...one mattress, two dogs, and $1500 in canned calories.
Now that I've got a HOME again, I recently spent $1500 building a solid bed.
The mattress was free. My lady supplied the sheets. And I dropped $1500 on the frame, which we made from two "one year food kits" recently purchased online from SamsClub.com. Shipping, amazingly, was only about 90 dollars.
Go ahead and declare me "nutty as a squirrel fart"... but please keep reading.
Today FedEx delivered 26 packages, each containing 6 large cans of assorted FREEZE DRIED foods. The friendly delivery man didn't think I was crazy. In fact, he said he drops off a food supply somewhere almost every day.
All 156 cans of food have a 20-30 year shelf life. Each of the kits is designed to supply one adult with all the nutrients they need to live healthily for one year. Just add CLEAN water.
I did my homework and think I found the best package at BY FAR the best price. If you're planning for an unpredictable future on a tight budget, this article should serve you well. Especially if you can stomach patronizing MALL*WART and supporting the Mormon-Run "Auguson Farms" brand which makes this kit.
Personally, I've got no problem with Mormons. Like me, they're nutty in their own way. To each his own. One thing's for sure: collectively, the Mormons have a heck of a lot squirreled away in expectation of rainier days.
The kits' ingredients are generally healthy and there are NO ARTIFICIAL PRESERVATIVES. For example, a can of freeze-dried raspberries has only one ingredient: RASPBERRIES. Assuming the berries were well washed, that's pretty good shit.
Here's the official product description. Please scan through it and note what's included.
Augason Farms™ Food Storage One Year Kit includes all the food nutrition for one person for a full year. The kit includes a wheat grinder and a total of 78 #10 (institutional size) cans, which are:
3 Long Grain White Rice (47 servings per can)
9 Hard White Wheat (54 servings per can)
3 Spaghetti (25 servings per can)
6 Dehydrated Potato Dices (22 servings per can)
3 Freeze Dried Sweet Corn (15 servings per can)
3 Freeze Dried Sweet Peas (13 servings per can)
3 Dehydrated Chopped Onions (653 servings per can)
1 Dehydrated Green Beans (24 servings per can)
1 Freeze Dried Broccoli Florets & Stems (20 servings per can)
3 Freeze Dried Apple Dices (11 servings per can)
3 Freeze Dried Whole Strawberries (22 servings per can)
1 Freeze Dried Whole Raspberries (20 servings per can)
3 Honey Coated Banana Slices (21 servings per can)
3 100% Country Fresh Instant Milk (39 servings per can)
3 Chocolate Morning Moo’s® Low Fat Milk Alternative (61 servings per can)
3 Cheese Blend Powder (45 servings per can)
6 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Bacon (flavored) (188 servings per can)
3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Beef (flavored) (40 servings per can)
3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Chicken (flavored) (45 servings per can)
3 Vegetarian Meat Substitute Taco (flavored) (33 servings per can)
3 Pinto Beans (47 servings per can)
3 Lentils (49 servings per can)
3 Dried Whole Eggs (56 servings per can)
I hope the CHEESE BLEND POWDER is bearable. Regardless of quality, at least it's my own. History shows ya can't stand your ground when fueled by...
It may not make sense to you, but to me investing much of my "wealth" in long-shelf-life food makes perfect sense. This under-appreciated video sums up the situation quite nicely and with minimal doom and gloom. You might even catch yourself laughing.
The numbers back this guy up. Even before all the bullshit hit the fan - when economic life was fine and dandy - food prices were growing like crazy.
Overall Food Prices (US$) Up 75 Percent Since 2000.. graph ends in 2007.
Source: World Bank, DECPG
The following chart gives a pretty good idea of where food prices have gone from 2007 until recently. It shows what $100 invested in March of 2007 was worth come February 2010. Over a span where the S&P 500 lost 1/5th (20%) of it's value, agri-food stocks grew by a whopping 4/5ths or 80%!
Regading the immediate past, CORN prices have increased by ~30% in the last three months. Over that same time span the Dow, S&P 500, and NASDAQ indexes have all risen by less than 5%. Remember that due to it's use in ethanol production, corn is the foundation of the US agricultural sector and that when it's price rises, all other food prices rise as well.
Food Production is becoming more costly, and global demand is increasing as developing countries strive to embrace a more "American" diet.
Nothing edible is going to get any cheaper in the foreseeable future, and I know many of us are already dealing with painful grocery bills.
Whether we suffer an abrupt and total societal collapse or not, my tangible investment in food will certainly grow in value over the coming years. With a 20 to 30 year shelf-life, I rest assured that within a few years it'll be worth at least twice what I paid for it. Best case scenario, five to ten years down the road, it'll be worth a lot more than that.
Worst case scenario, international commerce crumbles and this $1500 investment becomes PRICELESS.
If the REAL SHIT hits the fan, a friend and I have at least 365 days in the bank and one HELL of a TO DO list. Unless some jackass succeeds in taking it away from me, this $1500 investment will give me the opportunity to embrace that reality and interact with it's makers. I will be empowered to serve hot meals, hot beef, and hot lead. Circumstances are sure to vary.
Anyway, back to logistics. With two of us working together, carrying all this shit into the house and building a queen-size bed took about 10 minutes. None of the boxes were too heavy for one person to easily carry.
We left a hole in the middle of the boxes because we didn't have enough for two complete levels. Two old closet doors fit perfectly atop the "frame" of boxes. An old sheet skirting the base would make it look like any other bed.
Not too shabby,eh?
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An Old Door Minimizes Baseboard Heater Issues. |
There's a baseboard heater next to the bed, so we took another old door and partitioned it off from the boxes. This is to assure the food remains at optimal storage temperatures (55-75 degrees F) and doesn't suffer abrupt temperature swings which can also speed deterioration.
The mattress provides good insulation on top, assuring that - even on the hottest and coldest days - our food store remains at a relatively stable temp.
I'm stoked because the mattress sags less in the center than it did when perched atop a box spring. Also, it's a lot less squeaky than the flimsy bullshit bed frame we used to have. As Borat would say, "NICE!"
That's it for today. Life is too short to waste it entirely in front of a goddamn computer. Might as well go test the bed again...
PEACE.
Song of the Day:
Bob Marley, My Cup