$800 per month year food budget.

I saw an interesting website where a mother has developed a systematic way to keep a food budget for a family of four down to $800 per month year. That is an average $0.18 per meal.

Here is a link to an explanation on how she keeps her food budget at $800 per month year.

There is a lot of great info on her blog that can also be used for stockpiling food.  How to stockpile food but have a balance of all the types of food you need. You can utilize these methods to manage your food budget and use the extra cash you save now to add to your long term stockpile.

This statement, in an American Red Cross press press release from August 2007 (below), tells you that there is a need to make things easier.

Otherwise, if it is not made easy as another statistic in the same press release indicates, 93% will continue to not be prepared.

You can order online an 72 hour emergency kit, with all the supplies the Red Cross recommends, in minutes.

You can order kits and long shelf life survival food from trusted online stores that existed for decades as real brick and mortar stores, not some fly-by-night “eBay store”.

The two main survival foods (after food bars in 72 hour kits) are MRE (meals ready to eat) and Freeze dried food. You can order various food reserves that will be enough food for one week, one month, or even one year. It can be delivered to your house and then stored in less than an hour.

How easy is that?

MRE can last up to 5-7 years if stored in a cool place. Freeze dried food will last up to 30 years. You won’t need to replace these items every 6 months or every year. This is a key point if you want your food reserve to be ready when you need it, without having to replace parts of it often.

The challenge with completing the 72-hour kits will be the things that are custom to you and your family; maps, medications, etc that can’t be included in a general 72 hour kit. Other than these custom items, everything else is only few mouse clicks to your door.

Where can I buy kits and survival food?

American Family Safety – Great Selection of 72 hour kits

Nitro-Pak – 72-hour kits MRE Freeze Dried Food

Below is the August 30, 2007 press release from the American Red Cross

*****************************************

Media Advisory:

September is National Preparedness Month: Only 7% of Americans Have Taken the Necessary Steps to Prepare for Disasters

Red Cross Survey Indicates 82% of Americans Would Get Prepared if it Was Easier to Do

WASHINGTON, Thursday, August 30, 2007

VIDEO FEEDS: Thursday, August 30, from 2:30 – 2:45 PM ET

September is National Preparedness Month yet only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared, according to the American Red Cross ¹ . Why? Many people just don’t have the time. In fact, an American Red Cross survey indicates that 82% of Americans say they would get prepared if it were easier to do ². Additionally, among Americans who had not put together a disaster kit, 65% agreed that they would be more likely to have a kit if one were available for sale and contained basic items to get them started ³.

The Red Cross is using National Preparedness Month to urge every family to “Be Red Cross Ready”: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed. One way the American Red Cross has made it easier for families to get prepared is by offering a variety of first aid, health, safety, and emergency preparedness items.

“We’ve tried to make it as simple as possible for everyone to get prepared,” said Laura Howe, spokes-person for the Red Cross. “In purchasing these items, the public can feel good about not only preparing their families but also supporting the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross.”

Red Cross items available to the public include first aid kits, disposable and heavy-duty work gloves, hand sanitizer, emergency preparedness kits, hand-crank radios, auto safety kits, and a variety of essential education guides. Additionally, the Red Cross has a line of infant health and wellness products that help par-ents get prepared, encouraging them to take Red Cross courses in infant first aid and CPR. These items are available online, at many Red Cross chapters, and at a variety of retail locations nationwide.

Proceeds from the sale of these items go directly back into supporting the mission of the organization. Over the last few months, the Red Cross has responded to meet the needs of thousands of disaster victims affected by severe summer floods in nine different states; every dollar helps.

The public is also invited to take a free online education module available at www.redcross.org/BeRedCrossReady, which walks visitors through the three simple preparedness actions: to get a kit, make a plan and be informed.

This story is provided by the American Red Cross.

Finally! A Government Agency that Gets it Right

The survival food message by Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Department of Emergency Management is right on the mark. Congratulations for your wisdom on the issue.

The message is right and more importantly the medium is right – YouTube (see videos couple survival preparedness interview, Governor Tim Kaine). By utilizing YouTube for their preparedness message, they will reach audiences that traditional media doesn’t.

The videos are a 16 second clip of the Governor and a 30 second spot featuring a couple and 2 children being interviewed on emergency preparedness.

