Which are you?

nickobec (sxc.hu)

Are you preparing for a siege?  You probably grew up during the 50s and 60s and remember the Cold War, fallout shelters, and martian invasions.  You worried about Y2K,  and now you worry about terrorist attacks, biological weapons, chemical spills,  floods, fires, earthquakes, and ants in your pantry.  You buy basic food storage items and put them in the garage.  Now you can relax and forget about it because you are ready for any disaster.  And that is what you do — forget about it and it never gets used.  When you do remember, it’s time to throw all the food out and start again.  But, you don’t mind the wasted time, food and money.  It was worth the peace of mind.  Besides, you’re glad you never had to use it.  You don’t know how to cook with any of it.  Well, even if you did, no one would eat it.  This siege mentality gets you to do some storage, but it’s not very useful. Oh, you took out a loan to finance the purchases.

No, that’s not you.  you take the practical approach.  You buy 20 cans of tuna on sale, along with large amounts of can chicken, ramen noodles, tiolet paper, and your favorite shampoo.  Theaw items last a long time and are used regularly in your family.  You don’t have to go shopping for a week, or maybe even a month.  The money used was out of your normal food budget.  You can now survive shelter in place.

No, no, you are more provident than that.  You incorporate all the items your purchased into your regular meals.   You spend little money and time at the store because you have a garden, do canning, have an extra freezer in the garage, and make your own Halloween costumes.  You are independent and are ready to withstand any disaster.  Plus, now you can have a stash of small bills hidden in the sugar bin.

No, no, no, you don’t just want just to survive, you want life to continue as normal as possible under any circumstance.  It’s standard operating procedure at your house.  You don’t have a wheat grinder, canning equipment, or sour a dough starter.  You probably make bread in a machine.  You just buy lots of the usual things your family eats and uses.  You also have some #10 cans of the items you use regularly, as well of some “fun” foods.  Your concerns are road closures due to weather, fire, or any other temporary inconvenience.  You know that you will most likely use it during illness or unemployment.  The purchases are done regularly and the items roatated and so you do not spend much extra money or time. 

Then, there’s the clueless and happy to be so.  Where’s that unfinished candy bar?  You can drink water from the tiolet tank, can’t you?  I’ll just wait for my mother.  She’ll bring dinner and tell me what to do.  You don’t spend any money because you don’t ever buy groceries.

Well, which are you?  None of the above!

Oh, I forgot!  You don’t have the time, or the money for food storage.  Even if you did, it’s too hard to do, and you wouldn’t know where to start anyway.

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