3-month supply: Fruit

Photo taken by: Abhijit Tembhekar

Let's talk about a 3-month supply of FRUIT!!!

How much? About 16 lbs per person

What? Apple slices, raisins, and other dried fruits, apple sauce, canned fruit (our favorites are pineapple, mandarin oranges and fruit cocktail), etc.

You can use THIS template from Prepared LDS Family to help you decide how much of each items to have in your supply.


PRICE LIST for some fruits:

Peaches and Pears, canned: $.03/oz.
Applesauce, canned: $.04/oz.
Mandarin oranges, canned: $.04/oz.
Fruit cocktail: $.05/oz.
Pineapple, canned: $.05/oz.
Fruit cups: $.39 per cup.
Raisins: $1.94/lb.
Apricots, dried: $3.50/ lb.
Banana slices: $3.76/lb.
Apple Slices: $4.84/lb is a GREAT deal!


Obviously dried fruit is quite expensive in comparison, but remember that having a VARIETY in your food storage is important.

One thing that I don't have priced out is FROZEN FRUIT. For a short term supply (like 1, 2 or 3 months) you could (and probably SHOULD) include some frozen fruit. Whether you buy a bag from the store or freeze your own, it can be a useful way to add more fruit to your diet and to your storage.

FREEZING food is one of my favorite things, whether it be fruit, veggies, meats, or even things like shredded cheese and bread.

CANNING is also a great way to store fruit. Depending on what grows where you live, you can often get bulk fruits during harvest time. Canning is more time consuming and a little complicated at first, but is a great way to add to your food supply.

Valerie at Prepared LDS Family wrote a great blog entry back in February called: "Are Canned Fruits and Vegetables Healthy For You?" It talks about how canned fruit is processed at its peak and can sometimes be even better for you nutritionally than fresh fruit that has sat on trucks or in the store for weeks. Obviously fresh fruit is normally best, it is important to have some stored and to use it regularly.

Great Resources for Emergency Prep

Over the last few years, I have been impressed with the Emergency Preparedness information located on the St. George, Utah website. My mom is from there and told me about it.

Click HERE to go to the Emergency section of the website.

They have a list on the right of PDF files that have been put together.


Some of my favorites are:

Emergency Preparedness Guide which gives a great overview of what to do in an emergency from evacuation plans to turning off your natural gas.

Emergency Preparedness Calendar breaks down emergency prep goals into a few things to accomplish every month.

Utilities which gives you more in depth information on electricity, natural gas and water.

Smoke Detectors and Fire Extinguishers

First Aid- when to call 911, how to treat shock, etc.


With all the storms and fires we've had around the country this summer, these principles are becoming more and more important. But remember, don't get overwhelmed! Just pick one thing to work on.

You can do it!

Teaching Children About Money

Money can be a touchy subject. Too little makes life hard. Too much can be a trial as well. Relationships can be pushed to the limit when finances are mismanaged.

It is so important to teach our children the importance of managing their money. I recently read an article, Teaching Gap: 83% of Teens Don't Know How to Manage Money and it made me wonder.

Whether the numbers in the article are accurate, I believe that finance is another subject that parents are expecting their children to pick up elsewhere. A Personal Finance class in high school is good enough, right?

Ha. I don't know about you, but learning the correct way to write a check was helpful but did not teach me anything about MANAGING money. Maybe we talked about budgeting, I don't remember. My point is this: Parents need to take responsibility for their own children and teach them. Period.

If principles of money management such as budgeting and saving money, are taught from a young age how much better off would that high schooler be? And what an advantage it would be to them as they become adults!

I want my kids to grow up knowing that money doesn't just magically appear but is earned through hard work. For this reason, I personally do not give my kids an allowance. Maybe that will change when they actually need money (my kids are all under 7). Right now, they earn money by doing extra chores around the house.

Even when your kids are learning the "hard work" principle, the saving idea may be lost to them. I recently heard a mom tell about her daughter who just graduated from high school and is moving out of the state to go to college. She said that although she had been working for 3 years at varies jobs, her daughter didn't have a penny saved for college.

I am not here to judge her. I had very little money saved for college. One big regret about my teenage years is that I didn't learn how to save and I helped my boyfriend (now husband) spend just about every penny he earned as well. We had a grand time going out to eat, buying clothing and books, you name it.

Sorry. Ranting.

We just can't assume that by having a job and working hard, our kids will know how to take care of their wages.

If we as parents could take seriously the responsibility of teaching our own children principles of managing money, they will...someday...thank us for our work. Remember, teaching in the home is often by example and with comments, not big lectures.

Here are some of the principles that are crucial to good money management:

Earning through work
Budgeting
Discerning need vs. wants
Saving
Giving to charity
Positive communication about money


OK, now I'll get off my soapbox. (One of them, anyway.)

72-hour kit: Toiletries

Having the basic hygiene items in an emergency can help to reduce the stress and possible illness due to an emergency.

Each family member should have:

1 bar of soap
1 toothbrush
1 tube toothpaste

If you have a baby, you will want to have diapers and wipes. Some members of your family will need feminine hygiene products as well.

Other items you may consider are:

Hand sanitizer and/or moist towelettes
Rolls of toilet paper
Shampoo
Lotion
Whatever you can't live without!


This is step 8 on the PLAN 9 pamphlet put together by the Southwest Utah Public Health Department.

3-month supply: Legumes

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, User: Justinc.

How much? About 15 lbs.

What? Dried beans, canned beans, lentils, split peas, and black-eye peas are all legumes.

Legumes are the best plant source of protein. Besides protein, they contain calcium, iron, folate, dietary fiber and phytochemicals.


