# a little more than enough



## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

There are a few things that I am starting to feel like I have went over board on. The first is food. I think I have gone a bit over board and am concerned there will be a time where we need to give a bunch away before it goes bad. The second item is discussed a lot on this forum. I will not state what it is.

What have you went a little to far with?


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

Some is good, more is better, and too much is just enough.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

alterego said:


> There are a few things that I am starting to feel like I have went over board on. The first is food. I think I have gone a bit over board and am concerned there will be a time where we need to give a bunch away before it goes bad. The second item is discussed a lot on this forum. I will not state what it is.
> 
> What have you went a little to far with?


If you need help with the 2nd part, I will be glad to assist. 

As to the food, we stock what we normally use and just cycle through it. I do have some canned long term stuff and have recently decided to get into really long term storage. The bulk items will be broken down into smaller packages to make it easier to access and some will be for trade and charity. I won't let children starve if I can help it but I won't be adopting them or their families.

I can't really say I have too much of anything right now. It took me a long time to learn and I use to stock stuff that was strictly for prepping. I had to throw away a lot of really expired food. If you do this before they expire, the local food bank would be grateful.


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## Rigged for Quiet (Mar 3, 2013)

My worst area of excess has to be bug out gear. The only saving grace is I'm now all up to date on recreational camping gear and I have no excuse not to hike.

I do sometimes wonder if I don't have too may flavors of certain things, but much of the bunch has been with me awhile.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

My excess is fruit trees/food plants. Just shelled out $35 for another mandarin, and 2 more passion fruit vines hopefully. I'll see what he brings Monday. 

I feel like I've spent way way too much money on trees. I guess because they are all still fairly young and haven't produced much of anything yet. They've produced, but not a LOT. So I feel jipped for the time being. 

Maybe next season they'll produce a lot. They'll be 2-3 years old. 


I really don't have much else. Drinking water, I've been trying to keep about 4 weeks drinking water and about a months worth of food. 

But my weakness IS plants haha. I guess I just want to grow food. Be independent of the supermarket. So I splurge on food plants. I go to another nursery besides my friends, and I stick out like a sore thumb. Scruffy hair, beard, dirt covered clothes from messing in the yard. Meanwhile the nursery is full of dainty lil ole ladies, prim and proper haha. Which reminds me, I need to go tomorrow and have a gander


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

Worry. I definitely stock too much worry. That's about the only thing I've got plenty of, but I'm working on getting more of the rest!


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## Go2ndAmend (Apr 5, 2013)

I don't feel like I have too much of anything. I am still trying to build up my inventories of food, water, medical, ammo, first aid etc..


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Definitely too much soap and shampoo. I travel so much for work, I always lift the soaps and shampoos they put in the hotel rooms and bring them home. (I paid for them right?) We have 10 of the big plastic storage bins full and have the 11th about 3/4 full. The world may be in flames, but Mrs Inor and I will always have silky soft hair.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

I have a confession to make.

I am doing REALLY well in this depression

I mean Really really well

but I don't give to my local food bank

Instead I continue to stockpile as I see food banks as an extension of the nanny state

But when people really really do need food, shelter and so forth, that is when I will break out my supplies and feed the masses

It will probably kill me in the end, but first I look forward to the end and 2nd, I think that is what Jesus would want me to do.

Those that don't fear death are destined to avoid it. (unknown author, could be me)


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Yeah I'm overboard on 1911's and P Series Rugers, but I just like them all and will continue to collect.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

The soap thing got us too. We bought a couple of different times suave strawberry essence shampoo for 88 cents and a buck a bottle. Pretty hard to pass up smelling like strawberries in hard times.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

alterego said:


> The soap thing got us too. We bought a couple of different times suave strawberry essence shampoo for 88 cents and a buck a bottle. Pretty hard to pass up smelling like strawberries in hard times.


Who knows what the future holds? Maybe in a post-SHTF world, smelling like strawberries will be a sign of royalty...


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

Ripon said:


> Yeah I'm overboard on 1911's and P Series Rugers, but I just like them all and will continue to collect.


Nah. You can't have too many guns. ::rambo::


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## wesley762 (Oct 23, 2012)

If you really think you have a little to much food in your preps, start living off them for a while, save the money for something else?


