Great Water Storage Solution

Water is the number one concern in an emergency situation. If you don't have water, you are severely handicapped as to how long you and your family can survive. You can NEVER have too much water stored. This has long been a concern for many families, especially those that don't have a basement. I just discovered this solution and wanted to share it with everyone. It's a product called Surewater. It is a water storage system that is set up similar to your hot water heater in your house. It holds 275 gallons of water and only takes up 7 sq. ft. of space. It has two spigots on the tank--one to fill and one to drain. This makes for easy rotation of the water. The price is reasonable, too. Please check out this ingenious product and see if it isn't a solution for your water storage needs.

Home Storage Starter Kits & Home Storage Center Order Forms Available Online

Through the Distribution Services Online, the church has made available Family Home Storage Starter Kits. They are a great way to "jump start" your home storage efforts. They also would be appropriate to buy for young married couples and college students just starting out on their own. The kits are available online to ship anywhere in the United States and cost $29.95. They will be available to buy at local Home Storage Centers in the Spring of 2008.

The kit includes:

• All is Safely Gathered In: Family Home Storage pamphlet



• All is Safely Gathered In: Family Finances pamphlet



• All is Safely Gathered In: Basic Recipes pamphlet



• Financial reserve and drinking water teaching aids



• Two #10 cans of hard red winter wheat



• Two #10 cans of white rice



• One #10 can of pinto beans
  


• One #10 can of rolled oats

Also available now online is the Home Storage Center Order Form. It is to assist you in planning for your next purchase at your Home Storage Center. You can download the order form, fill it out using your computer, print it out, and bring it with you when you come to your local Home Storage Center. This is a great tool to help you plan and build your home storage. Prices are valid from the date printed at the bottom of the form.

Rotating and Checking Your Food Storage

So, you're working on having a year's supply. The planning doesn't stop there. Is it labeled with the canning date? Have you rotated it? How long is powdered milk good for? Is there a national recall on the case of tomatoes you bought? These and many other questions are things you need to think about when dealing with your food storage--the 3-month supply and the long term storage.

Recently, thanks Millie Meyer of Newnan Ward, I was made aware of a national food recall on canned green beans and garbanzo beans in "large institutional-sized containers, weighing approximately six and a half pounds. UDAF inspectors have found none of the products on store shelves in Utah, but because the product distribution spans the past five years, and the large size of the cans, it is possible some of the canned beans may be in long-term food storage pantries." Now, I checked, Georgia is not affected by this recall, but it made me think...what has been affected and what don't we know about? Check out consumer information from the FDA here.

Botulism and Salmonella are two of the most common reasons for recalls (Read more about Botulism and Salmonella). However, there are several factors that you need to keep in mind when checking and rotating your food storage. Look at the "Best by" or "Expires by" dates on store purchased items and make sure you use them in the alotted time. As far as storage and rotation, there are two types of foods--rotatable and indefinite.

Indefinite/Longer term foods are:

• Wheat
• White Rice
• Dry Beans
• Honey (needs to be stored in plastic, NOT metal)
• Sugars
• Salt
• Distilled Water
• Baking Soda
• Jell-O & Puddings (Although, the Jell-O company does recommend using by the date stamped on the box)
• Dried Fruits and Vegetables
• Dried Eggs
• Soap

Rotatable Foods are:

• Dry Milk
• Canned goods
• Frozen foods
• Home dried foods
• Vitamins
• Peanut butter
• Fats & Oils (they go rancid)
• Brown rice (1-year)--Should be stored in your freezer and can not be canned
• Ground or cracked grain
• Dry yeast (Also store in the freezer)
• Pasta

When storing and rotating your food storage, keep the following rules in mind:

1. Store what you eat--If you store things that you don't eat, it won't get rotated and you'll have wasted time and money.


2. The best storage conditions are cool & dry--Georgia doesn't have the best storage conditions for long term food storage, but a basement or disbursed through your house is probably your best bet.


3. Eat what you store--Incorporate what you've stored into your every day diet. Use it or lose it--at least with the rotatable food stuffs.


4. Send it with your kids--When your kids get married or move out into homes of thier own, send their portion of food storage with them to start their new family. You don't need it--they do.

When it comes down to it, food storage is an art. There are a lot of nuances that are involved in keeping and maintaining your year's supply. I think this intimidates a lot of people. It really shouldn't, though. Use common sense, don't store items you don't eat on a regular basis, and eat what you store and you should be fine.

