There is a good list of 3 months food supplies for a family of 4 in this weeks issue of Cory's WRP.

I wonder how many folks in the US (let alone the world) could afford it, and how many would actually be able to acquire it before the supplies ran out?

On a related note, I was in Sam's today, and they have what can only be termed a sh*tload of TP. It's incredible. They rearranged the shelves so that there's enough room in the center of the store for a pile about 8 feet high, 60 feet by 30 feet. Looks like the word's out...

-- a (a@a.a), August 18, 1999

Answers

a: Has InfoMagic written or posted anything lately?

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 18, 1999.

U wont need it:

and in the=LAST-DAY,S there shall be-signs & wonders-in the heaven,s. and on earth--distress--amongst=nations.

-- DO YOU GET=IT? (dogs@zianet.com), August 18, 1999.

-- (u@wont_need.it), August 18, 1999.

a,

I always woundered what Cory looked like. After reading this WRP, I'm getting a "bigger" better picture :-)

You (or anyone for that matter) wont need that much food unless you plan to be working (hard manual labor) 16+ hours per day. the list looked to me as if it give you close to a years supply of food.

If things get to the point that we can't get food from the stores then most of us (maybe all) wont be working (until spring). at that point you sit, read a book, play cards, or watever it takes to conserve energy. You don't need 2000+ cal per day.

I should sit down and count out all the calories, divide them by 4 then again by 90 to see for sure, but my eyeball guess tells me that this is way more than is needed for 90 days.

We are a very fat culture. this too may change soon.

-- DOC (Hoping_for@the.best), August 18, 1999.

Randolph, here is a link to all of Infomagic's posts on csy2k. The last post was on May 11, 1999.

Infomagic Posts

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 18, 1999.

Randolph: I don't think so. Last I heard he was preparing an article for Cory outlining why "he was wrong. It will be worse" then he ducked out on a five month sabbatical to Newfoundland...

-- a (a@a.a), August 18, 1999.

"I always woundered what Cory looked like. After reading this WRP, I'm getting a "bigger" better picture :-)"

Huge and bald.

There's something wrong with the picture I put up on the web. It didn't come out as overweight as it should have.

I've got pictures of several famous Y2K'ers including Paul Milne, Jay Goltier, others. I'll scan these in and put them up when I have a chance.

-- cory (kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net), August 18, 1999.

In reguards to preps, when you talk about affordability, I submit that its not the money. It still has to be the amount of Y2K research done, that fortifies the will to get the money. The scary thing is that the more you study, the more preps you want. Now to add to that the folks that have study for years and have the big brains, a very large number of them have moved to the boonieeeeesssss

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), August 18, 1999.

I looked at Cory's list, and I think you could get by a bit cheaper, but with more monotony. I would say that you could get by with mostly rice, beans, and wheat, if you had a way to give some variety to the flavor. Split peas, lentils, oatmeal, can be had very cheaply.

There is no shortage of food at this time. If you buy in bulk, you will be able to do a lot of preparing for a relatively modest amount of money. Don't worry about special packaging at this point. Just do what you can.

We can't all do everything, but each of us can do *something.* A little at a time adds up quickly if you add supplies regularly. Don't give up.

canning the tomatoes,

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), August 18, 1999.

DOC, if you live in a cold climate and the usual heat source goes out, the alternate heat source is very unlikely to keep as large an area warm or even a smaller area as warm as usual. I fully expect a temperature of between -10 and -35C (15 to -30F). I also expect to have to feed my family of four large amounts of calories to make up for the fact that we will not be living in a temperature of 20C (70F) if there are problems with electric or gas utilities. Also, read about the Rimmers' Y2K trial re: sitting around conserving energy. Then go get lots more food, unless of course, you live in a *much* nicer climate than I do :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), August 18, 1999.

A quick guestimate is about $2000 could feed four for 90 days. I expect you could get most at Sam's or Costco.

-- Bill P (porterwn@one.net), August 18, 1999.

Our Sam's ALWAYS had six tons of TP. One entire wall of various kinds of paper towels. However, at the two locations near me, I never saw any beans at all, except for canned. Lots of rice, but the price wasn't great. I let my membership expire when I realized a lot of stuff could be bought cheaper elsewhere. We're more or less prepared, but still living in the burbs with nowhere to bug-out to. So... I'm not optimistic about surviving anything bigger than, say, a 6 or a 7. If it gets really, really bad, we'll be dead, either from disease or from hungry/violent neighbors.

I'm resigned to that, & just trying to enjoy my last normal year, & not worry too much. God have mercy on us all.

-- making my (peace@with.God), August 18, 1999.