Beans are the most common legume, so we are going to talk about beans.

Canned beans, or wet-packed beans, are convenient and not too pricey. There are many varieties of canned beans available. Cans are labeled with expiration dates and usually have about a 1 year shelf life.

Dry beans, if packaged properly, have a shelf life of about 10 years. They are also inexpensive. For long-term storage purposes, dry beans are a great addition to your 3-month supply.

Dry beans take a little more attention and planning. For each cup of dry beans you can (there are 2 cups in each pound), soak OVERNIGHT with 3 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt. I use my crockpot (turned off). In the morning, drain the liquid and rinse beans. Not too hard, huh?

Other common varieties of beans are: refried beans (mashed beans with added oils and spices), pork and beans (beans stewed with pork and sometimes tomato sauce), and chili with beans.

Not matter what beans you prefer, adding beans to your diet is very healthy and adding beans to your 3-month supply is a necessity, especially if you don't store enough meat.


Prices:

Canned beans: About $.49 a can is good for canned beans. That's $.03/oz. (Note: this price may not reflect all varities of beans.)

Pork and Beans: $.03/oz is a great price for pork and beans.

Dry beans: The cheapest I found dry beans in about $.04/oz. At first I was suprised that it was a little more than canned beans, but with the expanding that happens during soaking (beans can double or triple when soaked and cooked) the dry beans are most likely a better deal.

Refried beans: A good price for refried beans is $.04/oz.

Chili with beans: $.06/oz.

Legumes, dry: $.08/oz.

Canning Chicken

This is me, a few years ago with some of my canned chicken.

A few years ago my friend and I decided to can chicken when there was an awesome sale on frozen chicken. We got some instructions from her mom and spent the next several days thawing chicken and then canning.

It can be a long process, but it is wonderful to be able to grab a jar of cooked chicken to quickly add to almost any meal.

I wanted to can some myself this month so I could take some good pictures, but that's not happening, but I found a website that has great instructions: How to Start Canning Chicken on CanningBasics.com.

You have to have a pressure cooker to can meat. I bought one a few years ago for about $80. It isn't a small purchase so you need to know you are going to use it. If you're not ready for that you may want to ask around and try to borrow one from a friend or relative.

You also need a pressure cooker when canning potatoes, green beans, and other low acid vegetables which require higher temperatures in order to kill bacterias such as botulism.

For more information on canning meats, click HERE.

Review

Wow! We're more than halfway through the year, summer's almost over, and we're moving right along with our food storage and emergency preparedness goals.

I just updated the POST from February where I outlined what we were going to talk about every month. In my excitement, I originally plans to combine some categories so that we could talk about everything by the end of the year.

As the year has progress, I have been trying to build my food storage and 72-hour kits along with my posts. Some months aren't too hard. Some are very hard. (Like MEAT! I don't have enough MEAT in my house! haha)

So I have updated the outline and we will be going into 2013 before we get through all our 3-month supply items. I think this is a good thing. It gives us (me) more time to really focus on specific items. For example, I originally was going to combine fruits and veggies into one month. Now we will talk about them in September and October, giving more time to inventory, organize and purchase needed items.

That leads me to the next item of business. I am hoping that others are doing the same thing as I am, but sometimes I assume that others understand me and I haven't actually explained myself. SO...here's a little bit about what I do every month to build my food storage.

#1- Inventory. I know. The word alone is scary. But you HAVE to know what you have in order to know what you NEED. So get a notebook, a piece of paper, etc. and count what you have.

If you have 5 pounds of meat in your house, don't be discouraged. At least you know what you have so you can stock up on that item.

#2 Organize! I am weird. I am really organized with some things and a total wreck with others. As far as food storage is concerned, I have a notebook with my inventory, which I write in every time I use one of my food storage items. Then I write on my shopping list what I need to replace.

For example, today I grabbed my last can of cranberry sauce. We have one recipe that we use cranberry sauce so I try to keep 3 on hand. For some reason, I haven't been keeping up but now I have written on my grocery list to pick up 3 cans of cranberry sauce. I can do that.

You may need to be creative in where you store your items, but do what works for you (even if it means putting canned food under your bed!).

As far as 72-hour kit stuff, I have MOST of my emergency items in one closet, except for a large suitcase that is in my garage. I also have notes in my food storage notebook about what I have and what I need.

#3 Purchase. Every 3-month supply post has information on good prices for food items. This is a good way to start getting to know what prices are good for specific items. It helps you know when something is low enough to really stock up!

Most of us can't go out and buy everything we need every month, but if you can spend $5-10 on that item in a month, you're that much closer to your goal.

Don't forget to purchase your 72-hour kit items as well!

#4 Restock! To keep your food storage supply up, replace items as you use them. I didn't do this with my cranberry sauce, that items isn't as crucial either. Items that are more necessary need to be replaced right away, if possible.

For me, I always want one extra container of olive oil on hand. I don't use it a TON so I don't store more than that. Today when I was making my cranberry recipe, I opened up my olive oil. Time to restock!

Depending on the item though, I want and restock when it's on sale.

For example, I have seem canned pineapple for 88 cents a can in the past, but lately anything less than $1 is good. But I don't really want to spend a dollar on each can. We go through pineapple so FAST at our house, so I don't restock it as fast as I should. I usually just wait until the next big sale.

Restocking implies ROTATION. Remember that it is important to rotate food so you won't have old, outdated items. This includes your 72-hour kit food and clothing items. Especially with kids, your emergency clothing needs to be rotated regularly.


Most of all, don't get stressed! Do what works for you and your budget. Do what makes you feel better and more prepared, but don't go crazy.