The Official Rules

Ok, as usual, life has thrown a wrench in my plans. We have had the flu in our house this week, and on top of that, my computer died a couple of days ago. Add that to our new year of eating starting and I have been VERY overwhelmed.

Today though, we are all healed, I have a new computer in the box ready to set up, and so I'm feeling much more positive. It seems lots of people have found out about this blog and our plans to live off food storage. Not sure how since I really haven't told anyone but nonetheless it's good as it will keep me accountable and on track. So, I have a list of rules for the coming year. These are the basics, I may add to them later but here they are:

1. I will not go to a grocery store or buy food other than to replace the food storage that we are eating.

2. I will use up all the food that we have in our house including long term food storage, freezer items, and 3 month storage items. I haven't stocked up on anything other than what I normally buy so it should be an accurate test of what would actually happen if we suddenly had to live off only what we have.

3. I will still be going to Wal-Mart for non-food items. I have essentials stored like toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, etc. but I do not store other supplies that we will need to continue our day to day living like dish soap, beauty products, school items, etc. I promise not to sneak a Snickers bar while I'm there. :)

4. I will be planting a garden in the Spring. I always have a garden and I store garden seeds so it is reasonable I would be able to have a garden. We also have a few fruit trees that I will make use of in our backyard.

5. If I find that I am lacking some food item in my storage that I should be storing, I will purchase a year's worth of that item and put it in my storage now so that I can learn to use it.

6. We will still go to parties, ward functions, and dinner invites, but if you ask us to bring something, be prepared that it will be a food storage item!

7. We are going on an extensive vacation to Nauvoo this summer. It won't be possible to bring our food storage with us for that but I will try to shop in a manner consistent with what we are eating out of our food storage in order to maintain our goals.

8. I will post recipes, tips, and other things that I learn as I go along so that other people might benefit from this experience.

I think that's it. My whole goal with this "project" is to better learn what I should be storing, and how to use it. And hopefully somewhere along the way we will also increase our feeling of self reliance, and maybe even help others learn some things! Thanks for taking the time to read.