Am I a Prepper?

 Honestly, I don't know.  I don't consider myself a "prepper" in the sense that the media has defined a prepper.  I gather from the media (social media, tv shows, internet, blogs, etc.) that most people describe a prepper to be someone who prepares for invasion of their property and end of the world times.  This is SO NOT why I prep!

I like to be prepared.  We have a well stocked pantry and freezer.  We have emergency supplies for when the lights go out and are out for a while (like days), and we carry emergency kits in our cars.  Am I a prepper? Probably not.  Do we have similar supplies? Yes. Can I feed my family for several months without going to the grocery store? Yes.  Do I think the world is coming to an end? I certainly hope not!

As I have said in past posts, we have "planned emergencies".  These really aren't emergencies but they are times where we rely on our food storage to get us through a lean time in our year.   We also hate to have an appliance break or some household item break and us no be able to replace it.  We keep an emergency fund for those times.  We USE that emergency fund several times a year.  When it gets used, we immediately start saving it again.  I stock up on band-aids, cough and cold meds, and other minor medical needs.  I keep well stocked on toiletries, such as tooth brushes, soaps, shampoos, deodorant, and the like.  

I have long term storage too.  Wheat berries, ground flour, some long term freeze dried foods, dried milk, etc.  When I buy ground flour, sugar or coffee, I buy in bulk 25 to 50 lbs at a time.

So, am I a prepper? I don't think so.  I think I am just "prepared".  I am prepared for weather emergencies.  I am prepared for black out emergencies.  I am prepared for times when we need to rely on our food storage to get us through a tough spell.  

Stocking Up For Winter

 Like squirrels and nuts, this family stores away food in the fall for the winter.  I am sure I have talked about this before in previous posts but here is the long and short of the why we do this.  My husband and I own a lawn care business.  Well, he does; I just help out when and where I can.  Winter is a down time in the business.  Grass doesn't grow around here in the winter.  However, in the fall, we have two of our most profitable seasons, aeration season and leaf season.  So we are more fluid right now.  Because of this, we like to stock up on provisions for the winter season now. 

I have pretty much just finished stocking up.  I am proud to say I have about a three month supply of most food groups.  I have also added to my  longer term food storage. I also have at least a three month supply of all hygiene products that we use, as well as household cleaning supplies.  I will continue to increase my food storage and other supplies through December.

My logic on this:  Each year we have a "planned emergency".  This is the time from January through March, but really it lasts to the beginning of May. I have always been a "prepper" and it has proved essential to us time and time again!  So when I realized that we were tending to need to use our food storage during our off season, we chose to think about this in our preps. One fall, many years ago, my husband did a big job and handed me a bunch of cash (I think it was like $500) and he said, "Go out and get everything we need for food for the next month and include all the stuff for Thanksgiving."  I spend the next couple days making an enormous list.  I scoured the ads from the local grocery stores and made a plan of attack. That year I was not only able to get enough groceries for that next month and for Thanksgiving, but also was able to put away enough meat for us for another couple weeks too.  From that point on, we made a point to start squirreling away food and supplies in the fall. 

This is what my list structure looks like:

1.  Menu planning:  My first step is to sit down and think of all the meals we love to eat in the winter.  This includes, chili, soups, chicken and potatoes, spaghetti, tacos, pork chops, meatloaf, etc. I stretch this out and create a 25 day meal plan.  Some meals we will eat more than once in that 25 day period. I also figure we will eat out 5 days in the month for dinners and more often for lunches.  I do this meal plan for breakfasts (which often look like "breakfast bars, poptarts, frozen sausage biscuits, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, omelets) and for lunches (which include a lot of planned leftovers, frozen entrees, ramen noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches). I also make a list of grab and go snacks (microwave popcorn, chex mix, chocolate, peanut butter cracker packs, pretzels, nuts, cheese, etc). For the record, this is super hard for me because we eat pretty healthy and I don't have a lot of processed foods in our house. Stocking up on fresh foods is not in the plan, but I try to switch fresh for frozen.  I also do have three on-the-go teenagers/20-somethings who have classes and jobs still living in the house. {sigh} Meal planning is the hardest part.  My 25 day meal plan is for a month.  If I am wanting a 3 month supply of food then I might add a few more meals and multiply the number of meals by 3.  I will also include any holiday meals or birthday meals that might occur. Oh and think about a few desserts.

2.  Meal breakdown:  My next step is to break down each meal into the ingredients and amounts I need for each meal.   I also include spices and seasonings, too. 

3.  List making: I make a master list of all the ingredients from the meal breakdown step. I add all the same items up.  For example, if I am using  a pound of ground beef for each meatloaf I make and I am making it twice in the month then I need 2 lbs.  If I use a pound of ground beef for tacos and a pound for chili, then my total for the month is 4 lbs. Then I further this list to creating lists for each grocery store.  Some stores have specific products my family likes.  I also use the ads from each store, checking for sales.  If there is a sale on a certain product, I will include the sale price next to the item. This will come in handy when shopping.  

4. Checking inventory: Before heading out, I add anything else that we are getting low on.  Think about spices, seasoning packets, flour, sugars, coffees, other drinks.  This is the time when I go through my pantry and clean out expired, unwanted items, dust the shelves.  I pack up the unwanted items and send them on to the food bank. I sort and organize the drawers and cabinets in the bathrooms, and organize the cleaning closet. I add any additional items we are getting low on to the grocery lists.  While doing this, begin an additional list of little chores that need to be done.  These chores could include changing out the batteries in the wall clocks and smoke detectors, replacing burned out lightbulbs, swapping out baking soda boxes in the refrigerators, etc. 

Once the lists are made I head out.  I will shop one store a day. This gives me time to shop and not be in a big rush and come home and put everything away. While I am in a store if I see an item on sale and I have it on another store's list, I will compare the price at the other store with the sale price and then buy the better deal.  I keep all the lists with me so I can mark off any item found at a different store.  Remember when I said to put the sale price next to the item on your list?  This is where it might come in handy.  You can compare the sales. 

Things to remember when stocking up like this:

1. A place for everything.  You need to have a planned place for everything you buy.  I have a separate set of cabinets in my basement for our food storage.  This helps because for us, it is not up in my working pantry.  Out of sight, out of mind. Over the years we have acquired three refrigerator/freezers, one full size stand up refrigerator, one stand up full size freezer, and one chest freezer. We don't use all of them all year long but in this case, these will end up all pretty full.

2. What you bring home, family members will think it is all free rein.  It is best to remind family members that this extra food is not free for the eating.  This is for later.

