Prepping Advice: What are you hoarding for "the bad times"?

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That's my point. If canned goods just sit there on a shelf, then eventually after several years, to be safe, they need to go. You don't want to open a can with a best-by date of 2024 in 2027.
Canned goods are good for a LOT longer than what the expiration date says.
FDA has regs that each can MUST have an expiration date and unless its dehydrated food it can only be x years in the future from manufacture.
Modern commercially canned food is safe well beyond its expiration date, only exceptions are cans with acidic sauces such as tomato sauce or canned fruit. But even those last a bit, just not the 10+ years common otherwise.
 
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I've not seen any mention yet of sanitation. How many people involved and what are you using...sewer or septic system? In a worst case scenario I don't expect the sewers to function very long nor do I expect to get a septic system pumped when I want it done. What about your trash? Do you have a plan to burn or bury it that won't contaminate your water supply? How much do you trust your neighbors? All the prep in the world won't help if you don't have at least some cooperation.
Very true . its all about team and access to sanitation is a must
 
I don't have first-hand knowledge but I'd expect most city sewer systems rely on active pumping at least in part. With no knowledge of the location in question, it's impossible to guess.
 
Daily reports of inventory shortages, rumors of war, inflation, etc. We've seen or there are predictions of shortages: food (beef, chicken, pork, grain, etc.), household goods, medication, healthcare, energy, oil, fuel, etc.

Key needs are: shelter (heat), water, food/nutrition, defense, energy, mobility. And redundancy is important.

I prep for months (and in a radical case up to 1-2 years) of sustenance supply chain interruptions, knowing that if there is more than a week or few weeks of true food shortages there will be unrest. I have a few weeks of fresh foods. I have a few months of frozen and canned foods. I have probably 2 years of long term storage dry goods, with a radical change in diet and calorie intake. This includes dry goods like beans, rice, wheat, long term packaged foods (MREs, Mountain House, etc. of which I have 100 meals of that alone, which is a year of eating 1 proper meal every 3 days to supplement all the dry goods). I have clean water drums and bladders to fill, water filtration, and can gather water from natural sources and filter. I also have 6-12 months of dog food on hand at all times. Dry food will last 6 months, canned food ~2 years. Rotation is key.

I just moved and my new home has an excellent plot for gardening and it will be on my top priority. Gardening and a few egg laying chickens are on my priority list, for food and bartering purposes.

While fuel is the weak link and hard to store, at times I've stored up to and sometimes more than 50 gallons of gas (when it was on sale for $1.60 in mid-2020, I stocked up with 20 gas cans). I also have years worth of motor oil to use, sell, or barter with.

Sanitation: Yes. I have 1-2 years worth of bar soap, liquid soap, detergents, dish soap, hand soaps, and shampoo and hand sanitizer. And probably 6 months of TP on hand at all times. Keep a bucket and shovel handy if the plumbing goes out!

Energy: I've currently got several methods of heat and ways to cook food, and will be adding a wood stove near term. Fireplace, camp stoves, outdoor fire pit, propane grill, gas generator, electric range and microwave.

Of course guns and ammunition, security measures to defend.

Community is critical, so befriend your neighbors and get to know the local farmers, buy meat and poultry directly from them to form relationships NOW. This can be critical going forward.
 
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There were a lot of learnings from our recent “dry run”. Number one, it was surprising how important toilet paper was. I imagine it could be good barter material and it never spoils. Number two, if it’s serious, the stores will be emptied in hours. Number three, everything depends on truckers accessing fuel and unclogged roads.

Guns and ammo sounds good but the bad guys have that too.
 
No, just give them to my kids. I'm too old to deal with doom's day and that crap. ;)
You can always make yourself useful to your children even if old.
As long as you have most of either your hearing or your vision you can be that person that stays as a guard up all night in SHTF, to free up the young men's sleep so they can perform labor.
 
A lot of people envision "Mad Max" or "the Road," but we are CURRENTLY living in the environment for which I've been prepping for.

When folks were/are having hard time finding (XYZ), I walk into my pantry or garage or hobby/storage room, and grab the extra (XYZ) everyone else is scrambling to get. Now it's impossible to stock everything, but here's some examples of where my philosophy has prevailed in the last 2 years. If nothing else, these have been very effective hedges against inflation saving me about 30% - 50% or more in the last 2 years.

*Ammunition and guns. Every form I frequent has people grousing about the poor availability, lack of options, high prices, and long waits (often new laws) making obtaining guns/ammo/mags difficult.
* TP: Long lines for this stuff, and I have 6-12 months on hand.
* Cars, car parts, tires, etc. How many threads are here with folks grousing. I bought a bunch of different cars, maintain them, and have parts on hand for predictable repairs.
* Food: Prices of much of our food have soared. I rarely have to buy food, I have so much on hand. I only have to replenish some fresh foods from time to time, and I try doing that with local markets.
 
Not prepared for anything, except guns and ammo for protection.
I feel we are living in the best of times, I think social media has people convinced otherwise, the early 1960s was dangerous, life has never been more easy in mankind’s history than now.
Agree water is the single most important thing to have and we have plenty of lakes and streams here.
An EMP will end life as we know it and no way will you be able to pump water from the ground. All commercial food production will no longer exist.

With that said will the OP please post his address so we all know where to go just in case 🙃
I certainly can not fault someone being prepared as best they can it’s actually kind of cool. Again a water source that can be accessed without power is a must.
 
Overall, a two week supply is not outrageous and everyone should probably have that. Luckily I like pork N beans, sardine fillets, canned soups such as clam chowder and Japanese noodles, peanut butter etc. and can cycle through these before their best before date. Thanks for posting. Let's continue to keep from getting political and get more ideas out there. ;)
 
Canned Tuna! One of my favorites and has a LONG date on them. I normally stock a fair amount because I like it so much, I guess a few cases of all types would be good, super high protein, Canned Salmon another great choice, calcium too, canned mackerel is super cheap, loaded with protein and calcium as well. One thing for sure, if we really want to prepare there is a lot you can buy and store right from the supermarket and as some of you do, cycle it around, don't forget simple stuff like a healthy supply of daily vitamins to help make up for some veggies and fruit that you may not have access too.
 
I'm on borrowed time. I take heart medicine and only have two months of extra supply. I could score it in half and lower my dependency but it might take longer than my available stock. Luckily my daughter is a Marine so that's all the hope I got that truly matters.
 
I'm on borrowed time. I take heart medicine and only have two months of extra supply. I could score it in half and lower my dependency but it might take longer than my available stock. Luckily my daughter is a Marine so that's all the hope I got that truly matters.
Get a paper script from your doctor, take it to a pharmacy you never used, do not provide insurance, get the generic with a GoodRX discount and stock up.
 
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