LDS: One year of food for less than $600
IMPOSSIBLE YOU SAY!
Well… one of our resident geniuses on Forum.brushbeater.org, figured it out and already did all the hard work for you.
Including how much room it takes up during storage.
Below is a link to the order sheet. Also a shopping/menu list as well.
Considering I know spend around $100 every week or so at the grocery store, this is a steal.
By the way, you should be on the forum. It’s where we get together, post some interesting links, forage the internet for only the best and you have access to hundreds of years of experience in numerous fields. Not just shooting, which is always a good chat, but we also discuss radios, intelligence, literature, cigars, libations, and more guns.
We even have a section for drink recipes.
You will need a https://protonmail.com email account or a https://tutanota.com email account to register for the forum. So you get squared away with an email account that isn’t completely compromised at the same time.
I prefer tutanota because two of my proton mail accounts are dysfunctional.
Why? I don’t know. But for $1 a month the tutanota account is a steal.
Storage is estimated below.
These come in boxes of 6 count #10 cans. Each box is 19″ x 13″ x 8″ tall. So for the 20 cases on the list you’ll be looking at two stacks side by side of a little over 2′ wide, 1.5′ deep, and 6.5′ tall.
Not bad. Especially considering these are stored in vermin proof metal tins. And, assuming this is stored in a cool dry area, should last at least 10 years minimum. If not double that.
Our friend on the forum, whose name I am going to omit for the purposes of anonymity, went ahead and took a screen shot of the spreadsheet he was using to calc food numbers for his LDS food order. He thought it might be helpful to you guys and we agreed it would make a great post. He has, as you can see in the PDF above (Which you should take a screenshot of now) a total of two columns.
Counting for calories, one for 1600 calories and one for 1500 calories, which takes the total weight of the food being ordered and multiplies it times either 1600 or 1500 calories. He did that because the exact amount of calories per pound for these items runs somewhere in between, so it gives a range without having to go into the nitty gritty, for example we can say with confidence that this order based on weight ends up being around 2540 to 2720 kcal per day for a year.
Not bad for the estimated cost of $1.56 per day.
Here is a list of pickup locations, many have food in stock
https://providentliving.churchofjesuschrist.org/self-reliance/food-storage/home-storage-center-locations-map?lang=eng
Remember, you will burn considerably more calories digging fighting positions and working your garden. You will need extra calories to help you get through the hard times.
Our friend also balanced the order so you don’t have too much protein, too little fiber, and not enough carbs to have energy for the back breaking labor.
While this may not suit all of us and our needs, consider adjusting the order. I know that I don’t need any more wheat or rice. So I will consider double or tripling on the fruit, peanut butter, and other items available for purchase.
Considering buying another Glock or AR/AK? Maybe you should get your food preps squared away first. I am going to skip the AR/AK purchase and stock up on some food. Why? Because food is historically, and ultimately, the primary weapon of Marxists.
Thanks for reading guys,
-J.P.
Slip on over to the forum and drop in for some fun. Part Sons of Liberty Live fun and part AP comments section.
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About the Author: Johnny Paratrooper
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GUNS N GEAR
5
There’s a side note to this too, if you don’t cook well or bake, some of those items are worthless to you.
I was married to a Mormon woman once, neither of her kids knew how to cook, they ate out constantly, spent more on fast food and movies than anyone I knew. I still have several Mormon friends and they have many 55 gal barrels of food downstairs, but I doubt it would do any good with their kids. They don’t cook, they don’t sew and are as backwards as any other gentile today.
Buy what you like to eat, what you normally consume every week, your eating habits will dictate what you are familiar with and forget about grinding wheat to make bread with. If you don’t bake or butcher today, you won’t know how later either. Don’t expect to become a jack of all trades overnight or when the grid goes down.
Instant foods will be the easiest when times are tough, no one is going to have spare gas to bake for hours either. Nobody wants to live on instant foods forever, but cases of those will keep you alive better than a 10 gallon tub of beans nobody knows how to prepare.