3. Lots of items can be frozen.  Some items are better fresh.  For example, you can freeze milk but it separates and doesn't always come back together like it was fresh when thawed. However, butter freezes just fine.  In our "planned emergency" time, I still have a small budget for fresh items.  I buy those when needed not during this stocking up time. I focus on the meats, veggies, spices, seasonings, dry goods, bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies. However, if you are stocking up for winter or a time when you know you won't be able to get to the grocery store (like a big snow storm) I would consider adding shelf stable milk or powdered milk (blahhk).  Fresh eggs might be hard but you can include "Egg Beaters" to your freezer. Most cheeses will freeze just fine and so do yogurts.

Why would I want to do this?

Great question.  I do it because I know we have a poor time and I can alleviate some expense now with food storage. If you have a time where you know it will be difficult to get out then this might be a good method.  Perhaps you have a planned surgery coming up. Perhaps you know that each year you get snowed in for a period of time. Maybe you are having a baby.  Or more timely, maybe you may have to quarantine for a few weeks due to the pandemic. These are great reasons to stock up. My sister stocks up each month for the last week of the month when she and her husband are too busy with work and deadlines to shop. All these are "planned emergencies". 

What is different from this type of stocking up and stocking regular emergency food storage? 

Another great question.  For the most part it is not really that different other than the fact that you know you will be using your food storage.  I have our regular food storage and because I know I will be using our storage each winter, I stock extra so at the end of the winter I am not left with nothing in my food storage.  So this is a little extra because I know I am going to be using it. Do I then have double? Not really,  more like 1 1/2 times the normal amount. I continue to grab items when I see them on sale and put them in my food storage, but this is extra.  This also is funded by extra money, not my regular storage budget. 

Can't I just use what I have in food storage for my "planned emergency" without stocking up?

Yes, you can.  But a planned emergency isn't a REAL emergency.  Plus our additional income allows me to beef up our storage during this season.  If you use your emergency food storage during your planned emergency, you will just need to understand that your emergency storage will be depleted by the time you come out of your planned emergency time.  You will have to work to restock it quickly.  With this method, I am "restocking" ahead of time. Because I know it is coming, I can plan. 

What sorts of things do you forget?

I don't know....ha ha ha.... Honestly, Ziploc bags, aluminum foil, trash bags, dishwasher detergent, wine.  It is the little things.   But those little things are sorely missed when gone. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) What I Am Doing to Prepare

I have to admit....

I got caught with my pants down on this one :(

Here is the messy situation I find myself:

We just moved.  We lived in our previous home for 4 years.  Prior to that we lived somewhere else for a year and a half.  Prior to that we lived in our RV for a bit over a year, and prior to that we lived in our first home for 13 years.

Each of those homes including the RV, I felt prepared.  I felt like we had enough food stored (yes even in the trailer), emergency supplies, and first aid stuff.

Each time we moved including this one, prior to moving we would "eat down" our food storage.  This way I knew it was being rotated, and it forced me to see what was actually rotating and what wasn't so I could be better prepared in our new home.  It was also because moving is expensive.  We would save money by eating our food storage.  That is what it is there for, right? When times are tough.  So by eating down our food storage, we weren't eating out as much, we were saving money by not having to run to the grocery store all the time, we could concentrate on packing, and we wouldn't be moving so much food.

It always sounded like a good plan.  When we would settle in our new home, I would begin building up new, fresh food storage.

But this time......

COVID-19 happened.

And we just moved.  Just two days ago, I got my bed set up in my room and am no longer sleeping on  a mattress.

But now we are in the midst of a pandemic (announced today by World Health Organization).

I spoke with my husband a week ago and he told me not to worry.  Today he told me to worry. I am pretty sure I had a full on panic attack.  My chest felt heavy, I had shortness of breath, and I am pretty sure I my heart skipped several beats.

A week ago I began (like everyone else around here) to search out basics.  Hand Sanitizer, antibacterial soap, and Clorox Wipes.  Not too serious though, but it has been a hard find around my region.  Each store I go into, I look.  The shelves are bare.

I feel so under-prepared for this.  I am too late to prep.

What I do have:

1. toilet paper and paper towels.  I was able to grab a good supply of both prior to knowing that everyone was going to run out and purchase toilet paper.  We were just out and I ran my usual errand to get some.

2.  Advil, vitamins, and prescription meds.  I am all stocked up on these supplies.  Vitamins will be good to begin taking again to get my immune system even better able to handle the virus should I get it.

3.  Some bleach, Clorox Wipes, and a little bit of Hand sanitizer.  We have anti-viral/bacterial wipes  in each of our cars. We can use these to wipe down the steering wheel, door handles, and our hands when we are out in public.

4. N95 face masks.  My husband just placed an order today.  They are on their way.

5.  Some food.  Not complete at all, but we have some breakfasts, some lunches, and some dinners.  We will continue the meal kit deliveries and will continue to use the online ordering and pick up at the store or if the need arises, a delivery service.

And I have a plan:

1. Reduce my social interactions as much as possible in person.  Avoid large gatherings, heavily trafficked public areas, and the likes.  This means that my shopping and prepping will change. I will stay home as much as possible.

2. Shop online as much as I can.  This means placing orders at the grocery store and drive up to pick the order up.  Keep looking for Clorox Wipes and Hand Sanitizer online.

3.  Food delivery services.  Right before we moved I decided to "join" Everyplate and begin getting their meal kits.  We get three dinners a week for 4 people and so far we have loved every single meal.  It is about the same as I would budget for a dinner anyway and it all comes preportioned and the recipes are easy.  I can even tell my teens to start dinner without me and they can follow the directions too.  Why do I include this in my plan? Because since we won't be going out much for a while, these meals will be something a bit different than our "usual".

4.  Cancel Easter dinner at our home.  Every big holiday we host a family dinner and all the in-laws and cousins come to our house.  Not this year.  I don't want others (particularly little kids) coming to our home and potentially exposing us to this virus.  The virus is showing that in little kids they have little to no symptoms at all and most symptoms go unnoticed.  This virus is also showing that older folks have a more severe reaction to it and more severe symptoms.  I can't risk having the little cousins over and potentially exposing my older in-laws who have some severe health issues anyway.

5.  Try to keep a positive outlook on all this "family" time we will be getting.  Colleges and universities are closing down as I type.  We expect my middle child to be told any minute that they will be sent home from college indefinitely.  My oldest will most likely also be told his college will be moving "online" as well.  My youngest is a senior this year and we homeschool anyway.  It is a good thing we got some new family games at Christmas.

