What Hurricane Irene Taught Me About My Preps So Far

Although we got very lucky and were not hit by the Category 1 Hurricane that Irene was supposed to be when she came through our state, there was still some significant wind and rain from the Tropical Storm. As we were preparing for this storm to come through, I realized a few things about our preps that made me feel really good and a few good lessons that I will heed from now on.

#1- My working out and fitness program paid off. 

As my husband and I were carrying the large picnic table over the baby gate and down the porch stairs, and then returning up to pick up the grill to bring downstairs as well, I realized that there was absolutely no way I would have been able to do that 3 months ago. My desire to be healthy and fit started before we started “prepping”, but as we started prepping I realized that it was a very important part of preparedness. My thoughts on this were only reinforced as I was left along to  to pick furniture up to put it on wood blocks and rubbermaid totes to keep it from getting wet, and load up my car to go spend the night with my parents. (My husband had been mandated for a shift at work because of the storm.)

#2 Being prepared, even if it wasn’t for the exact situation that played out, eases one’s mind and lowers the stress level associated with dangerous situations.

My husband and I have been preparing to “bug in” and hunker down and stay safe during most situations. In fact, we decided that things would have to be pretty terrible before we left our house. So, we’ve got all of our stock and preps in the house, and only small bags that are really more of what most would call “get home backs” than “bug out bags.” So, when the threat of Hurricane Irene came about, I was very secure knowing that I didn’t have to run around securing food, water, batteries, etc. Then? Hubby gets mandated for a shift at work (something we stupidly did not think about) and I am faced with the decision of whether to stay home with my two babies in a house that floods when there is heavy rain and is surrounded by tall trees or to leave and go to my parents house (knowing that they are really not “preppers”). Even though I ended up completely changing my plans and leaving, being prepared made it easy to change plans and made my life much less stressful as I got things together to leave. It really does prove that prepping is a state of mind, and not just the acquiring of goods.

#3- Keeping a Clean/Organized House is Part of Prepping

Keeping up with the dishes and the laundry, and making sure that everything is in its place may be difficult for us working, prepper moms, but it sure does make a difference when faced with a dangerous situation. With the threat from the power company that we might be without power for up to or beyond a week, I did not have to run around like a crazy person washing clothes and dishes to make sure that I was ready for there to be no power for an extended period of time. I knew that I had very minimal work to do to ensure that I would be in good shape if we lost power. Being organized also helped greatly because I knew exactly which clothes I wanted to pack for me and my kids when we made the decision to leave, where the suitcase was, where the kids backpacks were, etc. It definitely made my life easier not having to worry about what was clean and what wasn’t, or knowing exactly where the suitcase was and not having to dig it out of a pile of junk in the basement.

#4- Do Not Put Off Tomorrow What Can Be Done Today

We have just finished rebuilding, reorganizing, and stocking our store room and we had a few other things left to do. One of those things being to put 50lbs of rice, 50lbs of beans, 25lbs of oats, and 50lbs of salt into mylar bags and 5-gallon buckets. We had left the big bags of goods in our store room and said that we would get to it ASAP. However, when the threat of Irene was upon us, I realized that if we got water (which we most certainly would) all of our large bags of goods would be ruined. And so I was left filling bags and buckets in the 9th hour when I really should have been spending my time doing other storm preps. I definitely learned my lesson of doing today what I can, and not leaving projects unfinished.

 

These are just a few of the things that I was reflecting upon throughout the hurricane/tropical storm. While I am very happy to report that we did not get any water (which was a miracle) thanks to a sump pump, nor did we lose power- I also know that I would have been completely ready to deal with any of the problems that would have occured had that not been the case.

I hope that everyone else stayed safe throughout the storm- and I hope that people use this as a wake-up call or time of reflection on prepping.

 

Happy Prepping!

 

Beginning at the Beginning

After having sat back for a bit and taken a deep breath, I’ve decided to attack my prepping in a very systematic way. I was finding myself getting quite overwhelmed with everything I wanted to learn and acquire, especially since I’ve been feeling such a sense of urgency to get as prepared as I can. So, I decided to start at the beginning and work my way forward from there. So, where is the obvious place to begin? I suppose where life itself began: water.

