Week Haul, April 28th, 2011

The prepping budget got hustled around a bit and we had some household necessities so I did what I could with what I had. I also made more salt and cornmeal purchases but didn't bother to take a pic of it coz I'm sure you've all been there and done that Haha.

Dried potatoes were $1 buck a piece. Pretty good deal. I'm going to try 1 pkg first and then go back for a case - this 1 pint container reconstitutes to about 1lb of hash browns.








The last day of the sale I picked up more pink salmon @ $1.79. It will be on sale again in about a month anyway. I also picked up a lb of plain almonds and another lb of cocoa powder.








Strawberries were pretty good so I picked up 10lbs and a few lbs were eaten...










...the rest were canned. 7 lbs made 8 1/4 pints of preserves. Fair enough











There was even a little extra to make preserves for the evil moms ice cream.











The girl stuff was 2.99 but it gave a 3 dollar in store rebate so I purchased the Jergens bar soap for 1.50 (for 8 bars) - we received about a dozen nepro samples free which is enfamil for diabetics and we threw them in the bob for extra vitamins and calories. i also picked up an extra can opener just to have it around for a buck.





We must just be lucky here because a lot of these discount stores carry a LOT of good stuff that is neither expired nor destroyed. We really like the 99 cent only because ours also carry produce, tea, Texas toast and first aid type things.

This is my first dirt purchase of 34 bags $34.66. That's a half cubic foot per bag @ .99 cents.



Found more of the chocolate chips for 95cents each and grabbed the 16 they had on the shelf. I also picked up some very large ghirardelli choco bars on final clearance for 1.19 ea.








I took the Swedish aunties to Ross to look for some gym clothes (they like adidas and puma) and they swore everything in there was cheap - well yeah it's cheap if you are a size 4 and a size 6 and everything on clearance has your name on it - haha. However I found these 1.5 loaf pans for 5.49 ea and a norpro pasta machine for 20 bucks. BUT on top of that they had the "senior" discount on a Tuesday so I got 10% off everything.


The most awesome part of the loafpans wasn't just the quality of them but they are made in the USA. Yeah unbelievable right. Someone told me they paid 12 bucks for theirs and they were made in China (bleh). Seems to me that a lot of prepping related things are often made in the US. If that ain't telling you something I dunno what is.




I stopped at Walgreens again to take advantage of the full rebate on the girly stuff and even used my rebate on some pretty cool stuff. Funny how 2 little 99cent bottles of nail polish seem like a treat, the rubber palmed gloves were only 1.49 and the gardening stuff was only 75 cents, I still had quite a bit left on the rebate so I picked up 4 bottles of 91% alcohol.



The tomato sauce was 5/$1 so I picked up 20 cans and called it a day.











We used more than half the 1st batch I bought to fill the small bed, so after my eye appt I stopped and picked up another 40 bags. yeah you heard me 40 bags.









Mom 2 was wandering the store and found this oyster sauce for only 99 cents. This exact same brand was selling at the asian store for $2.99. Unbelievable how much people lift that price on you if you don't know where you are buying stuff.







Afro picked up 4 more bags of compost, 10 bags of 'dirts' and found 4 tires "free take them" a few blocks down lol. We are going to use the tires for the tobacco plants to keep them high enough and away from the dogs since they seem fascinated with the gardening crap.

on Mr Mans Youtube someone posted that we should watch out for compost having hidden herbicides and roundup and such because it might impact the growth or non growth of our plants. Fair enough. He then went on to talk about he's been composting since 2009. LOL ok. we learned this crap 2 months ago. *shakes head* I find that most advice is too late, irrelevant to the desert, assumptive that we aren't already doing it or simply an attempt of tooting ones own horn. It is what it is --- but I find that good intentions are rarely good there is a bit of egocentricity in there. But when advice is good and it's people you know it's REALLY good. That potting mix comes from long beach shavings. They don't have much detail about their product but I did email them.

