Secret Society Of Preppers

A guy at work came up to me the other day and asked if I was a prepper. I asked him to define the word prepper and he defined it as "Someone who prepares for what is to come".

Being a little put off by his untimely and bold approach I asked what was to come and why he would ask me that.
His said the reason he asked me was because he saw an Emergency Essentials catalog on the dashboard of my truck and the answer to what was to come, he said whatever it is you are prepping for.
Cursed, I need to be more careful with what I leave laying around.

We should have a secret handshake or a safe word we communicate to one another so we can weed out the riffraff and the nonbelievers.

I still hesitated to confirm his beliefs about me so I asked him why he wanted to know. That is all it took because he spilled his guts.

The guy introduced me to a company he uses for all his food storage needs and said he will not use any other. They are located at http://wisefoodstorage.com/long-term-food-supply.html?ref=cj
 Being I have never heard of them I looked the name up and gave my information for a free sample.

A short while later a Wise Company sales rep called my cell. Yea, I was as surprised as you are. I sure didn't like him calling me but used the opportunity to ask him some questions.
I asked if the company gave out it's customer list to anyone including any government agencies. His exact words were "Absolutely not, but if they had a warrant I would have no choice" and went on to explain. He said the Mormon deal a month or so ago turned out to be not true (I guess he has had a few people ask the same question) and went on to say he does know that the state of Tennessee was going door to door asking if people stored food so they could get it and use it for the flood victims.

I checked out the rest of the web site and do like some of the already made packs they have for sell. When I decide to make a purchase, I think I will start off with the 72 hour pack so I can restock my BOB.

They are not endorsing me in anyway. I just like sharing this info on what I find plus it does not hurt to buy from many different sources because you never know who is keeping track.

Food Storage Blues

When you have nine shelving units stacked full of food, supplies and medications it is hard to see any improvements when you go grocery shopping.

Last weekend the wife and I made our bi-monthly food run to as many as half a dozen stores. Where we go all depended on what is on sell and what I have coupons for.
You may laugh at this point picturing me sitting at the kitchen table on a Friday night clipping coupons and planning out the next mornings market run. A far cry from my younger years where Friday nights you would find me in........ well, we all have been there I'm sure.

With the coupons and savings cards we saved right at $100.00 on food. I know that is nothing compared to the extreme couponers saving up in the thousands but it is great for our needs and our budget.
I kinda have a growing problem with the store's savings card and the government tracking our purchases but the little bit I spend at each store, I would not think it would raise a red flag.

We brought home $400 dollars worth of food for $297.00
Once back at home our ritual is, I back the truck up to the front porch, one kid jumps in the back and the other, the wife and myself start a train to the pantry room until all bags are safely behind closed doors.
Being I am the one with OCD, I am the only one that stocks the shelves, anyone else will not do it right, so they tell me.

The downer is, after all the food is put up, the wife will every single time come in and say the same thing, "Wow, did we even get anything, I can't tell"

I hang my head in disgust because I know she is right. Having that much food in storage, a couple of hundred dollars worth disappears within the monster.

My food storage is different than what I read about and how others do, it is also our pantry. I started it all with a very detailed inventory list but that is long gone. Now, I have moved to a more high tech method. I downloaded an app on my phone and on Friday night I go into the pantry and scan the bar codes of each item I need and then enter a number of how many needed. I know the max amount is 3 stacks of 10 on the caned goods. The max number is different for the condiments, box foods and others. All that is wrote down.  So if there is only 20 of that canned item, I scan the bar code and enter 10. Now I have my shopping list with me when I go through the coupons and sale flyers. Pretty simple now hu? If that said item is not on sell, or the budget only allows a purchase of 5 of that item then that is what it is. 5 more will be added to the list in two weeks.

By the way, the oldest girl BlueEyedBaby is back home for a month. I welcome the worry free sleep I will now experience. One of the first things she said to me was "I want to build something cool dad"
I know just the right project I am going to stick her on too.