Adventures in Food Time Capsules

In June of 2006 we spent an evening at church with friends putting together 72 hour emergency food kits; something we are encouraged to keep… and something I find hard to keep up with.  These food kits were sealed in Mylar pouches (below left) and they were supposed to be good for 5 years.  At the time we had just three kids and after adding two more children to the family by 2009 and letting six years slip by it was high time to go through to update these kits to better prepare our family for possible emergencies. 

Above left is a Mylar pouch stuffed with three days worth of food for one person and one by one I cut these open and dumped the contents into a laundry basket. 

And here is a basket of food for five people.   Boy were my kids surprised when I told them to go and pick their dinner out of the basket!!!  There was a real mix of emotions.  Some of my kids were pretty worried about eating food that was “so old”.  Others didn’t really care because it just seemed fun and free.  In the meantime I’d read somewhere in recent months something about being careful how dried meats and nuts are stored and not to use oxygen absorbers with them.  Between reading that and my kids worries I admit I began to feel worried about eating it myself and vowed that we would just toss anything with nuts as well as the Slim Jims.  Next thing I knew my son was coming up the stairs with a slim jim hanging out of his mouth exclaiming over its deliciousness and I grabbed it out of his mouth quick hoping he wouldn’t die from the experience!  Well, he didn’t even get sick and we all survived eating “old” spagetti-O’s and raisins.  It was a dining adventure for sure.

So the other part of this task was to put together fresh packages of food, for seven this time around.  Rick and I headed to the store to buy things we absolutely never ever buy; prepackaged and individually packaged foods.  Normally I purchase things in large quantities and when I send my family out with their packed lunches for school and work we use re-usable containers for individual servings of yogurt spooned from a huge container as well as pretzels, salads and beverages.  So to barely fill my cart with food for my family for just 3 days I am really not used to the bill adding up so fast.  This was a major purchase of convenience food that we decided was worth the cost in this instance, at least.  To give you an idea of the cost of prepackaged foods, Rick and I once looked at “Lunchables” which were on sale.  In these conveniently packaged foods were two Oreos.  We figured out that with Oreos in these packages at that price it would be like paying $18 for a single package of Oreos and thinking that was a great deal!  Just an example of the price difference.

So for a fresh supply of three days worth of food for seven people we packed food in Ziplocs this time and placed the food and other necessarily supplies into clean empty cat litter buckets with handles and everyone wrote their names on the side.  These containers are the perfect size and plastic is necessary for storing in our damp basement.  Plus a sealed plastic lid helps keep out bugs; specifically spiders which we tend to have a lot of around here.  And Sandy poses next to the water bottles we store (and yes, the cats have their necessities stored in this location as well so we can grab and go with them as well).  All of our 72 hour emergency supplies are stored in a single area in our basement along with a list of other things to grab if there is time.

So for each persons food kit we store the following:

12 bottles of water (total of 64 oz. per day)

15 pieces of candy, 2 packages of cookies, 2 slim jim sticks, 1 ready to eat Tomato Soup, 1 container of pasta & sauce, 1 container of chicken and rice with vegies, 2 mini cans fruit, 2 1oz. boxes of raisins, 2 packs of fruit snacks, 2 packs of peanuts, 4 granola/power bars, 3 hot chocolate pouches, 3 oatmeal packets, plastic silverware.

We’ve seen many disasters, even local, where people were suddenly displaced from their homes and having this kit would have made things easier for them.  For example there was a chemical leak several years ago in one of the rail yards nearby and a whole urban area was evacuated.  Hopefully we will never need to grab these emergency kits and go ourselves, but we feel peace knowing that we are more prepared to take care of our family in the event of an emergency. 

Affordable Shopping (for lack of a better title)

