How to buy 200lbs of food for $25

[AMforPM]

The talk about quinoa made me want to mention how much we like millet. The hens do too.

[stAGgering]

Precisely. A preventative health measure.

The trick played upon Americans has been the reduction of food cost percentage from expendable income. A corporate ponzi scheme. Everywhere else in the world(been there) food costs are 25-35% of expendable income. Ironically, Organic consumers here in the US have been matching the foreign food expenditure and not consuming the petridish prepared foods. Amazingly, those who do eat quality whole foods appear much more physically and mentally prepared. As mentioned elsewhere, targets are applied to healthy and prepared, by those who are neither.


You're gonna get what you pay for.

Unless really broke or a cheapskate, think about the QUALITY of your foodstuffs. The BEST bulk foods there are in the USA are Certified Organics, not cheap; but you are building your immune system, good blood, and enabling less work for your kidneys and liver by eating them. Think these things don't outweigh saving money?

You can probably order almost any item you find at a HealthFood store's bulk section by the 25 or 50 lb bag. Retailer usually will cut you a 5-10% discount and not require payment in advance. Maybe you order 6 bags or more of various items and pay in advance if they give you a cost plus 10% deal? Never know until you ask.

Every county has a County Agricultural Agent. Contact them and find out if there are any Organic Certified farmers in your area. If you are gonna buy direct, buy Best Quality. Another option might be your local "Producers Co-Op" which is usually a seller of all sorts of gear to farmers and a buyer of local crops, especially grains. Then there are feed stores, as already discussed. Just don't buy treated seed. Ask the clerk about what they have that is okay for human consumption. They probably use the good stuff at home.... Ask what stuff they buy and cook with?

Probably more important to have a good salt supply, which means cert organic sea salt. Soy beans are worth storing only if you get stuff that isn't monsanto origin. Legumes like Lentils and Peas are also great

Arrowhead Mills of Hereford Tx is (or used to be) a foremost Organic bulk grain supplier to the HealthFood store industry. Arrowhead had a division called The Simpler Life which was #10 can packed organics for food storage use.

As far as rice goes, the only rice worth buying for storage is Brown rice. Brown rice has nutrition which white rice lacks completely. Serve almost any bean dish over a bed of brown rice and you have a Complete Protein as good as meat, but better for your digestive tract. The Best brown rice for quality and nutrition levels is Organic Short-Grain. Lundberg Farms has about the best product array and is Cert Organic producer in CA. Buy it at Costco.

There is longterm storage, and storage in-pantry for regular kitchen use. We found that we lost little to any pests by putting a couple of Bay Leaves in each 1gal storage jar. Bulk Bay Leaf is a great seasoning, but also helps keep your food ready to use. Nothing worse than having to dump 4 or 5 lbs of something you can't replace due to mites or other infestation.

In closing, consider your food supply to be critical. When there is not doctor, you need to do all you can to improve your health rather than deplete your immune system and organ functioning levels. Costs money to buy anything worth eating. Don't cheat yourself and your family just to save a few bucks....

[spacecase0]

The talk about quinoa made me want to mention how much we like millet. The hens do too.

millet will go dorment if it runs out of water,
it only needs enough water during the growing season,
but not nessarely all at any paticular time,
so it grows in places that can't grow anything else,
because if that, it is cheep when compaired to many other grains
and may be growable without irrigation in an area where you did not think grains can grow on there own.

[CrufflerJJ]

You're gonna get what you pay for.