Here are some "neat reads" on the subject of Food Storage:

• 7 Major Mistakes in Food Storage by Vicki Tate


• Food Storage Guide: How Long is Too Long?


• How Long Will Products Last?


• Using Your Food Storage


• Cooking with Food Storage

Starting Your Three-Month's Supply

Now that we have our 72-hour kits together, we are going to concentrate on the next step--Your 3-month supply of food. By definition, this should be "a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet. One way to do this is to purchase a few extra items each week to build a one-week supply of food. Then you can gradually increase your supply until it is sufficient for three months. These items should be rotated regularly to avoid spoilage (Provident Living website)."

There are several ways to go about doing this, but two of the easiest tools are:

1. Buy two, use one--If you need a jar of spaghetti sauce for dinner this week, buy two and keep one on hand. Always have at least on jar unopened in the pantry.


2. Choose 15 meals and multiply the ingredients needed by 6--For example, Spaghetti, veggies, & croissants is your meal. If, in one meal, you go through 1 box of spaghetti, 1 jar of sauce, 2 cans of veggies, and 2 cans of croissants, this is what your 3-month supply of this meal would look like:

• 6 boxes of spaghetti noodles


• 6 jars of spaghetti sauce


• 6 pounds of hamburger meat (can be stored cooked in the freezer for 3 months)


• 12 cans of veggies or 6 bags of frozen veggies


• 12 cans of refrigerated croissants

You would just repeat this process for 14 other meals. Having 15 meals will ensure that you only have to eat the same meal twice in a month. If you don't mind having the same meals every week, you can use less recipes. Gradually build up your supply of each ingredient with the "Buy two, use one" principle.

Remember to make a few things from scratch to be able to use your staple, or long term, storage items, too. Here are some websites to look at to get some ideas for easy meals:

• Kraft Foods


• Campbell's


• Betty Crocker: Dinner Made Easy


• Pillsbury

Also, here are a couple cookbooks and recipe search websites that have GREAT recipes that don't have a lot of ingredients:

• All Recipes


• Recipe Zaar


• A Man, A Can, A Plan: 50 Great Guy Meals Even You Can Make


• Eating For Life--Recipe book based on the Body For Life diet & exercise plan (Great tasting, healthy recipes even if you don't follow the plan itself)


• New Cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens)

Challenge: For Family Home Evening, discuss with your family what their favorite meals are. Come up with 15 and gather the recipes to determine how much of each ingredient in that recipe you will need to build up to a 3-month's supply.

The Sharpsburg Ward has put together a 3-month supply booklet with recipes, budgets, and ideas for planning for your 3-month supply. I would like to do this for our ward also. Please send your 3-month supply recipes to Sis. Schaefer at justjen@stsweb.com. The deadline for getting recipes in will be March 29.

Smart Grocery Shopping Made Easy: 5 Tips To Save You Money

This post is thanks to Sis. April Craig and the Sharpsburg Ward Family Preparedness Newsletter

If you've been to a grocery store lately, you'll know that shopping for family meals can be a costly endeavor. Here are some tips to lower your grocery bill and save money:

• Have a Plan: Smart shoppers often make a menu of meals they will prepare in a week and create a shopping list based on the menu. Shopping with a list and sticking to it will cut down on those last minute impulse buys that drive up your grocery bill. Keep a note pad in the kitchen where you can add to your weekly grocery list as items run out or get low. (*Read up on this principle in Menu Planning: Save Time In The Kitchen at the Organized Home website*)

• Eat Before You Go: Hungry shoppers are tempted shoppers.

• Avoid Prepared Foods: Prepared foods, while certainly convenient, often contain high amounts of sodium and other preservatives and cost a lot more than if you made the item yourself. These items may save you a little time when feeding your family, but will end up costing you more in the long run.

• Use Coupons Wisely: Coupons can save savvy shoppers lots of money at the grocery store. Ultimately though, you are not saving money if you are not buying and item you need. Buying bottles of aspirin for $1 each is a great deal. But if 10 of those bottles expire before you even get to use them, you've just wasted $10. (*Check out The Coupon Mom to learn more about this principle*)

• Do The Math: Learn to figure out the price per unit for items you are buying to find out what the best deal is. Do the math when using coupons, too. Sometimes a name brand item with a coupon is still more expensive than a comparable store brand item. (*two links to help teach you about price per unit--How do unit prices work and Unit Price*)

The cost of food can be a huge part of a monthly budget, but by following these tips, you may just find you spend less and have a little more money left over at the end of each month.

(* Added by Sis. Schaefer to provide more information)