preps, preps and more preps!!!

everyone who knows us here at the interwebs already knows that we are preppers. you can't really live out in the middle of nowhere and not be a prepper. but one thing that we usually don't go yakking about is our food storage. there are tons of other interesting sites out there that talk about food rotation, food storage, etc. - and since we follow the normal standards in regards to those kinds of issues - us talking about expiration dates of medication, etc., would just be us repeating what most of you probably already know...and it would be boring to read about that here...and i know that all of you come here for exciting sky pics that i take for my sweet sister Helga. like the one below:

however, a couple of weird circumstances have happened in the last week or so. maybe not "weird-weird" but weird enough for me to take notice. call it "the heavens aligning" or something.

when we first got involved in the American Preppers Network and the Canadian Preppers Network several years ago, one of the first people that i might who i felt had much to teach me is someone listed on our blogroll, SciFiChick of the Bacon and Eggs blog. if you don't already follow her, you really should. we met so many warm, interesting and funny preppers and survivalists on the APN and CPN - there are just some really awesome folks out there on the webs! but SciFiChick and her husband seemed to be on the same path as jambaloney and i were on - all of us were working towards a common goal of getting on our own land and then learning to become as self-sufficient as possible. i am happy to say the both she and i are living on our land now and i am sure that she and her husband feel just like jambaloney and i - waking up everyday and realizing that we are living our dreams.

anyway, she did a re-post of  one of her previous posts the other day that really got me thinking. her post, here (please go and read it),  provides a grocery list, a recipe if you will, for one year's worth of food storage for under $300. most of us never have $300 dollars laying around, especially if you are on a fixed income, so it may be out of reach for most people. but we try to live as frugally as possible - and it's easy when you live in the middle of nowhere as we don't have an entertainment budget, nor a clothing budget - bahahahahahha! and we stick to the basics, we try to grow as much of our own food and preserve that food which cuts down on our grocery budget. and we try to save money every month to always have emergency cash on hand for - you guessed it - emergencies.

continuing on, we had to take our truck in for some repairs and to get it safety-ied (we have to safety our vehicles every 2 yrs here. Craig/Mayberry, if you are reading this, i know that i just made you groan and put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day. sorry buddy!). because we always have our emergency money, we are able to pay in cash. however, and here is the big windfall, the stars aligning and all of that jazz....our warranty covered waaaay more than we thought it would, so we had some extra money that had already been accounted for. i call this "found" money. and what do you do when you find money? you buy preps!!!!

and although i don't normally show pics of our preps and whatnot, i wanted to share with you all what we purchased. because the recipe that SciFiChick provides on her blog is attainable and does provide some good staples (in conjunction with your other food stores of spices, preserved/canned fruit and veg, etc.). and it is waaaaay more than a year's worth of food for the both of us (in conjunction with our other food stores).

the above food cost $161.16 - not a normal food purchase for us at all - but this was "found" money!!! i love "found" money!!! (and we were able to put the $8 additional bucks back into our emergency fund - woohoo!)

pictured above is:

17lbs of sticky rice
9lbs of basmati rice
17 pounds of calrose rice (for a total of 43lbs of rice! we eat a lot rice - we love rice! but that is waaay more than one year's worth of rice for 2 people!)

12lbs (at 2lbs each) of Maritime Grown Jacob's Cattle beans, Yellow-Eye beans and soldier beans.

12lbs of kidney beans
12lbs of chickpeas
8lbs of navy beans
and 2lbs of green lentils

12 cans of kidney beans
and 12 cans of chickpeas

all for $161.16!!!! waaaay more than enough food for a year in conjunction with our current food stores!

the point of this post is - a lot of people think it is difficult to stock up and store a year's worth of food. it isn't - you just need to change your mind-set. stop buying your daily coffee and put that money in a jar - do it everyday! don't eat out - bring snacks with you when you are out and make delicious home-made meals. if by not stopping at McDonalds (gross!) will save you $12 - put that money in a jar. and if you follow simple steps like these - that money will very quickly grow into $100 and then you can very easily go out and get yourself a year's worth of food. and keep adding to your food stores - if you only have $10 extra dollars this week - buy some dried beans or spices or frozen fruit or whatever. add it to your food stores. when your income tax checque comes in or you "find" money in another way - spend it on your food stores!

it brings great relief to me to know that we have several years worth of food stored. great relief. thanks SciFiChick for re-posting the recipe - it was the first thing i thought of when we got our money back!