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This blog has been discontinued, the new posts appear on http://apartmentprepper.com.  See Welcome to the New Home of the Apartment Prepper’s Blog.

If you subscribed to this blog, please come visit me and re-subscribe so you’ll receive all the latest articles.

Thank you, everyone!

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Upcoming Blog Changes

These last couple of days I have been working on a new project to move The Apartment Prepper’s Blog to a new self hosted site.  Since I am fairly new at this, I am still learning and it has taken me a while to make the move.  I am excited about the upcoming change and hope to announce the new site very soon.  Please stay tuned for the latest.  I thank you for your support!

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Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.   It is a day of celebration with no pressure to buy gifts, put on a costume or be the perfect host if you don’t feel like it.  Sure, you may have to cook, but if you choose, you can go celebrate at someone else house.  Adopting a preparedness mindset I have become aware of all the things that can fail in our system.  But I am grateful for things that have not failed.  We have a roof over our heads, we turn on the lights and they go on, get in our cars that have gas, find a variety of food at the grocery and enjoy a bountiful Thanksgiving meal with family and friends.

I also want to express my appreciation to all my readers; this is a work in progress for me and I thank you for your support.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Survival Food Storage

After shopping around for bulk survival food https://apartmentprepper.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/survival-food-shopping/ and storage materials, https://apartmentprepper.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/items-needed-for-storing-survival-food/ I am finally ready to start storing.

First, I gathered up all my supplies on the dining table:

• Food items such as rice, pasta, pinto beans, etc.
• 5 gallon food grade buckets
• 1 gallon size mylar bags
• oxygen absorbers (300 cc)
• measuring cup
• iron
• masking tape and sharpie marker for labeling
• cardboard to place over the table (under the iron)
• airtight jar to keep extra oxygen absorbers
• bay leaves to ward against weevils

The photo shows the mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, masking tape and jar.

• A few things to note:  Before you start, set the iron to the hottest setting.  Make sure you set the iron on a covered surface to avoid burning.  I used recycled cardboard from a large pizza box, but you should determine what works best for you.
• While these steps are doable with one person, it is easier to do them with two people, so you have someone holding the bag while the other person is ironing across.  My husband helped me out on this so it went a bit faster.
• You will need to set aside a solid block of time to do this:  Oxygen absorbers start activating as soon as you open the package.  If you have to stop and leave them for later, you must store them in an airtight container or they will become useless.
• DO NOT use oxygen absorbers for storing sugar.  This will cause the sugar to harden into a block.

We did the following to steps:

1. Place one oxygen absorber in the bottom of the mylar bag.
2. Pour 12 cups of rice (or whatever you are storing) into the bag.  I used a 2 cup measuring cup to as this was quicker than doing it one by one.
3. Add another oxygen absorber and one bay leaf on top of the rice.  There should be about an inch clearance from the top edge of the bag to where the rice fills up to.
4. Line up the sides and across the top of the mylar bag flat.
5. Carefully iron across the top, leaving a 1 inch space open on the left corner.  Don’t worry, the iron will not stick to the mylar, it actually stays smooth.  Do not try to make a fold across the top and iron it:  we tried this and it does not seal as well.
6. “Burp” the bag to let any remaining air out.
7. Now you can iron the remaining space and seal it up.  Careful, as the iron can get too hot.  About an hour after we started, we noticed the bags were not sealing as well, then we realized the iron had gotten too hot and the automatic shut off activated.  Make sure your iron does not overheat.
8. Label the bag with a sharpie pen.
9. Place the mylar bag in the food grade 5 gallon bucket.
10. Keep packaging the same food item into mylar bags following the above steps until the bucket is full.
11. Seal up the bucket.
12. Label the bucket.  I used a masking tape and wrote the contents of the bucket with a sharpie market.
13. Store any remaining oxygen absorbers in an airtight jar.
14. Store the bucket in a cool, dry area.  I cannot store food in the garage as we live in a hot and humid area.  Heat and humidity will shorten the life of stored food.  For now, the buckets are hidden under the dining table with a long table cloth.

The next day, you will notice the bags look shrunken.  This is the oxygen absorber doing its job.

That’s it, the process was actually easier than I thought.

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Traveling for Work this Week

I am traveling for work this week and thus have been unable to post.   My work schedule is packed from morning til night, with no private time to be on my own.  And the hotel has very slow internet,  I am lucky to connect today.

