My 25 cent oatmeal.

For breakfast this morning, I departed somewhat from my previous shopping list. Instead of using the groceries I purchased this weekend, I had some oatmeal. Oatmeal is a good storage item, and it’s certainly within my budget, so I don’t consider this to be “cheating.” The particular oatmeal I ate was Quaker Pumpkin Spice Instant Oatmeal . I had it in the house, and had actually purchased the 8 pack about a month ago at WalMart as a closeout item for only 25 cents. So my total expenditure for the two envelopes as 6-1/4 cents.

But since I didn’t buy the oatmeal during the SNAP Challenge period, it’s not fair to use 25 cents as the price. Instead, I’ll treat it as an expenditure of $1, since oatmeal (both instant and regular) is always available at the Dollar Store. Therefore, my total expenditures are now up to $27.99.

For lunch, I finished the chili from yesterday.

For supper, I used the tortillas and can of refried beans for burritos. I made seven, four of which I saved for later. After viewing my unusual looking food, my wife took pity on me and prepared the burritos. I could have done it, but they wouldn’t have looked nearly this good. As you can see, I finished up the blue Kool-Aid and am now working on the pink Kool-Aid.

The canned beans and prepared tortillas are certainly suitable items for medium-term storage, since the tortillas had an expiration date a few months away. So they’re both good items to keep around the house. But for long-term storage, there are even better options.

First of all, normal dry beans are cheap and will keep basically forever if properly stored. The disadvantage, of course, is that they require a fair amount of preparation and actual cooking. Another excellent option is the Honeyville refried bean flakes. These are dehydrated refried beans. You simply add hot water, and the result is refried beans which are indistinguishable from (or even better than) the canned variety. The cost is basically comprable to canned beans.

While tortillas will last a long time, the basic ingredient for corn tortillas, Maseca, will last basically forever if stored properly. The only other ingredient necessary to make tortillas is water, so this is a good choice for emergency food storage. It should be available in most Supermarkets, including WalMart.

Of course, one must know how to make tortillas. It’s not particularly difficult, but it does require some practice. And it’s made much easier by having the proper tool, namely a tortilla press such as the one shown here. They’re available at Amazon, WalMart, and many other places. If you can’t find one locally, you can order at WalMart online and pick it up at your local store.

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I have to admit that this year’s SNAP Challenge is proving to be a bit more challenging than last year, since I’m relying this year on food that is suitable for long-term storage (or, to put it another way, the so-called “non-perishable” items that people are asked to donate to food banks).  My menu is about the same as last year, but I don’t have any bread, hot dogs, sausage, or hamburger.  The overall cost is about the same, but the substitutes aren’t quite as good.  In particular, the canned meat is starting to get old.

For breakfast this morning, I had pancakes and some of the Armour Treet.  For lunch and supper, I made chili, using some of the Treet, one can of Chili beans, and one can of tomatoes.  I’ve been grazing on the peanut butter cookies, so I made another batch.  (I forgot to flatten them with a fork, but they taste OK.)  Both are shown above.  I had one biscuit for lunch, but I’m starting to tire of them, so I had cookies with my chili for supper.

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Tonight’s Supper.

Day 2 of the SNAP Challenge was again uneventful.  I’m subsisting this week on less than $31.50 in groceries, and I’m concentrating on items that are easily storable.

After my initial failure with pancake syrup, I tried again last night and was somewhat more successful.  Since I don’t have any brown sugar to work with, I used two parts sugar and one part water and let it simmer until it was the right consistency.  Last year, my syrup was too watery, so I tried simmering it longer, taking care not to set off the smoke alarm as happened a couple of nights ago.  I still don’t have the knack, since it was excessively crystallized.  But I managed to get enough for my pancakes this morning, and for a couple more meals.

For lunch, I finished the tuna salad from yesterday, and had a couple of biscuits.

Supper consisted of the experimental pigs in blankets shown above.  I simply made the biscuit dough, wrapped it around the remaining Vienna Sausages, and baked for about 15 minutes.  I also made one package of the Ramen noodles.  I washed it down with windshield washer fluid–er, I mean blue Kool-Aid.

With the exception of a couple of pats of margarine that I put on the pancakes, everything I consumed today is suitable for long-term storage.

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I plan to start the seven-day SNAP challenge tomorrow.  I did the shopping yesterday.  I spent a total of $26.99 on groceries that should last me the week.  Most people who take the SNAP challenge seem to go hungry since they don’t think about their basic caloric needs, which for most people is in the ballpark of 2000 calories per day.