It's like this. We are doing as much as we can in the short time we've started prepping (5 months on the 1st). I'd like to think we are holding our own when it comes to this prepping thing. We are just trying to focus on what we can do - all the fine tuning will come later. Also, when it comes to prepping this quickly - we don't have time to do esoteric things like make our own compost on the spot (the leaves and grasses from our plants take a bit longer to compost), make our own toothpaste, buy the best mill, use only heirloom seeds (we're practicing with storeboughts), and don't get me started on every tom dick and harry telling us what kind of weapon to have. Look. We are further along than some people who have been prepping a year - at this point in time it is important to have each base covered rather than just ONE base covered well - that defies logic to focus your energies on one small detail because someone put in a bit of advice. It's called workarounds to prevent holes in your prepping. Prepping involves a wide array of preparations - and seeing as to how anything could hit the fan it's best to just cover yourself long enough to get to the point you can fine tune each area. Jeez.

We also had a lot of hidden expenses this month: optometrist appointments, 2 pairs of glasses each and contacts, gardening and hardware related expenses and of course the all mights ass kicking at the gas pump. Give me a damn break.

Preppin into Overhaul...the last 2 days

So last Sunday the head of World Bank stated We (the world) are one crisis away from complete shutdown. If that wasn't enough to bunch up your undies on Monday S&P put a toe tag on the US economy by declaring it as Negative. All I've got to say is WOW. If you still don't think we're headed into an obvious depression you are really living in a dream world.

I was going to take a "break this week" and slow down a bit with the prep purchasing but I am thankful that (yet again) something spurred me into action. I was starting to feel like I'm going a bit overboard but what would it really hurt to add preps? The ghetto garden is come and go - when I think it looks good it gets fried and when I think it's dead 8 plants show up- so I'm just watering it and letting it happen. Mr. Man will be building the beds this weekend so we'll see how that goes. Mom 1 insists that I use the old kiddie pool for yams and potatoes lol - I will do it just to amuse her. There will a blog on the ghetto garden this weekend!

I decided that if I couldn't find any hard white wheat this week I would dump the budget into preps related to canning; jars, pickling salt, vinegar, pectin, extra lids and funnels. But I did find some cool stuff along the way.


Yesterday I stopped at Wally world -sugar is still holding at 13.48 for 25 lbs - so I picked up a couple of those. I picked up 1 box of pint jars and 2 boxes of quart jars. Vinegar actually went down in price about .30 cents. Miracle.

Total about $49.40






Mom 1 is pretty spooked by the hyperinflation and is consistently contributing canned meats to my preps. I feel bad but at least she gets it.

Fortunately those were only 1.79 ea. I also picked up 3 extra packs of widemouth lids (about 2.75), 1 pack of regular lids (about 2.30), 10 packets of pectin (9 bucks), 2 backup funnels (1.30 each), 1 box pickling salt (i can't believe they were out), 6 dove bars (.39 cents ea).

Total: $36.99 +tax.
I stopped by the 2nd wally world I go to today and they were completely out of wheat berries. Dang - so I picked up another 2 bags of sugar, 5 pickling sugar, 2 organic plant food (4 bucks each), 1 more case of jars (9.44). The organic miracle grow is regular 10 bucks so i got a BIT of a deal.

Total. $36.52










This is my deal of the day. I stopped by my regular little grocery store but didn't like their Wacky Wednesday produce sale - so I checked out their sale aisles in hopes of finding more of the white corn meal - they were out. But I did find these - corn meal mix 5 lbs for $1...


Haha. Imagine that.








See it's 5 lbs and there's the nutrition info.
The expiration is set for Sept 2012, but it will be bagged and tagged by then so no worries.









On the way home, I passed the dollar store and went back to pick up 4 more packs of cinnamon sticks for 3.96. that's 60 sticks.











I'm not knocking anyone who's got it (money and means) and they don't want to prep. But watch yourselves, hedge your wealth. If you haven't bought anything try to store something at least 3 months of food. If you can learn new things; gardening, canning, sun drying, first aid - learn some kind of basic skill that will serve YOU. Inflation tension is so thick in the air you could cut it with a knife.

On a more positive note: 3 days ago we had a math test and the 3 chatterbox bimbos were cheating: everyone could see it they had formulas in their phone and were copying each others answers. I told them outloud - if you must cheat at least have the courtesy to play it off since the rest of us actually studied. Today 2 test results came back - um why did those HAMHEADS get 55 and 60's bwaa hahaha. I got 2 95% results hahahha. Life is GOOD.

