Tag Archives: stockpiling

Rotating and reminiscing

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One of the cool things about being a survivalist (or, at least, a moderately prepared survivalist) is that your stockpiles become snapshots of the economy in different periods of time. For example, today I rotated out some canned tomatoes. Tomatoes,  because of their high acidity, need to be rotated fairly frequently….a couple years is about all I’m willing to trust in a metal can (even lined ones). In glass jars is a different story, but for cans….a couple years, tops.

So, I headed up to WinCo, cornered the grocery manager, and asked him to order me up a few cases of my preferred tomatoes. As I was swapping them out with the previously stored ones, I could not help but notice:

As you can see from the image, these were purchased at CostCo in 2020. $5.99 for eight cans. Thats $6 divided by eight. That comes out to seventy-five cents per can. Todays cost at WinCo? 66% more per can. Must be that Putinflation that Dopey Joe keeps deflecting to.

Get used to it.

And, while I was at Winco, I checked for remaindered meat. WinCo doesn’t discount as much as Albertson’s used to, but they will discount by 30% when meats are approaching their ‘use by’ date. Me, I’m a big fan of animal protein, so I cleaned ’em out on small breakfast-type steaks. These’ll get vacuum sealed and put away in the deep freeze for use in the coming economic disaster….which means I’ll probably be eating them next month.

Canning stuff

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I have all the things necessary for home canning, and I do occasionally engage in the practice. I don’t do it often because I don’t really have much need to…after all, I can always buy commercially canned vegetables and meats at pretty much any grocery. However, just because I can do something today doesn’t mean I’ll be able to do it tomorrow. Also, sometimes I cook stuff that I rather like (bunker gumbo ) and like to have some of it sitting on the shelf for a quick meal.  And, of course, when the wheels really fly off civilization and the electricity becomes a pleasant memory, I’ll have a whole freezerfull of meat that needs to suddenly be repackaged in a shelf stable manner. Canning lets me do that. And, if you’re the type with a big garden and good hunting skills, canning lets you put a lot of food away at very reasonable prices.

Anyway, I was in the local independent supermarket getting my lunch at work the other day and as I walked by the aisle where they keep the home canning stuff I saw these:

A couple cases of wide-mouth lids. And not that cheap Chinese-made crap that has been showing up on the market:

Seriously…if you’re willing to purchase this crap because it’s $2 cheaper than Ball or Kerr, you deserve the problems that are going to come from these things. From what I’ve read they don’t seal well, don’t hold seal well, are spotty in the application of adhesive, and tend to buckle. Sure, their availability may be better than Ball or Kerr, but if you have to throw away the food, or make three attempts to get a good seal, or worst of all, go into your pantry six months from now and find a jar of what looks like vomit, was it really worth the ‘savings’?

Being a good survivalist, I spoke to a few LMI and asked if they needed any lids. Why not? If the world is going to sink into another World War or Great Depression then I want those people to have every advantage possible. Short version: I want a world with more of them and less of everyone else. Brutal, but true.

One person mentioned that they hadn’t ‘gotten into’ canning yet. Picked a hell of a time to start, I told him. He said he was waiting for a course at the continuing education facility to be offered. Dude, it ain’t rocket science and time may 9or may not) be of the essence. So, for those of you who haven’t experienced the joy of filling your kitchen with heat and steam, here’s youre shopping list:

Information…don’t start a trip without a map. There are plenty of good books on the subject, the one I use and recommend is:

Read it, read it again, and then flip through it another time. Nothing magical about canning…anyone can do it. But spoiled food is dangerous ‘food’ and you really want to pay attention to what you’re doing,. It’s no different than reloading ammo in that regard…it isn’t difficult, but you do want to pay attention.

I like the pressure canning, which is necessary to can meat or any food that contains meat (sauces, stews, etc.). This is gonna be the most expensive part of the process. Just resign yourself to spending the money and know that this thing will literally last you the rest of your life. It doesn’t use a gasket so if you’re concerned about replacement part availability, this is a great choice. I use this particular model:

Yes, not cheap. But I’ve had mine for a long time and haven’t had a lick of trouble from it. This particular package comes with tools that you’ll want….lid lifter, jar lifter, spatula, food funnel, etc.  One-stop shopping. But this baby will let you can everything and in large quantities. Its big and heavy, so no glasstop ranges for this monster.

