by Nick Romaniello
I’m sure there are plenty of preppers out there that wouldn’t break into their mylar pouches full of grain for anything short of total Armageddon, but the truth is that emergencies can be varied and subjective. The world of a self-employed home improvement contractor is sometimes one of feast or 
famine especially during the initial years of building a business. The last few months have been financially tricky for me and Mighty Oak Homecraft. Large jobs have run long, delaying the income from final payments. Taxes were due, materials need purchased, yearly renewals of licenses and websites have all converged into a financial super-storm; the result is a cartoon-like escape of moths and dust when I open my wallet.
There is relief on the horizon as more jobs fill the schedule, but when the bank account hovers near the red it‘s nice to have a backup plan so that “feast or famine“ remains only a metaphor. Luckily there isn’t any panic about the financial burden of buying groceries. While I am not yet set up to last for months without resupply, having a reasonable store of food on hand to help stretch out limited resources is a big help. A lean month or two may not be the dramatic type of disaster scenario that many preppers are fortifying themselves against, but in reality (especially in my business) it’s a fairly likely scenario. Even for those with more predictable paychecks, financial emergencies can strike without warning. Unexpected car problems, a layoff, or an injury can put a serious dent in your cash flow. Emergency funds and savings accounts can be an ideal stopgap, but it can be difficult to squirrel away cash if you are living paycheck to paycheck. Being prepared should not be an exclusive hobby for those who can afford to stack gold bars up in their bunker. Even us penny pinchers can pick up a few extra cans each time we shop and before you know it, you have a food cache. Same goes for every gallon of gas you put away. An extra tank full when the chips are down could keep you operational when you might otherwise be thumbing rides.
Full scale financial collapse will always be a hot topic in prepping circles and forums, but the commonality of family level tough periods exemplifies the purpose of prepping. It’s not always about the big things that might happen, but more about the small things that probably will happen. Don’t allow yourself to develop a mindset that your preps are only for “the big one”. They are your way of providing help to yourself in the future. Just like any other type of insurance policy, you aren’t required to wait for total loss to make a claim. There are preps that we acquire with the hope and intent that we never need to use them such as a fire ladder, gun, or suture kit. However, some items that we store such as food, gas, or toiletries don’t need to be viewed as such a last resort — plus they need to be rotated anyway! If you are hungry, eat. There is no shame in using your preps for small, short-lived emergencies. Things will get better and you can stock up again. That’s what it’s there for.
Trace,
What are you finding from eating your preps? Ay issues or leanings? Anything different you might do when money is flowing again?
(Since Nick is the one who wrote this article he’ll be the best one to answer it.)
But from our family’s experience we’ve found you need to know how to prepare the preps you store, specifically things like beans — it’s not hard, but you need to know how. Balance your short term/store what you eat food storage: have canned vegetables and fruit, but also have canned meats, peanut butter, snacks, and cooking aids.
Most of all store what your family eats on a regular basis, essentially just making a deeper/larger pantry, and incorporate it into your regular meals. Then when you go shopping, move needed stuff from the food storage pantry into the house to eat next, and backfill the food storage preps.
I haven’t really learned anything new from cracking into my food cache but rather just had some basic things reinforced, much of which echo’s Trace’s reply.
Store what you eat: I don’t usually eat grain from a 5 gallon bucket so storing something like that wouldn’t be practical for me. I have canned soups, veggies and fruits. Pasta and jars of sauce. Dried snacks and other things that can be found normally in my kitchen cupboard and things that I know my son will eat willingly. It makes for seamless transition from regular groceries to preps and also keeps morale up because you aren’t all of a sudden eating something you don’t enjoy just because you have to.
You can’t have too much: If you still have space in your designated storage area, keep adding to it. Who knows how long hard times may last and the more you have on hand, the longer you can ease the burden. Although, I don’t particularly want my house to look like one of those extreme prepper houses on TV where the bed is propped up on 55 gallon drums and every room is lined with shelves. Keep it within reason, but stock as much as is practical for the space you can dedicate to it.
That is so true…been there, done that!
What’s funny, is you eat healthier and have better portion control most often.
Hopefully we’re all storing quality foods that we regularly eat and then rotating and eating them. The side bonus is that once you establish a decent food storage you don’t NEED anything, you can choose to buy stuff only when it’s on sale.
To me, this is the real purpose of prepping. It doesn’t have to be Armageddon. You have alternatives that enable you to face whatever life brings.
Most of us have faced very few “Armageddon/SHTF” scenarios, but all of us eat everyday. You don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but you know you’ll need food, water, shelter, security, and energy — plan accordingly.
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Absolutely great and timely article. We, too, eat our preps. I’m betting financial Armageddon will come in waves–subtle like the boiling frog–rather than some overnight flip of the switch. Even with a steady job, the family budget will get pinched harder and tighter. If you feel like you can’t “break in” to your preps and continue to struggle to buy groceries…you might be missing out on the whole reason you prepped!