PayCheck to PayCheck....Meal to Meal

[The Narrow Way]

As I think about the hard times coming....I wonder how much food the average person has on hand. I know many who live paycheck to paycheck, so I can hardly imagine that that they have many meals ahead... My husband and I live in the Country, I grow a large garden, and do alot of canning, dehydrating and freezing....I'm sure if I needed to, I could avoid going to the store for at least a year....I believe we should have enough food to carry us through from this years garden to next years garden.

So, I'm curious as to how much food you all have on hand?

 

[Pavel Mosko]

I went with the 2 months option, but this is based on buying freeze dried "Emergency Food" back around the Summer of 2015 that has a life span of at least 10 years...


I believe in modest prepping and by that I mean having some food for disasters or some future time of upheaval I can avoid going to the store and the food riots, muggings etc. for weeks if need be.


I don't think I can go beyond that as far as Faith and Practicality goes. I think getting super into prepping is probably unhealthy for most folks, unless you somehow feel "called to it", believe God somehow wants to do it etc. That and I move to much, so it is too much of an albatross as far as that goes. And on top of that, there sort of is what @bèlla mentions. I'm not that worried, but I seem to recall an episode of the original Twilight Zone where the guy builds a Fallout Shelter in his backyard only to have all his neighbors want to join him, to the point of breaking down the door and ruining it.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Dangerous to reveal if people know where you live.
Nobody knows where I live, so I am not too worried.
It has been a while since we inventoried. We add some all the time and pull some older stuff out to rotate. We started over 10 years ago and the last 10-year-old rice we opened was still good. We occasionally have to toss something that does not smell right. But most of it is still good. Even dry beans which have a bad rap for not cooking too soft if they are old. No problem with the pinto and big lima beans we have opened. Most of our preps are in mylar bags with o2 absorbers. We watch it pretty close, looking for bags that have lost the vacuum. We call it "braining" because the vacuum gets tight around the contents and looks like brain.
We too are planning to draw from a garden, which will likely double in size if the stuff hits the fan. The danger is if the weather goes crazy with cold, hot, dry, or too wet. Maybe even pests overflowing. But we have to have faith and proceed hoping for the best. Fear and hopelessness are greater enemies than bad weather. The strong will persevere. If you do not feel strong, then just obey and it will be counted to you as faith:
"Let the weak say they are strong..."

 

[SavedByGrace3]

I don’t believe I’ve seen it. But it found it!

I remember this episode. I suspect it is truer than we like.
We have people telling us all the time.
"If bad times come we know where we will go."

 

[SavedByGrace3]

The issue of marauders is real. We have a real plan to "bug out" to my son's house up in the hills with all our preps in tow. It is far enough back where it will be both hard to find and not easy pickings.
Sad but true that marauders will always take the path of least resistance. If you are hard to find or more difficult to approach you will be better off than those who stay in cities and within plain sight.
Terrible to even have to talk about these things. But they are real.
Our last saying on the matter is "having done all, stand," and "throw down your weapons and let Me show you what I can do..."

 

[Freth]

I voted 2 months.

• I have mostly beans, rice, oats and wheat flour as my backup foods. I have enough of those to last several months if I ration.
• I live in an apartment, so I don't have access to land to grow. I could grow plants on my patio, but it only receives indirect sunlight. Although I live in a two bedroom apartment, storage is limited.
• I have a large dehydrator that I haven't pulled out in years, but I used to buy extra bags of frozen veggies and dehydrate them since they're already cut into small pieces.
• I used to have a large chest freezer, which I kept stocked, but I stopped using it after the first extended power outage, and started storing dried foods only.

I can't see myself doing large-scale prepping, because it's impractical from a Christian standpoint.

• If you had to leave, you can't bug out with most of it (quickly), unless you load up a van or trailer full and then you're just asking to be robbed.
• I can throw enough beans and rice and dried veggies in a backpack with a small pot and eat for months on the go. The food is light-weight and easy to cook with water.
• God fed Israel in the wilderness for forty years, I have no doubt that when great tribulation hits, we will receive sustenance.
• Fleeing to the mountains requires you to leave and not look back, which means that food will do you no good when the great tribulation hits.
• You're better off learning to forage for food in your neck of the woods, so that if you have to bug out, you can collect food wherever you go. Familiarity with plant life, fruits, nuts, tubers, etc.

In times of plenty, it is nice to have a stash in case of an extended emergency like a power outage that lasts for a long time, but when upheaval starts, simple is better. When you're used to cooking and eating simple, you aren't craving those foods you won't be able to get any more.

I think having a garden is probably the best thing you can do to prep food in case of an emergency, because of the yield and the ways you can store food away.

Foraging is something we all should consider learning, as there is food everywhere, we just have to know where to find it. Tree nuts can be made into flour, for bread, for instance.

Even in an apartment, there are things I could be doing, plants I could be growing, to supplement my food, things I could be foraging—but I don't do it.

 

[The Narrow Way]

No one should post that publicly. Given the rising costs and increasing shortages its unwise. This is a public forum.

