Getting started in “Prepping”

Prepping…

God how I hate and love this topic. Im a prepper but I hate that word. It has a weird connotation to it. Like I bought an old missile Silo in another state and stashed 25 years of rice in it. Now there are people that do that…I’m not one of them. And I Don’t think you should be either. So what does “Prepping” mean to me? And how do I recommend people to start and get into it. Im going to try and cover my prepping for you and break it up into different articles to keep them “relatively” short. In this one were talking about budgeting and food. 

Firstly we need to talk about budgeting. This is super important because it makes you focus on the first priorities, limits your personal panic buying, and makes you take your time. Which sounds odd. You want to be prepared for anything right? But you also cant stress yourself out so much with it by trying to get everything all at once. That is what I did when I started and it sucks. You try and cover all bases at once with limited funds and just get more and more stressed. $50 to a $100 a paycheck is all you need to start. It doesn’t even need to be that much. Just set a limit and dont go over it except in certain situations which I will go over in a later article. 

Start with food and a 7 day no power supply. And this is super simple. Get your normal food, just maybe a little more of it. Do it when you go to the grocery store. When you buy one can of an item. Get two instead. Just rotate and replace when you get new stuff and eat the old stuff while its still good. Notice I didn’t say “non-perishables” like most youtube preppers will talk about. We want a weeks supply of stuff you can eat right now. That includes, leftovers, fresh meats, bread, fruits, veggies, and yes the ice cream. Normal stuff you eat. Just keep it in rotation. This is great for power outages. Your fridge will stay cold for a few days if you manage the amount of times you open it. So eat the leftovers and drink your milk first, and then move to the meats and cold veggies. Eat the most perishable stuff first for as normal a life as possible. But then move to the canned soups, the ramen, the PB&Js. Thats where you start. No matter what keep a minimum of a weeks worth of food in your house. 

Now where do you go from there after a weeks worth of food preps? After a week. I say 3 months of food preps is the best sweet spot for the average person or family. But don’t do it all at once! Just add an extra week at a time. What I mean by that is small achievable goals. Prepping is a marathon, not a sprint. So you have a weeks worth now. Lets get you to two. Buy an extra can or two of soup per grocery store run. Grab a box of pasta and sauce the next. A bag of rice and beans another. Its small runs like this that add up over time and don’t stress out your pocket book or your storage as you realize you have to now figure out how and where to store food which ill cover in a little bit. 

As you move that goal from 2 weeks to 3 months in increments. We move to the prepper buzz word “non-perishables” this is your longer term stuff that have a year to 3 year shelf life foods. Im going to avoid frozen foods in this article however I may touch on it later. Frozen prepping is great, but that assumes you have power. And if your chest freezer looses power for more than a week and you have $1,000 worth of meat in it. Its probably a moot and spoiled point. 

So to start lets go to a wholesaler. Costco or Sams club for most people isn’t out of their ability to go to. And its where I like to stock up on those 1-3 year shelf life items. Our canned and jarred goods, even boxed stuff. You want food that you like. Not stuff you wont eat because you never need it. Itl just go bad and youl waste the food. I prefer whole canned cases at costco because they are really easy to store and move from the garage to the pantry and are usually only $20 or so. But even the jarred stuff in the multi packs just store easier and all are dated at the same time of casing. This is important because you want to rotate the oldest stuff in your preps with new stuff you buy. So the case of canned corn you bought two years ago. Bring it in from the garage. Put it in the pantry and eat it over the next couple months and store the new case of veggies in the garage. Thats way easier than sorting through individual cans and jars. This helps us keep things “fresh” and limits our waste. 

Now I havent really told you what food to buy. Thats a very person or family specific thing. So look up “prepping foods” on google and you will find lists upon lists of foods preppers have made about what types of foods to get. One of my favorites is canned chili which costco has many types of. So find some lists. See what you like and put it on your own prepper shopping list. Keep that goal line moving a week at a time. Even if you go to costco once a month or every other month. Thats okay. Move at your own pace. Two weeks to three weeks to four even if it takes a year you are better off for it.