Now, in a perfect world I would have had plenty of hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies, and food storage.  I wouldn't feel so unprepared for this pandemic.


What can you do if you are underprepared like me?

1.  Read as much as you can on the disease. Know the symptoms and the latest information on how it is transmitted.

2.  Wash your hands like crazy!  I told my family tonight that from now on as soon as they enter our home they wash their hands before touching anything.

3.  Clean your car, phone, clothing, and surfaces you touch often.

4.  Stay home.  Use online shopping, don't visit high traffic public areas/places.  Work from home if you can.  If you can't, stay out of others' space.  Don't use the office break room. Eat lunch at your desk alone or in your car if you need a change of scenery.

5.  Stop shaking hands and touching others. Keep a distance.  Wash your hands.

Here is a good article that I found helpful and it calmed me down a bit from the panic attack.

https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-ten-reasons-why-you-ought-not-to-panic-132941

I will continue to update as the weeks go by about how we fared through this ordeal.

Emergency Planning on a Budget (a $5 plan)

A few ideas for how to stock up on a budget:  I was thinking more about the post I wrote the other day here and wanted to give a few ideas on how to stock up with just $5 a week.

I have said before that I am not a "hard core" prepper.  But I do like to have some supplies on hand at any given time.  My "emergencies" are not the sort like the end of the world, full-blown nuclear meltdown, complete economic collapse, or an apocalypse type event.  My "emergencies" are more of the "oh my we had to pay a large bill this month and are a little short of grocery money", winter storms, hurricanes, and oops the power went out.  I find that from time to time we have to use our supplies for one of these reasons.

I don't buy the long-term, 25 year food storage items.  A 5 gallon bucket of oats or whole grains or even flour isn't going to do me much good in the long run because that is not how I cook everyday.  Yes, I bake bread and sweets from time to time but it isn't my norm.  I buy extra of things we use everyday.  I like to have a three month supply of things so in case we need to use our food storage/supplies the items we normally use are there. 

How do I get a three month supply of things?  I start slowly and I stock up on things we use.  When things go on sale that is when I buy and for the most part food items go on sale at least once every three months.  At that time I buy what I need to the next three months.  For example, we use ketchup quite often (I have kids - it is part of the food pyramid!) I estimate we go through a bottle of ketchup a month. So when ketchup goes on sale I buy three bottles.  We are not big on canned veggies and tend to eat more frozen or fresh veggies.  We can't really stock up on fresh veggies for three months but we can stock up on frozen veggies.  Frozen veggies are regularly $1 a bag.  We eat fresh as often as we can but we use at least 3 bags of frozen veggies a week, sometimes more.  3 bags a week for a month is 12 bags.  Three months worth is 36 bags of frozen veggies.  I don't buy 36 bags at once.  I don't have that much money to spend on it at once.  So I buy a little at a time.  I will get a couple extra bags each week at the store until I have stocked up.

If you were to budget $5 extra a week to spend on emergency supplies you could plan out how you can spend it each week.

Immediate needs:
Food -
Water -
Lighting -
Cooking -
First Aid -

Start with water.  It is easy to grab an extra couple gallons of water for $5 a week.  A case of water bottles is usually $2.50-$3.  You can buy at least one case and then a gallon of water for $5.  Do this for a couple weeks and you have quite a stash of water.

Food - Start with foods you can eat without heating up.  Tuna packets, canned pastas like ravioli, beef a roni, spaghetti-o's, etc.  They are better hot but you can eat them cold in a pinch.  A box of protein bars, box of dry cereal, pop-tarts, instant oatmeal.  Canned fruits, apple sauce, canned and bottled (shelf stable) juices. Start slow and buy on sale.  These are all items you can eat without heating up. Make sure the cans are the flip and pull type or make sure you have a hand crank can opener.  Canned goods do you no good if you can't get into them.

Alternative cooking - One month save your $5 a week and try to find a camp stove or use your $20 this month to buy some cast iron pots and pans you can use on your grill or over an open fire.  Camp stoves like this one is a bit more than $20 new but you can buy one on Craigslist or at a yardsale for about $20.  If you own a grill or plan to use an open flame fire to cook in an emergency then use your $20 to buy second hand cast iron pans and pots.

Now that we have an alternative cooking plan - let's go back to food again.  Now you can start stocking up on lots of foods each week with your $5.  When planning what you will buy try to buy items that will make a meal. One week buy instant pancake mix and a bottle of syrup.  The next week buy a package of pasta and a jar of spaghetti sauce.  Another week buy canned soups that are ready to eat (Chunky, Progresso, etc).  This way if you have an emergency then you have a full meal and not just random parts of a meal.  Relish and crackers don't make a meal. You could eat it but it wouldn't be appetizing.

Alternative lighting - For $5 you can buy 5 small flashlights. (Walmart has them in the camping department, they are small but pack a bright led light)  You can buy a package of AAA batteries for $5 to go with your small flashlights.  For $10 you can buy a larger lantern.  For another $10 you can buy a package of D batteries for the lantern.  I used to stock up on candles but now I go for the lanterns and flashlights. Just the other day I found a great hanging battery operated light on sale for $3.49 at Office Max.  I think they were intended for a locker.  You could hang it in your locker and have a light so you can see your books.  The light is bright!  I bought 2.  The fact that you can hang them up on a hook or in a closet on a rod makes them perfect for your emergency supplies.  You can put it in the bathroom on the towel rack or hook it on a cabinet door knob in the kitchen. Each was under $5. Candles are cumbersome and dangerous as they have an open flame and can catch your house on fire if you aren't paying attention.

First aid - again, use your $5 to add to your first aid kit.  One week buy band-aids, next week buy ace bandage, another week buy antibiotic ointment like Neosporin.  One week buy pain-reliever (Advil, Tylenol, etc) another week buy chapstick.

Now that you have the basics for an emergency where you won't have power, begin to think bigger and start to plan and stock up for a time where you may be without a job or there is an illness in the family and money is tight, or when you just need to pay an extra bill this month and groceries and basic supplies will be hard to come by.

Make a list of popular meals that your family likes a lot.  Start to stock up a little at a time so that you have all the ingredients for these meals.  Stock your freezer with meats, veggies, and quick prepared meals.  Stock your pantry with spices, gravies, taco seasoning, canned goods, condiments, canned fruits and juices, boxed mac and cheese, soups, and anything else you normally buy.