Unless really broke or a cheapskate, think about the QUALITY of your foodstuffs. The BEST bulk foods there are in the USA are Certified Organics, not cheap; but you are building your immune system, good blood, and enabling less work for your kidneys and liver by eating them. Think these things don't outweigh saving money?
-snip-
Probably more important to have a good salt supply, which means cert organic sea salt. Soy beans are worth storing only if you get stuff that isn't monsanto origin.
-snip-
As far as rice goes, the only rice worth buying for storage is Brown rice. Brown rice has nutrition which white rice lacks completely. Serve almost any bean dish over a bed of brown rice and you have a Complete Protein as good as meat, but better for your digestive tract.
-snip-
There is longterm storage, and storage in-pantry for regular kitchen use. We found that we lost little to any pests by putting a couple of Bay Leaves in each 1gal storage jar.
-snip-


Sorry, but my #1 goal is to have FOOD to eat, not spiffy, kinder, gentler, "cruelty free", free range, organic stuff.

Once basic needs are met, then maybe we can extend to organic foodstuffs.

Brown rice is OK, unless you need to store it for long term (rancidity). Unless you're vacuum packing brown rice that has already been heat treated/parboiled to deactivate the enzymes, you can end up with rancid rice even when stored with oxygen absorbers.

As to bay leaves...maybe better than nothing, but I'd rather trust oxygen absorbers & aluminized Mylar pouches to kill my buggies.

Organic sea salt? Maybe when I start wearing hemp clothing and Birkie clogs. Give me a decent supply of generic cheap iodized table salt, properly stored any day.

[Juristic Person]

Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide

http://stilltasty.com/

This could help you stretch your food budget and get your finances better in line.

[Argent Dragon]

Just watched the video and it has lots of great ideas I never thought of ~ Fantastic post

thanks

[Oldmansmith]

Organic sea salt? Maybe when I start wearing hemp clothing and Birkie clogs. Give me a decent supply of generic cheap iodized table salt, properly stored any day.

Any salt is better than none, but sea salt contains all the essential trace elements. Our blood contains a very similar spectrum of trace elements to sea water.

[AgShaman]

Lots of good info in this thread....many thanks.

For specialty items, a person can modify their habits as well. I eat alot of oatmeal and drink alot of tea. Creamed honey is my favorite to put in these two items....and honey lasts forever...just ask the pharoahs. Getting it at the grocer's in a 1.5# container will set you back 7 bucks. Calling the family direct and purchasing in buckets (24# and 45#...like the restaurants do) will cost you less than half, then you just scoop as needed into your own container.

Lots of Micro-Breweries in the Inland Northwest...some really good specialty beers. I like the Porters and Ambers especially well...but having a glass at the brew pub or an establishment that carries it will set you back 3 or 4 bucks. If you're gonna be hangin' with friends at private gatherings...having some growlers will lower your costs by at least half or more (growlers are 2L or 64 oz's)....and when you're a scrawny little leprachaun like myself, a little microbrew (7-8% alcohol) goes a long way and you don't have to show up to the brewery to get it filled as most places will accomodate this practice as well....7 or 8 dollar growler....cheap as any fancy six pack at the grocery store.

Curiosity will not kill this Cat!

[Julian]

For those wanting to raise their own grains, this has all the info you need:

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Grain-Raising-Second-Processing/dp/1603580778/

I have the first edition, which was getting harder and harder to find, and finally last year Logsdon came out with an updated second edition.

[Lt Dan]

I have the first addition as well, Julian.

I grew enough field corn for my chickens and enough for corn meal besides. We've got a plot of winter wheat just peeking out of the ground now. I've tried soybeans, but the weeds took them over, I lost interest in them due to the rabbits or deer kept eating them off fast as they came on. I also tried buckwheat, but weeds and rabbits got the best of me there too. We'll see how the wheat does.

[stAGgering]

A compound bow + soybeans = steak!
Local talk about people here already buying ammo for food. Scary.


I have the first addition as well, Julian.

I grew enough field corn for my chickens and enough for corn meal besides. We've got a plot of winter wheat just peeking out of the ground now. I've tried soybeans, but the weeds took them over, I lost interest in them due to the rabbits or deer kept eating them off fast as they came on. I also tried buckwheat, but weeds and rabbits got the best of me there too. We'll see how the wheat does.

