Prepping for Non-Prepping Family

wow.

 

$100 for 6 people... for HOW LONG?

I appreciate that it's very generous of you, NCGirl, and probably a sacrifice to even spend that much.  I do have to wonder why these 4 adults cannot be bothered to invest $100 in their own continued survival.

The only thing I can think of that will have any hope of making a difference is bulk pinto beans and rice.  Together they make a nutritional meal.  You can get an inexpensive pressure cooker for $17 at Walmart, which will cook beans in 30 minutes instead of 4 hours and rice in 5 minutes instead of 20-30 minutes (conserve fuel).  Throw in a couple of large boxes of quaker oats for variety, and a couple of cans of canned meat (chicken, tuna or spam) and a bottle of multi-vitamins.

4 x 8.99  (35.96) 25 lb Dried Pinto Beans

4 x 6.69 (26.76) 25 lb Bulk White Rice

$6 Swimming Pool Chlorine (dry Calcium Hypochlorite) for H2O purification

$17.50  Small Pressure Cooker

$11.69 Multi-Vitamin 500 ct.

(food prices checked at Costco last week, P.cooker at Walmart)

Whatever canned meat & oatmeal you can get with the remaining $2 plus any additional you decide to spend on these deadbeats.  Sorry, that was judgemental.  I'm in a bit of a foul mood right now over people who can read the papers, see it on the internet, listen to Oprah, ABC News, Fox News Channel etc. etc. and remain willfully stubbornly BLIND to all of it, and expect someone else to be responsible for their sorry A$$ once the $H4!T has hit the fan.  Anyone tries that with me, they will be lucky to get a can of spam, a package of crackers, and the business end of a shotgun telling them "that's all you get, if you come back you'll be leaving with some lead in the seat of your pants".  Which would be where their brains currently reside if they can't put 2 + 2 together and take some F*ing responsibility for themselves and THEIR CHILDREN - HELLO?

Ahem - this concludes my rant, we now rejoin our regularly scheduled post, already in progress.

As a ballpark number, figure 1 lb of re-hydrated food per person per day.  That makes this roughly a 2 month supply of food for 6 people.  When they show up on your doorstep, bring out the food and tell them good bye and good luck. Then lock your door.  You don't need that kind of dead weight hanging around.  Plus you don't need to watch their children suffer because of their parents stupidity.

be very careful about handing out food during a pandemic.  you don't want your neighbors or people passing by to see or you'll have a real problem. 

if you are absolutely going to buy preps for them I would focus on water, rice, canned beans, canned beef stew, protein/ration bars, and ready to eat soups. and extra can openers.

but once their supply of items that you give them runs out what will they do?  they'll be begging to stay with you.

WAY TO GO BRUSSO01 LET THEM EAT GRASS FOR ALL WE CARE WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN ALL THE WARNINGS VERY QUIETLY BUT.... WE GET IT WHAT DON'T THEY GET??? i HAVE TOLD AND HELPED EVERY ONE I COULD THAT WOULD LISTEN BUT..... SOME JUST DON'T GET IT GOOD LUCK AND KEEP ON KEEPIN ON!!!!!!!

O.P. here:  My mom has advanced stage 4 cancer which she has been fighting for over a year.  It has spread to her bones and several organs so her time is limited at this point.  I don't know how much this has to do with thier attitude about the "possible" danger of BF when there is a very real danger right in front of them.  Or, perhaps they would feel the same no matter if she were perfectly healthy.  Most everyone I know feels this way unfortunately. 

Regardless of her situation, I want to do a little something to help out my family where I can.  I am on a very limited budget so I can only do so much right now.

We have a hand dug well that we could throw a bucket down for water if power were off so we are good as far as water goes.

I have about 200#'s of rice and 100# of dried beans plus about 150 cans of veggies, a dozen #10 cans of fruits for myself, hubby and grandmother who we would move in with if the time came.   Now I feel somewhat confident about our own provisions I want to do what I can to help my family within my budget.   

NCGirl -

Sorry to hear about your mom.  Guess I leapt to conclusions in the absence of any details.  Gotta watch that, my apologies.  I DO hear so many tales of healthy, able-bodied people who are just in denial or who so "live for the moment" that they can't be bothered to take note of this emerging situation.  I have trouble working up any sympathy for THEM.

Are you able to talk to them, maybe get them a little more informed?  Your mom and grandmother especially have to have some awareness that they are especially vulnerable to any illnesses that might start going around... can you get any "buy in" there?  Frankly, $100 is a drop in a bucket if your aim is to be prepared for a pandemic.  Do either of them have a "root cellar" or home canned fruits or vegetables?  Maybe a pooling of resources approach would work for you folks.  Just out of curiosity, who are the children and who are their parents?

God bless and good luck.

Another thing to consider is that, since apparently so few Americans are prepping, it is likely that the federal government is planning something, foodwise, for communities where quarantines are mandated.


Seems to me, that I read something somewhere about the National Guard would deliver food & medicine to homes under quarantine; anyway, IF this hypothesis is accurate, it seems to me that the military would prolly be delivering commodities --- more beans & rice & oatmeal & powdered milk --- and, of course MREs.


Just a thought...


Maybe there's info online about the DOD plans for civilian emergencies.

Your mom will need lots of extra prescriptions for her medicines.  How well does she eat?  Can she eat lots of solid foods like rice and beans?  Does she get stomach sick a lot?  You may think of getting some large jars of baby food and infant cereal.  I'm getting some just to have on hand for my own family.  Infant cereal is very good nutritionally. 

I'm going to fire up the fondue pot today and make sure it gets water to a roaring boil :-) I've been meaning to do that!

NCgirl, we just had a drawn out death in the family, and it really crimped my prepping time and even time to think about it. I know where you are coming from!