Weekend Haul, April 17th 2011

This is the weekend haul in review.

I think Mom#1 has caught the prepping bug at least on some level - she was like you must get 50 cans of that salmon if it expires in 2016. I asked because it's pre nuclear? She said,"well that and that it's only going up in price and it tastes good." LoL. Needless to say she bought all the salmon and girl goods, I bought the rest. I think I scared her a bit yesterday morning when we were driving around and she said what will these people do when the depression hits. I told her they will die. She said WHAT and I said 65% of people are already dead Mom because they will not let go of their spoiled arrogant ways. She was actually scared silent for about 20 minutes.


On some random clearance aisle with a 2 year expiration - I found 5 lbs of white corn meal for $1. yes ONE DOLLAR for a 5lb bag. So I popped into the dollar store and picked up 5 more packets of ginseng.




$9.95 total






In just 2 days - the pickling salt is up 17 cents. It went from 1.19 a pkg to 1.36a pkg. Unbelievable - I don't know who the hell they think they are fooling, I may buy it but I see what they are doing. While there I also picked up 4 pkgs of jiffy pop 2 lb bags @ $1.49 a bag and a canister of lou ann's coconut oil - just in case.

$19.12 total





The salmon was $1.79. Girls Stuff $.99 after rebate. Flour was 1.50 a bag (hey it's cheap and I use that for everyday baking.) Gloves were $5 for 120 gloves after coupon. Green Beans and Sweet Corn were $.49. The ham was $1.99 after coupon (product of denmark).

$45.66 total







More of the same deal but at 2 other stores. Like I said the Mom's caught the bug and said ok one more store, one more store. Mom 1 even got herself some decaf for only 4.99 each and they also had a 2 buck rebate that we applied to the salmon.

$54.83 total


I know it all seems pricey but it isn't not for ham, salmon, coffee, girly goods, and chocolate...plus we're looking at almost 60lbs of valuable goods.




Sometimes I wish I could just let up and relax and not have to worry about it but I KNOW that prices are headed nowhere but up. I know that we are the 3rd generations since the depression and it is our turn because nothing has changed in the government so we are doomed to suffer. I know that being in school is not conducive to having money for good eats and if i want to get good grades I need nutrition and sustenance. I know the powers that be could give half a rats ass if we live or die so I'm looking out for us the best way I can.

Humanitarian Effort, well mine at least....

Humanitarian Effort...forget Obama's humanitarian aid. This is our last ditch attempt at helping our friends. Our friend JD is single and kind of dating, and he also works a LOT. We've been encouraging him to go buy his preps but truth be told he doesn't know where to start.


Like I said this is our last ditch effort to help our friends - we have made an offer to various friends that if you give us 20 bucks a week we will provide you basic preps and split some of our bulk purchases with you. JD being as smart as he is handed the husband 40 bucks immediately.

I purchased the above items for him for $22.50 or something like that.

5 lbs of flax seed
5 lbs of lite red kidney beans
5 lbs of kidney beans triple cleaned
5 pkgs fettucine (12 oz pkg)
3 cans of pineapple bits
5 small bottles of peter pan peanut butter
2 pkgs of organic raisins
2 bottle of vinegar

From our pre inventory bulk I will also add

5 cups of oatmeal (10 servings)
5 cups of sugar
2 lbs rice (blue ribbon)
3 cans green beans
3 cans sweet corn
1 can salmon
1 can spam
1 can ham
1 can tuna

That is approximately 38 or 39 lbs of food for 40 dollars. In an emergency situation this will also feed him for 2 weeks. I haven't spoken to him yet about what he keeps in terms of alternate cooking, water, spices, etc. I keep his "stash" tracked on my excel spreadsheets as well as the date and amount of his contribution. The base "charge" for this will be $1 a lb. And I chalk up the slight markup to labor and gas surcharges.

I gain absolutely nothing doing this, actually it's a little more work for me. But we are doing this because we see that he has the desire to prep, is pinching his pennies to buy food and weapons and he has limited time and money to expend. So of course we will help him because he is helping himself he just doesn't have the 2 or 3 hours to dedicate to shopping.