So now we have some food. How do we store it? Well we want three things. We want them safe, cool, and dry. Some people say dark to and that doesn’t hurt. But that’s pretty pointless when it comes to cans as long as they are cool. When I say safety I mean rodents and bugs. If either of those get in and compromise your preps. Your not only out of a lot of hard work and peace of mind, but also the time and money you spent putting into those preps. So go to home depot and buy some food grade 5 gallon buckets and lids. Store your bags of rice and dry beans, your boxes of pasta, or candy and spices. This keeps them dry since these items can be susceptible to moisture.  

Have a shelf or cabinet to keep all your cans and jars off the floor of wherever your storing your preps be it the garage, hall closet, or basement. This helps keep the pests and rodents from more easily finding it if its off the floor. And keeps the preps from absorbing moisture from the ground. Think about your cases of food, if the cardboard gets all degraded and nasty. Its a pain to then move them. 

And cool, heat will kill your preps and spoil cans quicker than anything else. So if your garage gets 100 degrees in the summer maybe don’t put them in there or move them inside till its back down to 70. Basements are great for storage because they are usually cool all the time. But not everyone has those. Just find someplace that isn’t going to make your food spoil due to the heat. The back space of that corner kitchen cabinet you store nothing in because its to far back to reach. Might be where I store some. 

Lastly lets touch on some honorable mentions and randomness. Flavor your prepper food!!! Get some spices, bulk packs of pepper and salt and garlic powder. Get some of those small seasoning packets in the ethnic food isle that are like $.99 a pack. Hot sauce’s, soy sauce, BBQ sauce. Stuff to make your rice and beans not be so monotonous if you ever had to use em. Just rotate em out even though these items have long shelf lives. And dont forget about those little packets from fast food restaurants like Taco Bell hot sauces. They have an amazing shelf life….and are free.

Your pets!!!! Make sure you have an extra food for your pets. Have their supply match yours. So 3 months is the goal for me. This could be their normal food, you just have 3 bags and when you open one, you go buy another. You keep em rotating so they are never bad. If you buy super expensive special dog or cat food and you cant justify or afford to prep $300 in puppy nom noms. Go buy a big bulk bag from costco. Yes, its not the best or nutritious food. But its like $35 and if you ever need it, your furry friend wont starve watching you eat rice and beans. They are such morale boosters in times of need and stress so take care of them. When that bag is almost to its expiration date, donate it to a non-profit shelter and go buy another. Try not to waste when their are hungry pets in need and shelters can use all the help they can get. 

Freeze dried food. This is a huge prepper problem to me. Only because so many preppers make it the best thing ever and always want you to prioritize freeze dried. I have freeze dried food. I have a couple weeks worth of it, but only for variety. They have some good stuff. But it packs small…But its expensive…But it has a 25 year shelf life…But also half the time its soup or chalk. And what I mean by that is if you add to much water or to little. The food just isnt right and just like fast food, It never looks like the picture. Its great long term stuff that out of sight and out of mind. But to me, it supplements my normal preps. Its not my only preps. Also try em out. Try cooking em with that camp stove or a hiking stove like an MSR Rocket. Good experience and you get to test all the flavors. Stock up on the ones you like. Every REI trip I’m always buying one or two new ones to try be it for hiking or for preps. Then maybe ill buy more for the stores when I go back to REI. But this is literally like one or two meals a month added to stores. And I literally eat half of them hiking, when I’m to lazy to make dinner at home, or just want to try one.

MREs are in the same vain as freeze dried food. They are nice to have…But they are expensive…They usually taste good…But they are only good for 3-5 years “per the package date” and come with a lot of stuff. Which is great for variety. But they also take up a lot of room. I get one or two from time to time. But its more of a novel thing for me for hikes or to try with friends who have never had one. MREs are not on my prepping pantry list. 

So their we have it for food. Sorry for the long winded explanations and stuff. But I always want to know more about stuff like this so I just let it flow. Ill post some more stuff soon on preppers topics and such like lighting and odds and ends to have. However I think the next one will be on the forgotten preps. So check back. 

-Hunter