How Much Will Your Years Supply Cost?

Thank you Rhonda (Melissa's Sister) for sharing this!

How much will your year’s supply cost you? I just got an emergency supply store’s catalog in the mail; they advertised a year’s supply of food for ‘just’ $3649.95**. For one person. Is it really that much money to get a year’s supply?

Adding up all the essentials, a month’s worth for one person is $ 16.23
A year’s worth for one person is $194.76
Figure in that you’re getting your year’s supply after building your three-month supply; that knocks it down to getting nine months’worth;
$146.07 per adult.
To finish your YEAR's supply!

SO, if you really want to spend $3649.95 plus tax, you could buy a full year’s supply for not just one person, but for NINETEEN people. Yes, it’s different food than that ‘gourmet’ version, but here’s the counsel we’ve been given:

"We encourage members world-wide to prepare for adversity in life by having a basic supply of food and water and some money in savings.” “For longer-term needs….gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive”

(from All is Safely Gathered In, First Presidency pamphlet)

Here is the cost breakdown (early 2010 prices):

Grains, 300 lbs - if you get just wheat and oats, at the cannery they cost between $5.80 and $8.15 for 25 lbs. depending on if you get white or red wheat, quick or regular oats. If you average this out, it will cost you $6.98 per person, per month. $83.70 per year’s worth.

Milk, 16 lbs - is $1.40/lb at the cannery, which is $1.87 per month, $22.40 per year.

Sugar, 60 lbs - is $ .56/lb there, $2.80 per month, $33.60 per year.

Oil, 10 qts - this isn’t sold at the cannery, but the price at Macey’s last week was $2.50 for 1 ½ quarts (48 oz.) At that price, after tax, it’s $1.43 per month, $17.17 per year. It’s only $14.38 if you buy it at Sam’s Club ($6.98 + tax for 5 qts.)

Salt, 8 lbs - 4# box at Costco or Sam’s Club is a dollar; $ .16 per month, $2 per year.

Legumes, 60 lbs – the cannery sells black beans, pinto, and white, from $14.10 to $16.30 for 25 lbs. Averaging the prices, it’s $2.99 a month, $35.92 per year.

Water, 14/gal/person - You can store this for free by using 2 and 3 liter pop bottles, or juice containers (not milk jugs- they break down). Or use the 5-gallons square jugs or big blue barrels; they’ll run you about $1 per gallon of storage.

When you’re done storing these items, you might decide to add things a few ‘gourmet’ items- but that’s just extra stuff.

Notice that the costs were just for food, not containers to store them in. Most of my storage containers cost nothing. You CAN get buckets for free, with a little effort- most bakeries give them away; all their frostings and fillings come in those buckets. Plan on washing them at home. There are two main sizes; 5 gallon and 2 gallon. I keep packages of dried fruit in the smaller buckets, also cornmeal or other things that I don’t use as much. They are a great size for a pantry, too. Some of the buckets have gaskets, some don’t. The ones that don’t seal well are still good for storing sugar.

If you want all your wheat, powdered milk, sugar, and legumes in #10 cans from the cannery, it will cost you $85.83 more for a whole year's worth; $64.37 if you're just adding 9 months more.
Here’s that breakdown and quantities- this is for the whole year, not for 9 months: 51 cans of wheat $137.80, 11 cans of beans $48.95, 10 cans of sugar $46.50, 4 cans of powdered milk $28.20.

I don’t can my wheat, sugar, or beans because we go through large quantities; one batch of bread would use a whole can. Pretty silly storage for me. Besides, it’s easier for me to find space for 10 buckets than 60 #10 cans; they hold about the same amount of food.

Children do not need a full adult’s portion. For them, figure age 3 and under= 50%, ages 4-6= 70%, ages 7-10= 90%, ages 11 and up= 100%.

Obviously, kids' ages are always changing, so when I calculate what to have on hand ( I inventory every Conference), I project out six months to a year. For instance, if someone is 6 years old, I count that child as 7 years. That way I'm not always slightly behind when it's time to replenish.

**Prices are from February 2010

Sweet Birthday Gift Idea

Here is an amazing birthday gift idea that come from the heart and not your pocketbook.

60 (or the birthday age) Postcards: Kalyn's Kitchen shared her best birthday present ever. Her sister and children surprised her with sixty postcards in the mail telling "Sixty Things We Love About Aunt Kalyn." You can also write "Sixty (or the birthday age) Memories We Have About _____".

The only cost associated with this is the price of stamps and cardstock for making your own postcards. You will be able to get 4 postcards (4.25 x 5.5) out of one sheet of cardstock.

For a friend or family member who lives close by, you can cut out the cost of stamps and deliver them yourself. If you don't want to mail or deliver the postcards one by one, put them in envelopes with numbers on each one. Then the birthday girl or boy chooses the appropriate number and opens one per day as a countdown to their birthday.

What's for Breakfast? - SRS Meeting February 4, 2010

Buy it: Oats are very cheap to buy and when sealed probably can be stored for 30+ years. You can buy oats from the LDS Cannery in 25 lb bags or in #10 cans. Oats can also be bought in any grocery store or wholesale stores like Costco. Oat flour must be stored in the fridge or freezer, it will go rancid quickly. For long term storage, store only whole oats. Oats can be easily ground into oat flour when needed.

Store it: Oats can be stored in almost any airtight container. I have my oats in #10 cans and in kitchen platic storage containers. Here is the original post on Storage Containers.

Use it: Besides making a wholesome breakfast, did you know that you can add oats in with your ground beef to make a healthier meal? You can also grind your oats into oat flour to make healthier baked goods.

Newsletter: The entire newsletter can be downloaded here. Click on the links to view our posts on Types of Oats, Baking with Oat Flour, Basic Oats Cooking, Green Living (Homemade Baby Wipes) & Recipes! The link to last years class (April 2009) on oats can be found here.

