$20 WEEKLY PREP CHALLENGE--first half review

[prudentwatcher]

Halfway through the year in the challenge. I will do a review of what that $20 a week bought. The amounts in bold are what I have as a goal for 2 people for 1 year. The other amounts are what I (would have) purchased under the $20 a week plan. Remember, use sale prices and coupons and don't get anything that needs to be further processed for storage.

500 LBs GRAINS/GRAIN PRODUCTS
90 lb. flour
3 lb. oats
10 lb. cornmeal
66 lb. rice
44 lb. pasta
38 packages ramen
4 lb. pancake mix
7 boxes cereal
2 boxes granola bars
3 boxes instant oatmeal
2 boxes poptarts
5 lb. biscuit mix
15 jiffy cornbread
6 rice/pasta sides
1 matzo crackers
4 packages 5oz yellow rice

15 lb. SUGAR
1 lb. brown sugar
1 lb. powdered sugar
8 lb. white sugar

50 lb. DRY BEANS
28 lbs

50 CANS BEANS
20 pork and beans
12 other beans

275 CANS FRUIT
17 peaches
3 pears
14 pineapple
12 applesauce
3 fruit cocktail
9 mandarin oranges

300 CAN VEGGIES
20 corn
18 peas
34 green beans
26 potatoes
24 mixed veggies
16 other

50 CANS TOMATOES
10 cans sauce
16 cans diced

200 CANS MEAT
33 tuna
2 ham
2 spam
6 chicken
6 hash
5 roast beef
12 other

250 PREPARED MEALS
5 chili
16 chunky soups
6 stew
37 pasta
4 other

50 REGULAR SOUP
5 tomato soup
5 chicken noodle soup
15 cream soups

12 PEANUT BUTTER--7

10 20QT POWDERED MILK--4

48 EVAPORATED MILK--15

10 lbs. SALT-4

50 MAC & CHEESE--28

36 SPAGHETTI SAUCE--12

(having trouble with the bold)
52 DESSERTS--28

YEAST-2lb---2lb

1 GAL SYRUP/5 lb HONEY--- 96 oz syrup

8 BOTTLES OIL/2 SHORTENING---4 bottles oil, 1 can

6 LARGE INSTANT POTATOES---1 large, 8 boxes potato mixes, 6 4oz packages of instant potatoes, 2 large boxes of Hungry Jack potatoes

MISC----
2 ketchup
2 mayo
2 pickles
2 mustard
4 salsa
2 BBQ sauce
2 4oz pepper
12 ind. spices
4 64 oz juice
2 100 ct tea
2 lemonade mix (8 qt)
2 18 oz grape jelly
1 32 oz strawberry preserves
4 sweetened, condensed milk
2 cans chicken broth



Not a bad haul for $20 a week. The amounts for canned fruits and veggies are still low, so hopefully those will be going on sale soon.

The idea behind the prep challenge was to convince people that you could successfully prepare using a modest amount of money. There should be enough by the end of the year to feed one person for one year, with a little extra. I will continue to try to hit the two person/1 year goal, but will probably come in more at 7-8 month level with current prices. Still not bad.

 

[Phlatulance]

Very nice. My wife isn't all for the prepping thing so I might have to show her this. Granted we have more than 2 of us, but still very nice base. Just a few things. Now that you have all this food, do you have a planned Diet for your supplies? Would like to see that as well. Also on the cans of meat/veggies/fruit/ and such, what size cans are you basing this on? Having 200 small cans of tuna is plenty, but if you have 200 multi-pound cans, LOL now thats a bit much.

 

[prudentwatcher]

Very nice. My wife isn't all for the prepping thing so I might have to show her this. Granted we have more than 2 of us, but still very nice base. Just a few things. Now that you have all this food, do you have a planned Diet for your supplies? Would like to see that as well. Also on the cans of meat/veggies/fruit/ and such, what size cans are you basing this on? Having 200 small cans of tuna is plenty, but if you have 200 multi-pound cans, LOL now thats a bit much.

A couple of things. The idea was to show that you can prep, using "regular"foods that people are familiar with, for a modest amount. The amounts I use for two people are what I came up with based on a number of sources I have studied over the years. I think a lot of food plans really underestimate food usage (some "ultimate" plans have only 2000 calories per day per person). Divide by two to see what I would recommend for one person for one year.

Sizes. Tuna and chicken are the smaller cans (5 oz). Veggies and most fruits are the 15 or 16 oz cans (though the applesauce is 28 oz). Peanut butter is the 18 oz. Hams are the one pound size. Beans are the 15 or 16 oz size, except when noted when purchasing (some of the baked beans are 28 oz).

It has been interesting to do this experiment, as prices have gone up since the beginning of the year. "Non preppers" should find nothing objectionable as this is regular stuff you would normally eat (no freeze dried or MREs). You are going to eat this food no matter what, and since you buy on sale with coupons, you are actually saving money in the long run. I have a pantry I've built up over the years. I rarely buy anything unless it is a good deal, so I can make my dollars stretch further.

GOOD LUCK with your wife--hopefully she will see the light.

 

[Dixielee]

VERY impressive! I have been a prepper all of my adult life, so I know it can be done. You don't have to have 800 cans of freeze dried food to be prepped. In fact you are better off if you store what you eat and eat what you store.

A few years ago my husband built a large closet for me that had slightly tilted shelves and a "stop" on the front of it. That way I can have all my cans of soup, veggies, etc. in a row and can see what I have, and can use the oldest first, while putting the newer stuff in the back. It is deep enough for about 6 cans.

I would love to have a bigger closet for the same kind of shelves, floor to ceiling! Actually the lowest shelf is far enough off the floor to store 5 gallon buckets.

Another nice side benefit to buying like this is that you can get things when they are on sale, and use from your stock instead of running to the store because you ran out of canned corn. Saves time, money and gasoline as well as stress.

 

[yellowsprings]

Prudentwatcher,

I am impressed with your list! This should be incentive for others to see how easy it is to build food storage with $20 a week. Great job!