He will pickup his preps here weekly or whenever he'd like and bringing them home until he has a 6 month stash. After that I will apply his contribution to long term preps such as wheat berries, bulk beans, sugar, honey, etc. In approximately 2 weeks I will also make him a miniature first aid kit to keep in his house and that will be charged accordingly out of his preps.

We had extended this offer to our friends back in February and they chuckled. Last month Mr. Man extended it to everyone but JD - nothing personal it just didn't occur to him, still those other friends said oh haha no thank you. Meanwhile they are buying new golf clubs, getting tattoos, taking little mini vacations, smoking weed, drinking their butts off and just blowing their money like their last name is Trump - I told Mr. Man - this is the absolute last time we will offer this to our friends because we do not benefit from this and all that chuckling and pshawing is really triggering violence inside of me - LOL.

I also advised him that after this - they are all to be advised that I have a 3 yard rule from our Front Door. Especially when SHTF it would be in their best interests to stay 20 feet from me at all times, because the door is closed.

As a nation we must WHAT? & April wk2 preps

Obama said,"...as a nation we must Share the Sacrifice..." THE HELL YOU SAY? Like as a nation we already haven't given enough shit for these wars and "humanitarian aid" and the replacement of jets and war machines. Meanwhile the schools, police, firemen, and sheriffs are being cut 30-50%.

Are you kidding me? You can slap that bullshit on a cupcake and feed it to some other moron coz I'm not choking it down.

Since I don't have any children I have never had any kind of deduction. I don't get any kind of income breaks and I always paid the most possible taxes out there. If it weren't for the deduction of the property taxes I pay and the remainder of the interest on a small school loan I wouldn't have ANY deductions. Meanwhile GE doesn't even pay taxes but gets far more breaks than a regular person.

This makes me really irate. As you can see from the photo above we bought the hype too. That was the day we voted for the bastard. Hope-nosis is a MF*&TJY!! It is what it is - but now we are awake and there is no going back. They are really about to twist it in and give it to us. Beware. If you don't have anything to protect your interests it might be wise to do something.

This is my Walgreens Haul from Sunday. The salmon was .99 cents, the cornbread was .29 cents, the royal jello stuff was 5 for $1 and the feminine products were free. It ended up being a little under 29 bucks. Nothing expires until about 2014.








I've been on a salt kick and a sugar kick. I picked these up for about 3.57. so 1.19 ea. They used to be around .89 cents for this 4 lb box. If you pickle and can buy your stuff now. I am buying this in anticipation of the garden I have started - it's been stop and go various times but I just keep trying.









I picked up this foldable bbq thing at the thrift store - it says $3.99 but because of this coupon thing I had it ended up being $2.79. We will still be making a couple rocket stoves but i figured this would just be good to have.











I had accidentally purchased 2 of some things and I returned them to Wally World - well I decided to look around the store since I had a 90 buck gift card resulting from the return (it would take 5 days to credit my debit card- bastids lol)...I found this water bottle that filters 99,9% of the cooties in water for only 11 bucks. Online it has a rating of 3.5% but i'm sure they paid 3x what I did. I decided that I didn't want to buy the bottle unless I could find the filters. Weird but i found 6 filters in the TOY DEPARTMENT marked down to 2.50 from like 9.50. So that is enough to filter 700 gallons including the one in the bottle.

Since I had quite a bit on the gift card I decided to check if they had anymore wheat berries (they didn't) and noticed that the sugar had gone up from 11.78 to 13.48. Are you EFFIN kidding me? In a matter of 6 days (i bought sugar Tue 4/4 and then went again on Mon 4/11), then my friend told me yesterday it went up ANOTHER 2 bucks. If you haven't purchased your sugar do it now. I didn't think we consumed that much sugar until I started really taking stock of my baking and now the making of preserves. Also you might consider it a trade item - especially if you are holding packs of kool aid in your preps.




2 surprises:

1) From my best chef friend who just came back from France to New Mexico - she sent me some marzipan and vanilla beans - YAY thank you.

2) A subscription to organic gardening from Mr. Man aka Afroprepper. Because I am always scrambling to look for stuff online and what not and I've gone to Bookman's used books many times with no luck finding books. thank you!