Consider purchasing deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, feminine supplies, soaps, shampoos, and other toiletries.  These can be some of the most expensive items you purchase on a regular basis.  Stocking up on these when they are on sale or when you have a coupon is a wise choice.  Other items to stock up on is laundry detergents, bleach, household cleaning supplies, and hand soaps.  Again the key is to buy these when they are sale or if you have a coupon.  No coupon?? Consider emailing or mailing your favorite brands and tell them how much you like their product.  They will often send you high dollar coupons in the mail.

The key here is that if you do a little planning.  You biggest emergencies won't be the end of the world type scenarios but the little annoyances of daily life. I can't tell you how many times we have used our food storage because of an unexpected expense or lack of money for some reason. Power outages are our second most annoying "emergency". I am glad that I have an alternative cooking plan and alternative lighting plan.  Our daily life doesn't change that drastically when these things happen because we have a plan.  Buy the things you use and eat.  Food storage isn't any good to you if you don't like what you have.

Benefits of food storage:  I love being able to go into the pantry and having a variety of options available to me.  We eat it on a rotation all the time so that no food goes bad or gets out of expiration date.  Because I have stocked it with the things we eat anyway, we are always rotating our foods.  My grocery lists look a little different sometimes because I am always restocking my food storage and buying the items when they are on sale not just when we need them.  So sometimes my grocery list will not have any meats on them or any veggies.  Sometimes my grocery list looks quite odd as it isn't "balanced". But I find I am saving money this way too!  :)

I also love being able to reach under my sink in my bathroom and immediately replace an empty toothpaste tube, or grab a new deodorant.  I always have an extra. I never run out of anything I need.  When I notice that something is starting to get low, then it goes on the grocery list.  I might not get it immediately because it might not be on sale.  But it will get purchased before I completely run out of it.

Planned Grocery Shopping

I have shopped for groceries in many ways.  I have shopped weekly. I have shopped every other week.  I have shopped twice a month, and I have shopped once a month.  I have also shopped every couple days when we need something.

Over the many years usually my shopping habits change when my income changes.  If we only get paid once a month then I do a big shopping trip when I get paid and then just a few little ones to pick up fresh produce, milk, eggs, and bread later in the month when we need them.  If we are getting paid every week then I find I shop just for that week until the next payday.  If I am getting paid twice a month ..... well you get the idea.

Over the many years I have found that I can save money if I shop sales and stock up. This is the most ideal way to shop for our family.  This also requires a nice sized storage area for dry foods as well as a large freezer to stock up on freezer foods.  When I have to shop weekly it becomes harder to shop the sales, particularly if the weekly ad for the grocery stores don't coincide with my shopping day.  For example the grocery store I shop mostly in runs their sales Wednesday through the following Tuesday.  If I am shopping on Wednesday I can't get a flyer until Wednesday making my planning hard.

Recently with our diminished income and extremely tight budget we have found ourselves in need of financial assistance.  This is temporary, but necessary for us.  We applied and have been receiving assistance from our state in the form of "food stamps".  It is a debit card nowadays and easy to use.  I was extremely embarrassed about it in the beginning because we had never accepted or applied for assistance in the past even though I am pretty sure we qualified for it.  I look at it as an "insurance" that I paid into for years and years through my taxes and now am in need and using it. When we are no longer in need we won't use it any longer. Anyway, this benefit comes once a month.  My card gets loaded with our food benefits on the 5th of every month.  The first couple months we continued to shop weekly as we had in months before but I found that I wasn't saving as much money that way.  I then switched to making a couple bigger trips to the grocery store when they had a sale but I would run out of things we needed later.

Last month I set out to make our benefits stretch as far as I could.  March would be a long month so I needed it to go further.  I was also getting bored with our regular meals.  I wanted to get creative again.

In the days leading up to my big shopping trip I planned out menus for the next three weeks.  The kids helped add their favorite dishes to our meal plan.  I began making a list of the things we would need to make the meals on the plan.  The list became longer and longer. I scanned the ads at two major grocery stores and split my list up between the stores to maximize our savings.  I clipped a few coupons, but not many.  I am not a coupon clipper as we tend to not eat what the coupons are.

On the day of our big shopping trip I did the unthinkable!  I cancelled school for that day.  We all went out shopping!  Armed with three kids to help with the shopping, lists for three places, and our grocery bags we were off.

The first stop was Sam's Club.  I find that they have the best, freshest meats for the most reasonable prices.  The hamburger is fresher. The chicken I can get in bulk already frozen, and this time I picked up a pork shoulder.  BBQ was on our menu.  The pork shoulder came in a "two pack" and was the same price as what I would have spent in the regular grocery store buying only one shoulder.  We also bought produce, butter, cheese, and some frozen foods there.  A big bag of pancake mix will last us the month as well as a two pack of syrup.  Actually a majority of our shopping was done at Sam's Club.

Next stops were at the regular grocery stores buying their sales items, deli meats, and other produce.  We eat mainly frozen veggies so we stocked up on those as well.

When the day was all said and done, I had spent nearly all but about $65 of our benefits. Scary.  Now to see how long it would all last.  With three teenagers in the house all the time eating three meals a day, food can disappear in a flash!

Each day we would look at our menu and choose what we would make for dinner.  It was fun making new and different meals.  Some we will have again.  Others we will wait a while.  I also got creative with our leftovers. Our menu was not set in stone.  It was more a list of meals that we had all the ingredients for.  We crossed off the ones we made and chose from those left of the menu.

Yesterday, I scanned our freezer.  I still have half a pork shoulder, three chicken breasts, some chicken patties, and some pork chops left.  This will actually make 4 hearty meals with left overs for lunches the next day.  I have spaghetti sauce and pasta in the pantry for a meat-free meal and we can always do "breakfast for dinner" (or as we call it in our house, backwards night).  This will make 6 more meals.

We did eat out once or twice this month but most all our meals came from this big shopping trip.  Throughout the month we ran to the grocery for this or that, mainly eggs, breads, milk, etc.  No more big shopping trips though.

A few things I learned this month:
1.  While we have always meal planned in the past, making a list of dinners and creating variety has helped us stay excited to eat at home.

2.  I am so glad I planned a couple crock pot meals.  These are so easy to throw in the crock pot in the morning and not think about it again until dinner.

3.  I hit some good sales this month and felt excited that I could stock up on some things for later.  (I have 10 cans of chicken stock and beef stock that I grabbed for 29 cents last week!)

4.  Getting the meats bought early in the month helped tremendously in my budget.  I didn't have to buy them later in the month when we didn't have as much money.

