Those are basic, perishable staples most people use daily to make cereal, sandwiches and stuff like that. They don’t want to run out while there is a blizzard out so there is always a rush on the stores before a major storm sysem is suppose to come through. Back east could alway tell when a Nor’easter was predicted because the store parking lots were packed and the lines ridiculous.

I’ve always thought self-sufficiency was important. For the average person, though, that means money.

Sure, being financially solvent is nice, but I’m also talking about the other kind of self-sufficiency. Can you cook? Can you fix things yourself? Can you garden? Can you change your own tires?

What happens when, god forbid, you have no one to do these things for you, or when your money runs short and you can’t pay for manual labor anymore?

For the longest time, I could not cook from scratch. I had man craptastic preboxed meals or frozen meals that I would throw in the use. It is amazing once I took the time to learn the basics that we felt much better. We spent much less on groceries. We were able to keep larger amounts of ingredients on hand that require no electricity to cook.

I found it important to find the best back to basic books, how to fix anything books, and cooking without electricity books. I have been putting these to use while still on the grid but we eventually plan to get a small homestead.

~terri
strangeknit.blogspot.com

> Apparently I am out of touch with your every
> day consumer. It leaves me wondering… what
> else should not surprise me?

Well, Jacob, it should have been obvious that you’re out of touch with the everyday consumer just by the fact that you achieved financial independence so early on such a “small” bankroll!

> I would be slightly more worried about
> electricity outages. They are looking
> possible in the medium term. Not even weather
> related, simply a matter of supply. I dread
> to think how our country would cope with that.

Indeed, you are right to plan for electricity outages. The nation’s grid is antiquated and capacity has not kept up with population growth and demand. California has had a few consumer-caused outages during summer months and I feel that Oregon & Washington are likely to begin experiencing such events.

Our country, as a whole, will not really notice them that much and we’ll adapt fairly well. The computer-reliant world will just make sure UPSes are installed in the critical locations to maintain communication and/or keep local processing going. Lack of electrical heating/cooling is an inconvenience and seldom deadly.

After all, it’s not likely we’ll be in Iraq’s shoes, where electricity is available only a few hours per day.

I had much the same stunned response when a blizzard was forecast here. The grocery stores were stripped bare of the things you mention, plus ground beef.

Imagine what someone from 100 or 200 years ago would say, if you walked him or her around the store, full almost to bursting with staples, explaining that a storm was coming, so people had bought up the few things that were unavailable. They’d no doubt be pleased to find flour and beans and sugar and cooking oil, but could they do anything but stare in stunned disbelief at the produce left behind? At the tropical fruit? At the butcher counter? What would they think when you explained frozen concentrated orange juice?

It’s a strange world.

Is it that people don’t know how to do these things for themselves, or is it that people are too scared of what their peers will think of them if they know how to garden, or cook, or are correctly prepared for emergencies?

Those who have, hire others to do their “dirty work”. This is the mentality that is turning America into a nation of slothenly fools.

It doesn’t surprise me at all. Thankfully, I’m self sufficient in surviving. Thankfully, I can cook, sew, knit, make fire, heat my home on my own, can cut down wood, bake, etc. Common sense dictates that you should always have at least a weeks worth of groceries at home. I buy items that can be reconstituted. I actually buy powdered milk. More expensive but much more useful. Bottled water? Eh, not so much. I invested in a filter and should that fail I know how to sanitize water. Just because we have the money to buy whatever food we need doesn’t mean we should give up learning to how take care of ourselves and be self sufficient. Survival is worth more than money. Out in the real world you need more than just money. Shame realy. What has happened to our generation? I think the recession was needed in some way, to teach some basic common sense survival techniques.
Jacob has hit the nail on the head once more.

I don’t even know what to write as a response to this post… I truly don’t!

