Tip of The day

As previous mentioned in this blog - Depending on your budget and your space everyone’s food storage may differ. One such food to consider when looking for your perfect food storage items.

Instant Mashed Potatoes!

Instant Mashed Potatoes can make a variety of foods and are delicious now days.

They can be used as topping to casseroles.

Side dishes
Soups
Sauces
Breads
Batter

And some easy inexpensive main dishes like..

Fried ham & potato balls
Gnocchi
Meatloaves and Meatballs
Potato & Cheese Tacos
Let’s not forget how good they are all by themselves with butter on top.

The list goes on and on, use your imagination or look up some recipes online.. Instant Mashed Potatoes provides a lot of food from a small amount of storage space.

Note: Prices right now range from about $3.57 - $5.79 for a 27-28 oz container prices will go up soon.

Tip Of The Day

If you have been reading my blog posts and your thinking along the lines I've set out in the below articles, then you can see that it's not always safe to count on "always" having the luxury of electricity, so putting up items that can be eaten in such dire emergencies can be helpful in stressful situations.

Another food to consider having plenty on hand is Oatmeal.
Oatmeal is extremely useful and can not only be made into a bowl of belly filling hot cereal, but it can be made into quick breads, cookies, bars, home made granola and many other dishes if you use your imagination. It can also be ground into flour for use in all things where flour is required.

Oatmeal is very inexpensive, you can either buy it from the store for a few bucks, about(2.79) for a 48 ounce container (regular or old fashioned) are usually the same price, or buy it bulk for much less.
Also you can buy the prepackaged for a bit more money that has the sugar, spices and milk products already in the mix just at water. Either way it's inexpensive and good for you.

Quick cooking Oatmeal requires less time to prepare the regular Oats however I always strive to have both in abundance on hand as you wouldn't want to use Quick cooking oats for making granola, however the quick cooking cooks way faster then the whole oats and its can just be soaked in water to make it edible.

Note: Most Oatmeal is sold in cardboard box containers, I would for (food safety) open my containers and place them in heavy freezer zip lock bags to keep them pest free – once in the bag you can either store them in a larger plastic container or put them back into the round boxes originally came in and re-seal them back up with packaging tape to keep them from being attacked by rodents.

Always remember when storing such items as grains and such, you have to always consider the possibility of rodents. In some situations its best to double store by securing the grains in a zip lock bag then back into another plastic container. Rodents are known for eating right through cardboard containers and even plastic ones are not always 100% safe if the plastic is very cheap and thin. Make sure to save yourself money in the long run by investing in GOOD heavy duty containers. The worse possible thing is to have this food stored up, then when and if you need it you come to find someone had beaten you to it and contaminated whatever was left. It always pays to not scrimp on your investments and buy good heavy duty continers..

Low Budget Food Storage Solutions

Low Budget Food Storage Solutions

*****UPDATE*******

When I wrote this blog out over a year ago TOP RAMEN in my area King Soopers, Denver Colorado the price was @ 17 cents each - Today the price is **12** cents and that's without a sale. So as you can See the price has gone down in this market where prices are going up on many food items.

The below prices will need to be adjusted as they werE calculated at 17 cents each- It's always good news when prices go down on food items but don't count on them staying that this low - GET SOME WHILE YOU CAN!

TOP RAMEN MAKES AN EXCELLENT BARTER ITEM TOO!

No More Excuses!

Do you think it's possible to live off of $3.57 a week?

If I told you getting some emergency food storage doesn't have to cost a lot of money, would you believe me?

If you can't afford much and want to get some security in having a food storage plan then listen up it can be done. Food storage for one person for one year is as little as $171.35 that's three meals a day for one whole year.

You can have emergency back up food storage that's very affordable and easily ready at any store. If you shop around you may be able to get it cheaper too.

Top Ramen is the answer for many who are on a low budget but want to have something to store. Top Ramen requires little cooking and for dire situations it can be eaten uncooked or can be soaked in water as the noodles will absorb the water.