If anyone has done any reading about surviving or preparedness, then he or she knows that the most important necessity is water. People can live 3 weeks without food, but only 3 days without water. So, it is imperative that I have at least 3 days worth of water on hand at all times, although my plan is to try for at least a month’s worth of water. I’ve been picking up bottled water whenever it is on sale- which for me is less than $2.99 for a 24 pack. But, I know that I don’t have nearly enough water, especially because we grab bottles on a daily basis whenever we are running out of the house and need some.

So I did some researching online and, while I would definitely like to invest in a 55 gallon drum for water storage, that is just not feasible right now on our budget (because I’m still out on maternity leave and not getting a paycheck), and it is not feasible for the amount of storage space we have at the moment. So I decided to go with 4- 7 gallon water storage jugs from REI, where I also got free shipping. REI had them the cheapest (at $16 for 1 storage container).

These 4 containers will fit in the space that I currently have, and it will provide enough water for my family for 3 days. So I hit my first goal! Or at least I will when the containers arrive in a few days. Enough water for 3 days for my family of 4 plus 4 of my extended family members.

I will continue to buy bottled water when it is on sale, but at least I know that what is in those bottles is there all of the time.

I’m feeling refreshed already! It’s nice to see some real progress towards my goals, and it is nice to feel that I am organized and have a plan of attack for this giant task of prepping.

Feeling Overwhelmed

It’s been a while since my last post, mostly because I’ve been busy this past week, but also because I don’t know what to write about. It’s not that I don’t have a million ideas bouncing around in my head, it’s that I don’t know where to begin. I am feeling entirely overwhelmed lately. It seems as though each new door I open into the prepping world, the bigger the pile of junk that falls out. I know that I need to just take things one at a time, but there is so much that I want to do, and I’m just feeling a great sense of urgency to get them done- especially considering all that is in the news lately. So, if anyone is out there reading this, I apologize for the scattered nature of my posts, but that is how I am feeling lately. Scattered.

Although I’m feeling so overwhelmed and scattered, I am getting things accomplished. I’ve gotten some mushrooms, carrots, strawberries, and bananas dehydrated and put away. I’ve also gotten my canned goods organized. I ended up buying an amazing can rotating system from Shelf Reliance- and I’ve almost gotten it filled with veggies, beans, chili, etc. Looking at that makes me feel like I am making progress. It was super easy to put together, and it makes my OCD very happy to see all the cans lined up nicely in order of expiration dates.

Well, I feel like I’ve rambled here. And I think I will take some time to make a list of topics I’d like to blog about and return when I feel like I can better express my thoughts.

Until then….Happy Prepping!
-A Prepared Mom

A Very Busy Week

Wow! I can’t believe that’s it’s already been almost a week since I last posted. Time sure does pass quickly when you are busy, and that is what we have been around here. Here are some of the things that have kept me away from my blog this week:

1- Doing a lot of organizing around the house- the better organized I am, the easier it is for me to think and function. It is also helpful for me to see what we have and what we need so I can make sure that we are staying on track with our preparations as well as with our every day existence and budget.

2- Doing some inventory of what we have in the freezers, stock room, and pantry and still trying to get my household management binder together. (Thanks to Foggy and ThePreppersWife for getting me off on the right foot.)

3- Doing some GREAT coupon match ups for my shopping trip this morning. The ShopRite that I patronize is having their can can sale right now, and I took full advantage of it this morning! I got about 300 dollars worth of groceries for $140. That included 24 cans of veggies and beans- for about 8 dollars, 12 cans of tomato sauce (the big 29oz cans)- for $6.99, 3 (25oz) cans of crushed tomatoes- for $3.00, 8 cans of diced tomatoes- .88 cents each, 4 cans of refried beans- $3, and 4 cans of chili- $2 after coupons and the sale. I also stocked up on Olive Oil- which was only $3 for 16oz after coupons, enough kids shampoo to satisfy my “five-year itch” (what I’m calling my overwhelming desire to have enough to live on for five years), diapers, Cheerios- for about $1.35 after coupons, four FREE tubes of toothpaste, two FREE toothbrushes, and two FREE bottles of mustard. I got a whole bunch more, but those are the highlights of my trip today.

4- Researching and purchasing some items to aid in our stockpiling and self-sufficiency (more info on this to follow in other blogs as I review the items we got.) I’m especially anxious to get my Shelf Reliance rotating can rack that I got when they were having a GREAT sale online. And we are also waiting for an Excalibur Food Dehydrator to come in- my husband’s anniversary gift to me.)