Most of my caloric needs are taken care of with $4.94 of my purchase money, in the form of the following, which make up a total of 17,510 calories, more than enough for seven days:  Five pounds of flour , four pounds of sugar, and 16 ounces of  cooking oil.  Those items are not, by themselves, particularly edible.  Therefore, my mission for today was to change some of those ingredients, along with a few others, into actual food.  Since this process takes about the same amount of time regardless of the quantity, I made enough for the next few days and put them in the freezer.

I started by making the pancakes shown here.  They are now in the freezer and can quickly be warmed up in the toaster or microwave for a fast breakfast or snack.  I used the same recipe as last year, except I used cooking oil instead of margarine, in keeping with my theme this year of using ingredients that can be stored for emergency use.

And since my use of storage food items precludes the luxury of having bread, I’ll be relying more on the pancakes and biscuits.  I also made my first batch of biscuits, which are shown here.  I again used the same recipe as last year, but used cooking oil in place of the sausage grease or margarine that I used previously.

I also made a batch of peanut butter cookies.  The downfall of many SNAP challenge participants seems to be the lack of snack items.  The 18 cookies I baked should tide me over between meals for the next couple of days.  I used the same recipe as last year, but since I had more peanut butter to work with this year, I was slightly more generous.  I went ahead and used the margarine for these cookies, although I think the cooking oil would have worked just as well.

I also prepared two other items, or at least tried to do so.  Envelopes of Kool-Aid cost 20 cents, considerably less than the pre-sweetened variety.   It’s easier to prepare it by the glass, so I made my own pre-sweetened Kool-Aid by adding one envelope to a cup of sugar.  My first failure so far was with pancake syrup.  I mixed two parts sugar and one part water (equal parts of white and brown sugar work better, but I don’t have brown sugar) and left them to simmer on the stove.  I was reminded of this when the smoke detector went off, since I neglected to keep an eye on it.  Perhaps I’ll try again tonight, but I’ll probably just clean up the mess and leave my syrup making for another day.  In any event, I lost one cup of sugar, which was burnt to a crisp rather than delivering any food value.  But last year, I had more than a pound of sugar left at the end of the SNAP challenge, so I won’t go hungry as a result of my carelessness.

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As I did in 2013, I will once again be taking the SNAP Challenge, starting in the next couple of days.  I explained it in more detail when I originally took it, but the general idea is to subsist for seven days on $31.50 in food, which represents the average amount received by recipients of the SNAP program, formerly known as Food Stamps.

There seem to be two categories of people who take the challenge.  The first group is made up of those who view the challenge as being extraordinarily trivial.  Occasionally, one of them will announce that he or she is participating and go out and buy $31.50 worth of food.  They often put little thought into what they buy, and they usually aren’t heard of after a few days.  This is probably due to the fact that they failed.

The other group of people usually make it through the full seven days, but only after enduring a great deal of suffering.  Like the other group, they usually make poor buying decisions by buying apparently “healthy” but expensive food.  They usually suffer through the seven days, but are hungry most of the time.

I’m in the middle group.  Last year, I discovered that the challenge was not trivial.  But I also discovered that with a little bit of planning, I could eat quite well over the course of the seven days.  This year, I’m doing it again, but with a new twist.  One of the focuses of this blog is emergency preparedness, and I learned last year that the challenge also taught lessons for disaster planning.

On my website, I have a number of pages discussing emergency food storage.  Since I don’t own any camouflage clothing, I’m not much of a “survivalist.”  But even for those who are not contemplating a complete apocalypse, I believe that it is important to make preparations to be reasonably self-sufficient in emergencies.  And having a reasonable amount of food in the house is one important preparation.  In most cases, this “emergency food” is just part of the groceries we would normally buy.  Therefore, the SNAP challenge is a good way to test these emergency supplies.  Last year, my SNAP purchases included quite a few refrigerated items, such as hot dogs and ground beef. These would not be a good choice for emergency storage.  This year, I made a point to store items that are similar to the kinds of things that can be stored for an emergency.

This is not a perfect test, because I also needed to stay under the $31.50 budget.  Some of the storage food I would normally buy comes in larger quantities.  Therefore, I have made a few substitutions:

I did buy six fresh eggs, which should stay in the refrigerator (although it’s relatively safe to store eggs at room temperature for a few days).  For emergency storage, I would recommend Honeyville powdered eggs. Despite any bad reputation that powdered eggs might have, the Honeyville eggs are actually excellent, and indistinguishable from fresh eggs in cooking or baking. They can even be used for scrambled eggs, which taste almost as good as normal eggs. In a real emergency, I would use the Honeyville eggs. But for purposes of this test, they would be out of my budget. A large can costs almost $20. While they are economical, the can is much more than I need for one week. Therefore, I’m substituting fresh eggs, which cost me $1 for a half dozen.