At one point the husband turns to the wife and says “that’s really not survival food…tomato paste”. Hopefully this message will sink in. The American Red Cross stated in a August 30, 2007 press release that it estimates that  “only 7% of Americans have taken the steps necessary to get prepared”.

The one thing more the Governor and department could do is not disable the YouTube embed feature (so that the video can’t be shared by embeding here and elsewhere). I guess expecting them to be Web 2.0 savvy, to know that hording content is passe and counterproductive is a still a stretch.

72 Hour Survival Kits

Having a good 72 hour survival kit ready at all times can be make a huge difference in the event of an emergency or disaster. One backpack can carry all you need if you pack the right items in it.

Rather than having one 2-person kit or one large four-person kit, I recommend getting 2-3 one person kits that you keep in each car and at home. You never know where you will be when you need them so I believe this is the best strategy.

The best one person kit I could find is the Executive 72 hour survival kit with solar radio upgrade.

This kit contains;

• Premium Quality Water Resistant Nylon Backpack
  with padded Shoulder Straps
• Heavy-Duty Tube Tent Shelter
• Deluxe Knucklemender™ 60 item First-Aid Kit
• 5 Year Shelf-Life Cookie Flavored Food Rations
• 5 Year U.S. Coast Guard Water Rations
• Emergency Space® Blankets
• 36 Hour Light/Heat Candle
• Protective Leather Gloves & Dust Masks
• Quality AM/FM Radio

CONTENTS INCLUDES:

Warmth & Shelter
• 2 – Compact Emergency USA Made Space® Blankets
• 1 – Deluxe Heavy-Duty Tube Tent
• 2 – Emergency Rain/Wind Ponchos

Cooking, Heating, & Light
• 1 – 36 hr. Emergency Candle
• 1 – Industrial “AA” Size Flashlight with Batteries
• 2 – Pair of Hand/Pocket Warmer Heat-Paks
• 1 – 12 hr. Instant Lightstick
• 1 – Box of Waterproof Matches (45 matches)

Water & Hygiene Items
• 24 – Purified Drinking Water Pouches (4.2 ounces each)
• 18 – Wet-Wipe Packets
• 2 – Compact Sanitation/Toilet Toilet Rolls
• 2 – Disposable Sanitation Bags

First-Aid
• 1 – 60 Item Knuckle Mender II™ First Aid Kit w/ Instruction Book

Food Items
• 2 – 3600 Calorie Cookie Tasting Ration Bars
• 1 – Bag of Survival Candy
• 6 – E-mer’gen-C® Energy Drink Packets

Miscellaneous
• 1 – Premium Heavy Duty Nylon Backpack
• 1 – 15-Function Swiss Army Style Pocket Knife
• 1 – Deluxe AM/FM Radio Flashlight w/ Batteries
• 1 – Emergency Survival Whistle
• 1 – 50′ Nylon Cord
• 1 – Pair of Leather Gloves (for digging through or clearing debris)
  or hand warming in cold weather
• 1 – Writing Pad, Pencil, and Ink Pen
• 1 – Deck of Playing Cards (time occupier for kids & adult at shelter or
  if stuck at work or school. Helps time pass much faster).
• 2 – N95 Hospital Grade Dust Masks

This is kit is available at Nitro-pak for $154.99 at the time of this post.

* Emergency Indentification Cards

Here is a good idea that is recommended by the American Safety and Health Institute;
EMERGENCY Preparedness Notification Cards – EMERGENCY Notification Cards for emergency preparedness and peace of mind.

What is the better choice for survival food? How do MRE, Freeze Dried Food (FDF), or storing canned food and bulk grains from the super market compare?

Below I have scored the options for disaster survival food against these factors;

• storage life
• storage space
• preparation time
• taste
• cost (per meal).

The scoring goal is to have an objective calculation. However the ratings are my subjective opinions, and are based on the facts and information I have been reporting in this blog. I have also added a second level score with a weight for each factor. Again, this is my opinion about the factor’s relative importance to a survival food strategy.

The weighted score total for the survival food options is out of 10.

It is also important to note that the scoring was based on a required food supply that will last 6 weeks to 3 months.

MRE would rate better in a 72 hour survival kit comparison with mobility and easy to heat as factors.

