How's your personal food storage situation?

[Kaido]

I became interested in "prepping" during the COVID lockdown five years ago. My local grocery stores were BARE for a full two weeks when that happened, as everyone went into panic mode! I never wanted to be in a situation where I was unprepared again. The first thing I did was get a hot-water bidet seat attachment from Costco to beat the toilet paper shortage. After that, I started getting into:

1. Food storage
2. Supplies storage
3. Emergency "go bags"

I grew up in California & Florida, which are famous for earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, and flooding. I've been through some major events & had to evacuate, but never really kept more than a week or two's worth of supplies. After COVID, I got a little more serious about maintaining a better supply, just to be able to ride things out. I don't really buy into the whole "prepper" thing in terms of society-ending survival because I am a soft, squishy computer geek & wouldn't last long anyway LOL, so to preface, I'm interested in preparedness as an emergency buffer, not a fatalist dystopian-future lifestyle. However, this month, I've been prompted to really dive into it due to recent American policy changes & ownership changes:

1. Immigration
2. Foreign aid & tariffs
3. Foreign ownership

I used to work in food service & currently have IT clients in food production. Things have been changing this week; people are starting to not show up due to ICE & wholesale food prices are up 7% from a year ago. For reference, our nation relies on immigrants for hospitality & food labor:

* Immigrant farmworkers make up an estimated 73% of agriculture workers in the United States
* Undocumented farm workers make up approximately 50% of the farm labor workforce
* 21% of restaurant workers in the United States are immigrants

The deportation project is already in process:

The Trump administration is planning to use military aircraft every day to help carry out what President Donald Trump and his "border czar," Tom Homan, have promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, Homan told ABC News.

This is frustrating to me because I feel like we could be focused on more important things. I currently feed 7 people (elderly relatives etc.). Unrestricted corporate greed ("inflation") has made restaurant & grocery costs sky-high. Now we're removing the foundational layer of the support economy that makes things run. As there are two sides to every coin, on the flip side, this will force restaurants to pay people a living wage instead of exploiting a minority workforce. But on top of that, we are freezing almost ALL foreign aid & the tariff situation is kinda sketchy tight now. Plus we have CRAZY amounts of foreign ownership. For example, the largest pork producer in America is owned by China.

I'm optimistic about the future, however, I think we are going to go through some hard times like we did with the COVID lockdown. Bird flu is already affecting egg prices. So I'm revisiting my food-storage system this month to get a jump on building out a more sustainable supply. Hopefully this is all just my anxiety talking, but we do seem to go through recessions on a cyclical basis, so I'm attempting to be more prepared this time, haha!

How about you - any preparation plans? I learned that I can use my vacuum-sealer to store cookies for 15 years, hahaha:

 

[lxskllr]

I could stay on my property for a year+, and I wouldn't run out of food. It just happens that way, and not intentionally. Except for toiletpaper. I now keep a stockpile of toiletpaper on hand instead of buying as-needed. Who would've thought toiletpaper would go out of stock? People are idiots.

 

[WelshBloke]

I'm enjoying that the main course of action of being in a supply constrained situation by the OP is to buy a fancy toilet!

 

[Kaido]

I'm enjoying that the main course of action of being in a supply constrained situation by the OP is to buy a fancy toilet!

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

I can't do a year, but I can and often do a month, sometimes more. I could probably go two months if not for sheer boredom.


I went to town one day a few months ago and found they'd repaved several miles of road, something I had no idea they were doing.

 

[bbhaag]

A worldwide pandemic hit and the first thing you bought was a hot water bidet....really? Like that is what hit you first? Not food, not fuel, not a gun or ammo, not fresh water? You had to make sure your ass was clean?

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I live in a metro area of 8.5 million people. When and if the shit hits the fan...no one is getting out of town, we're all dependent on the supply chain and the Government. Roving bands of looters and breaking into homes is a possibility I suppose...

A good water filter, backpacking style like Sawyer or Platypus, go a long way.

Wish me luck!

 

[Kaido]

A worldwide pandemic hit and the first thing you bought was a hot water bidet....really? Like that is what hit you first?

It's all that was left at the store 😭

 

[Red Squirrel]

I buy a decent amount of canned food, as well as stuff that can be frozen, and when I meal prep I freeze lot of portions too. Also have Factor meal delivery about once a month and I freeze those so have like a few weeks worth of those meals, on top of everything else.

I'm not super well organized though, just shove stuff in cupboards, crawlspace and other areas. Been meaning to build a nice shelving system in the crawlspace but it has not been priority. It's a mess in there and I need to organize stuff better.

I could probably easily go a month without doing groceries if I really had to. Most of the time when I do groceries it's because I have the munchies for junk food or I'm just adding to the existing pile. But if I couldn't do groceries then I'd just go without some of that stuff and have to make due with what I have in the house.

I've gotten used to only eating one meal a day over the years so that would help stretch out supply too.

Eventually I want to try to be more self sufficient food wise and grow my own stuff, maybe have chickens etc too.

 

[sdifox]

I plan to steal Nutty Squirrel's off grid camp.

 

[FelixDeCat]

If this bird flu thing takes off, your preparations will pay off during the 2025 lockdowns.

 

[Kaido]

If this bird flu thing takes off, your preparations will pay off during the 2025 lockdowns.