Is there such a thing as “affordable shopping” these days?  Well, a few years ago I decided to rise to the challenge of affording groceries for my family on a budget with the goal of staying within a modest budget while building an emergency supply of goods for my family.  We sort of got used to living on whatever supplies we’d built up through the summers back when my husband only got paid 9 months out of the year.  Since receiving his graduate degree we’ve been blessed with a year round pay check but with inflation and economic hard times putting a strain on our budget and paycheck while adding several more children to our family I had to make some adjustments.  I brainstormed ways I could save more money, ways to make our dollar stretch farther.  I looked at it as a challenge or a game rather than something dreaded and serious because frankly money, or lack of it, makes me nervous so my outlook is a choice.  Our emergency “stash” combined with a little creativity has kept us fed during financial distress when we decided to put our grocery money into paying for necessary services three years ago keeping us from putting ourselves into as much debt.  Plus during a widespread regional disaster, what some would describe as an “act of God”, and many stores were not open and many were without power we were able to feed ourselves as well as some of our friends and family because we were “prepared” at least to a degree.  During this time a neighbor commented to my husband “Do you think we’d have been prepared if this had been any worse?”  Rick didn’t quite know how to respond when we really did feel pretty secure but obviously most around us did not.  I remember a time when we we didn’t have much… we’d been married just a few months when I was asked to bring a meal to someone.  As I was fretfully scanning my cupboard as well as my brain to try and put a meal together for another family while on the phone I just couldn’t do it.  I was inexperienced (I didn’t know how to make mashed potatoes or corn on the cob even) and we barely had enough for ourselves honestly but we did have “enough” and I felt thankful for that as we coasted along on faith.  The person on the phone thankfully sensed this lack and assured me she had other people who could help easily and she told me comfortingly that there was a time when things had been tight for them too in the beginning.  There would come a time when I would be able to help others, and she told me before she hung up that she understood.  I believed her BUT it hurt, just a little, that she had sensed that we didn’t have enough to share and it hurt that I wanted to share and couldn’t.   
All these years and experience later, once a month I take a large chunk of our monthly grocery budget and go shopping.  The rest is milk money because we drink a lot of milk; 1 to 1 1/2 gallons per day and we use some for fresh produce halfway through the month as well.  I enjoy reading a certain blog out there and the Mom claims to feed her family of 8 on $3 a day.  What?  How?  Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that her large yard and year round garden in a much warmer climate gives her a hand with this feat.  Frankly there is no way I could do this.  I have a garden but I have shade trees too.  And living on an urban postage stamp, even if I cut down trees and gardened the whole 50 x 110 lot we own minus the footprint of the house AND IF I knew what I was doing there would be no way to sustain my family of 7 on $3 a day.  But I do find her inspirational.  She does many of the same things that I do and I feel good knowing I’m not the only one on the planet living the way that I live.  My grocery budget is under $100 per person per month which also includes all cleaning products, long term storage and pet products.  This means I may feed my family for $3 per person per day which is under $25 per person per week and I refuse to feel bad about this.  By no stretch of the imagination do I live on a farm, as mentioned above.  In fact, I think this is pretty good but I am still thinking of new ways to save money, to make my dollar stretch.  I know I could still save money on breakfast but I like the convenience of the breakfast foods I do buy and so far that is worth the expense to me.  Plus sometimes I like to take my kids to the McDonalds playland and eat there as a treat.

First I buy in bulk.  I don’t buy anything in small prepackaged containers (I’ll cover this topic in another post).  This is the cheapest way I’ve found to buy staples.  I buy 25 lb. bags of flour, eggs by the 3 dozen, carrots in 5 pound bags, butter in 4 lb. packages, cheese in 5 lb. packages and the list goes on.

I purchase yeast in several 1lb. bags bundled together.

Cornstarch for things like homemade pudding mix that I make and store in bulk, Goldfish crackers (which my 2 year old can’t live without) in a large box of 3 sealed bags while pasta and canned soup, veggies and fruits are all sold by the case.

Yes, even (especially) bath, cleaning and personal products are purchased in bulk. 

And no pantry is complete without a supply of chocolate.  Chocolate makes everything better even when things get tough… or especially when things get tough.
I also purchase items when they are on special or in season.  The regular grocery store will have all sorts of deals and when they do I stock up.  For example, I just stocked up again on our shampoo and conditioner at .79 per bottle… but I won’t purchase any more until the next time it goes on sale.  I never purchase meat for over $1.99 a pound as a rule.  This is getting tougher to do but when I get chicken at this price or less I buy as much as I can afford AND have room to store.  Then I might buy pork the next time.  And we eat a lot of beans and soups.  And beans don’t come in a can.  I have bins and bins of dried beans that I was so unsure of what to do with that I learned how to use them just so I wouldn’t be scared of them any more.  Dried beans are a huge savings compared to their canned counterparts.  I also make a great many of my own items.  Like baby wipe cleaner that goes with my washcloths and cloth diapers for my little one.  I make my own salad dressings, pancake mix, bread, pudding mix, tortillas, pizza sauce, granola, spaghetti sauce the list goes on and I preserve as much in season fruit and vegetables as I have time and money for.  These are fruits and vegies that we’ve either picked on a farm ourselves, grown in our little garden or else purchased at a wholesale discount at the farm market.  Again these provide us with financial savings, flexibility when necessary and a sense of providence which I find both fulfilling and calming.  I like knowing how to do things for myself.  I like knowing what we’re eating.  I like teaching my children a work ethic and the importance of being self sufficient.  We re-use and re-cycle a lot.  I like living responsibly, modestly and living within my means.  And I know there is still more for me to learn and challenge myself with in this area of life.

