€5 preps

Tabnabs

The Americans have a great idea called the $5 preps. As one example, how you could build up a good food backup for $260 but spread out over a year.



If anyone has any suggestions, or wants to convert this to an Irish setting then I'm sure we'd all be interested in reading it.

Khannie

Super idea. I'm going shopping at the weekend and I'll see what I can get for a fiver.

I have a 1 euro prep that I do semi-regularly - a bag of sugar. We use significantly less than a bag of sugar per week so I've built up a reasonable store (about 10KG now). It's roughly 4000 calories. A little over a euro (the fairtrade caster sugar in lidl is 1.09 if memory serves) and it basically keeps forever once you store it right (a big plus).

It's obviously not a source of anything other than carbs which is a down side.

Khannie

Well I did this today. Went slightly over budget at around 6 euro. Think I got around 15000 calories and some useful bits. Details and a pic tomorrow.

Khannie

OK, here goes (some prices are from memory):
5 x chicken noodles (1 euro total, 540g)
1 x litre oil (1.39)
20g vitamin C (1.19)
2 tins tomato (78c)
1 packet rich tea biscuits (29c)
1KG salt (1.18)
500g pasta (50c)

Total is €6.33. I'm estimating, but total calories is probably around the 13000 - 15000 mark (the oil being the bulk of that). Enough to feed the family for 2 days. Even with no other source, the vitamin C is enough to stave off scurvy for our family for around 6 weeks, so pretty decent value. Obviously no source of quality protein there which is an issue, but I'll bear that in mind for the future.

In future I think I'll go with bulk buying the same product (e.g. 5 euro worth of chicken noodles, or 5 euro worth of tinned tomatoes or whatever happens to be on special, really). I was going for things that had a long shelf life or that we could rotate quickly (we'd go through a packet of rich tea in a week for example).

I encountered an issue on arriving home that I hadn't considered before - I'm eventually going to need quite a bit of space. 52 weeks worth of buying like that amounts to a lot.

On the plus side, it was easy enough to get buy in from the missus. Even if it's just from a "lost job" type (hopefully short term) shortage, it's good to have a food reserve to dip into.

touts

I went nuts about 18 months ago and bought about a months worth of canned and dried stuff. A while later I realised if SHTF didnt happen in the next 24 months I would be stuck with most of it because we didnt eat tinned corn beef or pot noodle stuff or powdered potatoes. jars of pickles etc.

So instead I started buying extra of what we do eat. Tins of Tomatoes (used in different pasta and indian dishes). Tins of coconut milk (used in curries) Chickpeas (used to bulk up lots of dishes) tinned baked beans and peas (used as a veg alternative on lazy cooking nights), tins of tuna (used for lunch sandwiches) and of course pasta, rice, couscous and noodles. I also stocked up on dried/ground herbs and spices and use them regularly. I also always have a reserve of 2 boxes/packs of wheatbix, cocopops, Sugar, Salt, tea, hot chocolate, coffee, digestive biscuits etc. Basically the stuff we use all the time and has a reasonable shelf life. I figure I have a month's worth of food and work it on a sort of Kanban system where when I use something I buy a replacement that goes to the back of the queue. There are some long lasting luxuries like last Chrismas I bought 4 christmas puddings with best before dates in 2014. I'll use them this year (2 are already gone) and replace them with new ones.

You can do a lot for €5 a week BUT it is best to spend it on stuff you will use or in 3 years you'll be sniffing an out of date tin of cornbeef or stirring a dodgy looking bowl of chicken flavour noodles wondering why you bothered in the first place.

wolfeye

Yeah i know the feeling of eating food stocks one has bought and you hate the taste of.

Just buy because of the long shelf life.
But when the S.H.T.F hunger makes a good sauce.
The hungrier you are the tastier that food you dislike will be.
Even bit of road kill badger will taste like the finest steak you ever had.

But all the same better buying food one regularly eats and likes.
Because if have choice of going to supermarket or eating food you dislike you wont eat it,the supermarket wins and stock will eventually find its way to the bin when needs to be rotated.

The treat food is good also to rise ones morale.

well thats my meandering thoughts on it.

i'll buy my 5 euro worth tomorrow.

The Glass Key

I've been thinking about the potential waste of long life items that we don't normally eat and in most cases the simple answer for us is to feed some of it to the dogs. Two fifty kilo canines take some feeding anyway and they are delighted to have the odd tin of corned beef now and then. They wouldn't get a full tin even between them just a slice or two mixed in with the normal food every now and then. Really salty food is a bit of a problem so the dogs would get even smaller amounts the end result is always the same empty bowls.

