Our First Preps

We did a lot of research into what you need to survive.  We found the Church of Latter Day Saints guidelines of course and 'food calculators'.

Virtually all the food calculators are based apparently on the LDS one.  A couple of examples below.

One, Two

So using that we came up with our basic list.  I immediately altered it to some extent, more rice, beans and corn, less wheat for the grains to match our personal existing diets. The guidelines are exactly that, guidelines.

Then I used Google Docs to create a spreadsheet that we can all use to record what we've bought, stored and what we're still lacking on.  For example in checking it right now I see my wife has picked up another 50lb bag of white rice and 2 5lb bottles of honey.  We still need another 15lbs of salt and another 10lbs of sugar among other things.   We can update this from anywhere we have access to a computer.

Obviously preparing is not something one does 'all at once' although you certainly could but for most, over time is the best option.

The first thing we decided to do was place an order through Honeyville Grains and USA Emergency Supply for our first buy of bulk wheat, oats and corn and mylar bags, O2 absorbers and food grade pails. 

While we could pick up wheat locally the cost was about the same and would have required travel on top of that.  So why not go with convienence?

Regarding the buckets, yes we're aware of the debate that rages about what constitutes a food grade pail. HDPE 2 means food grade or doesn't. But the way we're looking at, sure we could save a couple of bucks a bucket but is it really worth the risk?

After being forced to use your stored food is the absolute worst possible time to find out that those food grade buckets weren't and leeched flavors or worse into your foods or that not using quality O2 absorbers left you with a bucket of weevil infested wheat.

Anything our lives are going to depend on, we're not skimping on. Low bid is not what you want to go with when you have children depending on you.

Several things we'll also pick up at the local big box stores.  Rice and beans can be had locally for less than half what we'd pay to get it online.  Oats were a wash and we wanted the whole oats, steel cut, rather than the more heavily processed versions for nutritional reasons. 

So things we're going to get locally include honey, white rice, beans,  pasta, oils, dry goods, sugars.

Honey, salt, sugar have an indefinite shelf life, it's buy it, store it and forget it.

White rice, properly stored, is good for 30 years.  Brown rice spoils in about 7 so we're discarding that even though it's the better nutritionally option. 

Pasta's can be had on sale cheaper than we can get them online and in greater variety and store just as well. 

Speaking of storage we're going with the standard prepper 5 gallon bucket with the contents in 1 or 2 5 mil thick mylar with an overkill of O2 packets inside each one.   The O2 packages are just too cheap to skimp on.   We'll also be using a vacuum to suck most of the air out before sealing to help reduce the amount of O2 that needs to be absorbed. 

For a lot of it, each bucket will be in a single bag but we'll also have buckets with the contents divided up into multiple mylar bags so we can open smaller portions over time and check that the quality has degraded without losing a large amount.

Additionally to supplement those basics we've bought a 1 year / 1 person kit from Augason Farms which was the cheapest option to add a large variety of dehydtrated foods.  We've supplemented that with additional dried milks and butter powder and dried eggs in #10 cans along with treats like dried apples and banana chips.  And especially tomato powder because tomatoes provide significant nutritional items in a diet.   The stuff like dried onions, carrots and peppers while providing ways to change up the meals don't really add that much in terms of nutrients.   Keeping a nutrionally balanced meal post disaster is going to be a huge concern.

To be able to consume those hard grains and turn them into bread, tortillas and pancakes and the like we've ordered two mills from Pleasant Hill Grain. 

One the high end Country Living mill ($$$$) along with a spare parts kit for it.  We've tested it and then cleaned and oiled it and stored it in a bag with some dessicant and O2 absorbers in it's own bucket.  It should be safe in there until we need it.  Hopefully we never will and my children will be able to add it to their disaster preperations.

We've also got the Family Grain Mill as our daily driver so to speak along with spare parts.  This is the one we'll use as we start to add our prep food into our daily diets. 

We did a lot of research on mills and for manual grinding those two are considered the best in their price points.

Just for the record we don't have any affiliation to or get any kick back from anyone we link to on this site.  The purpose of this site is to help others who are just starting and possibly save them some of the hours and hours of research we've done on the subject.