four storage plan book 5

FOUR STORAGE PLAN BOOK 5

Chapter Two

Budget Plan

[ It has been three weeks since I wrote the last chapter here. I thought the whole concept was endangered by the grocery stores running out of food, from wall to wall, with only a few condiments and frozen goods remaining. So I stopped writing the book. Yet, I'm given some hope that we have a reprieve. The stores are no longer bare everywhere, but only in a few critical spots like rice and beans. Continuing this might have some merit, and I was enjoying writing it. I'll continue with the interrupted series on soft secession after I finish this book ]

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The Budget Plan was buying everything Loss Leader. It really wasn't much more complicated than that. You bought what was on sale, stockpiling. For instance, pasta. It hasn't been cheap for many years, the Wops having a Semolina flour shortage shooting up the price where it mostly stayed. Occasionally it went on sale. When it did, I bought $20 or $30 worth. I probably won't eat that in five years. It was fifty or seventy cents a pound, an insanely low price. Multiply that by every sale, on every shelf item. But frozen was the same.

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I started this plan simply. I bought chicken. That is what was on sale. Your mileage may vary now, as chicken was the first meat to run out. The cheapest went first, as most folks went cheap and raced to the budget foods in their panic ( you'll note that the first four chapters of this book were very prophetic. Which is par for the course. I KNOW the future because I'm paranoid. Of course, my timing sucks, as do the details. I'm a budget medium. Sorry ). But the point is, I started with the cheap meat. This cut my grocery budget in half, even if I only eat a small amount of meat.

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I got really friggin tired of chicken, let me tell you. I don't even like it five years later. Of course, I never liked it except for deep fried, so it was already a trend. But I accomplished filling up the freezer. Not the sad and pathetic freezer over the fridge. A dedicated stand alone chest freezer. I filled it with loss leader meats. Once full, I could wait to buy the meat I wanted. No more chicken. Just hamburger and pork, as they came on sale. In the meantime, since I had saved all the money buying in bulk AND on sale, now I could use those freed up funds to buy whatever else was on sale.

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It hardly takes much effort to stock the pantry shelves with dry goods. It was really easy in my case, since I barely eat out of cans. I'll eat the occasional beans in a can, and I think pineapple actually tastes better from a can than fresh, but other than that I only stock a few items in cans. I like enchiladas, because who doesn't? I could make the sauce, but don't bother. I have the occasional can of chicken noodle soup when feeling ill. But mostly, we eat potatoes and cabbage ( used for salads, both because cheaper and longer lasting ) and bread for a dinner carb, with rice only once in a blue moon.

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I always carry four large boxes of generic Minute Rice ( Bug-In Plan ), and the box currently open I bought two years ago ( rotate for freshness! ). I eat those noodles even less than rice. Butter is the only oil we cook with, which to my mind is healthier. You can even turn it into ghee if you want a higher burn point. I only buy that on sale, and have half a shelf in the freezer for it. I could go six months without buying any. Same with the meat. All this is food security, but it doubles as a plan to reduce my grocery costs.

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Nothing except potatoes and cabbage are full price. I spend so little on groceries I've had months of non-edible prepper gear purchases where all my food money went to that. Now, we are currently seeing all of the above endangered. For three weeks there were NO shelf stable carbs available. After the rice and pasta went, everyone bought up all the potatoes. Things are getting back to restocked ( although rice and beans are rare-you'll have to go to an ethnic neighborhood grocery or restaurant supplier ). Still no rice, but flour is showing back up ( everyone realized they couldn't bake an edible loaf, I imagine ).

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And there are really no good Loss Leaders right now, other than junk food and booze ( stock up on that, as the bans seem to be catching on. The same idiots who thought banning smoking in prison was a good idea seem to think taking alcohol away from stressed people when their Happy Pills were no longer coming from China is an equally swell plan-if we weren't surrounded by idiots we would almost be all alone ). BUT! The shelves are getting back to mostly normal and while the Budget Plan isn't as much of a bargain as it was, the principle can at least be applied to stockpiling so as to avoid future shortages.

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You still fill a freezer and your shelves, so you can hunt for bargains. And if need be, when the hunted items are gone you can wait for their return without panic. I'm starting a Po Boy root cellar for my potatoes, plastic coolers I keep wherever it is coolest or not freezing. I might bury them up to their lid down in the basement. Or, even outside if I have an extra insulated top ( I'll have to experiment. The basement is heated in the winter and outside it might not be down far enough in the ground. I have half a year to figure it out ).

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If things stay the same, shortages and lack of sales, the Budget Plan is not going to work as well as it did for me. But it WILL become the Inflation Plan, which we cover next. Still be on the lookout for Budget Items. You can buy in bulk at the restaurant supplier. Don't wait too long, as the eating out businesses have lost fifty percent of their sales. Their suppliers might be going out of business soon themselves. So if possible, buy years worth of each desired item. Just be low key about it. A month ago, nobody cared it you bought lots of food.

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Now? They are jealous and resentful. Since they bought too much house and too much car ( now both looking like VERY risky investments, what with no jobs and no spare parts ), they couldn't focus on food. So they hate you for being able to. Don't rub it in their faces. Be sneaky. OpSec is more important than ever.

( .Y. )

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