After that, its time for lids, jars, and bands. Most any hardware store (during normal times) will have them. You can’t have too many. Jars are reusable as long as they aren’t chipped at the mouth. Bands are reusable. Lids are not. Yes, some people reuse them. I don’t. Food poisoning is not worth trying to save $1 by reusing a lid or two. I don’t have the time to investigate every brand out there so I usually just stick to Ball as my first choice and then Kerr. Lots of people ‘inherit’ jars from grandma or some great aunt’s estate…thats fine but inspect them thoroughly for chips or damage.

All this stuff will fit in a large plastic tote that can sit on your basement shelving when you’re not using the canner. Find a great deal on meat? Can it. Neighbors had a bumper crop of tomatoes or something? Can ’em. Made a huge batch of vegetable beef soup and want the convenience of just heat-n-eat out of a jar? Fire up the canner.

As I said, I don’t do much gardening these days but I do hunt for bargains on meat. And when I do find a deal on meat canning it saves me freezer space, is convenient, and allows me to store a good bit of animal protein against whatever is coming. And if nothing happens? Well, it’ll still taste just fine and I’ll have saved a buncha cash.

Flour power

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I was up at Winco last night and, as is my habit, I took a pass through the food storage section they have in the back corner of the building. And…….

Whats missing? Wheat and flour. Also a large amount of rice was missing. So…more signs of the times.

I checked the Preponomicon just to make sure that I’m in the green on most things, but because I’m easily influenced by media I went ahead and went a little past 100% on a few things. I mean, it isn’t going to get cheaper anytime soon..and availability isn’t as certain as it used to be…so why not pick up extra detergent, meat, canned goods, etc.

It’s interesting to stand in line at the checkout and look at other people’s carts. You can kinda read their life’s story by whats in the cart. It was a fun game to figure out who was simply buying their normal quantity of groceries and who was stocking up ‘just in case’. Having been doing this sort of thing for many years, I can get away with just picking up a few ‘onesies’ or ‘twosies’ of something here and there and still be wildly well-supplied.

You know you’re heading for a bumpy ride when the White House has completely given up on denying things and is now saying “Yeah, we have inflation…and you should expect it to get worse.” And, all those price increases? Thats “Putin’s price increases”, “Putin’s oil hikes”, and “Putins market volatility.” Uhm..yeah…because no one apparently has a calendar. This nonsense has been going on since before Putin sent the tanks. But…now there’s a convenient bad guy to hang all the economic pain on.

:::shrug:::

At this point I really have trouble working up care for anyone who isn’t part of the tribe. It’s a savage and uncaring world out there and I am amazed at the outrage exhibited by people who are just now discovering that in wars people shoot civilians, bomb hospitals, control media, starve people, etc, etc. Thats actually business as usual on a large part of this planet. Heck, anyone who has even the slightest interest in history can easily point out that humans have been unbelievably cruel and hateful to other humans for the entire existence of the race. Oh, sure, be outraged…just don’t be surprised.

In the meantime, as far as Im concerned, worrying less about abroad and worrying more about your own house is the order of the day.

 

More of the same

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Approximately 37 months ago, I stocked up on soap. As the supply started to dwindle, I figured it was time to bump it up. Here’s an interesting note – I purchased it from the same place as I did three years ago. But..instead of 100 bars for $40, I now get 80 for that same amount. Put another way, my cost went up by 25%. Sure, it could have been a simple change in wholesalers or something but in this economy…:::waggles hand::: ..who knows?

Regardless, I’ve enough soap for the next several years at current usage rates. As Forrest Gump would say, “One less thing to worry about.”

As I mentioned in that earlier post, soap seems to ossify over time. I vacuum sealed the soap to keep it from doing what it does and that seemed to work just fine.  So…empirical data for the win.