[Usury]

Back on topic, the OP is really GREAT!!! I've found a local honey producer (got his number from one of the health food stores that he sells to--I told the store that I wanted the honey 5 gal at a time) to contact about bulk honey and I have several restaurants saving buckets for me.

I did also pick up a bag of feed corn from Tractor Supply (CHEAP...like $7 for 50 lbs), but I'm a bit hesitant to eat it...LOL.

[Lt Dan]

I did also pick up a bag of feed corn from Tractor Supply (CHEAP...like $7 for 50 lbs), but I'm a bit hesitant to eat it...LOL.If you have much land, say a couple acres, you can grow all the field corn you could every use up in a years time, just on a small patch. Just be sure to buy open pollinated seed depending on what variety you like and save your own seed from year to year. The corn from TSC probably won't hurt you, but it's probably not open pollinated and might be genetically altered. Safe probably for grinding into meal, but intended for livestock. The feed wheat that farm supply mills sell is safe enough for grinding into flour, but needs the chafe willowed out. It is not as clean as the stuff you buy for grinding. Makes a person wonder, what they do when they make the flour we buy at the store, if they really clean it that well or just bleach it to make it look nice and white.

Growing your own is about saving even more than what the OP suggests, IMO. Plus you know what the end result is if the crop doesn't fail.

[Lt Dan]

A compound bow + soybeans = steak!
Local talk about people here already buying ammo for food. Scary.

We can use cross bows in season here, but the problem is the neighbors are really too close in the day time and catching the deer here at night would be like sitting out all night and maybe never seeing them. Also, I stay legal with deer. I tried to get the county to issue me a opened permit to kill any deer i saw damaging my property or crops. They did send a guy out to see the damage, but didn't think it warranted a permit. They didn't offer a reimbursement for my loss either.

[Mike Brandt]

So many great tips. Thank you

[quickie]

u have to leach the corn with lime, as in making hominy, or your body can't absorb its nutrients, Rice is a lot easier to fix, lentils have lots more protein. Soy beans are cheap, mostly, and tofu is the staff of life in much of Asia, You need 3 lbs per day of high calorie food, probably 4 lbs of dried grain, if that is all you have. I snare and jerk vension, and put up cans of criso "lard", along with drying my own fruit. Don't make the "pemmican' until you are about ready to eat it. once you open the crisco can, it starts to spoil. the separate, dry ingredients keep much better than the pemmican.

[quickie]

gee, can't POSSIBLY drive out to where the grain IS, or pay someone to do so and ship it to you, right? we are discussing your LIFE vs death, and that's the best you can do? you don't DESERVE to survive, then.

[roadkill]

But if you live in the city, you're still SOL

I will say it again! I commend you for your work however their are food stores in all towns that have all these items canned in Gallon cans 6 for $20 at your Church of Latter Day daints Food stores. I purchase 4 boxes w 24 cgallon cans of beans, rice, wheat and oats for $100. Use your jars for canning meat. I have spent my winter canning meat and will do a class at our local Harvest store. I am not a Mormon but they want me to do a demonstration and since I grew up in Iowa canning everything in site I told them I would. I dry buckets and buckets of fruit all summer and have 2 large dehydrators going nonstop as soon as the cherries are ripe. Then apricots, peaches, apples in addition to canning these. My kids are now in college but they take the dried stuff at every stop at home. In fact sometimes I think that is the only reason I see them every month or so. I think I'll keep it up. They are great kids on scholarships and very self sufficient. SAVE YOUR JARS FOR MEAT! USE QUART NOT GALLON THOUGH!

[Lt Dan]

SAVE YOUR JARS FOR MEAT! USE QUART NOT GALLON THOUGH!Quarts assume refrigeration once the jar is opened. My wife puts meat in pints, mostly because it goes further that way and we don't have to eat so much of it up at a time. For a larger family situation, quarts would work better. A gallon of meat, feed a small army of big old boys.

[Michael2013]

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