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Update.
It took me a little fiddling to find this thread.
I stopped buying caned goods when I made this post.
We have since paid off the truck loan. Yeah.
So me and the wife sat down and figured out the bills this morning. And we had some extra money.
Truthfully consuming the food storage over the past five months has gotten me very concerened. So we went to the store and brought home a couple hundred cans of stuff and lab led and put it away. We are back up over six hundred cans of food. We made a bunch of meals out of the stuff we had in the storage dak ham veggie and fruit. Some times with mash potatoes. Rice mushrooms and chicken. It ain't to bad. Of course over the last few months we ate out and bought groceries as well. I am not trying to say we ate only preps. But it makes you understand how far it will go. God bless you all in your preps. Use little as an exercise in measured consumption. It was a good run. With the Russia thing going and the drought in Comufornia. We are putting it away again.


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## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

Great job. We around here are planning for a trial run this summer. I want to find out how much of our stocks we will actually use and things that I may be forgetting. I plan on no purchases for an entire month for 12 of us. gunna be fun!


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

alterego said:


> Update.
> It took me a little fiddling to find this thread.
> I stopped buying caned goods when I made this post.
> We have since paid off the truck loan. Yeah.
> ...


Its better than money in the bank, might have to get a little creative, but always having food is a good feeling. May not be steak and potato, but you can survive.


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## sparkyprep (Jul 5, 2013)

Guns and ammo don't go bad. They are also a good financial investment, since you can almost always sell them for more than you paid.


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## Rigged for Quiet (Mar 3, 2013)

We have been thinking about doing a 2 week trial run of using nothing but a cross section of the food stores just to see how viable it is for variety and to expand on recipe ideas. It's also good to find the holes in the plan.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

As for food to use up older inventory as you go. I though one time I had gone over board on weapons and ammo, but I woke up and found I was wrong.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

We always label our. And with a sharpie marker before I put them in storage so we know when we brought them in the house. Not just the best if by date. The problem is the older ones get buried at the bottom. Cases of cans are heavey and you need to move them around other wise the girls will never get to the bottom and cycle them to the top. My wife will say to the girls. Go down and get me two veggie or brand or what have you. And they go fetch. Believe me they do not get to the bottom of the stack with consideration to age.

So I do it. Which is a good way for me to know what we have. 

I have a note book and a pencil down there. When I find we are low I write it down.


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## phrogman (Apr 17, 2014)

I only have a few weeks worth of supplies, my goal is to have a months worth, then 3 months, 6 months.... Baby steps.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Update I Sorted Through The Cans And We Had A Prepper Supper. With Some Cans From 2009. Jack Mackerel Pennsylvanian Mushrooms. Rice And Fruit Cocktail. The Reason We Were Sorting Is We Were Putting Up More Goods. We Officially Back To Necessary Reserve. It Took Some Money To Get It Back Up Where I Feel We Have Six Months Worth. I Am All Warm And Fuzzy Feeling now.


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## Jeep (Aug 5, 2014)

When all is said and done there will be a few gunds, but not enough for a store, its not needed, Ammo is more important if you have the weapon. Food, well keep your stock fresh and maybe find like minded folks to give outdated stuff to, if they want it. I am still just starting so not overboard on anything.

Since my wife is doing the bargain shopping, yeah we got 30 some deodorants and shampoos etc. But how long will a problem last. We will eventually stop at a reasonable lvl, as we realize we won't be using as much.

Water though. I need like 2200 gl on hand and as of this I got Nada.


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## Derma-Redi (Aug 23, 2014)

Rotation of supply is always key to avoid waste and going too far beyond expiration dates. You have invested in the product so instead of letting it go bad, start using the soonest to exp. food for your meals, have some friends come over and chow down....I've gone to far with going too far with things...Actually, I was in the same boat with food as well. I just slowed down on buying it and started eating some of it.


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## Derma-Redi (Aug 23, 2014)

Maybe some rain collection barrels could be useful. With filtration of course! b/t/w the lifestraw is a must IMO I would get several of them. Lightweight and worth their weight in gold!!!


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## TG (Jul 28, 2014)

Completely agree about life straws, we have 12 now and last year used one to test it out, kids seemed very happy to drink from rain puddles and straight from Lake Ontario, taste was ok.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

We bought some lamp oil on clearance this past weekend. And yesterday red wine was on sale. So I took it down in the basement along with 36 rolls of moon floss and looked over my canned goods. We have not put anything down their since my last post 8 29 2014. We regularly use out of the canned goods. I will be looking for sales again soon. We have half of what I want in stock again. It pretty much concrete test my time line of usage. Obviously we eat out and bring home fresh fruit and vegetables and consume from the freezer. But it is nice to know my insurance policy is there. 