5.  We need to budget for more fresh produce as the summer arrives.  We love fresh veggies in our house and I will need to work on setting aside more money to buy fresh produce throughout the month.

6.  Big box Warehouses like Sam's Club and Costco will save you money if you know what to buy and how to store it before it goes bad.  I stick with items I know we will eat within its freshness time.  But honestly, rarely anything goes bad in this house!

7. I shopped the sales in the grocery stores and did well.  I also held back a bit of money for staples that need replenishing during the month and when a great sale pops up.

For April, I am already compiling a list of meals for our menu and adding items that we have run out of.  Next I will go back through the list of meals and add ingredients for those meals to our list.  I will then use the weekly flyers from our grocery stores to begin to sort out the list, add sale items and organize our shopping trip. I may not cancel school again, but do the shopping over two days.

Freezing and Putting Up

Yesterday we had a bunch of peaches that were starting to get soft, like too soft for eating.  I cut them up and peeled them and tossed them in a ziploc bag to freeze.  I plan to use these eventually to make peach jam.  I just don't have time right now.  So in the freezer they go.

I also cut and froze onions and red peppers too.  I will take some of these out to put in recipes, spaghetti sauces, and meat loaf.


Just a reminder that we can still salvage veggies and fruits that get a bit past their prime by freezing.

Look What I Found at Sam's Club! Awesome Addition to Your Food Storage

Check this out!  I found this box of dried potatoes, hash brown style at our local Sam's Club this week.  We bought this 2.125 lb box for $5.98.  It makes 72 1/2 cup servings. It is lightweight and easy to store and pour.



These Idahoan Fresh Cut Hash Browns were so easy to make too.  I was a bit concerned because you have to rehydrate the potatoes prior to cooking but they soaked up the water quickly and left no mushy mess at the bottom of the bowl.  I rehydrated according to the package, about 30 minutes prior to cooking and then stored the left over hydrated potatoes in the fridge for the next day.  The next day they turned out as perfect as the first day.

rehydrated potatoes

The first time I served these my family went nuts!  They loved them.  I fried them up in oil with a bit of onion (like Waffle House does).  Now mine didn't come out as crispy as theirs but they were still delicious. If I had a flat top griddle like they do, mine would be as crispy as theirs.

This will become a staple product in our food storage.  This with a bit of dehydrated onions and it makes a great hash brown.

I found this at Sam's Club but with a quick search on line you can also get it from Amazon and eBay or online at samsclub.com in the case (6 cartons) for $36.98.

*I was not paid to blog about this item.  These words are all my own and my honest opinion.  I just thought you all might want to know also!

More Bread Making-A Comparison of Two Recipes

I found this recipe yesterday and it was recommended to me by a friend.  I thought I would try it.  I tweaked it just a bit.  This is the recipe I used (with the tweaking):




Amish White Bread

2 cups warm water
1 1/2 TBS Active Dry Yeast
1/4 cup of sugar (the original recipe calls for 2/3 cup sugar)
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/2 tsp salt
6 cups all purpose flour

Mix the sugar and water together and then mix the yeast in.  Let sit for about 10 minutes until frothy to activate the yeast.  Then mix in the salt and oil into the yeast mixture.  Then add the flour.  Turn out onto a clean, floured surface and knead a few times until the dough is smooth.  Then put in an oiled bowl and let rise for about 2 hours or until double the size.  Turn out onto a floured surface again and knead a few more times.  Divide in half and place into two loaf pans.  Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.  Bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or until golden brown.

My recipe:

2  to 2 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 TBS active dry yeast
1 1/2 TBS salt ( I play with this amount and often only use 1 TBS)
6 1/2 cups flour

Basically I put it together and knead and let rise the same way and times as above.  The difference is that I bake it at 400 for 30 minutes or so.


The verdict.

The Amish bread was a smoother dough.  I tend to not knead much on mine and perhaps if I did it might make a difference.  Rise times were the same.  The Amish bread smelled delicious while baking and the loaves came out a pretty golden brown.

(My recipe on left, Amish recipe on right)

When slicing into the Amish bread the crust wasn't as crusty as my recipe so the Amish bread was a bit easier to slice.

(My recipe on left, Amish recipe on right)

The Amish bread looked and felt more spongy. It seemed very similar to store bought loaf.

(I cut my recipe bread a bit thin which caused it to crack down the center, the Amish recipe was sliced a bit thicker)

Upon tasting the Amish bread had a soft texture, a good slightly sweet flavor and was great for my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. My recipe was slightly saltier and had a more rustic flavor.  The crust was crusty and the center was dense but not crumbly or dry.  My son and I prefer my recipe better than the Amish bread.  My husband prefers the Amish bread mainly because of the texture and similarity to store bought bread.

In the end, I am going to work on my recipe a bit more.  I am wondering if the oil will help with the sponginess.  Tomorrow I am going to use my recipe and add oil and reduce the water to 2 cups.  I will report my findings.

Stock up for the holidays-Food Storage

Do you notice the sales in the grocery store around this time of year?  I do.  I notice the cake mixes, bread mixes (sweet breads and regular breads), the spices, butter, baking ingredients, etc. are all on sale this time of year.  It is a great time to stock up for the year on sugar, cake mixes, brownie mixes, flour and other baking items.  I try to stock up for the year.

Having sugar in our stock pile is important to us.  We also stock cookie and cake mixes.  I like to have cake mixes on hand for those "emergency cake" times.  Ha ha ha. But seriously.  Grab a few along with a container of icing.  Grab some sugar, flour and baking powder.  Grab some cakes of yeast too.  I love to grab some bags of chocolate chips (semi sweet and milk chocolate) too. 

Don't overlook sweets in your food storage.  Also this is a great time to get ready for the new year.  Organization is the key to any great project being completed and if your goal for 2013 is to increase your food storage then now is a great time to start to get ready to stock up. Start making lists of the items you already have and begin to make a list of items you need in your food storage.  Then divide it up (or go out on the net and find someone who has already done this) and get ready to start January 1.

As for me, I collect items all year long when they go on sale.  I try to keep a list of items we need and try to look for those when I am out.  This time of year I am also looking for meat sales and veggie sales to stock up for our "lean months" of January, February, and March.  So now in our times where we have a bit more money to spend I stock up on freezer foods, meats, veggies and of course, baking items I spoke of above.

Have a great evening.

