Nothing good lasts forever. I was disheartened to learn that the Albertson’s grcery is no longer carrying The Meat Tray. The Meat Tray is gone. Long live the Meat Tray.
Fortunately, although it isn’t the same as the meat tray, it turns out that the local WinCo will ‘remainder’ meat as well. And since their prices are already pretty fair, the remaindered prices are just a solid deal all around:
My freezer is already at capacity, and I really don’t want to get another one, so I’ll just keep this stuff in mind for when I rotate through the frozen stuff. But…animal protein at discount is always a good thing.
That pork in the pictures? I take that, put it in the slow cooker with a half bottle of salsa verde, let it go for about six hours, shred it up, serve with rice, melt Mexican cheese blend on top, and scoop it up with tortilla chips. Sooo good, so cheap, and so much. Highly recommend.
I’m sure some folks would say, “Dude..my life is too short to get worked up about saving $14 on a styrofoam tray of meat once a week.” Fair enough. Let’s tackle it from a different direction. Imagine a supermarket where, when you buy a tray of meat they give you two free Pmags. Or a voucher for three gallons of gas at the Conoco down the street. Or they give you a free refill on your propane tank for your barbecue. You’d get pretty excited about that, right? Same. Exact. Thing.
Every dollar I don’t spend on an item is an extra dollar I have for another item. It’s another dollar in the Roth, in silver, in cash, in the land fund, etc.Thats the mindset that makes the difference when you’re trying to prepare for the inevitable-yet-unpredictable.
Penny saved is *more* than a penny earned, because you don’t have to pay tax on ‘saved’ money.
Commander Zero what is your plan if grid power gets “Socialized” aka unreliable and political?
I ask this as I had to help a buddy clean out a chest freezer last week that failed due to one too many bad power episodes (lighting near strikes or surges?)
Do you do billabong? South African Jerky? A lot easier to cook with than Jerky.
I’m less concerned about that than I am about just your general run-of-the-mill power outage.
Since most of our power outages occur in winter, it’s not an issue. If it happens at a time when it isnt below freezing outside, I’d run the generator until the power is back on. If it looks like it’s going to be longer than I’m prepared to run the generator, it’ll all go into jars and get canned. But even in a worst case scenario, I’ve got other eggs in other baskets….I’ve got canned meats, and freeze dried meats….
I keep a generator ready for the short/mid term outages. I also keep a bunch of NON-IODIZED salt on hand, should I need to salt down meat to preserve it for a while. I also keep a bunch of canning jars and lids that I can use to pot the meat. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s better than having a huge cookout or throwing it all away…
If you want to stay with 115v freezer (cheapest power is The Grid), a 200A/hr deep cycle AGM, 400-1000W of solar PV, charge controller, sinewave inverter that will run the freezer, refer, some lights, charge comms, charge tool batteries. A mid-range inverter-charger will supply plenty of offgrid current as well as pass-through A/C from the grid. You could unplug the grid and plug into genset if you are in Edmonds, WA in Nov-Feb (0-5% solar panel output for weeks!).
Preparing to can a freezer of meat (pressure canning) is quite a chore.
pdxr13
Sage, sound advice, young people, start today,
Write your goals down. Do it, review it…
I hate playing the coupon and sales games with our local Safeway, but it’s the only option in town here. If you don’t use the “special” coupons, the regular prices are upwards of 50% more. Any other shopping options for us are 90 miles away, for which we keep lists. For the “membership” at the register, we can key in a phone number of a member–and it doesn’t have to be me–to get the discounts. So I rigorously scan their weekly ad flyer. I don’t know if it’s regional, or corporate wide, but the prices are not jacked because we’re in the boondocks.
As for grid down prepping, I have said the same thing you did above. We had such an exercise last month when the power went out about 9:00am. After an hour to see that it wasn’t a momentary glitch, I started to ask “What do I need to do?” I resolved that I wouldn’t get the generator out of storage until evening, but I questioned how long our city water would run as it’s from a series of wells. I filled the big blue jugs I have in the garage, and filled the RV trailers fresh water tank. My wife cooked her breakfast and coffee in the trailer, and it is a fine backup option. Power came back just before noon, so most of my prepping exercise was mental. For the longer term outage, my generator will keep fridges and freezers going for a couple months or more, during which time I would be cooking (with propane) and canning my frozen stock to be room temp storable.
Good to go! Sounds like you might want a more sustainable ‘plan B’ for water, though. Water & electricity are too important to simply trust government to provide them.
Rain catchment? Or maybe save-up & drill your own well?
Oh I have long term preps in storage. Several hiker type Katadyn filters, a Big Berkey still in the box, and enough triple sealed and stored reagent grade Calcium Hypochlorite to treat several hundred thousand gallons of water. Said preps are stored in several different locations, with instructions for use printed and sealed with them. Sourcing water is a chore, whether it’s a clear running stream or ditch water, but I plan to pre-filter any visible sediment before running it through further treatment for potability. Buckets to flush a toilet can be anything that’ll run down a pipe.
Speaking of propane bottles, I noticed the other day that the company that services most of the exchange cages around here only puts 15lbs of propane in a 20lb bottle now. Not sure how long it’s been that way because I rget mine refilled.
That’s normal. Tanks & bottles are only filled to about 80% because propane can expand. You get charged for what’s put in the tank, not for the size of the tank.
Recent article on a major grocery executive that is expecting 10%-15% inflation in groceries in the next several months. I need to get a big freezer and more storage racking.
I’m with you Commander. I call it “Living better for less.” Our local grocery chain has ‘in store’ coupons that are a really great deal. Usually BOGO or B2GO, and I always try to take advantage of that. The interesting thing is, they go in cycles. This month it will be canned veg on sale and pasta, next month it will be boxed rice products, the following month it will be boxed potato products, etc. It’s on roughly a three or four month rotation. So even if I wasn’t a prepper, buying 3 months worth on sale would get me through to the next time that product was on sale again. Wuflu interrupted the cycle, but it’s finally getting back to normal, somewhat. At least the store coupons have returned for some things.
Why pay more if you don’t have to? It leaves you more cash to spend other places.
n