5- Working out in the garden- the tomatoes, squash, and bean plants all look great! All of our herbs are doing really well, and the scallions are absolutely beautiful! The pepper plants, however, look very sad, and I will need to be giving them some TLC in the next few weeks. My only regret about our garden this year is that we should have made it bigger. I didn’t want to take on too much with our first year of really doing a garden, but now I regret it because it is going so well and because we have learned how to can.

6. Canning chicken! That’s right, I said “Canning Chicken!” Although I’m not quite sure how it turned out. We’ve been a little busy, and I’ve been meaning to break open a can and give it a try, but it just hasn’t happened yet. I’m planning to dedicate an entire post to the process we used (and I even made sure my hubby took some pictures while we canned so I can post them as well), but I just don’t like the look of the chicken. It’s a bit dark- which I’m sure you’ll be able to see in the pictures, but I think that’s just from the type of chicken bouillon we used. I don’t know……my husband thinks that we should wait a little longer before opening a can, just so that we’d definitely know by then if it was no good. The jars sealed, and the pressure cooker wasn’t NEARLY as scary as I thought it would be, but I guess I’m still just a little leery about chicken in a can.

7. Swimming and enjoying my kids as we’ve had some very nice summer days.

So, more posts to come. I’m definitely going to do some reviews of the new prepper toys that we got as they come in and we put them to use, and I’m also planning a book review section for my blog. Since I’m an English teacher and a book snob at heart, I thought it might be fun to merge my passion for literature with my love of prepping.

Until the next post, happy prepping!

– A Prepared Mom

What I Did To Prep Today

Today was a somewhat productive day, unfortunately most of what I did today just reminded me of all the things I have yet to do. Some days it seems that the more educated I become and the more I prep, the more I realize I need to do to get my family ready for whatever may come. I suppose all I can do is set short term goals and meet them as efficiently and productively as possible so that they all get me closer to my long term goal of a safe and sustainable lifestyle for me and my family.

So here’s what we did today:

1. I started a family binder with all of the important documents and information that we should be able to pick up at a moment’s notice and leave with in case of fire, crisis, etc.

2. We washed, dried, sorted through, vacuum sealed, and froze 6 pints of blueberries that I got on sale this weekend.

3. We blanched, cut off the cob, vacuum packed, and froze two pounds of corn from some very yummy (and cheap) ears of corn that we bought this weekend.

4. I went through and sorted, re-organized, and took inventory of the kitchen cabinets to see what we had, what we needed, and what could maybe be gotten rid of to make room for something more practical. This was probably the best thing I did all day because I found 3 large containers of baby formula that I had put aside after my son finished with it in case we had another baby. Well, we did have another baby, and my 3-month old daughter just happens to be on the same formula as my son was! Yay! Finding that formula was pretty much the equivalent of finding $60 dollars in the cabinet!

Up for tomorrow? Oh boy, I don’t know if I want to think about it…….but, I’ve got to finish the binder- which means I have to locate my marriage license, and order copies of the kids’ birth certificates, and find my missing passport- among other things. I should also can the chicken that I got for .99 cents a pound on Sunday- although I must admit that I am a little afraid of the pressure canner 🙂 That should make for an interesting post when I’m done. And I have some peaches that are just dying to be canned as well. If I can get those things accomplished tomorrow I will feel good.

For now, the babies are in bed, the house is quiet, and I’m going to catch up on some much needed reading and sleep!

Oh! I almost forgot! Yesterday we had a little gathering at our house, and I was talking to my brother about how I am going to can the chicken that I got on sale because I am almost out of room in the freezer. Thank God we had this conversation because…..he offered me a FREE chest freezer! That’s one of the larger items that my husband and I had on our list of preps, and I am very happy and thankful to be able to cross it off without having had to spend any money! That money can definitely be used elsewhere to help get our family ready. Gotta love free prepping supplies!

Happy Prepping!

Frugal Living / Prepper Bargains

So, because I know that there are going to be quite a few posts on this type of thing, I went ahead and made it its own category on my blog. I have to say that, were it not for my delving into living frugally and using coupons, I would not have come to the “prepper” mindset in the way that I have. I’m sure I said this before, but when my husband would want to buy “toys” like a new camp stove, gun, sleeping bag, backpack, etc. I would roll my eyes and tell him that he was just wasting money on things that he would never use. Because we both work in civil service, we both have the same pessimistic outlook on humanity (sadly enough), and we are both pretty open minded and a little untrusting of our government, but I still didn’t quite buy into it like my hubby did. To be honest, I thought he’d just watched one too many zombie movies and missed his calling as GI Joe’s protege.