I am getting the itch to fill up again.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Inor said:


> The world may be in flames, but Mrs Inor and I will always have silky soft hair.


Finally somebody with correct priorities


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

Not sure where I read it, but, live off your soon to expire prep food for however long to use them up. Done this a few times, beats dropping $100 a week for groceries, and good practice too! Actually like the idea of not having to run to the store.


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## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

For sure like walking on a tightrope. On one hand we want to have enough food stored away from quite some time if need be, but on the other, we watch as the expire dates come and go, yeah, I know food can go past the expiration date but how much past?
On another note, certain kinds of food would be great in a world where finding food from an outside source is almost impossible, but how many cans of bennie wiennies can a person eat in a world where food is still plentiful?


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## Oddcaliber (Feb 17, 2014)

I'm just a little overboard on the Coleman stuff. Up to 27 lanterns,8 stoves.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Oddcaliber said:


> I'm just a little overboard on the Coleman stuff. Up to 27 lanterns,8 stoves.


just for fun you. To put it on Craigslist that you are willing to trade a couple of those for something and see what you come up with you might be surprised


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

My husband would definitely say I am way overstocked on everything - especially food and ammo. I took a box of MREs up to the cabin this past weekend, and he just couldn't understand why we would ever need that stuff.  He also asks me when we are going to start eating all the rabbits that I have so much ammo stock piled for.  I have been accused of hoarding.

Now this is kind of funny. I insisted we take a 30 gallon drum of water with us, "just in case". I also had my Get-Home-Bag with us, "just in case". Turns out we got to the cabin after dark and in the cold. We didn't want to prime the pump, so it sure was great to have the water with us! I had also previously set aside a big box of dry kindling/wood, so we could get a fire going right away. On the way up, there was an accident ahead of the interstate. I pulled my map out of the GHB and found an alternate route. On a hike the next day, we took a detour, and my local topo map and compass let us see exactly where we were. (hubby was impressed.) My pocket knife came in handy more than a few times, and hubby enjoyed some snacks I had taken along in my hiking fanny pack.

For every situation encountered, I had either a tool or a solution, because of my preps. Made me feel pretty good and hubby thought I was a good girl scout! Some day, I hope he will see that my "just in case" prep "hoarding" will also come in handy.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

From what I've been reading on many threads here most people here stock up on foods that are good for 1-4 years from the grocery store which makes economic sense because you will eat it SHTF or not. Being the lazy sort who doesn't like to keep up with rotation and who eats out a lot I only keep about 2 months worth of canned and other foods in the pantry which makes rotating a non-issue. (some is food I canned myself) 

In addition to this "normal food" I maintain a 6 month supply of long term storage food for my group. Nothing with less than a 10 year shelf life is the rule. I occasionally eat some , especially the Mountain House meals, and slowly keep this long term food rotated. 80% of this freeze dried food is pretty good. When I find something that isn't so great tasting I don't buy more and even fed some of the dehydrated "TVP bacon" to my dogs just to get rid of it last year,,,, they liked it.

In another 10-20 years I may end up dumping a bit of my long term storage food but I'll eat most of it and consider the "dumped" food (if any)to be unused insurance cost but thus far we've eaten it faster than it's expired.


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## bigwheel (Sep 22, 2014)

Moonshinedave said:


> For sure like walking on a tightrope. On one hand we want to have enough food stored away from quite some time if need be, but on the other, we watch as the expire dates come and go, yeah, I know food can go past the expiration date but how much past?
> On another note, certain kinds of food would be great in a world where finding food from an outside source is almost impossible, but how many cans of beanie wiennies can a person eat in a world where food is still plentiful?


From having survived several assaults on wedded bliss and a few other blips on the screen..I will attest a person can live indefinitely on Beanie Weenies. They got all the good food groups all in one can. They make a very good sandwich with Kraft Mayo and Sirriahchi sauce. I talked to this guy today who worked at the Hellman factory. He said they put eggs in there which had full grown baby chickens inside. They just dump them on it. He say to look and see it looks a bit yellow. That is a clue.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

And for a more "on topic post" about once a year I look at what we have and what I think we need. This has allowed me to stay in balance with our preps.