I popped by a couple of my usual stores to check out their sales and found 10 lbs of rice, 4 pkgs of whole cinnamon sticks (15 sticks per bag), organic salad greens and 1lb bags of whole flax seed. All of that was about $17.85.









It was also the Wacky Wednesday sale - so i picked up 3lbs of Braeburn Apples for .96 cents, 8 cucumbers for .99 cents, Mexican Grey squash was 2lbs for .98 cents, and 14 packet of ramen for $2. I really haven't stocked any ramen so I figure a dozen wouldn't hurt. That was 25 lbs of produce and 14 ramen and 4 hibiscus drink mixes for $11.17.







I didn't waste any time as soon as I got home I prepped the apples - the doggies are so happy to eat the cuttings off of them.

Whenever I buy apples at that super price I always have the produce manager cut one open so I can taste it and make sure they are big enough so that cooking them down isn't a waste of my efforts, these cut crisp and firm and tasted as a braeburn should - tart with a sweet afternote.






I also discovered the last of my cinnamon was gone so I reached into the preps part of the pantry and found some cinnamon I had scored a couple months ago. I had stopped by this little shop next to Safeway for page protectors --- when I went inside I noticed a bunch of spices on clearance for .62. I popped the tops to see if they were foil sealed and they were. So I grabbed 8 of them. Mind you these are double the size of what you buy in the store - so they were very much a steal.






While I prep the apples I melt the butter and sugar together and even burn the bottom a bit for that caramel flavor.











Then I throw half the apples on top and mix then throw the other half on, sprinkle the cinnamon and wait until it leaches the liquid out and shrinks the apples a bit. I take it to a quick hard boil but do NOT overcook them even if this is only 10 minutes in a boiling water canner








I didn't really find any instructions in my ball book so I took it to half an inch from the top and followed the directions for apple preserves. Since these are just a favorite of Mr. Man I did not want them to be gelatinized or made with pectin since they will be eaten warmed or on top of oatmeal or wheat cereals.

14lbs makes 12 pints - but the family ate about a pint of it. if you want the recipe it's below - if not just eyeball it - it will be fine.

The most work was chopping apples.


cinnamon apple recipe

13lbs braeburn apples - cleaned and chopped
1 stick butter
4 c sugar
1 c water
1/4 c lemon juice
3T cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin spice

bring to a hard boil - put in hot bottles and process as apple preserves per blue ball book.


We also decided to try the compost from a guy about 2 streets and 3 blocks over - he only charged us $3 bucks a bag for compost - they are about 40 lbs a bag. I think Mom 1 is coming around as she offered to pay for 10-15 bags of compost and the potting soil to mix with it for our beds. I guess watching the news is paying off for her, whatever the case I am grateful.






Please try to garden.
Please try to stock up on anything you eat.
Please move carefully in this troubled world where people are feeling the strain of inflation.

Last 2 Hauls - Prepping After the Walmart CEO tries to spook us.

Hello Everyone!

These are my last hauls from Monday and today. As most everyone knows the Walmart CEO came out over the weekend to advise that there will be substantial price raises at Walmart and all retailers and to expect severe inflation by this summer. Now mind you they've already been adding 1-2 bucks here and there the last 3 weeks. So I know those Waltons are going to put the hurt on us. Even if it may not cost them more they will still charge us more to make the cross board inflation even MORE profitable for themselves.

I read quite a few blogs, forums and watched some youtube vids of people giving accounts of how prices have gone up and walmart shelves emptied quickly over the weekend and I really had to stop myself from getting in that weekend fray and get something for our preps. I decided to take it as a challenge and see what would be left on Monday and how could i fill the gaps.

The APN chat was discussing salt. We have a lot of salt already - well what I consider a lot - we had about 5 containers of iodized, 2 containers of pickling salt, 20 containers of italian sea salt and some other gourmet good but useless salts. Well someone said, "traditionally salt has always been one of those trade items in a depression" Supposedly you are supposed to have a few grams per person per day. I always kept a little extra because I expected to salt meat and such - and more recently I added the pickling salt to go with my canning.

Since everyone went bonkers over the weekend buying sugar and flour and canned stuff - I decided I would pick up salt and chocolate type products.