If you are actually pricing it out exactly then I think you have to have one week were you buy additional wrapping for storage. For example I keep two of the above pictured salt double wrapped in zip locked sandwich bags. Last week I spent about 6 euro on different sizes of zip lock bags. Anything that is in a paper outer gets put inside at least one zip lock bag.

I'd also add in the cost of a pack of permanent markers, mine from Lidl a couple of weeks back (4 for €1.??) because anything that goes in the store I mark with its use by date in large lettering, tins which can loose their labels also get marked to indicate contents so a tin marked on the top with BB 09/14 is a tin of baked beans OK until and probably way beyond September 2014.

My prep store is outside the main house hence the need for additional wrapping and the large use by dates make sorting a lot easier.

Hope that's not taking the thread off topic?

Filibuster

The best way to keep track of your food storage & eliminate waste would be to have a FIFO storage system (First In - First Out). Something like this racking system:

madmaxi

Am I missing something here, but why the hell would you need 180 lbs of sugar?
That's almost 81.5 kgs for a year.
That's one serious addiction to sugar!!

The Glass Key

madmaxi wrote: »

Am I missing something here, but why the hell would you need 180 lbs of sugar?
That's almost 81.5 kgs for a year.
That's one serious addiction to sugar!!

The amount of soup seems a bit strange too, lot of weight and bulk for very few calories but I took the list to just be an example to be improved on.

If I get the chance I'm going to put a spreadsheet together with the stuff I have in store (item, weight, calories, supplier, price, shelf life etc etc) and post it so we can an Irish list of products to add to and discuss.

Khannie

madmaxi wrote: »

Am I missing something here, but why the hell would you need 180 lbs of sugar?
That's almost 81.5 kgs for a year.
That's one serious addiction to sugar!!

It is a bit, but I suppose sugar keeps indefinitely and is good for a variety of uses (e.g. jam making, delicious delicious alcohol making and trading).

The Glass Key wrote: »

I took the list to just be an example to be improved on.

Pretty much the same.

The Glass Key wrote: »

If I get the chance I'm going to put a spreadsheet together with the stuff I have in store (item, weight, calories, supplier, price, shelf life etc etc) and post it so we can an Irish list of products to add to and discuss.

Looking forward to it.

The Glass Key

Khannie wrote: »

Looking forward to it.

So while its a bit off topic as its not specifically €5 preps here's a spreadsheet I made up this morning of one of my store boxes, it doesn't list everything in that one box as I've only included food items. I've made no attempt to balance whats in the box so its NOT like a weeks supply of balanced nutrition for x number of people anything like that. Its just a box of food.

I'm making no apologies for the anal amount of information I've included, I might even add a bit more (size and taste), because I'm trying to work out what information is really necessary and helpful for prepping.

Sorry no prices as I can't remember them, a few items in that specific box were bought last year some last month so the shelf life is sometimes a guesstmat.

I've added some notes I made as I thought of them as comments in the row headings and on the notes page.

Let me know what you think and if you want to make a group effort to create a list of easily available items that are useful as part of a prep store.

You'll see from my notes I've started to see some trends by listing all this info for just a few items and as the particular box isn't quite full yet I might aim at 50,000kcal per box. Hmmm next I have to weigh it don't I

Tabnabs

Great list and info The Glass Key. Have you been eating the preps towards their expiry date, just wondering what the quality of the food is like?

The Glass Key

No problem with quality of tinned stuff, occasionally I've had a bad tin, pineapple for example where the tin has split in store but otherwise OK. My son quite likes corned beef and we just finished off 4 tins that were 6 months out of date and they were fine. Also recently had some rice pudding that was 12 months out again it was fine.

What normally happens is I bring anything thats very near its BBD in from the store outside into the kitchen, if anyone takes a fancy to it it gets eaten if not the dogs get it, rarely anything goes to waste.

Khannie

Mulled this during the week and went with pure calories for this week. I'll do the same for a while until I've built up a reasonable calorie store. I'm also only buying stuff that we actually use so that I can rotate it handy enough.

With that in mind:

8KG of flour. 6 plain, 2 self raising.

Total calorie count is ~29,000.
Total cost was €5.16 in aldi.

Fries-With-That

madmaxi wrote: »

Am I missing something here, but why the hell would you need 180 lbs of sugar?
That's almost 81.5 kgs for a year.
That's one serious addiction to sugar!!

You are missing the point of the list.

