Over the next few weeks many families will gather for the holidays. The food storage focus for the month of November is baking supplies and emergency heating. Besides using baking supplies for the holiday feasts, these items are also great for year-round baking. With many of us on tight budgets it is helpful to bake more to help save money.
Because you will be buying baking items for the holidays anyway, it’s easy to stock up on just a bit more for your food storage. Even though I will suggest a different item or two to focus on each week, you may find some great sales on all of these items earlier this month.
Here is what we are gathering for our 3-Month Food Storage supply. You may want to stock up on more for your Long Term storage as well (SL = Shelf Life):
- 15 oz. canned pumpkin (SL 2 – 5 years)
- 15 oz. canned yams (SL 2 – 5 years)
- 2×14 oz. broth, chicken and/or beef (SL 2 – 5 years)
- 2 lbs. brown sugar (SL indefinitely)
- 1 lb. powdered sugar (SL indefinitely)
- 10 lbs. granulated sugar (SL indefinitely)
- 1 box stuffing mix (SL 12 – 18 months)
- 15 lbs. white flour (SL in pantry 1 year; SL in #10 can 10 years)
For the more detailed monthly list with additional emergency supplies, click the link below.
We will also focus on staying warm this winter by gathering a winter coat, blanket, gloves and hat for each person in your family if you have not already done so. Kids quickly grow out of these items. Imagine if you had to be without power for a week; do you have enough warm items if temperatures in your home drop below 50 degrees? A portable heater can be useful. Something like a propane indoor/outdoor Buddy Heater that heats up to 200 square feet might be a good idea as well.
I hope some of you practiced your fire drill last month. Our family watched the video at HomeFireDrill.org for Family Home Evening and then did a quick drill. My 7-year old said fires made her nervous. I told her I knew fires were scary, but it was better to be prepared. So she did the drill from the same bedroom as her older sister. However, the next day she said they practiced fire safety at school. So she felt much better. Hooray!
Anyway, the girls pretended to be asleep. We turned out all the house lights. Boy! Was it dark. Mom pushed the smoke alarm. The girls crawled on the floor, touched the door to see if it was hot, then ran down the stairs and out the front door. Dad was outside and it was there we decided on a different family meeting place.
We talked about the importance of not going back in the house, even for the dog. My youngest asked if she could cry if that happened. We said of course. A few things I learned was to keep all pathways clear in bedrooms and on the stairs. Tripping on something would have been easy in the dark. I also decided to get some hallway night lights.
Let’s move forward and become better prepared in the month of November! And stay warm. Thinking of all of you going through difficult times on the East coast.
Best wishes,
Valerie