I liked this article “Hypothetical SHTF if Traveling for Work” found in http://suburbansurvivalblog.com/hypothetical-shtf-if-traveling-for-work

on Suburban Survival Blog.  I am sure paying attention to the list mentioned in the post!

I will post when I get back to the home base.  Sorry for the light content, the work day starts!

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Don’t Neglect these other Health Care Aspects

In my last post, Fitness Reality Check,  https://apartmentprepper.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/fitness-reality-check/ I mentioned going to your annual medical checkup before starting any fitness program. There are a couple more health aspects you should not neglect, especially now while these services are readily available.  On a practical note, with the end of the year coming close, it’s time to consider if you’ve used all your health benefits that are due you and your family.

Dental Check-Up
We went on our dental check-ups recently. Truthfully, I neglected to go to the dentist last year, as I kept putting it off.  Like many parents, we place ourselves last on the “care” list.  This year, being more preparedness minded, we decided we must all go do our health and dental checkups on a timely basis.  Thankfully, there were no cavities found, but I got a stern warning about going to get a cleaning on a regular basis. I had not thought about it, but a large percentage of the population over age thirty is at risk for gum disease.   I recently read that even financial stress can cause gum disease!  Gum disease can lead to tooth loss, as teeth and bone become unstable if the gums are unhealthy, and recently, a connection was found between chronic gum disease,  heart attack and stroke.   The symptoms are not always obvious, so it is best to get examined by the dentist.

If you do not have dental insurance, many dental schools offer deeply discounted services.  My coworker mentioned her son is in dental school and the students work on patients, under close supervision of their instructors.

Eye Exam

Another visit to consider is the eye exam by the optometrist or ophthalmologist.  Your eyesight is definitely something you don’t want to neglect, so now is the time to get your eyes checked.  If you wear glasses or contacts, you’d want to consider getting a backup pair in case of emergency.

Flexible Spending Account for Medical Expenses

If you have a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)  in your benefits, check your balance while there is still time.  Flexible Spending Account is a benefit offered by some employers in which they hold pre-tax dollars set aside by employees for their health care and medical expenses such as eyeglasses, braces, etc.   This lowers your taxable income on the upside, but since these plans have a “Use it or lose it” rule, you will want to make sure you use all the  funds that you contributed before the end of the year.   If you have a balance and you do not have any other planned medical expenses such as elective surgery, it is a good idea to stock up on over the counter medicines such as pain relievers, allergy medicines, vitamins, etc.  The rules for buying over the counter medications with FSAs will be changing next year:  Beginning in 2011, FSA funds can only be used for over the counter medicines if they are prescribed by a physician.

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What If Nothing Happens?

As we continue building our emergency supplies, a question that comes up frequently in conversations is, “What if nothing happens?”  Would this have all been a waste?

Part of this question is rooted in the whole Y2K experience, where a number of people were expecting a big disaster to happen, only to wake up on January 1, 2000 with everything humming along normally, nothing to see here… move along…  Then the media publicized stories about the folks who had sold everything to move to a retreat only to abandon their supplies a year or two later.  It seemed like one big waste.

I would disagree that this could all be a waste if nothing happens.  Actually, it would be preferable to me if nothing happens and I still have all my supplies.  I personally hope that things stay “normal” and that the s**t never hits the fan!  But I would still continue to prep!

That is because:

• Prepping actually helps save money.  Because we are buying necessities in advance, we are able to take advantage of sales and can wait it out when the items are not reasonably priced
• Prepping has helped me save time.  Again, having commonly used items in the house eliminates having to run to the store because something ran out.  When you go by “Two is one and one is none” you always know you have the item on hand and can go back to the store at your leisure.
• We have become more organized since we started our journey into preparedness.  We’ve eliminated clutter in our home and have become more efficient in our storage efforts.
• Prepping and frugality go hand in hand.  Though it seems to be a contradiction at first, since you know you have to buy stuff and gear in order to prepare, we have become more frugal in the long run.  Because we examine the value of every purchase, we have gotten better at separating “needs” from “wants.”
  
• We are learning valuable skills that help us in the long run.  I picked up some sewing skills and hemmed my son’s “back to school” outfits myself, which saved both time and money.  Learning how to process green coffee beans and brew a fine cup of coffee without electricity was a great experience.
• We are teaching our children those same skills and learning to “Be prepared always” is a valuable lesson for them.