Here are the scores;

You can see that based on the way I have scored and weighted Freeze Dried Food is the superior choice especially for longer term preparedness of 6 weeks to 3 months. Since you may have different opinions you can evaluate the score and weight outlined here. I will add a poll shortly to get everyone’s opinion on the ratings for each of the factors and the factor weights. Then we can look at the results.

In the meantime I have also posted a link to the original excel file so you can change the weights and scoring your self as you wish and see the results. Here is the file link;

Excel File with Survival Food Scoring Calculations

I have done some research and have some further comments of my own and clarifications on water storage. Thanks for the excellent article on water storage by Terry Fitzroy of Survival Solutions published in a previous post here on Bulk Survival Food.

There was a suggestion in that article that you should drink 8 glasses or 64 ounces of water a day. This is a myth so pervasive medical professionals sometimes say it. Medical journals found no research supports this anywhere and have traced the myth back to a mis-interpretation of a 1945 medical report.

The fact is most of the 64 ounces of water is contained in the food we eat. That is if what you are eating is a healthy well balanced diet. Read this British Medical Journal article that quotes the 1945 report “One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods“.

Over time it appears most people, even doctors, have forgotten the key second sentence in bold above.

If you are eating MRE food reserve in a disaster, most of the 64 ounces (~2.5 liters) of the water is already in the food. If you use a Freeze Dried Food food reserve , you need store more water to hydrate the food when you eat, but the water you use to hydrate the food all ends up in your body when you eat it.

That said, then what is the real amount water storage needed for emergency preparedness?

The Red Cross and FEMA say one gallon of water per day in their “Preparing for Disaster” pdf (on page 8), but this for a “3 day supply kit”. So perhaps this does not include water requirements for hygiene? Does it assume you have also included in your 3 day kit mostly canned food that has water in the food as opposed dry grains and cereals which will need a lot more clean drinkable water to cook?

www.72hours.org offered this advice on water “Store one gallon of water, per person, per day. This amount will be adequate for general drinking purposes. Three gallons per person per day will give you enough to cook and for limited personal hygiene.”

They also advised to replace unopened stored bottled water once a year.

Perhaps you can plan to replace the water each year the day before or the day after your birthday so you will remember to do it. Or Perhaps we should have a “Preparedness Day” holiday so that we can do once a year whatever needs to be done that year like throwing out the canned food and bottled water and replace it with a new supply for another year. I am sure the food industry will be all for this holiday, they should take the cue from the chocolate and flower people for what they did to create Valentine’s day. Let’s move on.

So the answer, in terms of clean water storage for consumption, appears to be 1 to 3 gallons per person per day depending on whether you are using water for cooking.

If your survival food store is MRE then your requirement will be closer to 1 gallon per day, and 1.5 gallons if you use Freeze Dried Food.

You may think there is an advantage to MRE here but you will need the same if not more storage space for the same period of food support for MRE due to package density of MRE. As well you will always have more options in terms of water resource allocation as the additional water you store for Freeze Dried Food can be used for other purposes if it makes sense, while with MRE the water that is already in the food can’t be practically extracted out.

The best way to safely store water is in food grade containers like the ones below. With stabilizer applied and containers properly sealed water will be good to drink for 5 years. Click on the pictures of the containers to get more information on them;

30 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

55 gallon container, 4 per package at Nitro-Pak

What if you did not prepare water before an emergency?

Here is some excellent information from Public Heath of Seattle and King county on “How to prepare safe water after a disaster”.

Real-time Survival Food News Updates From Google

[rsspara:http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&um=1&tab=wn&q=survival+food+preparedness&ie=UTF-8&output=atom]

After events like 911, Hurricane Katrina, the H5N1 bird flu scare, you would think our governments would have finally taken action to be ready to assist us when a disaster or emergency situation occurs.

Read this Reuters article from from December 18th, 2007.

Do you think any improvement has occured since then? Will they ever be prepared?

U.S. still unprepared for disaster: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States remains unprepared for disasters ranging from biological attacks to a flu pandemic, and funding for preparedness is falling, according to a report released on….