Yet, once I was really got into couponing, and saw how much it was helping my family to have a stockpile of items at our disposal that did not cost NEARLY what they would have if I’d had to run out and buy them at full price, I started to see the benefits of being prepared for anything. Not only was it reassuring to know that I wasn’t going to run out of anything, but it was also nice to know that I was saving my family money.

This simply rolled over into prepping and survivalist beliefs for me because I want to make sure that I’m always able to go into my “stockpile room,” whether it be my actual physical store of goods or the mental store of skills that I know I need to have, and provide for my family. Now my husband and I can happily browse through Backwoods Home magazine looking at all of the fun “toys” that will help us to become more reliant and safe in a post-SHTF world.

Wow, that was a long-winded way for me to introduce this section of my blog. Basically, I will be listing the good deals that I find on things that I feel are important for “preppers” to have. I’m sure many of you have seen the Extreme Couponing show on TLC where the woman buys a million mustards (ok there is some hyperbole here, but still she bought way more mustard than one person should ever consume in one lifetime.) I don’t believe that people should be greedy and clear shelves to simply make money off of a grocery store, but I do believe in buying enough items to keep my family healthy and happy in the event that we don’t have access to such items in the future. Those are the types of deals that I’ll be posting here.

I should also say that I try to keep all of my stockpile shopping to things that cost me less than a dollar. Unless it’s a really good buy on something that usually doesn’t go under a dollar, or if it’s something that is very important to have in my stash, I try not to go over that dollar mark.

So this week’s good “Prepper” stockpile deals are:

Sugar:

At my local ShopRite, they are currently selling 5lb bags of sugar for $2.99. I have a bunch of .50/1 4lb or 4lb Domino Sugar coupons from the June 26th Red Plum insert. This makes it $1.99 for 5lbs of sugar, or .40 cents a pound- which is WAY less than we can even get it for at our local LDS cannery. Last week I stocked up on 4 bags (since I’m only allowed to use four of the same like coupons in one transaction), and this week I’ll be going back for 3 more.

Popcorn:

ShopRite also has Pop Secret popcorn on sale for $1.00 this week. I have a $1/2 pop secret popcorn product from the June 19th Red Plum insert. Now, popcorn is a great snack in and of itself, but I recently learned that you can also grind it and use it for cornmeal. (As simple and obvious as that sounds I just never thought of it.) So I’ll be stocking up on a few of these, since .50 cents is a good price for me.

Chicken:

Okay, so ShopRite has boneless chicken breast for .99 cents a pound this week! What a great buy! I will be getting at least 6 pounds of this because I want to try my hand at canning chicken. I’ve read a lot about it, and watched more than a few youtube videos about canning chicken, and it seems relatively easy. People have also said that canned chicken tastes great! Since my freezer is getting full and I need to stock up on chicken, this seems like a gift from the coupon gods 🙂 It’s also great to learn how to can chicken (and meat in general) in case of a situation where we don’t have electricity to run a freezer.

Those are the best “prepper” deals that I have found so far for this week. I think that the prices at the grocery store on these items are way cheaper than if I were to go to the local Sam’s club and buy them there. So, like I mentioned in my post on the free 5-gallon buckets, don’t assume that you can’t prep on a budget, and don’t think that you have to go out of your way to any specialty stores to get the items that you need for your family.

 

Yay For Free Prepping Supplies!

We’ve been looking into five gallon buckets for food storage, and I can’t believe the prices! I’m sorry, but $7 dollars for an empty bucket is just crazy! So, I sent hubby on a little adventure to the local bakeries and delis, and he picked up about 12 buckets with lids for FREE! Now that’s what I’m talking about!

I can’t wait to start filling them! I’ve got 20 pounds of sugar ready to go into them, and I hope to be getting more sugar this weekend. My favorite grocery store has sugar on sale for $2.99 for 5 pounds. Combine that sale with the $1/1 coupon that I have, and that makes 5 pounds of sugar for $1.99, which is even cheaper than I can get it at the LDS cannery. Definitely a stock up price, and since sugar doesn’t go bad, it’s a great thing to buy in bulk.