I also purchased a pound of margarine.  Margarine will keep outside of the refrigerator, but not for long-term use.  In an actual emergency, there are other options.  One option is canned butter (ghee), which is fairly expensive. Another more economical option is Honeyville Powdered Butter, which I have not actually tried, but seems to have excellent reviews.  Another surprisingly good option is Butter Flavor Crisco, which can be stored.  Last year, I didn’t purchase any cooking oil. This time, to help allay any concerns that I’m “cheating”, I did purchase vegetable oil, which I’ll use for most cooking. Therefore, my use of the margarine should be farily minimal.

My shopping list for the challenge does include a couple of items that have fairly long shelf lives, but not what one might consider “long term.” I have one package of tortillas, and one bag of tortilla chips. Both of these have an expiration date a few months out, so it’s not unreasonable to believe that they would be in a normal cupboard in time of emergency.

Finally, as I did last year, the main staple of my diet will be my five-pound bag of self-rising flour. The bag I just purchased has an expiration date of December 2015, meaning that it can be stored for almost a year. For actual emergency storage, I would recommend normal flour, since the “self-rising” flour is nothing more than normal flour with baking powder already added. But for the SNAP challenge, the self-rising flour is easier on the budget. The smallest can of baking powder, which would last months, was over a dollar. For emergency use, it would be better to purchase regular flour along with a can or two of baking powder.

My focus on shelf-stable food means two big changes from last year’s challenge. First of all, I used two pounds of bread last year, and I don’t have the same luxury this year. But I had flour left over last year, so I’ll need to use the flour to make a substitute. Last year, I did have meat, in the form of hamburger, hot dogs, and sausages. This year, I’ll need to get by on canned meats. That will make things more challenging.

Finally, I should say a word about milk. I’ll be using shelf-stable milk. It’s always available at the dollar store for a dollar a quart, it has a shelf life of about a year, and it tastes just like any other milk. It’s a good choice for emergency storage, although since most of my uses are for cooking, powdered milk would be adequate. More information is available on my milk page.

As I did last year, I’ll spend a few hours the day before the challenge begins preparing some food.  I’ll eat well during my week, but it does require advance preparation.  And it’s more efficient to do most of the preparation all at once.

Today, I purchased the food shown above.  My total expenditure was $26.99.  I bought all of the food at either Walmart or Dollar Tree.  The complete shopping list is shown below, along with the prices I paid.  You can click on the links to see the exact items I purchased.  (In a few cases, I couldn’t find the same brand online, in which case the link goes to an identical product of a different brand or size.)

• Walmart
  
  • Coffee, 10.5 oz. $2.28
  • Sugar, 4 lb. 2.32
  • Self-rising flour, 5 lb. 1.64
  • Margarine, 1 lb. 0.98
  • Pasta shells, 16 oz. 1.00
  • Gravy mix 0.88
  • Refried beans, 16 oz. 0.85
  • Canned condensed cheddar, 16 oz. 2.48
  • Mixed vegetables, 15 oz. 0.68
  • Diced tomatoes, 14.5 oz. 0.72
  • 2 cans, Vienna Sausage 0.86
  • Vegetable oil, 16 oz. 0.98
  • Chili beans, 15.5 oz. 0.68
  • Armour Treet, 12 oz. 1.58
  • Ramen noodles, 2 pkgs. 0.40
  • Tuna, 5 oz. 0.68
  • Potted meat, 3 oz 0.38
  • Kool-Aid 3 pkgs. 0.60
• Dollar Tree
  • Mayonnaise, 10 oz. 1.00
  • Peanut Butter, 10 oz. 1.00
  • Milk, 1 qt. 1.00
  • Pasta sauce, 24 oz. 1.00
  • 1/2 dozen eggs. 1.00
  • 10 flour tortillas 1.00
  • Tortilla chips, 8.5 oz. 1.00

Click Here For Today’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Cartoon

One cup of flour, turned into edible form.

As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I don’t own a single piece of camouflage clothing, so I must not be a “survivalist.”  On the other hand, I do recognize that it’s a good idea to have some rudimentary preparations for getting through life’s emergencies. Those emergencies can range from the very serious, such as the Zombie Apocalypse, down to the very minor, such as not wanting to go buy a carton of milk because it’s raining. In either case, it’s a good idea to have some food around the house.

For some people, that might mean investing in special “storage” food in adequate quantities to last the entire duration of the zombie outbreak. For other people, it’s a more modest supply of canned goods to last the length of a winter storm. I tend to be in the middle of that range. Therefore, when I think of emergency food storage, I think in terms of keeping adequate quantities of “normal” food on hand, rather than buying special “survival” food. As outlined on my food storage basics page, that can generally be accomplished at no cost, since it entails buying things that we will normally eat.

On the other hand, there is a limit to how much “normal” food one can store. If preparing for a longer term emergency, it might be advisable to purchase some items that can be packed away and forgotten about. On another page on my website, I have some ideas on how to store larger quantities of foods such as milk and eggs and a fairly reasonable price.

