Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Been a little busy in my ‘civillian’ life so I haven’t had the chance to post. But, fear not, I’ve a handful of posts sitting on a USB drive here to upload.
First and foremost, I got the order of Gamma Seal bucket lids the other week. I’ve pulled out what I need for myself and the local LMI’s so the remaining lids are available if anyone is interested. Colors available are white, black, red and blue. Price is $7.75 ea. Unfortunately, they wont fit in a flat-rate box (actually, three of them will but its not worth it in terms of product:shipping ratio). However, they’ll ship just fine parcel post, the cheapest method available. (IF you want them by another method, say Priority Mail, then calculate the rate using that price schedule and be sure to let me know that’s how you want them shipped.) Shipping will be actual instead of the usual flat rate.
So, if you’re interested, they weigh approx. 1.5 pounds each and shipping would be from zip code 59801. Head over the USPS website and calculate shipping weight and price and use that data to calculate your shipping. Payments can go to PayPal zero@commanderzero.com If you’re the really lazy type, you can email me and say “Hey Zero, how much to send 5 to my zip code of XXXXX?” and I’ll do the legwork.
Heres whats available after the me and the locals pulled out what we wanted:
- Gamma Seal lid, WHITE –
1296 - Gamma Seal lid, BLACK –
129 - Gamma Seal lid, RED –
86 - Gamma Seal lid, BLUE –
108
I’ll update this list as things go on, so check back here if you want to order anything.
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Found an article on one of the news wires about the ‘food inflation’ that’s going on. Uniformly, fuel prices
are blamed, among other reasons, for the increases. The high price of fuel increases shipping costs and makes corn more valuable as a fuel rather than a feed. I saw this coming a mile away when the ethanol solution was raised a couple years ago. Succinctly, if you burn your food what are you going to eat?
I know Ive said it before but its true – you don’t have to spend huge amounts of money to eat well. When Im feeling extremely cheap I’ll make a huge bowl of chicken fried rice and it costs about, oh, I’d say four bucks for enough to feed three people or two really hungry people…if I omit the chicken it drops down to about a buck and a half. Breakfast is cheaper with bulk oatmeal, eggs, potatoes and pancakes. If you can get a minimum wage job and work, say, twenty hours a week, you can eat pretty damn well. Theres literally no way you can be too poor to eat in this country. If you have $5, access to a stove and a supermarket then you can eat pretty damn well. Feeding a family of four may be a trick, but if all you’re qualified for is a minimum wage job then what did you get married and have kids for?
Food inflation affects people who are buying heat-n-eat meatloaf and mashed potato dinners, rotisserie chicken and other ‘convenience’ foods. Yeah, if you’re used to picking up Boston Market five times a week you’re going to see your food dollar take a pounding. But if , like me, you usually buy staples and know how to cook the increased costs are going to have much less impact.
Learn. To. Cook.
You don’t have to be Alton Brown. But take a little pride in yourself and move past the ‘put a can of beans in the microwave’ stage of culinary development. I remember perusing one of the preparedness forums and there was a thread about being able to cook and guys were taking pride in their inability to cook because, as many joked, ‘only homos get into all that’ cooking stuff. :::shakes head sadly::: I throw up my hands at people like that….starve to death, Im gonna learn how to make chicken cacciatore from canned tomatoes, freeze dried chicken and dehydrated onions. If you think that makes me gay then you go ahead and think that. I’ll wave at you while you’re on line at the FEMA food line.
If you know how to cook, theres some staples that will let you make all sorts of combinations. I go long on canned chicken broth, canned tomatoes, rice, soup mixes, pasta, canned corn, tuna, and other long-life shelf-stable ingredients. The world doesn’t have to end to appreciate having a large amount of food on hand. I am far more concerned about a lengthy bout of unemployment than I am about a nuclear bomb going off. Both are Bad Things, but one seems more likely than the other to me. Knowing that we’d be able to maximize our financial resources by not having to worry about groceries is a huge load off my mind.
Summary:
Learn to cook
Learn to cook using things that store well
Stock up on things that store well that you know how to cook
Enjoy peace of mind and significant financial savings
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I notice that CZ is offering a ‘tactical’ (ahem) .338 Lapua Magnum rifle this year. Price? About the same as a decent single-shot .50 BMG. Interestingly, my catalogs show that Remington is offering a .338 Lapua ‘police’ rifle. Dealer is around $950 making it, as far as I know, the cheapest .338 Lapua rifle out there. If you cant afford a .50, that Lapua is pretty much the next best thing.
Food savings
Great stuff, I wanted to add one small tidbit here that worked wonders for me, and that is ending the endless daily nickel and dime spending that most people do and don’t consciously realize.
I found that I was buying at least two Diet Cokes every day, and sometimes stopped for coffee on the way into work once or twice in the work week. That meant I was spending upwards of $10 on soda and probably $8 on coffee per week. That’s roughly $72 a month on ‘throwaway’ food that I wasn’t really even thinking about as I spent it. You can buy a *lot* of food with $72. Simply buying a $3 tin of the sugar-free lemonade and bringing a glass from home saves me more than $7 a week.
yes, most of America is
waking up to the new reality of “doing their own cooking and coffeemaking” some already discovering after even a few years of marridge, niether one ever cooked a meal, let alone boiled water safely. as prices go up, many are finding fast food is like fast food, very expensive!
and as less buy fast food, many such oulets are laying off workers which just increases the unemployment fiqures. soon it will repeat at the warehouse, shippers, and suppliers too. the age of “hop in a car and go buy it” is comming to a fast end as fuel prices rise. good idea to secure your gas tank with a locking tio or at least the fuel hatch with a padlock. it is reasonable more ” credit card hoses” and “mid-nite pumping” be in anybody’s nieghborhood soon if not already. Wildflower 08
learn to cook ?
damned good advice, glad i took home ec back in Jr. High,(ONLY class i enjoyed) and glad i learned from my grandmothers & parents