Chicken Noodle Soup Warms My Soul

There is something soothing to the soul in chicken noodle soup.  I truly believe it has wonderful healing properties.  There is enough warm mild broth, enough protein, enough hardy vegetables, and enough carbohydrates to be healthy, filling and soul warming.  It is one meal that my kids and husband go back for seconds almost every time.

You can make this healthy comfort food from your food storage too.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients:
1 can mixed vegetables (drained)
1 tbs olive oil
1 can chicken
2 quarts of chicken broth (or chicken boulion with 2 quarts water)
1/3 lb linguini noodles (broken into 1 inch pieces)

Mix all together, cook to boiling, boil for 10-12 minutes or until noodles are cooked.

See how easy that is!  Now you can doctor it up and add some spices or other left over vegetables, maybe a potato.

This is how I make it fresh.

Ingredients:
3-4 stalks celery (diced)
1 onion (diced)
3-4 carrots (diced)
1 lb chicken, cooked, chopped (I use left over chicken usually)
1/3 lb linguini, broken into 1 inch pieces
2-3 quarts of chicken broth (either from cans or boullion)
1 TBS olive oil

In a large stock pot heat oil and add vegetables.  Stir and cook until partly soft.  Add chicken broth, chicken and bring to a boil.  Add noodles and boil for 10-12 minutes until noodles are done.  Serve with warm bread or crackers.

My Daughter Did NOT just Say THAT!!!

Super Bowl Sunday and I am making Chex Mix.  I get out the big pan I use and I start mixing up all the ingredients.  Now I had bought this "party mix" version of the cereal and I assumed that it had all the dry ingredients in the box.  I was thinking it had the three types of Chex cereal, some pretzels, and some bagel chips in it. They were pictured on the box so I assumed it was in there.  I pour in a can of mixed nuts on top of the cereal mix after realizing that there was nothing else in there other than just the cereal.  My youngest daughter walks into the kitchen and looks in the pan.

Daughter: Mom you forgot the pretzels.
Me: I know honey. I thought it was in the box mix I bought but I guess not.
Daughter: I will get you some. (and she runs off to the pantry)
I call out to her: We don't have any in there but you can check the snack drawer here in the kitchen.
Daughter opens the snack drawer and searches through, not finding any.  She gets a sad face and walks to me and says: Mom you really need to be better prepared.

Oh no she DIDN'T!!!  Yeah she did!!!  I was shocked.  I was stunned.  I had no response.

Seriously, she didn't just tell ME that I need to be better PREPARED did she?????  I try really hard to be prepared and I seriously thought the box had pretzels in it.

Then again, I am really glad that she said that because it shows me that she knows I pride myself on being prepared and having a fully stocked pantry and she is learning that it is nice to have that.

The Verdict is in! ~~~ Maple Syrup~~~

I said I would test out the new maple syrup recipes I found recently.  Here and here.  I said I would test them out on my family and report back with the verdict.  Well, the verdict is in.

Given our druthers we would all rather have the store bought version.

The recipe with the brown sugar and vanilla (additional ingredients) has more depth of flavor than the recipe with just sugar, water, and maple flavoring.  So we did like the brown sugar and vanilla version better than the sugar and water one.

However, we used it warm, well hot and we think that it was a bit thin.  It needed to thicken up just a bit and are wondering if that would happen if we let it cool more.  We also tested it with our favorite syrup "Mrs. Butterworth" and while that is a bit buttery we didn't taste the butter flavoring as much as the vanilla in the store bought brand.  The vanilla was a bit stronger in the store bought version.

So in a pinch the kids said that we could make the homemade version and it would do.  But they would like for me to stock up on the store bought version so we don't have to go homemade.  ha ha.

I am going to work on it a bit more and play with the amounts some and see if I can get it thicker a bit.  It is worth a try on your family and it is so much cheaper than the store bought version.

Another Maple Syrup Recipe

I found another maple syrup recipe and this one sounds really good.  It adds a few more ingredients than the last one I posted.  I am going to try both and test them out on my kids this weekend.

Here is the newest one:  It comes from Safely Gathered In Blog

Homemade Syrup

2 cups water
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp maple flavoring
1 tsp vanilla flavoring


Boil water in a saucepan. Add sugars and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in flavorings.  Serve!  Store in the refrigerator.

I am wondering if the brown sugar and the vanilla flavoring with add more depth to the flavor.  What do you think?

I would also like to give a shout out to my first follower!!!  Woo hoo.  Thanks for taking the plunge with me.  I hope that you will start commenting and we can begin a conversation about some of these topics I am thinking about.

Our "Poor" Month is Over, and we welcome February (but it is not much better usually)

February often brings snow in our part of the country.  We can usually count on at least one snowfall each year and it usually happens in February.  When the snow falls we dance around our house and sing, "It's snowing money...." in all sorts of tunes.  This is because my husband will plow snow in parking lots, driveways, etc and it brings in a bit of welcome money.  February is also a time when the last of the oak leaves fall and people begin to think about cleaning up their yard for one more time.  (March is a much better month for this) February brings drips and drabs of business for the husband.  Thus,  our "poor" month is over.  But February isn't much better really.

We still have to watch our money and usually January ended with at least one bill left unpaid.  This year it was a $400 bill that waited. Today we paid it with the pay check I received.  This means that we are already $400 down for the month.  We will continue to be tight with our budget and continue to eat from our food storage.  But it is quickly dwindling.  Tonight in fact, I noticed that I have one more jar of spaghetti sauce left.  I smiled and thought that I need to start looking for a sale on sauce again.  And that item needs to go on the grocery list.   It has been months since I bought spaghetti sauce because I use my "three month" rule.  So when I find it on sale I will buy 12 jars if I can. I still have a lot of pasta left but if I see a great deal on that I will pick up a few boxes also.

Recently I have been working on trying to get my information in order.  I want a hard copy of things in case I can't access the internet and I have been slowly printing things off to keep.  At this point I am thinking that a few three-ring binders will work for me.  I will need three I think:

1. Food Storage
2. Emergency Preparedness
3. Recipes

I will use page protectors for some things, particularly the recipes so I don't ruin the page if I accidentally spill something on it while cooking.

I will post some photos of the notebooks filled up when I get there.

The other thing I have been thinking about is coming up with an organized plan to collect my food storage and to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.  There are so many great sites out there that help with this.  Some give you great lists of items, others break it down by week.  Many of these sites are on my sidebar if you are interested in looking.

Some favorites are:

http://preparedldsfamily.blogspot.com/

http://www.safelygatheredin.blogspot.com/

http://readynutrition.com/resources/52-weeks-to-preparedness-an-introduction_19072011/

These are great to get going on an organized way to gather your supplies.