I hunt, cook and sew well, but not everyone lives in a little house on the prairie either.
You are correct. I’m fairly competent in the kitchen, but nothing like my mother or grandmother.
Scout has a great podcast on preparing food for large groups of people. Which is one of his best podcasts because I have worked in catering and the restaurant industry for years. It’s ALOT of work to make food for large groups of people and requires special equipment to accomplish in a timely manor.
Wheat Berries can be soaked overnight. Like Overnight Oats, and then cooked. You don’t have to make bread, or anything fancy. Which is a really labor intensive, time consuming, and slightly wasteful method of cooking and using fuel, oils, and other items like salt.
Soaked Wheat Berries cooked tastes like hot soggy cereal. But it’s not bad. A table spoon of jam, some milk, or honey helps it out.
Cooking food nearly triples the calories, and makes the food more easily digestible, allowing more calories to be absorbed.
I was in a hunting camp in northern B.C. for almost 2 months alone, made a lot of fry bread from wheat pancake mix with peanut butter, my daily staple for brunch with a huge mug of coffee, caught fish and shot grouse for meat later in the day.(worst things I ever ate was a beaver up there and a porcupine in the Utah canyonlands south of Green River, cannot in good conscience recommend either one).
Ate a lot of peanut butter and bread on my lengthy horse trips too (my longest was 5 weeks thru ID-MT-ID). You can go far on pancake mix and peanut butter, even better with jams too. Canned butter is a plus more so.
If you’re in a small group, find who does what well, then put them to work at it. There’s always a cook in there, everyone fills some niche,well almost always. There’s never a shortage of slackers.
I cooked for a wild fire crew. The Hotshots in Wyoming. Damn those dudes are badass. That was the hardest job I have ever had. I worked 16 hour days for 3 weeks. Hands down, hardest job I have ever had. Barring none. Not even Basic Training or Baghdad.
Cooking in bulk is its own skill for sure. Large pots, skillets, and mixing bowls from the restaurant supply place can go a long way. Same with dutch ovens from the camping section. Coolers lined with towels or the like can be used to keep things hot. If a person is storing a large amount of dried beans, a stove top pressure cooker is a good idea.
Of course with stored wheat, a grain mill is a great idea. I have the wonder junior, which is hand cranked and offers attachments for running with motors or bicycles. Flour has more uses than a loaf of bread. Think about thickening stews and sauces, tortillas, bannock, and other flat breads, dumplings, hard tack, and the like. Our forebears weren’t spending hours baking bread, but they often had time to mix water, flour, and salt to make a bannock, ash cake, or hoe cake.
But I also agree with having easily prepared foods. You often trade shelf life vs. well stored staples as above. The beans, rice, and wheat are a long term calorie skeleton. Good food prep puts meat on them bones with fats, canned goods, instant foods, and the like. Not to mention ongoing food production from the garden, the water, the woods, and the pasture.
“cooking food nearly triples the calories” Huh? By what alchemy? Hope that was just poorly worded. Some people are looking here for information that may save their lives.
Crazy theology aside, the mormons do know how to stock up on food.
They are a quirky people. But I have always enjoyed their company.
I’ve lived among them for over 50 yrs, married one of them, they’ve taken me in and offered their friendship, but never forget, you’re still the gentile…….and they’re not. They’ll lie straight to your face without a blink, you’re not one of them.
No different than living among the Chosen ones, they’re America’s chosen ones.
Curious. I’ll try to pay more attention around them. I did have a Mormon Utah National Guard girl tell me she was a badass once. She didn’t have a ounce of muscle on her. So I was pretty skeptical. But maybe she was just trying to impress me.
Proton mail! You have chosen wisely. Prepping on a budget and use the local church pantry which is biweekly and you must bring a utility bill or other mail with your name and address.
Got a nice closet and under counter tap cabinets larder going and almost all money is going to the Pik N’ Pak plus they send out coupons with free peanut butter and items that are most routinely purchased from loyalty card record.
