Alright, I feel I need to clarify a few things about being prepared. I do not consider myself to be a "Prepper" but I do think there have been events in my life that have caused me to at least be a bit prepared.
First, I married an Eagle Scout. Anyone who knows anything about Boy Scouts knows the motto to "Be Prepared". Now, this means we have a good supply of camping gear since Anton and Isabella share Karl's love for camping. I am more of a cabin girl since I am highly allergic to spider bites. In my house, every spider meets his maker, but outside, they serve a purpose. So, we have varying sizes and weights of sleeping bags, backpacks, and tents. Since Karl is an Assistant Scout Master and does not have to eat the Boys' prepared foods, we also have camp cooking supplies. So if we had to, we could cook at a camp fire. Frankly I like my coffee maker for speed, but the camping french press does make good coffee.
Second, Karl and I were station in Hawaii on 9/11/2001. Anton was turning two and still in diapers. When the news reached the island, not military, everything shut down. We knew at 4:30 in the morning local time, so I headed to Sam's Club at 7 am to get milk and bread. By 9 am, all stores and ports were closed. One thing people who have not been through Hawaii on orders don't understand, EVERYTHING, including diapers, MUST GO THROUGH CUSTOMS! I was literally on my last diaper when the stores were able to restock diapers among other things. Yes, we can survive without diapers, but it gave me a lesson in keeping a little extra on hand, say an extra month because it was three weeks till I could buy diapers.
Third, I am a Navy Wife and lived in Hawaii. This translates to you never know when someone will be in need of hospitality. This could mean friends or family missing flights and need to bunk for a night all the way to a girlfriend having a really bad day and bringing dinner to them would be a big help. I have also found comfort in knowing I could "extend" a meal I was making by adding stuff on hand to feed extra guests. This could be throwing an extra can of beans and some peppers from the freezer into chili to stretch it or making a side of rice. Having a few extra staples on hand is always good. It gives busy mom's some comfort in knowing they could adjust if needed for say a play date that has turned from two hours to four as your friend begins to express her concerns about a deployed spouse or the need to get some unexpected errands completed and the children need to be kept busy. You never know when you can be someone's angel.
Fourth, we have food allergies/intollerances. This means I have to make a lot of our foods from scratch. It takes different ingredients, most of which I need to mail order or go to specialty stores. I think I make a trip to Whole Foods every 3-4 months and to the All-Natural store every 1-2 months to get those odd things to make our gluten free or dairy free foods taste close to normal. This means I have to plan on making those purchases in that time frame. At Whole Fooods, I have to get my base coconut milk yogurt in order to make a crock pot full of dairy free vanilla yogurt. At some point the cultures are too depleted and I have to start with a fresh batch. But Whole Foods is over an hour away, so it is not easy for me to just pop in when I have the need.
The last point is food prices. Everyone can see the price of food has gone up due to the economy, drought, etc. The economy side is not just supply and demand but also the price of oil/gas to transport foods. The drought has effected corn crops which effects anything made with corn directly like corn meal to indirectly as animal feed. When you are living on a strict budget as we have been doing since our arrival to this residence due to second home mortgages and now adoption expenses, I have to buy when things are on sale. I go through a lot of canned tomatoes as I add it to various dishes all the time, so when I see the canned tomatoes are on sale for 1/2 off, I buy a little extra for when I need them later. I have been able to stretch our food budget by being on the look out for sales on my staples. Like the time I got a 20 lb bag of rice because it was so much cheaper due to the current sale than buying the 5 or 10 lb bag at the time. That rice lasted us for quite some time and we eat a lot of it as it is naturally gluten free and not too costly.
You might be asking, "What about water?" Well, when we know a hurricane is coming, we fill bath tubs for flushing toilets and fill every water bottle we have with drinking water. I have also learned a trick from my parents who have purchased a side or whole beef for as long as I can remember. When you have open space in your freezer as you empty it out through the year, you fill milk or OJ jugs 3/4 full of water after you clean them and put it into the freezer. This has several advantages, you already have ice in your freezer if the power goes out, the freezer stays full and thus works more efficiently, and if needed you have drinking water when it thaws. When I was young, my parents would toss the frozen jugs into the late summer warmed pool water to try to bring the temperature down a little. That could be another benefit if you needed it, but we don't have a backyard pool.
What can you take from this? Make a list of the things you use the most and would be inconvenienced by if you could not purchase them for a few weeks. (I have known large families who stored powdered milk in Hawaii after 9/11 just for this reason; I don't, as powdered milk tastes funny and my kids won't drink it.) This could be from something like a blizzard or power outage all the way to my wakening to a terrorist attack. Watch for the items to go on sale and buy enough for a back up, just remember to use the older ones first. Hey anyone can have an extra jar of peanut butter on hand especially when some of my kids favorite cookies take 1/2 a jar! Nothing worse than promising to make your kids cookies and discovering you are out of peanut butter or chocolate chips! Just make sure the kids don't know where the chocolate chips are or they might disappear!
