Invest in Food Storage!
I finally made it over to Macey’s to take advantage of their Spring Case Lot sale. (You can see what fun things I bought…I’ll let you know how they turn out) A lot of people ask me how I know what to buy at these sales or to buy in bulk in general. It is SO important to buy in bulk and have things on hand especially since the economy is starting to inflate (I’m sure you’ve noticed that each time you go to the grocery store it seems prices are going up and up and up) J. Rueben Clark said, “… when we really get into hard times, where food is scarce or there is none at all, and so with clothing and shelter, money may be no good for there may be nothing to buy, and you cannot eat money, you cannot get enough of it together to burn to keep warm, and you cannot wear it.” (Church News, November 21, 1953, p. 4.) I’m not telling you to panic, I’m just saying that with the interest rate on your savings account going down, it is a good time to “invest” in food. When you do this you are always living off last year’s economy, giving your income some time to match the cost of living. We’ve already saved tons by doing this. Here are some tips of what I do:
1) First I went through my most often made recipes to note patterns like: I use A LOT of diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, canned chicken or even that we have a couple meals that I serve applesauce as a side dish (yep, you guessed it…pork chops!) but we can’t ever finish off a whole bottle before it goes bad so I bought some cans of applesauce to try.
2) The other important thing to remember is that you want food stored in a couple different states. Meaning you don’t want all your meat, fruit, and vegetables to be in the fridge/freezer in case you can’t get to it. So I also bought canned fruit, vegetables, and meat that my family would eat.
3) I’ve been keeping track of what has gone quickly and what hasn’t gone quickly enough and I adjust what I buy at the next case lot sale/bulk.
4) If there is more “traditional” food storage items on sale then I will buy those as well. I don’t always know what is really tastey so I’ll buy one can to start with and if I like it/use it then I know for next time. (That is how my love affair with dehydrated eggs started.) Macey’s has other food storage items on sale then they advertised in their circular (thank goodness!) so I would suggest perusing the items they have showcased along with venturing into their food storage section to see everything on sale. (For those of you out of Utah you can shop places like http://www.bluechipgroup.net/ or http://www.preparedness.com/)
5) Shop sales. No matter where you live things go on sale and it is a good time to stock up. Before we moved back to Utah we lived in Orange County, CA and stocked up at Costco and grocery stores during the holiday months. Now that we live in Utah we are regulars at the case lot sale. If you have a contact in Utah and live within driving distance, you may want to strategically plan visits around September when all four local stores have their case lot sales. (That is what my parents do.)
***Stay tuned, I’ll post on where you can put your food***
Good luck shopping, and let me know what you found, are going to try, and how it turned out for you!
For more tips and tricks for using your food storage in everyday ways, please visit www.everydayfoodstorage.NET
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