Stock up on can openers even those old olive drab US Army keychain relics.
Strictly controlled diet won’t matter when it goes full South Africa so canned goods and some MRE’s are what is left.
Some MRE’s are about to go out of date so it will be time to use them.
Added some extra hand sanitizer to bolt out bags for fire starting purposes and not just hygiene.
Several of these bags with basic to outdoors tough med kits, firestarters, candles, matches, gloves, leathermans of various qualities, knives, optics.
Mormons? They fell for the carpetbagger Mittens Romney (Uniparty) schtick so use that if they get too testy with you.
I have eaten MRE’s from 1992 for 6-7 months with no problem. However, they were properly stored. If you don’t store MRE’s correctly, they will separate and go rancid. Quickly too.
If an MRE goes bad, many of the products in the package are still good, but typically the Entree is very likely inedible. Not necessarily dangerous to eat, unless the packaging has gas in it, but it’s simply going to taste horrible.
Great post. I have over a year’s worth of their food in a spare bedroom.
An idea for an upcoming series of posts: off grid cooking w/canned Mormon food. I presume it’s doable if one has a fire pit and a few basic items of cast iron cookware.
Mixing everything together is easy. The hard part is collecting the fuel and tending the fire for an hour to two while everything heats up and cooks.
Fats are often overlooked when it comes to food storage. I’ve eaten peanut butter that was 3 years past the ‘safe date’ with no ill effects at all, and it still tasted fine. ‘Waxing’ 2 lb. blocks of cheese from the super market will store at least a decade if prepared properly. Remove from the packaging and build about a 1/4″ thick coating by repeatedly dipping in warm wax, then cooling. I suppose one could just go buy Tillamook brand that is already waxed, but that brand is considerably more expensive than the generic cheeses.
https://www.reformationacres.com/2016/03/How-to-Naturally-Wax-Cheese-with-Beeswax
https://www.onpointpreparedness.net/how-to-preserve-cheese-for-years/
Considering the price of 1 yr supply of Augason farms, for 1 person runs $2400 smackers I would say this is a smokin hot deal.
My sister is a Mormon in Salt Lake City ( bless her heart ) and hooked me up in 2010. I am fully stocked with so much of this stuff my ‘place’ looks like a civil defense shelter. the trade off was, Those little white shirt, shits wouldnt leave me alone.( thanks sis ) My dog spent half his life on the front porch keeping them away from the doorbell. Mormons are a funny lot, Nice as can be,but dont under estimate them in terms of persistence and assertiveness. They also are firm believers in self preservation as a whole, Unlike we the unwashed, they have no problem showing their preps to the curious, Because they know other members have their six.
Judging by today’s ammo prices. I have shot this amount in ammo cost during previous training weekends. $600 for enough food to not die for 1 year is a sweet deal. Granted, you’ll lose some weight on this diet. But this is a hell of a start.
$600 gets you bare bones food for one year. Now image taking another $600 and supplementing that initial supply with flour, yeast, sugar, etc.
All for the price of roughly two Glocks.
YES! Exactly.
That much Beans and rice may ‘feed’ you for a year, but you’ll start hating it w/o some variety – in fairy short order. Be sure to add flavor enhancers – even something as simple as beef or chicken bullion cubes to cook the rice in, or taco seasoning to add to the end product. Also – consider a couple of large bottles of multi-vitamins to help fill in the nutrition gaps…
Need that hot sauce!
My wife and I have been increasing our food storage for a number of years now. We rotate our stock and tend to buy things that last longer on the shelf. We also laid in a year+ supply of dehydrated food about 7 years ago. We have enough to feed quite a few people for a while.
Don’t forget a source of water. I installed a hand pump on my well in the basement. I can pump water with no electricity all year round.
I installed a grid tied solar power system that has stand alone capability. It can run my freezers off grid as long as we are getting some sun on the panels. The backup plan for the freezer is canning most of the meat we have frozen. I have enough jars and lids to do this along with enough propane for the job.
Its harder to get prepared than it is to stay prepared.