I should also mention, while I’m on the subject of long-term toiletries, that about ten or twelve years ago I bought out a closeout of toothpaste. Still using it and it seems to work just fine.

Yeah, we’re going to sink into a 1970’s -style era of inflation and, possibly, unemployment on our way to Third Worldism but, by Crom, I’m gonna be the cleanest, best smelling insurrectionist at the revolution.

Arbitrage

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Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset’s listed price. … Arbitrage exists as a result of market inefficiencies and it both exploits those inefficiencies and resolves them

A market inefficiency like….a Walmart in a populous region that doesnt have a large percentage of the population that does canning winding up with a shelf full of canning lids…..and a Walmart in a rural region where people are known to do quite a bit of canning and be survivalists that has no canning lids in stock.

There’s an opportunity there.

Someone who knew I was interested in lids texted me. The conversation was like this:

Them: Im in a WalMart and they have canning lids…
Me: All of them
Them: They have….
Me: All of them.
Them: How many do you….
Me: All. Of. Them.

(And bring me all your bacon and eggs while youre at it)

And in todays post:

Self-looting and restocking

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One of the most true things in survivalism is that ‘you are your own worst looter’. You, your kids, your spouse, whoever, will ‘borrow’ from your stash and not replace/return it long before any panic-driven locust horde breaks down your basement door and helps themselves.

Case in point: I keep some Advil and Tylenol in my Bag O’ Tricks(tm), which is good because I had a bangaroo headache the other day. Popped open the tube, took two Advil, went on with my life. Did the same thing the next day. Sooooo…my stash is down four pills. Now, this isn’t a big deal. There’s another twenty or so in there. But the way things are supposed to work is that a) you use it, 2) you replace it, III) you replace the replacements.

But, no, I sat onmy hands and waited until this weekend to go to the Big Bottle Of Advil, shake out a half dozen tablets, and replace them into my bag.

Bad survivalist.

Yeah, yeah, its only a few tablets…whats the big deal, right? The big deal is that nits become lice, acorns become mighty oaks, and little minor oversights become Three Mile Island…want of a nail,. buddy.

Its so bloody easy to get complacent about doing what we’re supposed to, in terms of preparedness, when the sense of urgency isn’t as great as it could be… we take a jar of spaghetti sauce from the food storage stash and forget to update the list, we use one of the emergency flashlights and figure we’ll just pick up a new one ‘next time’ to replace it, etc, etc.

You’re your own worst looter. I am too, and I’ve been doing this crap for decades. But the day you get stuck in your office because of a power outage is no time to discover that you ‘forgot’ to replace the flashlight you ‘borrowed’ from your EDC and never put back.

That little stuff adds up fast, and although something simple and basic like aspirin, batteries, a razor blade, or a bottle of water may seem like not a big deal today…when you’re in a situation and one of those items is exactly what you need and it’s not there, you’ll sing a different tune.

Moral of the story: yeah, its a pain the butt…but suck it up, go to the store, and replace that item that you pulled from storage that you really shouldnt have used. Future You will thank you.

Skipping the gun show

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“I foresee terrible trouble and I stay here just the same” – Steely Dan

There was a gun show in Hamilton last weekend and…I didnt go. I thought about going but it would be $20 in gas, another $10 for lunch, and then whatever I spent on overpriced panic-driven stuf. And, this is the key part, I didnt really need anything. I mean, really, as far as gun stuff go I’m just gilding the lily at this point. The only thing I need is a scope for my .338 Lapua (leaning towards this one, by the way) and that’s really about it. :::shrug::: I’ve had thirty years to get my gun buying needs satisfied…at some point I was gonna hit the “I think I’m okay” stage. So why piss away thirty bucks I could use for other purposes?

Certainly there are small non-gun things I’d like to get..a few more LED MagLites, some more gas cans, that sort of thing. But…nothing hits the ‘urgent’ chord.

