SavvyShopperDeals.com

SavvyShopperDeals.com is happy to give away a copy of the Food Storage Planner CD (Retail price, $40!), donated by Prospering Families.  This computer program (Windows) is completely customizable to your individual family and helps the overwhelmed organize their pantry.  It prints inventory lists, shopping lists and helps you on your way to acquiring a food storage - or a PREPARED PANTRY. The CD also comes with over 250 food storage recipes; learn how to use your beans, powdered milk and wheat!

To enter: Post in this thread the one idea you have used in your family to live with preparedness in mind on a daily basis or something you KNOW you should be doing but aren't yet and want to.  Just one tip and on March 25th a winner will be randomly drawn from all posts.  Thanks in advance for all your ideas!

Okay,  I'll go first on this one.  I know I should have water stored in order for my family to be more prepared for an emergency.  I keep thinking that if I bought one thing of water everytime it went on sale I would get my water storage up where it should be but I haven't done it . . . yet!!! ;)

I have a 25 gallon water container out in my garage--the only problem is in case of an emergency--it's empty! We need to fill it!  I have been filling empty 2 liter pop bottles for water. Also, to start cooking with whole wheat, because I have heard that your body does need to get use to it, especially if there was an emergency and you were eating a lot of it.   :D

A lot of people think about being prepared as just having a food storage.  The problem is that you also need a years supply of toiletries, cleaners, etc.  When items I use daily go on sale, I always buy a couple extra if I can.  (especially non-perishable items)

I need to buy a hand-held wheat grinder - I can only hook so many things into my generator and the Kitchen-Aid probably isn't one of them! :icon_geek: :icon_geek: :icon_geek: :icon_geek:

I use my empty 2 liter pop bottles for water storage. We don't have a place big enough at our house for one of those big containers so we use 2 liter bottles for storage and we have plenty of places to store them.

  
    I use my empty juice containers (apple juice) and store water in them.  Helps with small storing room.  :)   I also try to hit the sales on bottled water when they have them.

This isn't for long term storage, but for short term storage, whenever I make a meal that can freeze easily, I make two and freeze one for later.  Nice when you need to make dinner for a friend who's been sick or to get you through until the next payday!

Wheat is a major source of our food supply.  Two to three times per month I make a batch of whole wheat bread from my own wheat.  My 2 little boys love it so much, they prefer my homemade wheat bread to store bought bread. I have an electric grinder for good times and a hand grinder for hard times, which I hope never come, but if they do our bodies will be used to eating wheat! 

This is a great website if you need information about how to SAFELY store water.  It's definitely worth your time to look at!
http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm (http://www.fema.gov/plan/prepare/water.shtm)

One thing that I have been trying to do is to only buy things that I know my family will use and eat.  It doesn't do much good to stock up on items we won't use.  Just because something is only pennies or even free doesn't mean we need it, which sometimes takes a lot of discipline on my part!

I try to rotate my food storage. We store ours in a room in the basement, and sometimes it's easy to forget what's down there, so i try and make a mental note of what i have each time i go downstairs so that i refresh my memory often. I'm also planning on doing some sort of checklist to keep in the kitchen upstairs.

I have realized that obtaining food storage is much easier then most realize. One tip I have learned is when storing soap. Open all your soaps up and put them into a large bucket. This will allow the soap to dry. I cover mine with a piece of cheese cloth, I guess a towel would work as well. This allows you to have really hard soap. It will last longer and you can grate it into a powder for laundry soap and dish soap if needed. Have you ever tried grating soft soap? Hope that works. I personally need to work on storing more items such as soap, and matches. Will work on that this year.

Because you can only store so much water and you need water for so many things in an emergency, I try to buy food that I don't need to add water to--like soup or juice that doesn't require any additional water.  These soups go on sale so often, so if I just stock up a little at a time, it's easy to get a really good supply going with little money or effort.

We just moved to Utah from Idaho a week ago.  Just before we moved I purchased a 55 gallon container to store water in (which I still need to clean and get ready).  Where we lived before we could safely store the water straight from the tap without adding anything.  We are in Cottonwood Heights and I'm wondering if anyone knows if the water here can be stored just as easy or if I need to add anything to it?  Or maybe someone can direct me to a website or phone number which I could use to find that out.  Thanks!

One thing I realized that I could do better on storing is baby items such as extra diapers, formula, wipies, medicine, and clothing.  Its hard to stock up on these items since they can be so expensive(especially formula).  I have added an extra item in each one of these categories to become a little better prepared!

I was so overwhelmed at the idea of food storage both what to buy and the money to buy it.  I didn't know where to start.  I found out how much my family needed of the basics like grains, etc. and then I would spend $20 each month on an item.  I focused on one thing at a time.  If something was going to be more than $20, I waited an extra month and spent $40 the next month.    Wheat, beans, rice, etc. are fairly inexpensive for a 25 or 50 pound bag.  I went to Lehi Mills or the Leland Mills in Spanish Fork.  I still need to get things like toiletries and other things.  Boy, moving sure throws habits out the window doesn't it?  This let me break everything down in to small steps so I wasn't so overwhelmed with the idea.  Time to start spending my $20 a month again! :wav:

For me, I want to make sure that I keep everything fresh and rotated. I finally have a home where we have a room set aside for food storage, and I feel so blessed! But with that being said, I am not used to so much space, I am still trying to figure out the best way to keep everything rotated, in this new environment.   Now that we have more space, I buy as much as I can that we will use before it expires, and figuring out how much that is sometimes takes some real thought.  Thank Goodness for Sharpies, they have become one of my  new best friends in my storage room to mark the expiration dates!

you guys have great ideas!  We moved here in Aug., and used most of our food storage before we came.  Probably the best thing I did for my food storage is ask for the 4-paper deal for 60.00 for Christmas.  In Jan. alone the papers paid for themselves in free stuff alone!  (remember the free elecrasol, yogurt...)  As we have 1/2 the budget that we did before we moved here, Every time I buy a little extra I have to dance!

I don't like to rely on the stores so I do a lot of canning and try to have two years worth of favorite fruits and veggies in my pantry.  I need to buy a generator. 

as far as preparedenss goes, water storage is the one thing i want to start doing for my family. i feel like a slacker, but i plan on hitting smiths case lot sale to start me off.

good luck to everyone!

We have a winner!  Congrats to nelljepp!!  PM me with your mailing address and I will mail it out to you.  As a thank you for all those who posted, you can purchase the CD for 1/2 price off the retail price of $40 if you are interested.  PM me with your details or contact me through my email - lka@prosperingfamilies.org.  Keep your eyes on the Preparedness Thread - and keep adding ideas.  Thanks!

Congratulations on the CD nellijepp!!!   ;D ;D

Wow -- Thanks!