Emergency supplies will not get wasted as long as you are vigilant about rotating your stocked items.

I consider emergency supplies the same as having insurance.  We have insurance for everything else.  Health, car, dwelling and life insurance are all premiums we pay without worrying about “what if nothing happens.”  The way I see it, better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.

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Firestarter Giveaway at AdvancedSurvivalGuide.com

AdvancedSurvivalGuide.com is giving away the NATO Ranger Fire Lighting Flint. To enter, post a link to Advanced Survival Guide.com on your blog, or mention on your bulletin board.  Leave a comment on the Giveaway post OR email Justus.Redman@gmail.com with the URL that you linked from.  I can’t resist a good firestarter so I am entering the contest as well.

This contest ends on Wednesday October 13th. The winner will be chosen at random from all the entries and announced on Friday, October 15th.

 

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Feeling More Urgency to Prepare

Is it just me or is anyone else feeling an urgency to prepare lately?

This past week my husband and I were noticing none of the financial news sounded good.  Today’s report featured a record number of people are raiding their 401k pension plans due to unemployment, foreclosure or just to get by.   I know the country’s financial picture has not been good for a while, but this week seemed worse than before.  Unemployment continues to be high, foreclosures and bankruptcies are also at historic highs and none of the fixes seem to work.  Adding to the unsavory mix is the threat of the double dip recession, with even more jobs being lost, possible inflation, deflation OR both–enough to keep you up at night worrying about the family’s future.  I confessed I was starting to get that insecure feeling that we need to “step up” our emergency supplies.

Then I read Survival Mom’s post, “Prepare Now Like There’s No Time to Waste” http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/08/16/prepare-like-theres-no-time-to-waste/ and FerFal’s “There Will Be Poor…Don’t Be One of Them”  http://ferfal.blogspot.com/ and I felt like these articles were echoing the conversation we just had about increasing our efforts to prepare.

To allow us to buy more emergency supplies, we need to free up additional cash from the already stretched budget so we are taking the following steps this week:

1. Re-evaluating each budget expense to determine if we can lower the expenses further.

During my break at work, I called the cable/internet company and spoke to the representative about needing to lower my bill.  We went over each charge and I was honest and  told her we really needed to cut back but that I would go home, think about it and discuss with my husband.  I did not intend to cancel the service but the rep said, “I can give you $20 off for 6 months to retain your account, would you accept that?”  I asked her, what’s the catch, she said nothing was needed from me.   I was really surprised and pleased with this offer so I took it.   I told her we may still lower the services if we decide to, but she still gave me the discount anyway.  We will also try choosing a lower plan with the cell phone company.  We are locked in for another year and do not intend to cancel, but it doesn’t hurt to ask how we can lower our bill.  We also eliminated a couple of magazine and online subscriptions.

2.    Cutting back on eating out.

Being working parents, there are occasional nights when things get busy and we end up eating out.  Now we will cook several meals in advance during the weekend to have enough to cover week nights.

3.     Clearing up clutter and selling off unused items.

We hope to sell off books, computer games etc. and add to the emergency fund.

4.     Reviewed our 401k statements and moved the funds to “safer” types of investments such as money market funds.  The interest rate in the safer funds is minimal, but I can sleep at night knowing the value will not sink any further.  This is not investment advise, please evaluate your own situations or talk to a trusted financial advisor before making any changes.

5.    Avoiding waste in electricity, water and food consumption.  We unplug “vampire” appliances such as TV, DVD players etc that continue to use power even when turned off.  This should lower our bills and free up more cash for the emergency fund.

Our local paper today reported on the increasing number of homeless children in Houston.   Many of these families lost their homes to foreclosure, stayed with family and friends for a while until they ran out of places of stay.  It breaks my heart to hear about children having to suffer like this and hope to continue or increase our donations.

I’d like to be optimistic by saying “Things will be better soon.”   But saying it will not make it so.  It is my hope that we all prepare now rather than regret doing nothing should things take a turn for the worse.

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A Note on the New Theme

I am sure you notice the blog looks different. My original “Cutline” theme with the cityscape photo was discontinued by WordPress, so I chose this new one and added a photo of the Houston skyline at night.  Nothing else in the blog has changed.  Hope you like it!

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