It's filling and versatile. You can add a number of food items such as eggs, mushrooms, meat, vegetable or even lemon and limes to give additional nutrition.

In the prison systems Top Ramen is used to barter so in real life this little product can likewise be used to gain needed supplies, others may have in exchange for a hot cup of belly filling Top Ramen.

I know what your probably thinking, YUCK TOP RAMEN! I would get so sick of that. But let me tell you, when you go without food for a few day Top Ramen will be a meal fit for a hungry King.

The problem is many of us are short sited when it comes to food. Many, if not all of us, have never gone without it for very long which does one thing to us, it makes us ignorant to some very

important and simple facts.

Fact #1.

The average person can survive for three weeks with no food, if your overweight you have more time added as your body will feed off of the fat- if your underweight then you can cut that time down from 3 weeks to possibly 2 or less depending.

Fact #2.

You can survive only 3 days without water and 3 minutes without air.

So you can have all the food storage in the world and if you don't have the water to go along with it then your dead in 3 weeks.

Fact #3.

A few days or weeks without any food at all- Top Ramen will be the most delicious thing you have ever tasted in your whole life, I promise.

So what I say to people who always complaining they don't have the money to buy food storage, I say rubbish, then recommend they buy in bulk "Top Ramen" if nothing else.

But make sure for every Top Ramen pack you put up as food storage, also store along with it one bottle of water. Most bottles water in 8-16 oz bottles are sold in packs of 24- so every time you buy a case of water buy 24 Top Ramens to go along with it. This is a good way to start off you food storage for the low budget.

Below I've made a chart of the cost per person, by month, year & two year.

Keep this in mind also..

When selecting a food storage program that's good for you and fits your budget, consider what it would be like if everyone around you also had no food A smart person will think ahead and consider storing extra food or items to be used as barter - Top Ramen is perfect for this

Go Get Some Now while you still can!

Top Ramen Food Storage Cost

3 Meals a day per person- per week
For 1-10 People
.17c per package

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Cost

3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 3.57
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 7.14
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 10.71
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 14.28
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 17.85
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 21.42
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 24.99
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 28.56
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 32.13
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 $ 35.70

*********************
New price 12c each 1 person Calculation
1wk $2.52
2wk $5.04
3wk $7.56
4wk $10.08 = 1 year 120.96
*********************


Feed 1 Person for 10 weeks or 10 People for 1 week

1 person 1 week = $3.57 1 Year = $171.36 2 years = $342.72
2 persons 1 week= $7.14 1 year = $342.72 2 years =$685.44
3 persons 1 week = $10.71 1 year = $514.08 2 years = $1028.16
4 persons 1 week = $14.28 1 year = $685.44 2 years = $1370.16
5 persons 1 week = $17.85 1 year = $856.08 2 years = $1712.16
6 persons 1 week = $21.42 1 year = $899.64 2 years = $1799.28
7 persons 1 week = $24.99 1 year = $1199.52 2 years = $2399.04
8 persons 1 week = $28.56 1 year = $1370.88 2 years = $2741.76
9 persons 1 week = $32.12 1 year = $1541.76 2 years = $30.38.52
10 persons 1 week = $35.70 1 Year =$1713.06 2 years = $3426.12

Note:

I buy the 33 Gal (Sterilite) plastic latch containers to store my top ramen in - they stack 2 high and 3 across 18 back so in one box you can fit 108 Top Ramen packages in one container- they easily stack on top of one another and can fit perfectly on top of your fridge or under your bed or sofa. I store mine on top of my fridge they stack three high and two wide 6 all together. Walmart currently sells the storage containers 6 @ $41.00 - the boxes can always be reused for other things.Also note I've had them stored there now for about 7 months or more and the only piece of advice I would add not that I've done it is this- consider covering each top container with a cheap vinyl table cloth because what I have found is the top containers get a bit of dust mixed with a bit of grease which can easily be remedied by adding a cover- it doesn't need to be anything fancy and you can fine the inexpensive vinyl tablecloths for very cheap in dollar stores,Kmart and Walmart you can cut them to fit so you don't have a lot of excess hang on the sides.