Iodized salt was .39 cents for a standard canister of 1lb 10oz.
I picked up a case.



Baby corn was about .79 cents the vitamins and antibacterial wipes were about .95 cents. I also found something new - Campbells double noodle chicken soup - just add water. Each package has 2.5 servings. Those were a little over $1.



I found the stuff above at the 99cent only store. 3 pkgs black orange pekoe tea - 100 bags, we've tried the stuff and it is actually very good hot or cold. It used to be it had 120 teabags but those days are done. The nestle tollhouse mini toppers were .95 cents for some reason and I picked up another 5 of those to add to the preps. Lastly the Spanish wine vinegar was only 99 cents a liter and it IS made in Spain.




Lastly I picked up this wild alaskan salmon (exp 07/2016), at a buck a pop it's a bit spendy in my opinion. But I all it pre nuclear - which means it was canned prior to the Japanese radiation fallout after the earthquake and tsunami. The dove milk chocolate bars were 3 for 99 cents so i picked up a dozen. I know what you are saying, "Candy bars?" I often will purchase good quality plain chocolate bars because you can chop them up and put them into desserts. If you look at the collective weight of the chocolate bars versus a bag of morsels you get more bang out of your buck buying bars on sale.


Of course every chance I get I purchase a few bags of spinach so long as it is below $1 and I dehydrate it and add it to our stores since it is high nutrition and low weight. We could eat Spinach on just about anything so it's a no brainer for us. If you have a dehydrator I would definitely suggest drying bags of this stuff in between heavy dehydrating just to vary it up a bit.



Today is the crazy Wednesday Sale at a locally owned grocer - they normally put 4-6 items at a super low price to try and entice you to come in. They occasionally put limits but if you walk out and walk back in they don't care haha.

organic spinach 12 oz - $1
white onions - 3 lbs for $1
jalapenos 2lbs for $1
Green Bellpepper 5 pcs for $1
Zuchinni 2lbs for $1
Avocado's 5 for $1



Since we have a lot of folks in the house they've been eating up the corn - lol some of this is to replenish stock and the rest is for storage. It costs 20 cents more today but 60 cents a can is far better than the regular $1 a can. Just a month ago i was getting these for like .44 cents. Ridiculous. The oil was $1.50 each. The Betty Crocker things - which I rarely buy were .75 cents but for 8 portions that's ok. I also purchased 5 more canisters of salt for .39 cents each and finally the 3lb containers of bouillon (1 chicken and 1 chicken and tomato). yeah yeah I know it has additives - well that's not as crucial as flavor in a SHTF situation - well these bad boys are normally 7.99 each. Today with the sale price and a coupon I was able to purchase them at 2.99 each. Overall it was a good morning at Food City!



Finally, I stopped at the Walmart before I had to run home. First of all it was only around 830am. Secondly I wanted to see if they were still cleaned out , they were NOT. Finally, I was feeling lucky after my last haul and my earlier purchase and wanted to see if I was really in luck. Well first of all this lady cut me off on the street in front of walmart - THEN she cut me off IN the walmart parking lot. I already knew this lady was going to do some panic shopping. So I found the first available spot - got out, hit the alarm and did a half jog into the store. I found 100lbs of sugar, 25 lbs of hard white wheat, 25 lbs of hard red wheat both organic. So there I was tickled with myself and I pushed 150lbs of preps down the aisle and just as I reached the end here came the lady who cut me off twice. Bwawahahahahah- I grinned and said "see you later."

That was awesome

So overall we're talking about 219lbs of food over 2 days and we spent about $150.09 bucks. Today's haul was about .48 cents a lb and Mondays was about .85 cents a lb. Not bad and not as bad as i expected.

I just feel an incredible pressure to continue on because inflation is definitely here and it's only going to balloon even further. I know lot of my friends will make it and not miss any meals or even their little treats. Unfortunately I also know this...there is much potential for people to grow hungry and people who do not understand hunger through experience or exposure are in for a RUDE awakening. As it is in many European countries eating less if you eat at all will be the norm and even the poorest most destitute American still has "standards of living". This type of arrogance is exactly the type of bullshit that will kill you.