I know I am a bit scattered in my blogging.  I seem to have no rhyme or reason for my thoughts.  This is a bit how I feel about prepping and food storage.

Boy do I need a plan.  I will let you know when I have one.

I was talking to another neighbor today and the "Three Month Rule"

and we were talking about my pantry in the hall closet.  She and her kids were over our house for dinner the other night while her husband was out of town.   She offered to get something we needed out of the pantry and she opened the door and said she stepped into heaven.  LOL.  I don't think it was quite like that but my pantry is pretty nice. ;)  Anyway, she and I were talking today and she said she told her husband that she needed a three month supply of everything.  Ha ha ha .... She also said that she was cleaning out her front closet so she could put shelves in there and start stocking up.  Ha ha ha....  I love it.

You see this is how it all went down.  It is also how I try to do things. She opened out pantry to look for another bottle of ketchup.  One must never run out of ketchup when you have kids in the house.  So when ketchup is on sale at Kroger for $1 a bottle I buy two or three every time I go in there and it is still on sale.  She found the ketchup in the pantry and asked what my method is of stocking up.  I told her I try to follow my "three month" rule.  That is when an item is on sale and I have the money to spend on extra I try to get enough for three months.  So if I am buying pasta for example and we eat it once a week and I cook a whole box every time we cook it, then I need 13 boxes of pasta.  That is enough to last us three months, or until it goes on sale again, which often is about every three months.  This is how I have stocked up on things. So for us in the summer time especially we will go through two bottles of ketchup a month (give or take a half bottle), so for three months of summer use I will need 6 bottles of ketchup.  Right now I have 5 bottles and we just opened one that is in the fridge.  Next time I see ketchup on sale I will need to buy at least another bottle or two.

Today, I went to a grocery store closing sale.  It was pretty well picked over so I wasn't able to use my "three month" rule but I did get some items that I am excited to have found.  I got Maple Flavoring and Butter Flavoring.  I want to try this recipe and see if I can make my own pancake syrup.

Pancake Syrup
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup boiling hot water
1/2 teaspoon Maple Flavored Extract

Directions:

Combine sugar and water in saucepot.  Cook until sugar is fully dissolved.  Remove from heat and add Maple Flavored Extract.  Serve warm.

I got this recipe from All Recipes {dot}com.  It looks easy enough and I am excited to try it.  Have you ever made pancake syrup before? I would love to know how it turned out.

I have a neighbor....

whom I have known for a long time is Mormon.  I had a pretty good idea that her family has been storing food and preparing for emergencies.  I hardly ever run into her though and I felt funny just going to her house and knocking on the door and saying, "I am pretty sure you have food storage.  Can you show me yours and I will show you mine?"  There is just no part of it that sounds right to me.  So I just kept this little tidbit of information to myself for a long time, like a couple years now.  Anyway, the other day I ran into her at the bank.  We chatted for a minute and then I told her I had a question to ask her and could I meet her outside the bank and ask.  She said yes and I finished up my business at the bank and I waited for her out in the parking lot.  I felt like a bit of a stalker.  So she comes out and I asked.  Yes, right there and then.  I asked.  I said something like, "I understand that you are Mormon and that the church encourages you to store food.  I also have food storage and I like to prepare for the worst.  Is there a time that I can come over and ask you a few questions I have and can I see where and how you are storing your food, etc?"  Well she got this big eyed look and said "yes".  I was so excited.  Come to find out she teaches emergency preparedness in her church and she does talks for other groups and such.

Last weekend she allowed me to take her information she has on food storage and emergency preparedness and look through it and xerox anything I wanted.  :)  I am in heaven right now.  But I as I have looked through her stuff, I am finding that I was actually doing pretty okay by myself, just blog surfing, and internet surfing.  I am so glad that I was doing the right things and had stumbled on the right websites and blogs.  Many of her information has also come from the same sites and my information.

Over then next few weeks I will share more with you about what I have found.  I hope you will stick around and see what I have learned.

A Smoother Bread Recipe

I baked a loaf of bread this past weekend.  I used a new recipe and I am happy with it.  It is lighter, airier, and moister than the other recipe I commonly used.  I love that the crust isn't hard.  It's chewy but not hard.

I got the base of this recipe from Foods That Will Win The War cookbook that I talked a few posts ago.  One of the things I liked about this book is that it explains how grains go together and the percentages of different grains you should use in a bread.  I decided to combine oatmeal with whole wheat and white flour.

Oatmeal Wheat Bread

1 cup warm water
1/2 cup quick cooking oatmeal
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon oil
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
up to another cup of warm water

Pour water and oatmeal in a large bowl mix and let sit a few minutes to allow the oatmeal to soak up the water.  Add all additional dry ingredients and mix until it is crumbly looking.  Then add enough warm water to bring all the ingredients together into a dough.  Form a ball and place back in the bowl cover and let rise for 2 hours or until doubled in size.  Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead a few minutes until large gas bubbles are gone and form in to a loaf.  Put in a greased loaf pan and allow to rise another 30 to 40 minutes until it fills the loaf pan 3/4 full (until it rises another 50%) Slice the top about 3/4 inch down all across the top. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes or until done.  Take out of loaf pan and cool on a rack (or serve warm).

Yields one loaf.

My Food Storage Pantry

I would like to show you a little bit of my food storage.  We live in an older home and one thing it does NOT have is storage.  I want to know what families in the 1960s did with their food, their stuff, their junk.  Where in the heck did they store it???  I have tried a couple different places and I think I have a pretty good handle on storage for food at this point.  I still need more storage but I thought I would show you what I have done so far.  My original place for food storage was the only storage space in our entire house.  It is a little closet under the stairs in the lower level of our home.  It is a pretty deep closet and I have used it as a food pantry for quite a few years now.  I bought a bunch of can organizers from http://canorganizer.com/ .  These are sturdy and I love how they come in various sizes.  I bought a couple different sizes to use in different areas.  In this bottom closet I can use the deeper ones that are 16 inches long and they fit perfectly.  I labeled them and I love how I can just glance at them and know what items I need to stock up on.  Besides canned items I have a large amount of pastas, sauces, and barbecue sauce.  In the bottom I have some gallon jugs of water.