“Piglitically Correct” - 2012 Flying Pig 5K

May 5th 2012 marked the date for the much anticipated 5K marathon that my kids had been working all year for.  Tristan joined the running club again last fall in anticipation of this 5K which is his very most favorite activity all year.  Lindsay recently found a ride from her current school to Tristan’s school on running club days and has re-joined her old running club and has been getting on the treadmill as often as her time will allow as well in order to train for this race.  Both were very excited to run again.

To start this story I have to tell you that this year there was “free parking” advertised as we received our packets of information… but the parking would leave us with a little bit of a hike into the starting line which we decided would be useful exercise to all of us as well as useful to the wallet.  We had the time so why not?  At 9 a.m., an hour before starting time we climbed out of the car into what looked like a pretty abandoned area and figured we had a couple of miles to walk.  The area looked a little creepy and pretty deserted with one exception; ARTWORK.  It was like discovering a treasure trove of outdoor art that we’d never knew was there and it was really cool.

The parking was beyond this area on the left with lots of bridges overhead and old half torn down structures left standing.  On the right Lindsay is skipping over some old railroad tracks to some greek style paintings of pillars and people on an old half ripped down bridge which must be fairly ancient since it would have held nothing like what we drive today and the bridges currently in use are very old as it is.  I’m picturing horses…

Kaitlyn aids in the warm-up session as we get ourselves together and we begin to admire this interesting parking area.

A couple of quick pics of our runners once their bibs are on over by one of the paintings and we’re off on our urban hike to meet up with the rest of the team by the paddlewheel on the river.

Nathan and Kaitlyn were excited to see some of the river boats.  And yes, it was an overcast and drizzly morning.

Tristan gets his picture taken with some of the team next to his best friend Zak and eventually some more of our runners straggled in including our own Lindsay and so we took another team picture before stretching and saying goodbye.

The team left to find their starting line and we walked to try and get a look at them starting the race.  On our hike back to the starting line we paused to take Kaitlyn’s picture in front of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

We waited for the starting gun to go off and Nathan and Kaitlyn got comfortable spreading their raincoats out on a very wet sidewalk.

And they’re off!

Here are the first runners…                        And here comes Tristan! (center above).

And there they go… I missed Lindsay somewhere in that crowd but she’s there.  And we started to hike back toward the finish to get a look at them coming in.

We paused for a few pictures but in doing so given the mile and a half we had to cover to the finish we ended up missing Tristan coming in!  Boo! Hoo!

Haley and Kaitlyn walked together nearly the whole time and Haley kept her entertained with stories of her recent trip to New York.

Here comes Lindsay toward the finish line.  She loves running.  We were too late to see Tristan.

We met up with our runners and congratulated them.  They were sweaty and tired but they did a great job.

Tristan ran in the Male 1-9 yr. division in a race totaling 3,627 runners

He came in Overall #158, Division placement 2 of 103, Gender placement 127 of 1,384.  His time was 24:43 giving him a mile pace of 7:59.

Lindsay ran in the Female 12-14 division also totaling 3,627 runners.

She came in Overall #530, Division placement 21 of 89, Gender placement 163 of 2,268.  Her time was 28:50 giving her a mile pace of 9:18.

These medals are really nice… both the front and the back. 

Then we had a couple of miles to hike back to the car and on the way we met up with a snail which my kids thought was really cool.  I guess he found his way out of the river and across the street.

And the day started to clear up and shine a little brighter as we left the city behind us and got back to our very artistic parking lot; a regular outdoor museum!

This artwork was done with tiny colored tiles.  The birds above this wall were all made with stone and shells. 

These were some of our favorites, close up.

We enjoyed this free hidden outdoor urban art museum. 

A couple more close up shots.  These tiled sculptures were really big.

These were Tristan’s favorites.

And Lindsay really liked this one.  Viewing the artwork turned out to be as much of an interesting event to all of us as the race was.  What a fun morning down town.  What a great race!