I'll let you know how the chafing pot fuel goes. Russ's idea of a pressure cooker might be better, if you think they can cook outside, but I know I don't want to be dependant on outside cooking here! It's cold, windy and wet here much of the year.

I was laying in bed last night thinking about this. How much to waste on comfort food and how much to spend on pure survival. Since we don't know what's coming...it's hard to know :-0

For someone like your mom...I think I'd put away a bit of comfort food as appetetite fatigue will set in almost instantly. I'm realizing though...that for the strong and healthy...I shouldn't really reward them at my expense.

I'm going to plan on some Ramen, but think I will stick to beans, rice, a baggy of mixed spices and vegetable flakes, oatmeal, dry milk, tea, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and oil. And a good thermos or a pressure cooker.

willow41 wrote: ....You may think of getting some large jars of baby food and infant cereal.  I'm getting some just to have on hand for my own family.  Infant cereal is very good nutritionally.

We have no infants in our household, but always have quite a quantity of baby cereals, arrowroot cookies, and jars of pureed baby fruits on hand.

I consider them a mandatory medical supply, LOL -- because no matter how upset an adult stomach may become, it seems that one can always digest the baby cereal.

I'll have to check the box to see the nutritional content, didn't realize that it was considered nutritive.

One of the first things on my prep list is to get a supply of Ensure-type bottled beverage-"foods" ---- they have too much corn syrup in them, but the sheer fact is that very ill people have remained alive with that as their sole nutrition for weeks & weeks --- so it is another very digestible food for the ill, like the baby food cereals and jars of pureed fruit.

Omega,

I've lived off Ensure and Jello for weeks. Yes, it can be done. For 2 years I had SEVERE stomach pains and lost 40 pounds. Thankfully I'm doing a bit better now, but yeah, you can live off Ensure and Jello :-)

Bruss,

Thanks to you I got a kick in the butt and tested out my cooking supplies. The fuel doesn't fit in the fondue pot :-( The Chafing pot, as I knew is NOT the best method for boiling water, and will be better for heating up a family size portion of a canned meal. It DID bring cold water to a rolling boil though, also as I expected. It's just unsafe to try and pour out the water.

I drove to a military store and bought a camping stove. I'll test it out tomorrow, but it looks good. Store clerk looked at me like I was nuts when I walked in. I guess tiny, little blondes don't come in very often. She stared at me so hard, I asked if they were open :-0 I lied and said I was looking for camping gear :-)

Fuel works GREAT. It's just setting up the "kitchen" that's a bit trickier :-)

 

fritz wrote: I have several jars of baby carrots and sweet potatoes for making soups with. In this book I got "The can opener gourmet", she suggests it and I thought it was a great idea. They have a nice shelf life, no need for a blender or cooking, all the prep work done already......

   


Goodness, that soup sounds absolutely delicious -- thanks so much for sharing! I'll have to take a look at that cook book some day when I'm at a bookstore.

There are so very many pureed vegetables for baby, so the possible cream soups for adults are many.

  Can someone please tell me if they have found some kind of stove that you can use to safely cook inside?  There might be times when you can't go out to cook on a camp stove.  The electricity might be off. and ect.  I thought i saw something on one of the post but i can't remember where.  Thanks a lot for any advice.  Please feel free to PM me. I already have a fondue set.  Will anyone be using those small toaster ovens before the electricity goes off?  Is it a good idea to have one so you don't have to use your large oven?

NCGirl wrote: I would like to spend $100 of my very limited prep money towards bare minimum preps for family members that I know will show up at my door if this hits. Total of 4 adults & 2 kids What to buy with $100?? I go by Sam's Club Daily.

I've decided that I am going to start FOUR different bags, each identical to oneanother, containing items that I find on deep discount that I normally pick up for my own family to put into my stash of storage preps.

The first item each bag will receive is a 6-pack of Raman Noodles ($1); in fact, maybe I'll put two different flavors inm (for $2 per bag = $8 total expenditure.)

Occasionally, I find superb deals like canned soup at 4/$1 or canned veggies at 5/$1 and on those occasions, I'll simply pick up an extra four at that time.

Last year I happened upon mandarin oranges at 8/$1, and that is another type of item I'd purchase in multiples of four to place in these probable Give Away bags.

If we enter really dire straights, I'd like to know that I can help out close neighbors with a little something 'extra' that won't break my bank account but might potentially really help them.

I'd prefer to have a wide variety of items, and not simply purchase a huge sack of rice and several bags of dried beans.

I think MOST Americans will have difficulty dealing with a diet of canned goods, much less the problems encountered with an instantaneous change to the diet with beans/rice/grains/powdered milk/etc.

I'm thinking, too, that the next time I see plastic storage containers on deep discount, that I'll pick up four.

AND, with these items, I'm going to stick white labels on them showing the expiration dates in easy to find and easy to read format ----- because these items will no longer be with the normally rotated items.

NCGirl wrote: I would like to spend $100 of my very limited prep money towards bare minimum preps for family members that I know will show up at my door if this hits. Total of 4 adults & 2 kids What to buy with $100?? I go by Sam's Club Daily.

One hundred dollars is not very much money for six people.

Were I you, I would NOT spend that hundred dollars at this time, but wait as long as possible --- and meantime continue prepping for your own family, particularly stocking up during sales, deep discounts, clearance items.

One hundred dollars simply is NOT enough money to take care of your parents, for any lengthy amount of time.

IF your family gives you birthday & Christmas presents, you might inform them that you only want gift certificates to the grocery store because you are the only member of the entire extended family who is prepping and you are VERY worried about your own children having enough to eat to survive in light of the fact that none of their adult relatives are prepping.....

That 'subtle' hint might work......