I do need to do some reorganization in here.  There are many things in the bottom that just got tossed in. Oh and you see that margarita mix in the bottom left there? Well, I just want to make sure I have all my bases covered.  {giggles}

In my kitchen I have a small cabinet that I put opened boxes of cereal, a few canned goods that I didn't use when cooking one night, and some open boxes of pasta.  I keep my spices and baking supplies in three cabinets in the kitchen.  This way it is close by and easily accessible. I didn't bother to take a picture of these spaces.

The one space I am most proud about is our front hall closet.  This closet is the closest to my kitchen.  Prior to the make over this closet was a coat closet.  We moved all our out of season coats to our room closets and use a hall tree and wall pegs to hold our in season coats.

In the hall closet we added additional shelves and created a primary pantry.

In this picture you can see that the top shelf holds cereal boxes and are actually stacked two high.  I have another shelf lower than the picture goes and then there is about 15 inches or more to the floor.  On the floor I have bins with flour and sugar and rice.  I also have cases of canning jars and my Kitchen Aid stand mixer.

What you don't see is our paper products.  They are stored above our second refrigerator/freezer in our utility room.

I hope you enjoyed this little tour.  These pictures tell me I really need to neaten these spaces up some more.  They look a bit messy in these photos. But you see them in all their glory.  No holds barred.

Awesome Cook Book - Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918)

Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them (1918)

by: C. Houston Goudiss and Alberta M. Goudiss 

I was blog surfing this past weekend and I found the most awesome cook book.  I went back to see if I could find the blog who spoke of this book first and I am sorry, but I can't find it.  This book  was written in 1918, during World War I.  You can get it for free here.  I downloaded it as html and then copied it to a Microsoft Word document.  Then I went through and reformatted it with correct page breaks and such.  I had to go back and change the page numbers in the Table of Contents and I set it to have page numbers on the bottom of the page.  Then I put it in page protectors and put them in a binder.  Then I labeled the binder. This way I will have it to use as a reference and as a real cookbook.  I also have it on my computer downloaded as an adobe e-reader file but if we don't have power then it will be difficult to use my computer so a hard copy is more practical.

Let me tell you about this cookbook.  The premise of the cookbook was to help US homes save rations during the WAR.  The government wanted to be able to send more rations over to Europe to help those who were starving because of the War.  Our government asked us to Save Wheat, Save Meat, Save Sugar, Save Fat, and Save Food. The cookbook is divided into these sections.

In the "Save Wheat" section alternative grains are highlighted and recipes are given using these alternative grains.  There are some great recipes using cornmeal, oats, barley, rye, and potatoes.  A wonderful basic bread recipe is given too.  (I will expand on this recipe in another post.)

In the "Save Meat" section you will find a couple charts with different cuts of beef, uses for other parts of animals, and a comparison chart of meat and meat substitutes.  There are many recipes for economical dishes, fish dishes, and cheese dishes.

The "Save Sugar" section has a wonderful recipe for wheatless and sugarless cake, sugarless candies, and preserves too.

The "Save Fat" section teaches us to render the fat in foods and how to clarify and save it.  It also has many recipes to use the rendered fat.

I think the "Save Food" section was the most interesting to read.  I love that not only are there a bunch of recipes to use leftovers but also a calorie chart and a section with several menus for wheatless days, meatless days, and lists of meat substitute dinners and vegetable dinners.

I can see me using this cookbook to help plan for using my long term storage, and to learn how to conserve and save my wheat, meats, sugar, and fats. We don't generally have meatless meals here in our home.  My husband loves his meat!  But this cookbook will be helpful in working some of these meals into our "repertoire".  I also love the various recipes for grains.  There is a potato bread, potato pancakes, oatmeal breads and mixed grain breads.  From an historical point of view, this cookbook explains so much, like, why my grandparents loved rye bread.  They were born around this time period so they probably grew up with their mom's baking rye breads.  There are so many other recipes that I recognized.

My only criticism is that some of the items in the cookbook are not called that any more.  I have a few things I need to research before putting this book on the shelf and calling it ready to use.  What is a mapline?  What is sweet milk?  and What is salad dressing? Is that mayonnaise or real salad dressing?

I will give you one thing I have found out.  A cake of yeast is about 2 1/4 teaspoons of active yeast. :)

PS:  This review is completely my own.  No one asked me to review this book and no one is paying me.  The book is free and I personally recommend you download it and check it out.  It won't cost you a penny. Let me know how you like it and what you think of the cookbook.

Cleaning out the Pantry

I should have taken a photo of the before and after.  But I didn't and I am sorry.  Yesterday I cleaned out my pantry.  I originally started doing it specifically because I have been tossing stuff in there and not sorting it out.  So by yesterday morning I could no longer close the door.  Something had to be done.  So I started cleaning it out.

I learned many things:

1.  If you keep it neat and organized you can fit a ton of food in there.
2.  I really need a rubbermaid tub for my flour.
3.  Only two items were out of date and needed to be tossed.
4.  I have a TON of dessert items.  So if we have a SHTF situation right now, we don't have to worry about running out of cake and frosting.
5.  I am low on pasta sauce, canned meats, and water.
6.  I think I have actually succeeded in storing a month's worth of food, plus some.

I have:

• 6 months worth of desserts and sweets.
• 3+ months worth of pasta (but need to stock up on some sauce)
• 2+ months worth of canned veggies
• 2-3 weeks worth of canned meats
• 2 months worth of peanut butter
• 3 months worth of flour
• 3+ months worth of oatmeal
• 3+ months worth of rice
• 3-4 weeks worth of canned fruits
• 2+ months worth of cooking oil (veggie and olive oil)
• 3+ months worth of yeast
• 1+ month worth of honey
• 3+ months worth of baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices

I need:

• water
• canned meats (although my freezer is stocked with meats, enough for at least a month)
• pasta sauce
• powdered milk (I have none at this point and feel like I need it)
• shelf stable milk

Now, If we lose power for a long period of time, in my freezer I have a variety of meats.  In my refrigerator I have 6 lbs of butter.  I am wondering if I could can my meats over an open flame and can my butter to make it last.  As we are going into winter I know that I could keep my meats and butter and other refrigerated items outside for a while and they would keep.  We also have a generator on our travel trailer that could help keep our frozen items for a longer period of time until we could eat them.

This was an awesome lesson in what we have and what more we need.  Now that I am more focused on my "holes" in my pantry, I know what I need to purchase.  In fact after I finished cleaning out my pantry I went to Sam's Club for paper towels and toilet paper and I was able to pick up another 5 cans of canned chicken, some more frozen chicken breasts, oatmeal, and a few other items that will go into the pantry.  My focus now is on powdered milk and shelf stable milk.  Oh and we need water.