Ohio John
Ohio John,
Could you provide any links or information about the solar setup you installed?
I designed, built and installed the system. It was a lot of work by myself. It consists of 24, 310W panels on a ground mount. The inverter is a SMA Sunny Boy 7.7-us with 2kw stand alone capability.
I ran two circuits from the panels back to the grid tied inverter that is mounted in the garage. The circuits carry about 9 amps at 550 vdc. 12 panels on each side in series. The wire run was just about 300′ and the trenching was a real pain in the ass even with a hydraulic trencher.
I spent about $8,300 on the whole thing and I got a 30% federal tax credit so my final cost was $5,810. It pays for it self in 5 years. My net electric bill for the year is about $0. If I had to purchase an equivalent system and have it installed the cost would have be $30k+.
I have a second 620W, two panel system that is totally stand alone. I have 700 AH of home made lithium batteries that I run my radio shack and part of my office with. This system provides plenty of energy year round.
Full size solar panels are hard to get unless you live near a vendor and can pick them up. They are too large to ship UPS and have to go freight. The shipping on my panels was over $500 but the individual panel price, including shipping was only $130 because I got a lot of them. If you only need a few panels, see if you can get a few other people to order some with you. Usually the cost is per pallet
I purchased my panels from https://santansolar.com/
The shippers had a hard time getting them to me in one piece so it took a few tries.
You can see the batteries and panels on my QRZ page
https://www.qrz.com/db/ke8usa
Ohio John
That’s awesome.
Which hand pump did u pick!? I been looking at this too for interior pump
I have a pretty shallow well. I think it’s only about 60 feet to the bottom and where I live has a high water table. Looking in the well head, the water level is about 15 feet down which puts it just a few feet below the floor in the floor in the basement.
The hand pump I installed just connects to the incoming line from the well pump. With the power off to the pump, I can hand pump the water right through the line coming from my well.
This is the pump that I have.
https://waterproductssupply.com/collections/pumps-and-accessories/products/guzzler-hand-pump-3-4
I mounted it to the wall next to my pressure tank and I connected the suction side with a vacuum rated hose so it won’t collapse as I’m pumping.
I can get about a gallon per minute without working too hard at it. This won’t work if your water level is more than 15-20 feet below the level of your pump.
Ohio John
True. It’s important that people remember until the invention of the electric water pump, no-one could dig or mine below 15 or 20 feet. The weight of the water in any sized pipe at over 20 feet (sometimes 30 feet depending on the seal of the system and air pressure) is heavier than the force required to draw the water. Thus nothing happens. The invention of the electric water pump was a gaming changing invention that has saved billions of lives and created a standard of living that was previously impossible.
Thanks for the detailed response!
If you are planning on Storing Foods that need to be “Cooked”, including Mixing, Baking, and other Preparation, you absolutely MUST have sufficient “Kitchen Equipment” to do so. AND the Skills and knowledge to Handle, Prepare and Serve Food, without the Messhall becoming a nasty form of “Friendly Fire”….
Anyone with a large/extended Family or ‘Group’ needs to obtain some of the older Army Field Mess Equipment – a lot of it was Sold as Surplus over the last 10-15 Years as the .Mil changed from being self-supporting in the Field to relying on the (politically-connected) “Logistics Contractors” like KBR & Halliburton. There is a set of Field Kitchen Unit Equipment, starting with a Gasoline (old type) or Diesel-Fired Stove/Oven, and All of the necessary Accessories, in Commercial-Kitchen Sizes, that can Cook for large or small Groups of people, using any available Foods.
The best of these Sets is the Kitchen, Field, Trailer Mounted (MKT Unit) mounted on a modified M-105 Trailer that can be
towed by a Dually Pickup. The MKT Unit’s Components are widely available on the Surplus Market, and even Complete Units are out there.
Find a Copy of TM 10-7360-206-13, MKT all Versions, and look over its Equipment List for what may be useful to you.
That manual also References many other valuable T/M’s for its Components, and other Subjects related to Food in the Field.
