(Article #3 in a series of articles on the changes happening in the USA and the world and how to deal with them.)
I should have remembered that before I married my first wife. Also my second. Oh, and also the third. In hindsight, they probably should have, too. But this is about actual shopping at the grocery store for more long-term storage food, for when the stores all run out. This morning I went first to Dollar General and found one item on my list that was low priced, Vegetable Oil. 2 year Use-By date. I have plenty but more is always good if the price is cheap.
Then went to Family Dollar and found some store-brand cans of veggies, green beans, creamed corn and sweet peas, with long Use-By dates. 4 cans of each. Their food shelves were all half empty or more, worst I’ve ever seen it there.
Then off to Von’s for the stuff the discount stores didn’t have, where I bought a Mega-size jar of Ibuprofin, 2 boxes of 2.5 minute Cream of Wheat and 2 large boxes of Raisin Bran, again with long exp. dates. Now’s the time to get wheat products if you haven’t already. It’s not that there won’t be any, there will, but there will be a lot less than before and the price has already soared for bread, etc.
Lastly to Grocery Outlet where I didn’t find anything else that I haven’t already stocked well up on except something I normally never buy, which is sodas. I bought a case each of Root Beer and Dr. Pepper. They’ll keep forever in my Cold Room and be an occasional treat to brighten my day. PLUS I scored on Chicken Wings.
Previously I mentioned that chicken wings are now $8 a pound at Vons. When I returned home from that shopping shock, I checked the subject out on Google and sure enough, prices for the ever-popular wings have gone crazy. But there in front of me in the meat section at Grocery Outlet was a big pile of packs of wings, priced at $3.49 a pound. Figuring I’ll never see them that low again, I bought 10 packs, which came to about 17 pounds and they’re now safely tucked away in my freezer.
The point here about those wings is that even though I sneered at $3.49 a pound wings just a week ago as being way overpriced, I shouldn’t have. Things have changed, folks, and they’re going to keep on doing it. If you can find a relative bargain like that for any preferred food, get it now. I do love a plate of hot, spicy chicken wings.
About my Cold Room, it’s a small shed built to fit in the space available in the back yard and is 7 feet wide and 12 feet long, with heavy, thick insulation. Not-fiberglass, the insulation is a sort of wood fiber on a paper backing. R-13. Walls and ceiling. Door is wood core, steel exterior, purchased already framed up and seals tightly.
To keep it cool there’s a Frigidaire 5000 BTU A.C. which uses about 500 watts when going full power, plugged directly into a Willhi model wh1436 programmable electronic thermostat from Amazon, ($29) that’s plugged directly into a 120 VAC outlet and is set to turn the AC on at 68 degrees and off at 63 degrees. Even if the outside temperature hits 100, this room stays between 63 and 68 degrees.
That means that normal use-by dates are greatly extended because of the constant low temperature the food is kept at. The little AC unit was cheap, the thermostat was cheap and considering the $1000’s of dollars worth of food in there, the system is a bargain. PLUS, my 1.2 kilowatt photovoltaic array will easily power it all if the electricity fails from SoCal Edison. The hottest part of the day is when the sun shines the most so steady power is assured.
SUMMARY: Even if you only have room for another refrigerator, get a used one as big as you have room to put it and fill it with canned and boxed food. It doesn’t have to stay as cold as you’d want it for stuff like milk and eggs, set it to stay between 50 and 65 if you can. A large frig loaded only with “non-perishables” like canned goods, dried and condensed food, can keep a person going for up to a year. At the least, find the coolest dry place in your home to store flour, sugar, noodles, etc. Worst case scenario is that you’ll have to eat it all sooner or later.
Just testing