Baking with Oat Flour

How to adapt recipes to boost fiber and nutrients using oat flour.

Have you heard of baking with oat flour? Even if you don’t have a wheat grinder at home to have the benefits of fresh ground whole grain wheat, oat flour easily be made in a blender or food processor or home blender. The oat flour then can be used in place of a portion of white flour in a baking recipe. This boosts fiber and whole grain nutrition. Also, oat flour retains moisture in baked goods, which reduces the need for additional fat.

Oat flour is so easy to make! Simply grind regular or quick oats in your blender or food processor until the consistency of flour. Try low speed and grinding or processing in 30 second increments. As a general rule, grind small batches. Try 1- 2 cups at a time, more than that might be too much for your blender. A VitaMix blender handles about 3 cups with no problem. It will take about 1 1/3 cups oats to make 1 cup oat flour. If you have ground more than you will use in a recipe, store the flour in the refrigerator or freezer; oat flour goes rancid fairly quickly.

Replace refined flour with oat flour at a 1:1 ratio; if you’re replacing 1 cup wheat flour, simply add 1 cup oat flour. For muffins, cookies, and breads, try substituting 1/3 of the recipe’s refined wheat flour with whole grain oat flour. Try replacing up to ½ of the flour for waffles and pancakes. Just experiment, and see what you like!

Another option is adapting a recipe to include rolled oats that are not ground into flour. Just use 2 times rolled oats as the portion of refined flour you’re replacing. A quick bread recipe, drop cookies (like pumpkin, banana, zucchini, etc) and muffins would probably be good candidates. For example, turn banana bread into banana-oatmeal bread. Pumpkin cookies into pumpkin-oat. You probably wouldn’t replace more than 1/3 of your refined flour with whole oats. Maybe up to 1/2 if you want true oatmeal cookies or something.

For most recipes, you do not want to replace all of the wheat flour with oat flour. Oat flour used alone in a recipe generally produces a dense, gummy texture. If you cannot use wheat flour, or do not want to, try pairing oat flour with rice flour. The dense and gummy properties of oat flour complement the properties of dry, gritty rice flour to make a satisfactory combination. A 50% oat/50% rice flour works well in drop cookies(such as banana, zucchini and pumpkin), wholesome muffins, and quick breads. Try adding 1-2 tablespoons tapioca starch or potato starch per cup of non-wheat flour used, to help lighten the product a bit. If you’re baking often without wheat for allergy reasons, I recommend xanthan gum as well; the baked product will be less crumbly. Use ½ tsp. xanthan gum per cup of gluten-free flour. (1 tsp. per cup if using in yeast breads or pizza crust).

If you’re looking for wheat-free recipes using oats, Melissa’s blog has several, including really good yeast bread!

Fruit crisp, oatmeal cookies, and oat pie crust work pretty well with all wheat flour being substituted with oat flour. I also like a particular recipe for brownies that uses only oat flour. See Melissa’s blog post, “Vegetable Brownies?”

Basic Oats Cooking

Measure the amount of water into a medium saucepan and bring to a full boil. If desired, add ¼ tsp salt to the water. Slowly add the grain and return to boiling. Cover and simmer for the time specified or till most of the water is absorbed and grain is tender.

Rolled Oats, quick cooking – 1 ½ cups, 3 cups water. Simmer for 1 minute. Let stand, covered, for three minutes. Yield 3 cups

Rolled Oats, regular – 1 2/3 cups, 3 cups water. Simmer for 5-7 minutes. Let stand, covered for 3 minutes. Yield 3 cups

Oats, steel cut – 1 cup, 2 ½ cups water. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.
Yield 2 ½ cups

Source: “Bee Prepared” Book

Types of Oats

Oats are the edible cereal grain produced by the cereal grass of the same name. Oats are light tan in color. They have a nutty flavor and a chewy texture and are high in vitamin B1. They also contain vitamins B2 and E. Oats must be hulled before they can be eaten. Whole oats minus the hull are called groats.

Rolled Oats: Oat groats that have been steamed then flattened by steel rollers into flakes. They are also known as old-fashioned cut.

Quick Cooking Oats: Oat groats that are cut into several pieces before rolling to shorten the cooking time. Quick-cooking and rolled oats are interchangeable in recipes.

Instant Oatmeal: Oat groats that are cut into very small pieces and specially processed so that they need no cooking, just the addition of boiling water. Some brands of instant oatmeal are flavored with sugar, spices, or fruits, and usually salt.

Steel-Cut Oats: Oat groats that have been sliced by steel blades. Also know as Scottish or Irish oatmeal, steel-cut oats have a firm texture when cooked. It is usually found in specialty markets.
Oat Flour: The finely ground grain. Usually found in health food stores. Oat flour sometimes is used in baked goods.

Oat Bran: The ground outer layer of the oat. Used in cooking and as a hot cooked breakfast cereal, oat bran in considered a good source of fiber.

Source: “Bee Prepared” Book

Pantry Peanut Butter Cookies

image from Betty Crocker

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cookies

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)
3/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups Original Bisquick® mix
1 teaspoon vanilla
Sugar
About 36 heart-shaped milk chocolate candies, or chocolate kisses

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir milk and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in Bisquick mix and vanilla. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Roll tops in sugar. Place sugar side up 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms of cookies just begin to brown. Immediately press chocolate candy into top of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

My notes: With no eggs & no fresh milk, these are perfect for a panty cookie. I made these today and although I would prefer cookies from scratch with eggs and milk, these cookies are very good and VERY sweet! You can always make these without the chocolate candies, just flatten each cookie with a criss-cross fork pattern before baking.