A Family Secret, Real Life Budget For Preparing

A Family Secret, Real Life Budget For Preparing

Many groups, couples, small families, and singles have complained they have no budget to prepare for any kind of emergency. Hard to put extra money away, when there is no extra money, add to that the confusion about where to start ones preps. I have consulted with many folks over the years and in almost all cases have been able to point out the “How”. First things first.

Let the “preps” be a family secret. Yes a family secret, it is no ones business what you are doing. Some will laugh at you, and even be very mean with their remarks. The other half of those people will know where to go when they are out of food, or whatever else they need. In a true emergency, panic and hunger, or whatever else is driving one to survive will throw being polite out of the window.

Defending what you have is best defended by nobody knowing anything in the first place. Thus we have the “family secret” . This includes your kids, they will know what you are doing, they are not stupid, and they can see, and overhear your conversations. In the real world of children they know more about what is happening in your home than you might think. By including them in on the “family secret” they are now part of a really neato, cool deal.

The scary budget monster, how to cope? This is broad based so I know this will not always apply to you. When consulting with  groups or a family it is pretty easy as I can get down to real numbers. However, in general take a look at your income and outgo. Crunch the numbers. The first numbers are what you spend for food. And I mean every dime, from the fast food to the pizza to the beer, every penny. Might take you a month to to get a handle on it. Has to be honest, you will only cheat yourself. Most families will order a pizza, or whatever it might be once a week, very common. So what does that cost you? 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 30 bucks each time?
What about the 12 pack of beer?

What about the fast food, which really is not cheap in price, for the most part.
Add in any other food items I missed, you get the general idea. Cancel the pizza this week, or ever. That is your extra money for some food preps to put away. No beer this week, no bowling budget for food and a beer this week. Take that 25 bucks and buy into your future, your families future. Start with extra canned food, mark it, buy what you really eat. Put it away, the following week do the same thing.

Do not eat out for lunch at work. Take your own lunch once a week, or even twice a week. You might find it refreshing. “Brown bagging” at one time was very common, see what happens if you do it, soon others will do the same thing. That savings you put into your family food storeage.

While at the market buy 2 cans extra of whatever you are buying. 2 cans a week adds up pretty fast. How about 6 cans extra of whatever you will eat. It wont add that much extra to the total bill. Forget the snacks this week. No cookies, etc.

This  is a simple plan to follow. Anyone can do it. I do not care if it is one thing each time you shop, at the least it is something. At the most it is your family.

Drying your own food is easy to do. This time of year is perfect. Cant afford a dryer, oh dear, or do not know how. Well take two old window screens ( new screens are really cheap, you dont even need the frame) and clean them, place whatever you are drying on one screen and place the other screen over it, set in the sun. cover or bring it in at night, you do not want moisture to re-enter the food.

You can dry the sale items from the store, veggies, fruit, are easy to dry. If you do not know how to dry the food a fast search on the net will tell you how. Lots of fruit trees in “hood” rotting on the ground as it falls. Ride down alleys and look for the branches hanging over the fences, and pick it. If you know some of the wild plants, you can dry those plants as well, like dandelion roots.

Deals on cheap meat can be had, or if your meat has freezer burn, dry it. Just hang it in the sun, cut into thing strips, cover with a fine netting like cheese cloth. Lots of ways to do this.

Putting away food is nothing new. Most of our parents and grand parents did it, and for sure many great grand parents did so. Canning is a big deal as well. Not that hard to learn and do.

All of these things make a great family project, for your future needs. That is it in a nutshell for food.  You can buy  beans, and  rice in bulk, at any of the big barn stores, cheap. Easy to put away.

Do not forget to mark the dates on all items . Rotate your stock as you use it. Pay attention to the dates you marked on the items, no need to throw anything away. .

By having food put away it will help take off the stress. Thats huge. All kinds of emergencys, many are personal. As in losing a job.

The important step is taking it. Might seem really meager at the start, but believe me it grows very fast right before your eyes.

In other articles I will look at the other challenges one might face, like how to cook, lighting, water, gear, and how you can add to the essential basics, and put off the gadgets and gismos until the basics are well covered.

Lets eat….

By Dude McLean, on July 26th, 2011