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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Supplies!



Sounds like surprise! Don't be surprised when it's time to use your supplies. So you are pretty well stocked up with at a least a few months worth of supplies. Good for you. On the other hand, maybe you were stocked up pretty well and then forgot about it.

Over time you dip into your stash with the good intention of replacing them as soon as possible. Maybe you had a few tight weeks or months where you dipped heavily into your stocks. It feels good to be able to do that and you planned on restocking as soon as times get better. What if they really haven't gotten too much better? What if you thought to treat yourself with some nice things rather pile up those cans of beans again?

The next time you come to dip into your supplies you may find them a bit thin. Another thing that happens is that there's a good supply of the basics, but all the yummy stuff has been raided. Sometimes a key item that makes life better is gone. Imagine a Cajun trying to live without hot sauce?

There are two schools of thought concerning food storage. There's those who stock up on things like MREs and other long term shelf stable foods. Another approach is store what you eat and eat what you store. The idea is that the food stocks get constant rotation because it's what you normally eat. Both approaches have pros and cons.

If you've never eaten freeze dried foods using them in an emergency could be a steep learning curve. In addition to the problems the emergency is causing you may also be dealing with intestinal distress. For example, US military rations are very low in fiber. After a week or so you'll really miss that fiber.
Another problem with the long term food storage thing is that out of sight is out of mind. Maybe mice found them. Perhaps the kids took some for a fishing trip and never replaced them -a bunch of times.

The rotating stock problem sneaks up on you. It's easy to get into the habit of not quite replacing as much as you are using -especially if the budget is getting tight. You think you are doing fine as you are buying and stocking food, but suddenly you have 40% less than you should.

Now's a good time to check your pantry and see how it looks. Imagine if you had to get by with what you have right now -without any trips to the store to fill in the gaps.

-Sixbears

10 comments:

  1. good reminder.
    when i saw the title i thought you were stocking the new boat!

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    1. Wish I was stocking the boat. It won't be too long and that's what I'll be doing.

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  2. Probably because of my accounting background, I am obsessive about record keeping. I use spreadsheets to track everything in and out. Even so, I sometimes wind up finding I don't have something I need at the moment. I suspect my wife sometimes takes things out of the medical supplies and doesn't annotate the clipboard to that effect.

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    Replies
    1. If you need medical supplies in an emergency I can imagine the intent is do the paperwork later, but it gets forgotten.

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  3. Rotation is one of the best ways to go, in my opinion. Easy to keep tabs on what you have if you follow the eat what you store path.

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    1. The key is to do whatever works for you. I seem to have a mix of the two systems myself.

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  4. my problem is that I did go through my pantry and found things from 2008. lol!! I just found some great deals and then over bought and didn't eat them all. sigh

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    Replies
    1. Live and learn.

      If someone asks me if something smells bad I don't even check. When in doubt, throw it out.

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  5. I keep feeding the squirrels and rabbits and birds. That will give me a good source of fresh meat if the you know what hits the fan.

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