The Newer Version is the MFK, Modular Field Kitchen, with essentially the same Components but used in a Temper Tent.
This is the Equipment that has the Diesel-Fired Stove, but this Stove needs 28-Volt (Mil Vehicle Power) to Start and Run.
The older version of the Stove is Gasoline, and needs no Electricity- it’s just a bigger version of a “Coleman Stove”.
TM 10-7360-208-13&P is the Data for the New Version.
Also, you want to have some Sets of those Stainless-Steel Serving Trays, and some of the Old-Style Mess Kits and Utensils- Paper Plates and Plastic Forks don’t Last, and cannot be kept Clean. The .Mil QMC method for keeping Food Service Equipment Clean and Safe is Hot Soapy Water to Clean, and Boiling Water to Rinse (then Air-Dry) all Food Contact Surfaces and Utensils. Find, Study, and Practice the the Field Sanitation and Food Preparation/Serving Manuals- they were Developed with the Historical Knowledge that Many Armies were Defeated by their own Cooks….
The military got rid of their mess kit because the Army Cooks are useless drug addict trouble makers who cost our nation a small fortune. The U.S. military has used sub-contractors for food since 1775.
Also, Dick Cheney hates Henry Kissinger. So the media (Run by Henry Kissinger types) put out anti-Cheney propaganda. I thought KBR and the others did a great job.
The food was well presented, tasted great, and always plentiful. They were also open for almost 24 hours a day. Which was, I promise you, a savior on more than one night patrol.
I enjoyed Pizza, Spaghetti, Lasagna, and the snickerdoodle cookies with soft serve ice cream and sprinkles. KBR served up PLENTY of cookies and pizza.
Haliburton/KBR and scores of other contractors are scamming this nation for billions servicing the military and firefighters, from food, laundry, fuel and aviation services, they are where the politicians are getting rich under the table. Doesn’t the term MIC mean anything to you?
The amount of waste and corruption is staggering, and no one questions it. I’ll bet you every politician who’s been there awhile knows exactly which companies to invest in, they’re always making money 24/7/365 because they get all the insider bids to begin with.
Haliburton moved to Dubai, as did Xe, because they were already under investigation, now they can’t be touched, just like the politicians.
Exempt from prosecution and filling their bank accounts. Don’t any of you get this?
“Don’t any of you get this?”
Its not the ‘getting’ that’s an issue. Its exactly what you’re doing about it. Which is nothing.
The average conservative is playing cheerleader for the MIC, I’m not.
I’ve spent decades trying to wake people up, and for naught.
I’ve noticed you like censoring folks that don’t dance to your tune also, over half my comments don’t see daylight.
And now you want to ridicule me for speaking out?
No, I’m asking a very valid question. And I have every single fucking right to remove any content that’s idiotic.
One of the benefits of owning the platform.
Go build your own site and run it how you see fit. When you contribute as much as I have come talk to me.
The Cid was one of the greatest Crusaders in the history of the world. He liberated entire towns in occupied Spain during the Reconquista from the Moors. He used the same Tactics as Haliburton/KBR/Blackwater and the other contractors.
Did every American have to pony up $100-200 for the war effort to feed the troops decent food?
Yeah. They did. How horrible. We should start a civil war over it and all start shooting each other over $100. Sounds like good plan. Hard to believe you aren’t more effective at waking people up. I wonder what the conflict of interest could be?
Jeez… All I did was suggest that there’s a lot of good Surplus Field Kitchen Gear because the .Mil went with “Contractors”.
Yeah. Welcome to the internet. LMAO. Gryphon you made me laugh. Thanks man.
You can’t reason with the stupid.
I suggest either taking the cans out of the cardboard boxes or doing a routine monthly check. I stacked several boxes against the back wall in the garage and later found bugs nesting in the cardboard.
This is good advice. It’s also a fire hazard and attacks mildew, mold, and moisture. I should have mentioned this in the post.