Lesson learned? While most people’s first instinct is to run to the store, or to go online to emergency preparedness sites, don’t miss the forest for the trees! Make sure to look around at your local resources to get the things that you need.

Happy Prepping!
– A Prepared Mom

Canning 101

On June 28th, 2011, I decided to try my hand at canning. Since we are growing our own veggies in the garden, and because of the type of grocery shopping I am doing now, it only makes since to can our foods when they are at their freshest and lowest cost. I did a lot of research before purchasing the necessary materials, and I finally decided on a Granite Ware 21.5 qt Canner with Rack  for water bath canning and an All-American 15 1/2 qt Pressure Canner for pressure canning. I got the water bath canner for about $19.00 on Amazon, and I paid about $130.00 for the All-American pressure canner on Amazon. I decided on the more expensive All-American because, well, pressure cookers can be scary, and I want to make sure that the one I has is well-built and able to withstand many years of use. I also purchased the Ball Blue Book: Guide to Preserving (from our local Agway), and the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving from Amazon.

Once I researched and ordered the materials, it was only a few days before the canners came in and we could begin canning. We decided to try our hand at blueberry jam first. I got the blueberries on sale for $1.99 a pint, and they were very fresh. It took about an hour, from start to finish- which definitely took a bit longer as we are still becoming familiar with the process of canning-, 3 pts of blueberries, 6 cups of sugar, and we ended up with 6oz jars of blueberry jam. We only did a small batch since it was our first. I haven’t tried the blueberry jam yet, but it looks great and the jars all sealed. I can’t tell you how great it felt to hear those jars pinging as they sat on my counter cooling off.

I will upload a picture of jam as soon as I get some free time, but I am very proud of our first attempt. My 2-year-old son also loved the canning process, as he got to eat all of the blueberries that I thought were too ripe or too bruised to go into the jam.

So let’s do a price comparison. At my local grocery store, a 13 oz jar of jam is $3.99 (or about 31 cents per ounce). It cost me about $2.50 for the mason jars, lids, and rings. $5.97 for the blueberries, and about $0.25 for the sugar to make 6- 4oz jars of blueberry jam (or about 36 cents per ounce). It comes out to be a little more expensive to make our own jam, but once we’ve done this a few times, the overhead that we put into the jars will even out and it will be more cost effective. Also, it is healthier, since I know exactly what went into my jars, and learning how to can may just be a priceless skill to have if the SHTF.

All in all it was a great experience, and I can’t wait to move on to the next one. Up next on the list? Some peaches that I got on sale for 69 cents a pound!

Happy Prepping 🙂

– A Prepared Mom

How I Came To The “Prepper” Mindset

Hello Readers,

So, like many people out there, I always watched those “doomsday” shows on the history channel along side of my husband (an avid “prepper”) and thought, those people are crazy, nothing like that is ever going to happen. I think that I preferred the ostrich belief system, which was that if I simply buried my head in the sand and refused to see what was coming, then it would never happen.

Then, about a year or so ago, I read the book One Second After by William R. Forstchen and it really forced me to contemplate what our world would be like without power. Now, I don’t have the most faith in the human race to begin with, 8 years in a civil service job will do that to ya, so I really started to consider what people would do in the case of no electricity, no food, etc. I decided that I didn’t want to be stuck in a chaotic world, unable to defend or provide for my family.

I’ve recently, in the past six months, also begun using coupons when shopping. I never used to shop sales or use coupons, but when I realized the amount of money that I could be saving, I decided that it was worth a few hours of my time a week to devote to saving my family hundreds of dollars. This couponing has also led to my full-fledged devotion to prepping. By combining the “prepper” belief system with my ability to stock up on items at a very low cost, my husband and I have started quite a nice stockpile for our family in the event that we will ever need it.

The shopping and stocking have only continued to snowball into other ways to save money and prepare ourselves to be self-sufficient and reliant. We started a garden this spring, and have recently begun canning our own food. I believe that these are just two of the important skills that one would need in post-SHTF situation.

So the purpose of this blog? I suppose I’d just like a place to record my thoughts, trials, etc. as we go through the process of preparing our family for when the SHTF. I’ve also found so many other blogs helpful, and I’d like to do my part to pay it forward (if there is anyone out there even interested in my humble ramblings.)

Happy Prepping 🙂
– A Prepared Mom