Politics:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/26/politics/colombia-tariffs-trump-deportation-flights/index.html

Hours after Trump’s announcement, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he ordered the commerce ministry to raise tariffs on US imports by 25%. “I am informed that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same,” Petro wrote in a long post on X aimed at Trump, before he announced the 25% tax on US goods.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wonder if this is going to affect price of coffee.

 

[lxskllr]

Dude, everything's fucked. This clown show's only started. I just found a mastodon acct that's tracking grocery prices. They're on bluesky also if anyone stupidly wants to use that service. I hope they keep it up, cause it'll be interesting to track.

Grocery Hole (@GroceryHole@mastodon.world)

12 Posts, 1 Following, 4 Followers · Americans surrendered nearly 250 years of democracy and elected Trump to be a fascist dictator because they thought the price of eggs was too high. I decided to casually track the price of 10 grocery staples (including a dozen eggs) in my area. I created a...

mastodon.world

 

[Kaido]

I hope they keep it up, cause it'll be interesting to track.

Inflation is at a 40-year high:

https://dataweave.com/datashop/grocery-price-tracker-us

Look at eggs:

Retail pricing and promotions strategies | Datasembly Grocery Price Index

Improve retail pricing and promotions strategies with the Grocery Price Index. Track & understand pricing trends in the grocery industry.

datasembly.com

Just

 

[Red Squirrel]

The thing with price of food is that if it gets to a point where it's REALLY crazy, there are things you can do, like avoid whoever is charging more, or whatever is more expensive, buy from local farmers, grow/raise your own etc and if enough people do that they are forced to bring down the cost. They can only get away with raising prices so much, as they do have some competition.

It's all the reoccurring bills which you don't have much control over that hit the hardest as far as COL goes, like property taxes for example as it's not like you can opt out or really do much to lower it. So there is really no incentive for them to lower the price and they will just keep raising it each year because fuck you. If you want to keep your house that you worked hard for and put lot of time and effort into well you have to keep paying it and there's nothing you can do about it. Same with utility bills, you try to reduce usage, they will just up the fixed fees or raise the rates or both. Furnaces and electrical appliances have gotten way more efficient over the years, yet our bills are still higher than they were when stuff was terribly inefficient.

Seems everything we do to try to get ahead they will just take more from us.

 

[lxskllr]

Inflation is at a 40-year high:

https://dataweave.com/datashop/grocery-price-tracker-us

Look at eggs:

Retail pricing and promotions strategies | Datasembly Grocery Price Index

Improve retail pricing and promotions strategies with the Grocery Price Index. Track & understand pricing trends in the grocery industry.

datasembly.com

View attachment 115715
Just

It's not inflation. It's price fixing, but I'm sure Trump will get right on the investigations and prosecutions...

Eggs aren't a great example right now. There's a reason they're high.

Pluralistic: It’s not a crime if we do it with an app (25 Jan 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

 

[Kaido]

It's not inflation. It's price fixing, but I'm sure Trump will get right on the investigations and prosecutions...

Eggs aren't a great example right now. There's a reason they're high.

Pluralistic: It’s not a crime if we do it with an app (25 Jan 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

Big Potato

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Like the song says, you gotta shop around ....

Got two flats. 5 Dozen Large eggs for $3.00


View attachment 115074



Cashier's eyes popped and she went back to get some herself.

 

[IronWing]

I have chipmunk cheeks, I'm good.

 

[dullard]

I am personally very anti-prepper. My whole goal in my cooking is to always try to use up the food in the house. But, it is a losing battle for me. With my wife and in-laws, food keeps piling up.

I probably have 3 months of food in the freezers and maybe 3 weeks in the fridge. I'm not worried about that food going bad. I have solar panels and 6 days of battery backup (yes, I would have to wire the solar panels differently due to linesman safety laws, but in a true emergency I will just disconnect my house entirely from the grid and still use my solar).

And then I probably have 2 months of dry food in the pantry. Yes, it would require me eating stuff that we normally don't and just resides at the back of the pantry. But, we bought the stuff, so we should eat it someday. Bring on the wonton wrapped green olives with everything but the bagel seasoning!

I have a large garden that would provide maybe 2 months of food (part of why my freezers keep filling up). In an emergency at the right time of the year, I could use my whole yard and get 4 to 5 months. Heck, I could turn several rooms into indoor gardens at any time of the year with the seeds we have saved from last year's harvest. That would be another 2 months.

I backpack regularly, so I have everything needed for water purification and maybe 2 weeks of dehydrated meals as well as a stove that can burn just about anything for fuel.

Finally with a large park half a block away, I could use my Havahart trap for unlimited rabbit / possum meat.

 

[herm0016]

We have 350 lbs ish of meat in our freezers from animals we raise or hunt and an extensive seed collection. still eating the squash we grew last year. 10.8 kw of solar, well water with a good treatment system. chickens for eggs. We could stay here for a long time. We would need a little fuel, and dog food. but usually keep a month or so worth of both around. Our neighbors are similarly equipped.

currently in the foothills of the Rockies, so we could get snowed in for a week pretty easily.

 

[lxskllr]

Forgot about the cats. I usually only buy a month of catfood at a time, and I don't have much human food that would be suitable for them. I'd have to leave for the cats.

 

[sdifox]

Forgot about the cats. I usually only buy a month of catfood at a time, and I don't have much human food that would be suitable for them. I'd have to leave for the cats.

You are cat food.

 

[lxskllr]