4.5
And how many of you have an extra camping/RV porta potti inside when the plumbing quits? Not everyone can build an outhouse or dig a 1-2-3 slit trench in their yard.
https://www.walmart.com/browse/sports-outdoors/camping-portable-toilets/4125_546956_4128_1080844_1471258_2825702
Johnny,this is a excellent article that should be repeated on a monthly basis and passed around to folks,short money to help be prepared.I had a site for even less for a year,was pretty basic but once you have say a year can spice it up.Hell,just if all you can afford pick up a 10 pound bag of rice one week,a couple of soups the next/peanut butter the next week ect.,you will be amazed at how quickly the smalls add up,use and rotate for dates ect.A shtf can just happen on a personal basis due to say a job loss ect.,again,this will buy some peace of mind.
On a whole other note,well,just used as a hand held monoc but got my gen 3 out for a walk tomight and all I can say is I have seen the light,is absolutely friggin awesome and have yet to mount to head gear/give a try mounted on rifle ect.,still,all I can say is wow!I went with the white as used old school gen 2 binocs and while cool was a bit bugged by the green,the white just seems much more user friendly to me eyes,so,thanks to badland and all here that pushed it to those who could afford,was worth every penny and I have yet to really stretch their legs,will take it slow so no stupid or expensive mishaps.
OK,enuff about me new gear,this article again good in that those behind the curve can really see it is not too hard to get a good start on ones food preps,sure,there is more but without food the rest has no real use,so,to any new folks,you can do this!
I am going to link this to a few different sites Johnny,you will be famous,eh…….,OK,maybe not but still will have helped a few more citizens.
Thanks Brother! I recently read about the Chinese starving to death during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. I gotta say, if half the people I knew killed themselves or starved to death, that would be hard to handle. The Chinese were so hungry they would eat poison bark from trees they knew would kill them.
That is for the calories offered an excellent deal. Might partake of some of it myself. But like most things easssssy, there is a catch. The catch is there is no skill involved. What happens when the delivery systems are in a shambles and LDS thru no fault of their own cannot operate any more? (And God Bless them for their community service in this regard) Whatta do then partner? God graces you with provision of a deer you were able to take down. Unless you have a rather large family that 75-125# of dressed carcass is going to have a lot left over.
The answer is three skills:
1) Canning
2) Dehydrating
3) Pickling
Learn them now and the equipment to do so.
1) Mirro canner and tool set with it, $150. 4 flats of quart jars, $60.
2) You can buy a cheap electric at Aldi for $30. However I suggest building this instead — http://www.geopathfinder.com/DryerWorkshop5-2011.pdf, about $100 or less if you have some of the materials on hand.
3) If you have canning supplies $0, larger scale a food grade bucket or barrel for $7-30.
But skills to perform the process to make a food safe product is where the value is. Its not hard, just takes practice. Learn them now while a failure is not a life or death event.
Johnny, I have bought food from the LDS store for years and I’ve always had it shipped to my house. I tell everybody who will listen that they should get their long-term storage food from them. Looking over the comments, I’ll mention that I bought a Hullwrecker mill, intended for brewing. But “Fully adjustable roller gap from 0.025” all the way to 0.1”, allowing you to finely tune the crush to your extract preference.” It won’t make flour, but it will grind wheat and other grains small enough to use in cooking.
Macros:
Protein, minimum 10% of calories (20% preferred for athletic diet)
Fat, minimum 15% of calories (25% preferred for athletic diet)
Carbs, maximum 75% of calories (55% preferred for athletic diet)
Beans, Oats, Rice, and Wheat will leave you deficient in protein and devoid of fats. This will cause mental impairment and health problems.
Common solution to this problem is to add Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Powdered Milk to your plan to bring macros into line with healthy parameters. I also have discovered that Spam is the right mix of Fat (2/3) and Protein (1/3) to supplement.
Calorie Targets:
Male, sedentary 2,400/day
Male, active 3,000/day
Female, sedentary 2,000/day
Female, active 2,400/day
Micronutrients can be from gardening/supplements.