Go to www.honeyvillegrain.com For only "$300" you can buy a years supply for 4 and get over 1200 pounds of food! I bought this for my daughters family, so I know it can be done! They have all kinds of bulk foods at excellent prices! Potato flakes 40LBS $25. Cream of wheat 50LBS only $15. Etc. Etc. They have all kinds of cereals in bulk!!!!

-- freddie (freddie@thefreeloader.com), August 18, 1999.

a: In answer to your query, more can afford than less will get due to the severe limitations of JIT production.

I just returned from my local K-Mart, where I used my rain check to get some canned fish. After waiting five weeks during JIT rescheduling for above normal JIT shelf stock placement, less than one half of my order arrived.

Who knows when the rest will be received? The clerks didn't have a clue, and the cashier went brain-dead when attempting to calculate the rain check discount while fighting off the persistent computer cash register's error codes.

It's never good to witness cashiers experience mental blocks, because then they must be helped along; the lines grow longer; the customers grow more impatient.

When I told the cashier this would be good training for Y2K, she mumbled something and sighed.

I think JIT is gonna choke big time when the herd stampedes. Do you?

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 18, 1999.

making my peace with God,

No kidding. Not even gonna hedge your bets? COME ON!!!!!!!

Then I'll pray for you. That you develope a spine and a will to live.

Father

-- Thomas G. Hale (hale.tg@att.net), August 18, 1999.

In my experience, almost everyone can cut out some of their "non- essentials" and use the money saved to buy food. Lay off the videos, the coffee, the booze, the cigarettes, the latte's, the movies, the extra trips to town, the designer jeans. You get the idea. Live cheap/ live long.

Al

-- Al K. Lloyd (al@ready.now), August 18, 1999.

Cost of preparations for a family of four for 90 days should be about three months of your normal grocery bill...or even a lot less! Many dried foods are relatively inexpensive... 20# of white rice was running $5-7 for the moderate grades today. (we may see supply problems, so do get some soon.) At least here, dried milk is far less expensive than regular milk.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 18, 1999.

"...Not even gonna hedge your bets? ...Then I'll pray for you. That you develope a spine and a will to live."

I have as much will to live as the next person. That's what's scary. Not enough food to go around, neighbors getting really hungry, they know that you have lots of food... Connect the dots.

You can't be well-fed for very long if your neighbors are seriously hungry. Your only real hope of survival is that it won't be that bad. If Infomagic is right, a nice rigid spine & a strong will to live probably won't be enough to keep you alive.

And who are we to say that's not God's will for us? Many fine religious peole have died nasty deaths in this century.

-- making my (peace@with.God), August 19, 1999.

Re the 3 months food list in Cory's WRP, I was ROTFL. Sheeze I don't eat that extravagant now and haven't for many years. Beans, rice, wheat, oil, sugar, condiments for one person/year came up for me to run about $125 - substituting a cheaper oil instead of olive oil would have brought the whole bill to about $75.

Have been canning like crazy. My first cheese is in the press.

Live simply with few wants. Live close to the source. Laugh and smile regularly.

-- Mitchell Barnes (spanda@inreach.com), August 19, 1999.

Freddie- AS I am incredibly : a) lazy b) time crunched (TRY to read every thread, most of the posts and work a 50 hr schedule) c) the iconic spare: Just WHAT DID you order for the $300 for the 1200 pounds of food??? chuck, your poor, overworked guest deleter

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), August 19, 1999.

Gene happened to mention: "I looked at Cory's list, and I think you could get by a bit cheaper, but with more monotony."

Overall, this is probably true, although I just was reading a couple things about not having enough a variety. The spices mentioned will help in some cases. Now let me find the info on variety, from the Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, article by Vicki Tate entitled "7 Mistakes of Food Storage". Not sure of the copyright issues, so I'll try to limit quotes. Number 1 on her list was variety. That most people stock 4 basics (wheat, honey, salt & milk) and that statistically most won't survive on such a diet for a few reasons. One is allergies that you may not be aware you have to a food until eating it most of the time. Another is called appetite fatigue, about which she says "We get tired of eaing the same foods over and over again and many times prefer not to eath, then [sic] to sample that particular food again."

Hey-- I was just going to post the link here for Backwoods Home Magzine and while I was out there I found that some of their articles are on-line. So here's a link to the magazine in general:

http://www.backwoodshome.com/

And a link to the article about 7 mistakes of food storage:

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/tate55.html

Hope this helps...

-- winter wondering (winterwondering@yahoo.com), August 19, 1999.

I hae Vicki Tate's book, Cooking with Home Storage, and it's very good. But I talked with a Navy Seal who'd been all over the world in some very trying situtations, where people has monotonous diets, and he said he'd never seen a case of appetite fatigue there. My thought is that if you are hungry enough, you'll eat what you have.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), August 20, 1999.