but not private insurance. My private insurance will pay the $10 for the flu shot, but not the $15 copay for me to go to a private doctor, so I just get mine done at the clinic each year. They also tell you to roll up your sleeves here. This station is usually staffed by non-medical Red Cross volunteers.
The third station gives you your shot. You just drive under a canopy, stick out your arm, get jabbed, and move onto the next station. This station is usually manned by a variety of trained medical personnel such as Medical Reserve Corps or military medics.
The fourth station is the reaction waiting area. You're directed to park in a parking lot for 10 minutes where volunteers trained to recognize the signs of reaction patrol along with an ambulance from the Fire Department in case somebody does have a reaction. Civilian Air Patrol handles the bulk of this duty. At 10 minutes, they ask you how you feel, then direct you how to get out of the parking lot and on your merry way.
All told, unless you've got a medical complication necessitating you go inside, we've been able to easily process 1,200 vaccinees in a few hours with an average in and out time of 20 minutes and anticipate we could easily quadruple that number in that same timeframe and get all 27,000 people in town vaccinated by going around the clock or over a period of 3-4 days. People really love it because it's so convenient and they don't even have to get out of their car. We've become a national model for pandemic flu response because it avoids having sick people who have the flu mingling with healthy vaccinees and healthy emergency response workers.
I plan to put your three questions to use, when comtemplating a new purchase, whether a piece of land or a new sweater! Thank you so much!