NEW Improved MRE’s for 2008:

The BEST just got better! The MRE business has been tough for some time with suppliers torn from one disaster to the next and with the war. Supplies have been short and selection has been terrible… until now. We have just contracted with a major MRE supplier to provide our customers with all FRESH component MRE’s and meals (not old scraped together surplus or 2 to 3 year old stock). Unlike some dealers who provide just 2 to 4 different entree choices, we provide SIX (6) DIFFERENT Premium meal entrees x 2! In Addition, everyone of our meals includes a MRE side dish! That’s an ADDED SAVINGS of up to $12 per case you would have to pay if you…….

Water Storage Will Save Your Life Better Than Food

by terryfitzroy
Did you know that it is more important to store clean water in case of an emergency than it is to store food? There are many reasons for this fact, but the first may or may not be obvious to you.

Did you know that if there were a terrorist attack, that water supply would most likely be the first thing that gets cut off? Did you know that your city water supply is at a higher risk to be contaminated than the food in the grocery store is? In case of an emergency, you are going to want to stock up on both food, and water. But if you have to choose one, it needs to be as much clean drinking water as possible.

You can live longer without food than you can without water. This is the second reason why it is more important. The human body needs water like a car needs gas and oil. It is said by some biologist that 75% of our bodies are made up of water. When your body has a lack of water, immediately you will start to show signs of dehydration. Many people feel like food is more important mainly because they can feel hunger pains, and recognize them much better than they can feel dehydration beginning to affect their bodies. Some of the common symptoms of dehydration are muscle twitching, headaches, dryness of mouth, and blurry vision.

In fact, most of your common body aches can be traced back to a single cause: Not drinking enough water.
You should drink 64 ounces of water per day. That equals eight, 8 ounce glasses of water per each set of 24 hours.

That might seem like a lot of water to you, but truthfully, it ‘s the recommended minimum amount. Drinking more won’t hurt. The easiest way to accomplish this is to keep a water bottle with you at all times and as soon as it is empty, fill it up again.
Food is important, don’t get me wrong. But you can potentially go weeks without eating, while you most likely won’t make it one week with no clean drinking water. So what are we to do? Start saving every single milk jug container you can.

Most families go through a gallon or more per week, sometimes two. Instead of throwing them away, wash them out thoroughly, and fill them with filtered, clean drinking water. Start stashing them away someplace safe, like in your basement or in your garage. In a few short months you’ll have a few dozen gallons of clean water, and if you somehow face a crisis, you’ll be prepared to make it for the long haul.

Another thing you can do is start stocking up on it at the grocery store when you see a sale. Water is pretty cheap. Even if you buy the brand name stuff, you can usually find a 24 pack of water for less than five bucks. Many grocery stores also sell jugs of water. Each time you go grocery shopping, make it a point to buy one.

This will also maintain your supply if you build it up over time. 50 gallons or more may be needed if drinking water is contaminated. 50 gallons can get you through for several weeks until you are able to go elsewhere, so make it your goal to save at least that much water. It could save your life, and others you know.

About the Author

Terry Fitzroy is a professional writer specializing in freeze dried food and disaster preparedness To learn more about Water Storage visit SurvivalSolutions.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

kemct Said;

Water is important and proper preparedness absolutely must include a water storage strategy. A well planned water storage strategy should include proper safe food grade bulk containers or at least containers with food grade liners. Also the water needs a stabilizer if you want it stored safely for an extended period of time.

Per Nitro-Pak’s website on water storage;

“Civil defense experts have for years suggested that you store approximately 2 gallons per day per person for two weeks.”

For their 30 gallon water container they say;

“Now you can purchase a water storage package that comes complete with everything you need. Just fill with tap water, add the 5 year stabilizer, and seal the caps with the included bung wrench. That’s it! For businesses, this package can also supply water for up to 3 days for 36 people. This unit uses 30 gallon size containers that will supply a family of four for 2 weeks. We also offer a 55 gallon size container unit which will provide up to 4 weeks of water for the same family. Both use our heavy-duty water barrels sold in the Storage Barrel Category. Each container is brand new, never used.

• No water rotation for 5 years!
• Everything you need including 4 – 30 gallon water containers and 5 year Water Stabilizer!

Included items:

• 4 – 30 Gallon Water Barrels1
• Siphon/Manual Hand Pump1
• 5 Year Water Stabilizer (Oxystabile/Aerobic 07)
• 1 Aluminum Bung Wrench (for opening & seal barrel caps)
• 8 Protective Seal Caps (protects caps from dirt & debris)”