I've Moved!

Today I am laying to rest this blog and have moved to my new .com home. Please see all the excitement at http://www.theobsessiveshopper.com/

Be sure to change your book marks and feeds to the new address. If you are subscribed to the newsletter everything has already been taken care of for you.

If you have any question please email me.

Sugar, Sugar

At a class last week a discussion was started about pantry staples on sale and if Grocerysmarts can help those who cook from scratch. One of the products mentioned was sugar. It was discussed if or even how using coupons or the website would help get a good a deal on such staples. Well, I was very pleased to see this great deal on sugar at Albertson's this week.

C&H granulated sugar 5 lb. on sale for $2.50 use this special to get the best price of $1.75, Save $3 instantly when you for every $10 you spend on participating items. Mix or Match.
then use this coupon: C&H Sugar product, 2 lbs. or larger .35/1 (10-31-08) RP-8/17
Your bottom line would then be $1.40 for 5 lbs.

If you had 5 coupons you then could buy 25 lbs. for $7!

I thought that was an awesome deal and worth mentioning. See you can use Grocerysmarts and coupons for more than just prepared foods!

Did you know that sugar is a necessary item for your long term food storage?

It is recommended that you store 39 lbs of granulated sugar per person in your household. Sugar will keep two or more years at room temperature. It's often used as a preservative, so it's no wonder that it lasts a long time. Store it in an airtight container to prevent it from hardening and clumping.

If you don't know what your family's long term needs are, I suggest you visit this awesome post from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net be sure to watch the video it is very helpful!

Focus on Food Storage

This week I noticed a lot of items on sale that would be wonderful for food storage. I did not want to overwhelm you all but I also don't want to make the decision on what was useful for your families. I decided to just highlight the food storage products on sale this week at Macey's. These items are most likely useful for your long term storage. If you are faint hearted and get overwhelmed easy, take a deep breath and just keep in mind your personal budget and the items your family uses.

Please go to the store list and look for other items that would be great with food storage. I am only showing you the items that are 4 or more stars, which means they are a great buy for Maceys.

I asked my friends at Food Storage Made Easy to help give suggestions regarding this sale.
This was their suggestion:

We would probably suggest for "beginners" to look at the following items:
-Morning Moo's Wheat 45 lb. Pail hard Red or White (3 star, but very necessary - red has a stronger taste, most people prefer white in breads)
-Morning Moo's Rolled Oats Quick or Regular 50 lb. Bag (4 star and versatile)
-Morning Moo's Vital Wheat Gluten 27 oz (4 star and great for helping make bread fluffier)
-Morning Moo's Corn Meal 72 oz. (4 star and can be used in a lot of recipes)
-Saf-Instant Yeast 16 oz. (4 star - for the bread)
-WF Sugar 25 lb. (4 star - for the bread)

We have found the first place people tend to start is figuring out how to make bread at least. You could sustain yourself for not much money with ingredients for bread. For people who are more experienced and have more of the basic needs covered, there are a lot of other food storage items such as: freeze dried fruits and veggies, potato gems, sour cream powder, honey power, egg whites, dry milk.

If you don't know what your families long term needs are I suggest you visit this awesome post be sure to watch the video it is very helpful! Thanks Julie for your help!

Treats for your 72 Hour kits

This week you can pick up bags of Life Savers Candy for $.75 a bag after coupon at Albertson's. I like to put these in each of my 72 hour kits. Let me explain why, it gives me a good reason to rotate my kits. You may ask why, this is what I do (at least try to do). At conference time we pull out our 72 kits and update them, check expiration dates, etc. To get the family involved I let them eat the candy that I packed the last time and replace it with the new stuff. This way everyone wants to help and we can see what we have, need and update.

Check this website, Foodstoragemadeeasy.com out for more ideas on how to make a 72 hour kit and to rotate and store them.

Rice and Meds

This week's Food Storage spotlight is rice and Medication. This is a good week to pick up these two items if you have the coupons that go along with them.

We paid $2.15 for each of the rice shown here and $.50 for each bottle of Advil shown.

Rice Recommendations: Rice falls in the long term storage for grains. It is recommended that you store 55 lbs of rice per person for 12 months. I like to vary the kinds of rice I store. Some of my favorites are Basmati (long and fragrant) , Botan (short and sticky), Minute Rice Brown Rice (easier than traditional brown rice and better for you), and of course the traditional long grain.