I guess I’ll just write that at least we’re still lucky enough here in America to be able to go and stock up on food at all… whether a storm is coming or not. I know alot of others in the world haven’t got the choice…

Also I guess those of us who live America should be thankful, to still be able to live “for the most part” our lives the way we want in this country…. whether that be dependent upon the system or not dependent on the system. I know alot of others in the world haven’t got the choice…

I do cook a few times a week, but I can understand why some people may not. I can buy a prepared meal (meat loaf or lasagna) at Trader Joe’s for about the same as preparing it from scratch. What’s the incentive to cook?

I have to add this interesting story about last winter’s 5-day outage:

Across the street live a couple on the verge of retirement. They’re well-prepared foodwise, but they’re not too good about maintaining their house. There’s a reluctance to spend money in that family and when they do, it’s often not very wisely (he collects a certain model of late ’70s gas guzzler and keeps them meticulously maintained, yet they allow the 1 acre lot to be overrun by blackberries).

So instead of repairing the fireplace chimney which cracked in a minor earthquake 19 years ago, they’ve bought a gasoline powered generator which powers an electric space heater.

If they want to cook, they have to turn the space heater off and plug in a microwave oven.

Instead of purchasing the generator and space heater, they could have paid for the chimney repair. I often wonder what they’ll do when the generator refuses to start due to lack of maintenance…

Hmm, DW’s response that people are stocking up on perishables seems pretty logical to me.

That said, I definitely agree with other comments in which people noted that a power outage is equally problematic. I personally can survive for a really long time on the food that’s in my cupboards . . .if I can cook it. And in a snowstorm, you’re going to want some access to emergency heat or at least warm water/food.

That’s why I love cooking with gas that comes in a tank–yes it’s annoying to schlep it back to the gas station and get a new bottle, but since a bottle lasts us 3 months and we keep an extra on hand, I feel relatively save in case of power outage/food shortage.

Water is a whole separate problem. If it doesn’t come out of the tap anymore, we’d have to get creative fast. And, melting snow in the winter isn’t feasible unless you have a heat source. . .

Read up: http://sharonastyk.com/

http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/

@claudia – It does not appear to be an official word. Any good reason why you want a ‘c’ instead of an ‘s’?

Jacob if you simply view this website, all will be revealed:

http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

I think the layout of grocery stores says it all. There are fruits and vegetables in one corner, meat and dairy along the back wall, and the rest is filled with either frozen or shelf-stable, mostly pre-made stuff. The fact that it fills most of the store means that there must be a large demand for it. For emergency preparedness I’m dehydrating real foods, not stocking up on premade “foods”.

gpjones, I lived through the major ice storm in Quebec that knocked out the power for up to a months in some places. We were without power for a little over 2 weeks and managed just fine, mostly because we lived on a farm. We have a wood stove in the middle of the house that we used to heat the place in the winter already so we cooked on that instead of the electric in the kitchen. We had lots of food in the freezer and would melt snow for water.

My uncle would come by every couple of days with a generator to make sure everything was fine and run some necessities like the sump pump for a few hours.

Most people though ended up in shelters. I imagine that’s the default for most of the population nowadays if the power goes out.

This is quite the survivalist circle-jerk you’ve got going.

I’ve always treated inclement weather like a vacation. Might as well enjoy your hot cocoa fresh and have a big bacon and eggs breakfast so you have plenty of energy for a snowball fight later.

I usually have plenty of gruel on hand in case of a real emergency later.

Back home I live in the country, so we are used to these kinds of things. Our house is about 20 years old, so well insulated. We don’t have a gas hob, but we do have a real fireplace which is responsible for heating most of the house. Cooking would either be done over this, however more likely on a camping stove or the gas BBQ. We once had a substation blow out, and within 12 hours a massive generator was providing power for our neighbourhood!

Another thing to note is that here in the UK basically all houses have a cold water tank in the roof, and most also have a hot water tank, so water wouldn’t be much of an issue. We also had regular power cuts in the early 70s due to mining strikes, so most people above 50 are used to it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Day_Week