Food storage observations

from Notes from the bunker... by Administrator

When I was at the Mormon cannery yesterday the fella in charge asked me how my food storage was coming along. (I think this is the standard Mormon conversational ice-breaker…”Steve! Meet my friend Bill!” “Hi Bill. Nice to meet you. Hows the food storage?”) I thought about it a minute and said that between the freeze drieds, the MRE’s, the drums of wheat, rice and corn, and all the ‘normal’ food that’s in storage as well as in the cupboards we’d probably have about ten months to a years worth. More if we don’t mind some repetitive and boring meals.

So, really, the food storage part of the equation is pretty much squared. While its always nice to have more, I think we’re at the stage where we can add to it when its convenient for us, or when something is on sale, or when we discover something that fits our food storage needs very nicely. Focus can be shifted now.

What next? Interesting question. We’re good for food, pretty good on ammo, decent level of stored fuels,…I suppose the next step is to continue preparing for the economic rough times that are ahead. For us, that means getting a cash emergency fund, eliminating as much debt as possible, and making bloody sure the expenses are a good deal less than income. Might also be nice to stockpile some of the normal everyday items so that if things do get majorly ugly we can spend what meager financial resources we have on critical things (like mortgage and power) and not have to worry about buying laundry soap, paper towels and socks. Plus, given the significant price savings when buying in bulk, its just a good idea to have the frequent-use stuff stockpiled anyway.

How do you prepare for a recession or depression? I have no idea, really. But I can try to think it through. The consequences of a recession or depression are higher unemployment and lower personal spending. So, I want to be covered in case of job loss and if I make a living off other people being consumers I may want to develop a different income stream, or at least be prepared (minimal debt, etc) for that income stream to become a trickle. After all, if someone is worried about whether theyre going to have a job or not in a few weeks, theyre probably quite likely to curb their spending as much as they can.

Unemployment is my big concern. Not so much the unemployment of others, although that does have a place in my List O’ Things To Worry About, as much as I worry about us being unemployed. Fortunately, we have a pretty low mortgage (although any mortgage is too much when your income is slashed by 100%), close to no debt, and no car payments, student loan payments, credit card payments, or anything like that. If we can keep current on the mortgage we could ‘get by’ indefinitely. It wouldn’t be in grand style, but it would sure as heck beat living in a cardboard box.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Skipping the economy, which is pretty tough to ignore these days, North Korea announced that they’ve ‘weaponized’ a pile o’ uranium, Bird Flu is popping up in the usual places and, oddly, the .gov is warning of a collapse of the Mexican economy. (Sooo…they self-demote to a Fourth World country?) And, come to think of it, the transition of administrations would be a good time to try getting away with something. So it just ain’t the economy that we gotta worry about these days…the usual suspects are still out there.

Original: http://commanderzero.com/blog/?p=805