As far as I can tell, posting in the POLL doesn't reveal who you are, does it?

 

[Believer000]

As I think about the hard times coming....I wonder how much food the average person has on hand. I know many who live paycheck to paycheck, so I can hardly imagine that that they have many meals ahead... My husband and I live in the Country, I grow a large garden, and do alot of canning, dehydrating and freezing....I'm sure if I needed to, I could avoid going to the store for at least a year....I believe we should have enough food to carry us through from this years garden to next years garden.

So, I'm curious as to how much food you all have on hand?

Personally, I do not even worry about running out of food. The Lord will always provide it for us when we need it.

 

[The Narrow Way]

Personally, I do not even worry about running out of food. The Lord will always provide it for us when we need it.

I don't believe we should worry about running out of food, either, provided we are doing what God expects of us. God doesn't magically bypass the step of us having to go to the grocery store to buy food...we have a part to play. We have to earn money so we can go to the store and purchase the food we need. If we are too lazy to earn money, I don't believe we should count on God to fill our bellies . Likewise, when we can see all around us that there are shortages everywhere on many things, it's only commonsense to do what we can to avoid a lack of food...whether that be growing a garden, canning surplus foods, drying and freezing extra foods. God expects us to use commonsense and when we do, we can count on Him to not let us go hungry.

 

[Believer000]

I don't believe we should worry about running out of food, either, provided we are doing what God expects of us. God doesn't magically bypass the step of us having to go to the grocery store to buy food...we have a part to play. We have to earn money so we can go to the store and purchase the food we need. If we are too lazy to earn money, I don't believe we should count on God to fill our bellies . Likewise, when we can see all around us that there are shortages everywhere on many things, it's only commonsense to do what we can to avoid a lack of food...whether that be growing a garden, canning surplus foods, drying and freezing extra foods. God expects us to use commonsense and when we do, we can count on Him to not let us go hungry.

The Lord feeds the birds of the air and they neither sow nor reap. We are told not to worry about what we shall eat as the Lord will already provide it for us. I agree we need to use common sense and grow our own etc, but I believe it should not be something we need to worry about.

 

[Lost4words]

I live from day to day regarding food.

My idea of prepping is to trust in God 100%

 

[The Narrow Way]

The Lord feeds the birds of the air and they neither sow nor reap. We are told not to worry about what we shall eat as the Lord will already provide it for us. I agree we need to use common sense and grow our own etc, but I believe it should not be something we need to worry about.

I couldn't agree with you more! I know some who are CONSUMED with "prepping"....it's all they think about (and worry about)....and I don't believe that is at all what God wants us to do .

 

[dqhall]

I couldn't agree with you more! I know some who are CONSUMED with "prepping"....it's all they think about (and worry about)....and I don't believe that is at all what God wants us to do .

I bought organic oats, black beans, chickpeas, lentils and quinoa in ten pound bags. When they were less than half full, I reordered. I have ten lbs of Himalayan brown rice. It has less arsenic than American brown rice. I bought organic corn meal and have been experimenting with corn mush in my Instant Pot pressure cooker. I filled my freezer with frozen vegetables and fruit. I bought bananas and froze them after they ripened. Lately I switched to regular black beans to avoid shipping costs. Bought sweet potatoes. There is no tobacco or alcohol in my home.

I used to have a little house near the harbor. I planted loquats and avocados. I was there four years, long enough to start picking fruit. I chose fast maturing trees. I had to cut down a guava tree after fruit fly maggots were in the fruit. Citrus greening disease killed Florida orange and grapefruit trees wiping out billions of dollars worth of fruit.

 

[Lost4words]

And sharing your bones. Don’t be stingy!

No way!! They are all hidden...(cant remember where though! )

 

[Evegpt]

I live on the Gulf Coast and I don’t think it is lack of trust in God if you live in a diaster zone, fires, floods, tornados, hurricanes to put aside provisions for the next time that happens. People that were unprepared had a hard time after Katrina. God says to be a good steward if your money so I try to keep a small store but it’s not because I don’t trust God.
I believe it is possible to overdo prep but it becomes a hobby almost for some people. They enjoy prepping. I don’t think they do it’s because they don’t trust God to provide. Some people go to ballgames. Some preppers go to the gun range. God had Joseph store up for the famine.

 

[Matt5]

In Switzerland, my apartment complex has an underground shelter for 63, except there are a couple of problems. It's standing room only. The bathroom is locked, and anyone's guess as to who has the key. No food. I'm not sure about water.

That's going to be a fun 3 or 4 days waiting for the fallout to subside if America, Russia and China go war. And that is looking more and more likely. There are three ways America is already at war with Russia:

1. Sanctions.
2. Military supplies for Ukraine.
3. Intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Russian officials have already said that sanctions and military supplies for Ukraine are acts of war. I'm pretty sure that US intelligence sharing just helped Ukraine take out a Russian general who used a regular mobile phone.

I'm getting ready for WW3. I won't be using that underground shelter. There are other underground rooms I can use.