Daisy Luther - Prepper’s Pantry: Build a Nutritious Stockpile to Survive Blizzards, Blackouts, Hurricanes, Pandemics, Economic Collapse, or...

Copyright 2019 by Daisy Luther

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Luther, Daisy, author.

Title: Preppers pantry: how to build a nutritious stockpile for disaster survival on a budget / by Daisy Luther.

Description: New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2019002026| ISBN 9781631583919 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781631583940 (Ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Grocery shopping. | FoodStorage. | Low budget cooking. | Survival and emergency rations.

Classification: LCC TX356 .L88 2019 | DDC 641.3/1dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019002026

Cover design by Peter Donahue

Cover photos by iStockphoto

Print ISBN: 978-1-63158-391-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63158-394-0

Printed in China

I f youre brand new to prepping, one of the most overwhelming tasks you have ahead of you is building a survival stockpile from scratch. I mean, that is a WHOLE LOT OF FOOD folks are talking about in the forums, am I right?

And building a pantry isnt just for beginners.

Did you ever stop to think about what you would do if all of your preps were gone? Heaven forbid such a misfortune might happen, but what if your pantry was wiped out in a fire or flood? If you had to start over, how would you go about it?

A few years ago, my daughter and I moved across the continent, from the easternmost part of Ontario to the Pacific Northwest of the US. Because we were crossing the border, driving through extreme heat, and then storing our belongings in a trailer for a month, we couldnt bring our food supplies. We still had our tools and equipment, but we started over as far as our pantry was concerned. And, we only brought a small trailer, so we also started from scratch for goods like toilet paper and laundry soap.

Being without my one-year supply of food made me feel uncomfortable and very vulnerable, given the circumstances in the world today.

I thought it might be interesting, especially to new preppers, to show you how we rebuilt our food supply on a very tight budget. (That move was expensive!)

So, with that in mind, I wrote The Pantry Primer in 2013 to document our journey, and published it in 2014.

That book was based on my blog posts about our fresh start, but the reviews and emails I received from the readers let me know that you wanted a lot more information than I initially provided. So, because of that, I revised and nearly tripled it in size. And now, I have been given the opportunity to revamp yet again with this newest and most updated edition!

This book is geared towards people who are just starting out on their preparedness journey. Even if youve been at it for a while, youll still find some creative ideas for shopping on a budget. That being said, you may find that some of the concepts discussed are things that you already knowyou may want to skip forward to . I hope that youll still find the how-to information valuable, and maybe you can pay it forward by taking the time to advise someone less experienced.

In each section, well discuss two things: Why and How .

While knowing how to do something is of vital importance, I always find that I personally learn much better if I also know why Im doing it in that particular way. Some of the information is based on history, and some of it is based on my personal experiences.

So, lets get started. We have a lot of work to do, but dont worry! Ill walk you through it every step of the way.

A years supply of food.

Does that sound like a ridiculous amount? Why on earth would you need a one-year food supply? There are four grocery stores in your town, not to mention Walmart and Target. Food is EVERYWHERE!

Simple: A one-year food supply means freedom. It means that you are less subject to the whims of the economy. You can handle small disasters with aplomb. You arent reliant on the government if a crisis strikes.

Below Ive listed some reasons why a food supply is important.

People often ask me how I got started prepping. Nearly everyone who is into this lifestyle has a notable incident that made them pause and think, Hmm... I need to do things differently.

For me, there were two incidents that made an enormous, life-altering impression.

A long time ago, when I was newly married and in my early 20s, my husband and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl who turned our world upside down. Suddenly, we werent just a young couple who could get by on only a few dollars until the next paycheck arrived. We had real responsibilities, and we needed to take life more seriously.

When our little bundle was just a month old, I had begun doing just that. I had planted a nice big vegetable garden in the yard of our rented home, and Id taken advantage of a good sale and put a dozen packages of bagels in our freezer and several jars of peanut butter in our pantry.

That was the same day that my husband came home, white-faced, to tell me he had been laid off.

Panic didnt ensue immediately. We had his last check and the weeks groceries. We knew hed qualify for unemployment, since hed paid into that fund for a sufficient amount of time. He was young, strong, and hardworking, we reasoned, so hed have a new job in no time at all.

Unfortunately, it soon became clear that there were few jobs to be had in our depressed area. Unemployment checks were eight long weeks away. Soon, we were broke and had nothing but the bagels and peanut butter, and some hopes for our garden.

It took five months before my husband found a job, and those were lean months indeed. But I had learned an incredibly valuable lesson: Stock up now, because you never know what tomorrow might bring. When we finally had some money coming in, I began to shop the sales diligently, organizing grocery trips with the ruthlessness of an invading army. Even on the miniscule amount of money we received from the unemployment office, I managed to put back a weeks worth of extra food, then a months worth, then even more.

That was the beginning of my preparedness lifestyle, even though I had absolutely no idea what prepping was at the time.