The list is used to show you what you can purchase for a $5 spend spread out over a year.

It is not used to indicate what you would consume over a year.

You can apply this to your budget and spend €3-€5 euro a week with a view to building up a food store that you can use if there is a meltdown.

It might not be a bad idea to widen the view and see what you can get for your €5 spend that could help you in a SHTF type scenario.

Spending €260 over a year isn't going to break the bank but could put you in a position to be able to survive comfortably for an extended period of time without being dependant on others.

I particularly liked the idea of permanent markers and ziplock bags, mentioned by previous posters.

The Glass Key

Started off with good intentions and bought 4 cans of Campbells Condensed Cream of Chicken soup on special offer for €4 in Dunnes but then couldn't resist 6 (6 Months Mature) Mini Christmas Puddings in Lidl at just short of €9. So much for €5 preps but I'll just say I haven't bought anything for 3 weeks

I wouldn't be big into storing a lot of tinned soups as they take up a lot of space and have a poor weight to calorie ratio but I make an exception for Condensed Cream of Chicken soup. 295g still only comes in at 272Kcal a tin but thats much better than most soups and the tin is smaller. Another plus here is that its also a great base for any white sauce you want to make and you can throw loads of things into it when cooking to make blander things a bit more tasty. BBD Oct 2016 so another scoring point is the 3 year shelf life.

I think the Mini Christmas puds are a no brainer, bit expensive at €1.49 each for only 100g but thats a tasty 323kcals in a nice small package. BBD is June 2015 which at over 18 months isn't bad and no way will they ever go to waste and not get eaten. Very handy for one making up one man ration packs. The only down side is ideal cooking method is steaming for 30 mins but that's not as difficult as it sounds. At a push they can be eaten cold.

My prep buying is based on

Shelf life - minimum 18 months, 12 months if I know it will last longer.
Calorie count in relation weight ideally looking for an average of 2kcals per gram. In effect that means half the weight in the store needs to be food stuffs that pack around 4kcal to the gram.
Size - small is sometimes better for making up one man ration packs.
Packaging - Good solid packaging and handy if contents are also packaged, so a pack of 50 individually wrapped tea bags would win out over a pack of 50 tea bags. Square tins over round tins.
Taste - very subjective but often related to using up near or out of BBD items.
Cost - a lot of cheap calories are a priority but like the Christmas puds above I'd try and include some better quality food.
Use after BBD - We wouldn't waste, but would limit quantities of items that we might not use up.
Balanced diet - again a price/calorie thing you can't pay 1 cent and get 4kcal to the gram for every item in your store and have a balanced diet some items will have zero calories and anything low carb low fat will also be have a low calorie count like veg in any form, fresh, tinned, dried or frozen.
Usability in an SHTF situation (cookability) - An item might tick all the other boxes but need hours of cooking, if all you've got is a half a liter of meths and a trangia stove you aren't going to be able easily bake bread. That doesn't mean I wouldn't store flour just that I wouldn't store a massive amount of it in relation to the rest of the items in the store. But this is a tricky definition as an OXO cube has high usability by my reasoning because its an easy drink just add hot water and also a cooking ingredient. Another reason and OXO cube has usability is this context is due to its individual packaging. Items that are packaged and labeled for microwave cooking would often fail this test unless they can be easily heated without a microwave.

In short I've giving this far more thought than it probably deserves.

I've also added another column to my spreadsheet which is location, for me that's just a number that relates to number on the box its stored in. I'm hoping to take a look at what I have and move things around so I'm getting that 50k kcals a box and a bit more balance - if all else fails I'll throw a pack of multivitamins and exlax in every box.

Tabnabs

I had to kill some time last week and popped into a branch of Lidl for a browse.

I struck on the idea of taking photos of standard items as a means of a price check and also a bit of a historical record for price increases (or even decreases). The quality of the shots is not always great, I got a lot of 'why is that man in a suit taking photos in Lidl' type looks

The first five:

soups, tinned meat & spaghetti

Tabnabs

Rice & packet mash, noodles, couscous.

Tabnabs

Solevita A+B+E juice had the longest shelf life.

Other juices, bottled water, baked beans (10c more if you want a ringpull!), baking goods.

Tabnabs

Sugar & finally something to keep for that special occasion, lobster bisque with a 3 yr shelf life!

The Glass Key

Tabnabs wrote: »

Sugar & finally something to keep for that special occasion, lobster bisque with a 2 yr shelf life!

The pics were a great idea but not the lobster bisque

If I get time I might stick that lot in a spreadsheet, handy reference.