Medication Recommendations: This will be personal for each family. I would suggest looking at what you use on a monthly basis and try to get as much as you can to stock up. This may be difficult for prescriptions using insurance. If that is your case then try to keep a list with the amount and the family members who use them handy, with a copy stored in your 72 hour kits also.

Another non traditional method for medications is becoming educated about herbal remedies and aromatherapy. For more information about essential oils visit this website. You can Also view this quick instructional document I put together for you all here.

Food storage that is not food?

My food storage spotlight this week is not food. I really don't know what to call it but really I want to be clean if disaster strikes or if financial stress creeps up don't you?

The Proctor and Gamble sale at Smith's the week is really great! Here is an example of what we got:

2-Oral-B Advantage Sensitive toothbrushes FREE, 4-Oral-B Advantage toothbrushes FREE, 6-Oral-B Stages toothbrushes, $.50 each, Crest Pro Health Night Time toothpaste $.94, 5 Crest Pro Health clean mint toothpaste $.94 each, 12 Old Spice High Endurance AP &D $.79 each (Christmas present for Grandpa!), 6 Secret AP & D $.79 each, 6 Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner $.50 each.

Total Spent: $26.91

Total Saved: $87.02

Food Storage Items this week

There are 2 things I would put in my food storage na sale this week. The first is Hershey's Chocolate Syrup Buy 2 Get 1 free which works out to be $4/3. Have you ever tried drinking reconstituded dry milk? This chocolate syrup will come in handy!

Second thing, this is more serious. It is water. At Albertson's you will be able to get Spring water 24 pack for $2.99, Smith's had Arrowhead 24 pack for $2.99 with a limit of 6. Here is what I know about water storage.



Want to know what the American Red Cross recomends? Click here

New Helpful Food Storage Site

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with food storage? Are you afraid to start or don't know where to start? Have you felt that food storage is only for the "Big One" and that is a long way away?

I have felt these things at times too and let me just say that having a food storage brings so much peace and comfort. I know because I have had to use my food storage to feed my family three times in the last 4 years. I know the peace that comes when my children are hungry and all I have to so is go to the basement and pick something out to feed them with. I have seen other's struggle and suffer because a lack of food storage. Please start today even if you only budge $10 a month you will certainly be blessed as you set your intention and move forward!

Few......I will step down from the box now and let you know of a great website that just launched today. It was developed by two young moms trying to build their food storage using baby steps. To check it out go to http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ Check out the side bar for more helpful food storage websites.

Food Storage Items

Here are two food storage items on sale this week. Click here and here for the stores.
Can you really ever have too much chocolate? I love having brownies on hand. You can try new recipes from the back of the boxes or search on the web. Here is the link to Betty Crocker for some great idea's on using your brownie mixes.

Pasta is a long term food storage staple. It is recommended that you have a total of 300 lbs of grains per person for 1 year, pasta counts in the grain category. Pasta's stored correctly can last up to 30 years! Click here for storage conditions and suggestions. I like to buy the kind of pasta's our family uses often. Click here for some recipes we like to use with pasta. Don't forget that the box of mac & cheese counts too!

Food Storage Item

I like to have canned meats in my food storage. If there is a disaster then really my freezer full of meats is not going to be that helpful over the long run. Having a shelf stable back-up is a great option. What if money gets tight and I can't afford to buy as much meat at the butcher? Again something from the shelf will come in handy. See this post for recipes using canned chicken.

Long Term Food Storage

I was looking at this weeks sales and noticed that Clorox Bleach 60 oz was on sale at Smith's. (click to go to list page, click on Smiths from the drop down.) Bleach is a great long term food storage item as it can be used for cleaning and water purification, although the later must be done carefully. One recommendation is 1 gallon of bleach per person in the family. 1 Gal=128 oz so what I have done is just used this equation to figure it out: (keep in mind I truly stink at math so if this doesn't make sense please post an easier way for all of us by commenting on this feed!)

# Family member's x 128 oz = total ounces needed divide that by 60 to get the total bottles to purchase.

Food Storage Calculator

Here is a link to a long term food storage calculator from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Calculator

Provident Living Website

Pamphlet Regarding Food Storage