And, somewhat, this carries over to a few other things as well. Food, med stuff, fuel, etc. In fact, so many things are ‘in the green’ that I’m really just focusing the majority of my efforts on the financial stuff. By the end of next year I need to have enough money in the bank to buy a chunk of nowhere. As a result, between now and 12/31/22 most of the financial resources that have been going into guns, ammo, and food will be going into saving and investing.

No, this isn’t going to transform the blog into some sort of financial blog. (Although, to be fair, I’ve been reading a few of those on and off for the last year.) It just means that I’ll probably cut the posts about gun buying by a large percentage and there’ll be more posts about the more mundane things in the wide world of preparedness. And, really, who needs financial advice beyond “spend less than you make, save and invest, think before you buy, contemplate the future”?

The Free Money Machine in DC seems to be in overdrive as it pays people to underachieve and that’s gotta have some consequences somewhere. The music hasn’t stopped yet, but it’s slowing down. Folks would be smart to spend a couple hours in a quiet room with a notebook, pen, and start making lists and have an honest reckoning with themselves about what they need to do to come out the other side of things in one piece. But, really, thats good advice any time.

So, for now, the vast majority of my ‘prepping’ is getting money in the bank, into investments, and hitting WinCo/CostCo every weekend to keep things topped off. And, of course, keep a weather eye on the news. As convoluted, biased, and ‘steered’ as the news is, it’s still worth paying attention to…at least, as long as you get the same story from at least three disparate sources. As the saying goes, theres three sides to every argument – your side, their side, and the truth. I’m not a news junkie but I always check the news first thing in the morning after I power up.

Whether its a straight-up LARPing of the Carter years, or if its a more Fabianistic approach to Directive 10-289, the solid bet is that four years from now things are going to look a good bit different than they do today. Reagan famously asked “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” and I suspect that in 2024 the answer will, for most of us, be a pretty strong “No”.

By the by, if, like me, you occasionally have lapses of discipline and you ‘fall off the wagon’ in terms of keeping up with your preparedness, I highly recommend reading this book. It is, of course, fiction but it isn’t hard to see yourself in some of the situations outlined in the book. Every time I read it I feel like taking the day off and doing nothing but loading up my truck with food, gas, gold, ammo, and heading for a quiet place to raise chickens and vegetables while the world eats itself. Good read.

More WinCo wandering

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So I’ve been making a few trips to the WinCo to try and get a feel for whether it’s all that it seems to be in terms of selection and value. So far, I’m pretty pleased although there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to whats ‘on sale’ and when. I need to see if they have some sort of online presence or mailing list that will send me weekly alerts on items that are on sale. So far, however, it looks like for 90% of my survivalist grocery needs, they’re gonna be my first choice.

I had mentioned that over in the corner of the store they had an itty-bitty ‘home storage’ or preparedness section…basically Gamma Seal-type lids, buckets, water containers, oxy absorbers, etc. Here’s the picture I took when I went there the other day:

And then when I went there today:

So…which one of you savages read my post, went down there, and cleaned them out of buckets and lids?

They also had some nice 5-gallon poly jugs for water storage. At about $8 ea, these seemed to be a good value. I was amused at how the label recommends them for camping, preparedness needs and….zombie apocalypse:

Although I’ve got a pretty decent supply of this sort of thing, I’m always curious to see how this sort of stuff is selling….sort of a canary in the coal mine. A gauge to see just how restless the natives are.Judging by the way someone cleaned them out on lids and buckets, I’d say there’s definitely something going on.

Anyway, I grabbed a copy of the preponomicon and wandered around WinCo filling in some gaps.

CostCo

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My  little CostCo ‘rebate’ certificate of $250 arrived in email last week. Now the question becomes what to do with it. I’ve got $250 to spend on just-in-case up at CostCo. Where should it go? If you had $250 of ‘free money’ to spend on prep-type stuff up at CostCo, what would it be? A pallet of TP? A Bin of hope-they-dont-leak Duracells? A case of canned chicken? Four dozen socks? (hmmm…thats actually not a bad idea…) LED flashlights? Bleach? 50# of M&M’s?

Let’s hear it…..