Food Prices Rising/ Chip Shortages/Being Prepared 2.0, What I Bought This Week

Thrifted veggie prints summer fun! 

Food Prices Rising/ Chip Shortages/Being Prepared 2.0-

We're finally got some real rain! Saturday night we got over an inch of rain in less than 24 hours. Hallelujah! I thought I'd share some things I've been hearing and seeing from blogging pals and from other sources around the country. Do your own research and see what you think you might be able to do? This list is not complete. I have acquired various things over the years, some from yard sales/thrift store, some new. I started my bedroom pantry closet after we bought this house, such a small kitchen-

There are some people who do preparedness from a very young age, but I'm not one of them. I did develop a food pantry out of a spare bedroom closet, hubby Dave put in some nice shelves for me. I would just put various things in it to try to keep on hand and get good deals. My pantry has evolved over the years which I think is pretty normal. We started buying more things from Costco like paper products. I made more room for those. So here's a few ideas (not in any order) if you want to be a little bit more prepared, but don't know where to start! Feel free to post questions too. 

Chip Shortages- We were talking to a salesman at a big car dealer this weekend. There are 100's of cars in the Midwest, new, that they can't sell. No microchips for the cars. People are ordering cars with no chips with no delivery date. Really??? A big furniture store in town is running out of TV's, no chips to make more. Make's you wonder where it will end? So as far as being prepared... 

First off don't think that you have to go out and buy a whole bunch of stuff all at once. Make a plan and and start small. You can become overwhelmed by trying to make a huge change. You can become over-loaded and broke! Here's a good tip-

Make a plan & start small

Ask yourself first- where will you put foods/supplies you want to store? How about a closet, under your bed, in an extra kitchen cabinet? 

Low on funds, can you barter? We have a ton of eggs right now and if times were tough we could trade eggs for other items.

Next- buy things you actually eat or use. Don't buy some really cheap food that you don't like just to have something on hand. Dave and I both love black beans so I always keep quite a few of those on hand, both dried and canned. Here's a few ideas to get started if you haven't already. Be creative! This weekend I moved things around. Dave got a free metal bookcase from work that I painted. I added totes for our grandchildren's toys and books-

In another bedroom we had a nice white laminate rack with canvas drawers that we had miscellaneous stuff in-

I was looking at it and realized that the blue unit should go in my office where the pantry is. I could put the white rack in the spare bedroom which is much dressier! So Dave and I went ahead and flip-flopped those. The metal book case will be much better used for foods, etc., especially smaller items-

Toys out

Food/supplies in

Lovely Leggos and stuff into the canvas drawers

The nice thing is all of this is flexible. This list may be long, so can can skip some or come back to it later.... Here's a few ideas to get you started and you can certainly pull up lots and lots of lists online.

Water, lots and lots of people forget to have any on hand.  The Red Cross has great simple ideas here, like amount of water for drinking, washing, and personal hygiene. Personally I don't think that's enough but that's me. Baby wipes might be a handy thing to have on hand now for the personal hygiene part in a pinch. They're relatively cheap and use them and just toss them away. Nice item here in the Red Cross Store Clipray Flashlight /Cell Charger

Be mindful with these foods some of them require certain storage requirements. Things like nut butters or flours can go rancid unless you keep them in a cool/cold. Flour and butter freezes great! I do have a couple of buckets of freeze dried fruits and veggies primarily and some smaller cans of various items-

I have smaller cans of butter, margarine, celery, shredded dried potatoes, diced bell peppers, eggs, cornmeal and a few other things. I bought those several years ago and have been keeping them in a cool dark place. It's good to know they're there in case of a real emergency. What constitutes a real emergency might be hard to tell?

Any kind of dried beans they are usually cheap easy to store and have protein and fiber. Canned meats, sea food and a dry salami-

Various flours and grains, rolled oats, Millet. I know some people are allergic to certain grains or have various sensitivities so that's a personal thing that you'd tweak. I just stocked up on some extra WW pastry flour since I was having trouble finding it locally. I also bought some oat flour and wheat berries to grind. Good to have if you can't find baked goods locally or they became too expensive-

Will re-store some of the flours in the freezer soon

Buy other baking supplies like baking powder, baking soda, yeast, etc.

Sugar! You can use for all kinds of things. I just got a 20 lb bag of sugar at Costco for $9.00 Stores really well in a cool dark place, no moisture and no insects (of course). We're lucky that we've never had ants or anything like that in our house. You can also include sugar type products in this list like honey, maple syrup, stevia, molasses, etc. I'll be putting ours in a bucket.

Salt! Got to have salt for cooking and baking and general seasonings and it is so cheap stock up! Lots of kinds too. 

Things like rice, quinoa, pastas, crackers-

Canned or dried fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, nut butters, etc.