Without food and secure shelter weapons aren't necessary; but after a while you can grow more food (assuming you have the ability) so for longer term after you've had the time to produce more food the ability to defend becomes more important. This assumes you have the realistic ability to grow more food. 

For our situation and location this is the question.. Want to survive for 6 months? You'll need at least 6 months worth of food and a rifle with a few hundred shells (hopefully a lot less shells). Longer term you want to stockpile what you can't make or grow for yourself and the ability to produce trade items will become more important.


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## RNprepper (Apr 5, 2014)

I never quite feel like I have completed the preps. There is always another layer.

Basically, I have a years worth of bulk, long term storage food (20-30 years) that I do not touch. It is the "just in case" food, and not food that I would eat on a daily basis like powdered peanut butter, canned cheese powder, and buckets of grain. 20 years from now I will have to replace it and either eat the old stuff or start feeding it to the chickens. I have a 3 month supply of rotation food in the pantry that I use on a regular basis and which provides in a short term situation without breaking into the large buckets. Spices and baking supplies are rotated and I have a year's worth of those. Also a year's worth of soap, shampoo, deoderant, hand lotion, TP, etc., all of which are rotated. I think our food preps are well balanced. I can increase our garden exponentially if needed, as well as the cricket project. 

I wish I had some bolts of heavy muslin, shirting, and denim, along with a lot more thread. I wish I had an extra pair of work boots for every family member, along with a lot more work gloves. I wish I had more heavy duty hand tools. I wish I had a buckboard wagon for my mule. I wish I had a solar pump for the well at our BOL.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

RNprepper said:


> My husband would definitely say I am way overstocked on everything - especially food and ammo. I took a box of MREs up to the cabin this past weekend, and he just couldn't understand why we would ever need that stuff.  He also asks me when we are going to start eating all the rabbits that I have so much ammo stock piled for.  I have been accused of hoarding.
> 
> Now this is kind of funny. I insisted we take a 30 gallon drum of water with us, "just in case". I also had my Get-Home-Bag with us, "just in case". Turns out we got to the cabin after dark and in the cold. We didn't want to prime the pump, so it sure was great to have the water with us! I had also previously set aside a big box of dry kindling/wood, so we could get a fire going right away. On the way up, there was an accident ahead of the interstate. I pulled my map out of the GHB and found an alternate route. On a hike the next day, we took a detour, and my local topo map and compass let us see exactly where we were. (hubby was impressed.) My pocket knife came in handy more than a few times, and hubby enjoyed some snacks I had taken along in my hiking fanny pack.
> 
> For every situation encountered, I had either a tool or a solution, because of my preps. Made me feel pretty good and hubby thought I was a good girl scout! Some day, I hope he will see that my "just in case" prep "hoarding" will also come in handy.


I sincerely hope no one needs to use there preps post shit hits the fan. I hope cold bear the Simpsons government lies. Failed tax and spend policy. Quantative easing and purchase of our own treasury bonds to monetize junk bonds goes into perpetuity. However I believe there is a small chance that the person's that are at the helm of the big machine are faliable humans with big egos.

God bless you all who conduct yourself within the will of God. your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

We made a major deposit into our food store of canned goods yesterday. Also on a side note we Yale stocked about 300 rolls of moon floss. I want 365 one roll a day for a year. Any way. 

I strongly suggest you look at what is going on in California with water supply to the largest vegetables product area in the world. 

Grow a garden or get some canned vegies while you can. For record canned vegetables were 69 cents per can yesterday on sale. Which is not a good price. I will look back after summer is over at this thread to see where these food prices go.


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

we just rotated our canned food the other day after we bought more.we have a hell of a lot to eat up.especially progresso soup we got a good deal on.soup for lunch for the next couple of weeks.

Eat what you store and store what you eat.


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## Diver (Nov 22, 2014)

If you are doing that well, should you be buying some long term storage foods instead of regular canned goods OR should you be prepping for a larger group?

Personally, with the number of people I am prepping for I don't think I am likely to get to the point of having too much of anything.


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## Medic33 (Mar 29, 2015)

it is better to have and not need rather than need and not have -it is your money, time, and interest so who cares what anyone else thinks.


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