I am doing a restart on this. I know I tried to start this in January but life kinda got in the way. This is a better time to start this since everything has settled down from the holidays. I will be posting every Thursday. (This was supposed to post last week but didn’t.)

I really pondered if I should do this, this year. Last year kinda went down the tubes. I pretty much stopped posting when I got the cancer diagnosis. And the year before that I was super busy and had a bit of burn out and pretty sure I was already sick and just didn’t realize it. So I am not working right now so should have the time to keep this (and the blog) updated pretty regularly.

I know inflation and shortages are crazy right now and just going to get worse. You may not be able to get all the things, so just get what you can. Every little bit helps. Also, try to do the action/skills steps. Learn as many new skills as you can, I promise they will come in handy.

I am going to start off January with a jump start to get a little ahead so if things go south before you can get everything you want, at least you have something to survive on.

The amounts are for two people If you have more just double too what you need.

This first week is 50 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of beans

More if you can afford it. I get white rice as it will store longer than brown rice. Also, 50 pounds of beans, get what your family will eat. I get pintos, they go a long way and are very nutritious. The price of beans and rice at Wal-Mart. for 20 lbs of rice it is 10.24 and for 20 lbs of pinto beans are 14.94. I use Wal-Mart prices since that is what we have and a lot of people shop there.

I store my beans in the original bags and in 5-gallon buckets.  You can put them into 5-gallon food-grade buckets if you want, they do make it easier to store. The rice I pour into 5-gallon food-grade buckets and add a couple of bay leaves this helps to keep the bugs out. These can be stored in sheds outside, freezing will not hurt them, in fact, it is good for them as it will kill any little bugs that might be in them. If you live in a high humidity or very warm climate freeze the rice for 36 hours to kill any bugs. It gets very cold here in the winter so I generally store mine in the shed where it will freeze over the winter and don’t have ti worry about freezing before I store.

Every month I will post an action item something that you need to work on for the month. I will also post an extra item that if at all possible you should try to get.

The action item for this month will be to get in shape.

If things go south you will be having to do a lot more physical work you will need to be in shape so that you will be able to do the things you need to do. I will be focusing a lot on that this month and year. I need to be working out more with this cancer.

The extra item for this month is a car kit if you don’t already have one.

You can go here to see what I have in ours. You will want one for each vehicle that your family drives. Even the teenagers. They may balk at it but do it anyway.

When the girls were still in high school there was a bad accident about 20 miles from us that had the highway closed down for most of the night. People were stuck on each end that lived on the other side, so a lot of people were displaced. Joleen’s boyfriend (at the time) and his grandmother had come to town and were unable to get back home, and had to stay with us. Andy had been checking on his Mom and was stuck on the other side. I was able to use that example for the girls as to why you should always have a car kit in your vehicle, even if you don’t travel very far from home.

When we were at my daughter’s this past weekend we were talking about the upcoming storm. And I was telling them both things to do if they got stuck in a storm and told them what they needed to have in their vehicles. They both carried most of it and my oldest said she still had the kit I put together for her in high school. I did tell her she should replace the food in it, she said her sister ate it a long time ago (pretty sure when they were still in school) haha. I was glad to see that one of them still had the kit and the other one had most of the stuff she would need.

Every week you will want to put back water. You can buy it, or fill your empty juice and soda bottles. You can also store water in your empty canning jars, as you empty your jars just add some water and put the lid back on. You don’t have to can this water but if you wanted to you could. You can also put it in bleach and detergent bottles ( this will be non-potable but you could flush and wash dishes with it. ). I will be doing a separate post on water in the near future.

Every week you will also want to put back a few dollars, even if it is a small amount it will add up. Save your ones and if you can your fives and all your loose change from paying with cash. It will add up pretty quickly.

Are you going to try and get more put back? If there is one thing the past couple of years has taught us is you can never be too prepared.