During the SNAP Challenge, I ate very well. This was in stark contrast to the experiences of others who were forced to eek by for a week on starvation rations. I was successful where others failed for one reason, and one reason alone. I was able to eat well because I invested a small amount of my very limited food budget on two items: A bag of flour, and a bag of sugar. Between these two bags, I spent less than five dollars, but these bags took care of all of my caloric needs for a whole week. With my remaining money, I was able to easily take those basic calories and make the meals appetizing and nutritious. But the flour and sugar kept me fed very well, and I had leftovers at the end of the week.

This is an important lesson for storing food for emergencies: In order to do long-term storage at a reasonable price, it is necessary to have some of that food be in the form of basic ingredients, such as flour and sugar. Of course, much of your emergency food storage should be in the form of foods that can be eaten with no preparation or minimal preparation. But as the SNAP Challenge has proven, this can make the cost prohibitive. To give you some idea, this special One Year Emergency Food Supply of “survival” food will set you back almost $10,000. The equivalent number of calories, if purchased in the form of flour at supermarket prices, would be about $400. In other words, special “survival” food can cost about 25 times as much as “normal” food in the form of basic ingredients.

Therefore, it is clear that to have long-term food storage, you do need to plan around basic ingredients, just as I did during the SNAP Challenge. The difficulty with this approach is, of course, that it will entail cooking. During the SNAP Challenge, I made use of many modern conveniences, such as an oven, a toaster, and an electric coffee maker. During many disasters, some or all of these modern conveniences would be unavailable. And, of course, during many disasters, the electric power and/or natural gas will not be available.

One way of dealing with this issue is to spend thousands or millions of dollars on a survivalist bunker with all of the conveniences of home. All you need to do is stock it with thousands of gallons of diesel fuel, and you can live out the zombie apocalypse in style. For many, however, this is not an option. And for someone like me, who doesn’t even own a single piece of camouflage clothing, this isn’t a particularly good option.

A better way of approaching the problem is to be creative and figure out how the minimal preparation of food can be accomplished without all of those modern conveniences. In most cases, this will add some difficulty, but those difficulties are rarely insurmountable. Therefore, this morning, I decided to see how I could turn a cup of flour into edible food without using the oven. I normally use the oven to cook food, because it is very convenient. I merely set the temperature, put in the food, wait the specified number of minutes, and then remove the item. This process is made extremely convenient by luxuries such as a large volume in which to cook, an automatic thermostat, and even a timer. But these are mere luxuries. At its most basic level, the oven does one thing: It generates heat. This is all that is necessary for cooking. Everything else is nice to have, but not necessary. As long as you have a method to generate heat, it will be possible to cook. Therefore, as long as you have a method to generate heat, you can cut your food costs from $10,000 per year down to $400 per year. And at these lower prices, it is possible to store food for longer term emergencies.

To demonstrate this principle, I decided to turn a cup of flour into food that I can eat, without use of the oven. There are many ways in which this can be accomplished, although all of those methods require heat. For the heat, I could have used a charcoal grill or a backyard gas grill. I could have used a Solar Oven. I could have used a campfire. The exact method of generating heat is unimportant. Depending on the method, the exact cooking procedures might need to be modified. But as long as heat is available, then the flour can be turned into food.

I decided to use an electric turkey roaster to generate the heat. In many disaster situations, this would not be an option, since it requires electricity. But again, the exact method of generating the heat is unimportant. I merely want to demonstrate that it is possible to turn flour into food with any available source of heat. To one cup of Self Rising Flour, I added a quarter cup vegetable oil and a quarter cup milk. I used fresh milk, but powdered milk would have worked just as well. And since normal flour stores better, in an emergency situation, I probably would have used regular flour along with baking powder. But I’m merely establishing the concept here. The details can be worked out depending on what is available.

If you want more ideas about the concept of generating heat during an emergency, please visit my How To Make Coffee Without Electricity page.

The resulting biscuits are shown above. I baked the biscuits in the turkey roaster at the highest temperature setting (marked 400 degrees, although I suspect the actual temperature is lower) for about 40 minutes. Without a real oven, the biscuits never really get brown. But they tasted just fine. And more importantly, they represent food, even though they started out as basic ingredients that were not edible in their original form.

The important lesson of the SNAP Challenge is that with a bit of planning and a bit of creativity, it is possible to prepare for emergencies at a very low cost. If you think in these terms, then you don’t have to worry so much about FEMA coming to rescue you after a disaster. And more importantly, if you are concerned about others, then FEMA doesn’t have to worry so much about coming to rescue you after the disaster, and they can concentrate their efforts on others whose situation is more dire.