Fries-With-That

Some great tips there Tabnabs, I personally would be spending at least one weeks allocation of SHTF Euros on something I didn't realise Lidl sold.

You can see it to the right hand side of this picture you took.


Bicarbonate of Soda, from Tooth-care to Deodorant, from Fire Extinguisher to Baking this is a great all rounder to have in any survivalist pantry.

Tabnabs

Yeah, that's brand new to Lidl AFAIK, I certainly haven't seen it before and thought it worth including.

Khannie

I thought I'd missed out on something. Delighted they have bicarbonate of soda in. That might be my next prep. Essential for pancakes, like.

Filibuster

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Some great tips there Tabnabs, I personally would be spending at least one weeks allocation of SHTF Euros on something I didn't realise Lidl sold.

You can see it to the right hand side of this picture you took.


Bicarbonate of Soda, from Tooth-care to Deodorant, from Fire Extinguisher to Baking this is a great all rounder to have in any survivalist pantry.

+1 on baking soda as a deodorant. I've been using everyday now for 3 years. Mix it 50:50 with cornflour and its just amazing. Just put it on like talcum powder. Cheap as chips and a million times better then commercial products. It actually kills the odour emitting bacteria, not just covers them up like lynx etc. Lasts over 24hours.

Misty Moon

Excellent news on the bread soda. I always stock up when I'm back in Ireland 'cos the price of it here is ridiculous. Around 50c for a 25g sachet. Or go to the British/American shops and get a 250g packet for €3.50 or so (and buying something imported from the US). Compared to €1.09 for 500g in just about any shop in Ireland (and it was still 99c everywhere when I left five years ago). Anyone who comes to visit is asked to bring a couple of bags with them, too.

I signed up for a newsletter run by a couple of Mormon women a few years ago. Never got around to actually following their babysteps program but I will one of these days. Similar to the above, it's all about focusing on one small area every couple of weeks to build up over a year to fully prepped. The website is http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ in case anyone is interested. I think I originally came across it when looking into tin racks like the one mentioned above. They've branched out and sell stuff now, too but the basic information is still there (and free).

The Glass Key

Quick question for everyone. Do you think €5 is a suitable amount to spend each week on preps?

I've been trying to get some organisation into what I buy each week and I'm thinking €10 is a more viable amount.

€5 per person seems a better way of looking at it.

Spending €5 every week is just a good way to remind you to "keep up the good work".

So I'm keeping up the €5 a week but also spending another €20 a month when stuff is on special offer or only on sale for a limited period (like Christmas puddings at Christmas).

Another point is with spending a bit more is that you can buy better quality meaning preps won't go to waste and are more likely to get eaten when the BBD gets near.

This week just to keep things moving I bought a couple of bags of sugar, and Lidl Multi and Vitamin C tablets plus a couple of rolls of cling film for use as an additional wrap of items that have packaging that is damaged by damp.

Khannie

The Glass Key wrote: »

Quick question for everyone. Do you think €5 is a suitable amount to spend each week on preps?

Depends how much you have.

I think a fiver a week is spot on given current risk levels (i.e. near zero). If I ploughed it into only buying high calorie foods, I'd reach several months worth for my (large) family within a year. Now that's not practical, but if I had an extra month of tasty, nutritious food beyond what's in the cupboards stashed away, I'd be happy. I don't think anything catastrophic is going to happen in the next year. It might, but I consider it exceedingly unlikely.

The Glass Key

Tabnabs wrote: »

Great list and info The Glass Key. Have you been eating the preps towards their expiry date, just wondering what the quality of the food is like?

Mrs The Glass Key in the middle of a major kitchen clean and sort out found a couple of packs of Sun Dried Tomatoes (Lidl ones in a plastic bag) with a BBD of October 2011 at the back of a shelf. Apart from being a bit dark in colour (oxidized?) they smelt just like Sun Dried Tomatoes should smell and tasted fine.

I think I might invest in a bit more dried stuff for the store as I'm fairly sure most traditionally dried food like fruit, beans, tomatoes etc lasts a lot longer than the BBD on the label.

tradmav

I do a 5/6 euro prep every week, so between aldi and lidl I get random quantities/combinations of - tins of tomatoes,coconut milk, chick peas,mixed beans,processed peas,baked beans,carrots,kidney beans, mandarin segments, grapefruit, mixed fruit, rice pudding,condensed milk,prunes,glass jars of pickles,carrots,onions,garlic packs of pasta,rice noodles. anytime they have exotic tinned fruit I get that too