Lots and lots of condiments and spices! No one wants to eat beans and rice everyday unless you can have lots of different flavorings added. Things like soy sauce, barbecue sauce, Tabasco sauce, ketchup, etc. Baking spices too, vanilla, cinnamon, etc. 

Butter, and cheeses that you can freeze. Cooking oils, you need fats. Olives of various kinds. Dried salamis that you can store without refrigeration is a bonus.

Coffees and teas! Think variety again. 

Any kind of foods that you can dry yourself and store. You don't have to own a food dehydrator to dry things, you can certainly use a regular oven. You can buy a food dehydrator, not too expensive and some people to build their own-

Drying yellow squash last year

Great for soups! 

Comfort Foods! At least give you a lot of different kinds of things for different people. Think instant puddings, Jello, cookies, chocolate, and any other kinds of baking supplies. 

Alcohol. Even if you don't drink it can be good for bartering or trading.  You can also use for cooking as well! Throw a little bit of red wine on that tough chicken and you will have a nice chicken stew.

Tobacco. We don't smoke but cigarettes may be something you could also barter.

Pet Food & supplies! Don't forget your Critters! We have our cat Anya, so that would mean cat litter and cat food basically. If worst came to worst and the weather was warm we could actually bring in dry garden soil and put it in her cat box. In the winter when the ground is frozen solid that would not be an option. She has a sensitive tummy so we have to buy special cat food! I did explain to Anya the other day that if times were really tough and we couldn't find her special food I would have to buy dry food and put it in the food processor with water. Anya said better that than nothing!

Animal feed. We have chickens and while they do free-range a little bit and eat kitchen scraps like fruits and veggies they would need feed, especially in the winter. We're going to buy a couple of extra bags of feed and store it. Better safe than sorry and it won't go bad and we've never had a rodent problem where we store it in our garage. I could make my own feed in a pinch.

Any kind of over-the-counter medication you can think of. Things like Advil, Tylenol, cough syrup, Pepto-Bismol, bandages, antibiotic ointments, etc. Treat yourself at home if you can't/didn't want to go out. 

Extra paper products like TP, Kleenex,  paper plates, paper cups, garbage bags, napkins. Ziploc bags are great too! You can buy some really large ones. Hefty make some jumbo ones that are heavy and have a really good slider that are good for heavier products like flours. 

Cleaning supplies- Vinegar, baking soda, castile soap, toilet cleaner, etc. Vinegar and baking soda are cheap and can clean almost anything! 

If you're able to grow any of your own food this would be a good time to go buy some extra seeds and store them. Another idea would also be to buy some potting soil and trays with starting cubes-

Here's a list of some supplies that I have on hand many of them were thrifted so don't think you have to go out and buy everything new! Check out yard sales, estate sales, Craigslist, eBay, etc.

Flashlights with extra batteries, matches, candles, tea candles with holders

Oil lamps with extra lamp oil. Almost all of the oil lamps I got were thrifted.

Hand crank radio with flashlight

Ice chest/cooler, if you lose power. 

RX's- Keep your some prescriptions filled. 

Coleman (or other) camp stove oven, propane heater, propane tanks, various sizes

Kerosene heater, several kinds

5 Gallon water jug (camping), Water purifier (for camping)

Canning supplies like jars, lids and rings. Things like Fruit Fresh to keep your fruit from changing color, Fermenting supplies

A freezer, we have a small chest one that works great! For two people we can put a lot of food in there.

Solar charger for phone/devices

55 water barrel (can use if not frozen)

Vacuum sealer system. Great to prevent freezer burn and can also use for dried goods that you want to make really airtight.

Radiant/fan electric space heaters (if furnace died)

So if you're interested think about it and start small!

New bucket and lid for wheat berries

What I Bought This Week-

I stocked up on a few things for the pantry, here and there-

At Natural Grocers I FINALLY found some organic WW pastry flour $8.00, Bob's Red Mill brand! Hard to find in other stores, I bought their last two! Also bought some organic Hard Red Winter Wheat berries, $2.50 for 3 lbs. Looked a few other places, looked like a good deal. Got six bags to store and I do have a manual grinder I bought years ago. Bought two bags of Organic Oat flour, 2 lbs for $2.50, will freeze. Got a bag of unsweetened Coconut flakes. At Lowe's I found two 5 gallon food grade buckets for $5.00 each, bought two. Bought two matching gasketed screw-off lids for $7.00 each. At The Grocery Outlet I bought one large can (almost 3 lbs!) of mixed salted nuts for $8.00.  I split them up and vacuum sealed, will freeze so they won't go rancid.  Also got three cans of Pink Wild Salmon for $3.00 each, 4 gallons of spring water for .89 cents, steel cut oats tub $2.00. I'm feeling better getting more flours and proteins bought and stored. Found some 1/2 gallon Ball jars, 6 pack for $13.00 at Walmart. I bought two packs. Someone was selling these on Amazon for $60.00! Great for storing dried goods, or fermenting! 

I hope that gives you some useful ideas!!!