Prudent Prepping: 6 Month Gear Check

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping.

My calendar alert went off, which means that now is the time to start looking at dates on my stored food and swapping out those things close to their sell by dates. After my food, I check everything that's kept in my GHB, my Buckets of Holding and my pantry shelves.

I do have a system that lets me see everything, but it does take a bit of time to go through all of it. I also have to set alarms before the regular 6 month check if I find items that will go past their dates, since all food I don't eat myself goes to the local Food Bank.

If my finances ever improve, some of my emergency food will rotate out and their freeze dried replacements will be at the top of my list. So far, I'm finished with the buckets, and the only things close to going out within two months are hot chocolate and canned chicken breast.

Canned Chicken Breast

http://tinyurl.com/y7c2menf

The chicken I buy is Member's Mark Premium Chunk Chicken Breast from Sam's Club. 

From their web site:

• ​Fully cooked chicken breast in water
• Minimally processed
• Contains only three ingredients, nothing artificial
• 98% fat free

These are 12.5 oz cans packaged in a six pack, and I try to not buy more than one pack at a time to reduce the hit to my food budget. I really like the can size for because it gives me the option of eating the whole thing as a meal, or sharing it, or mixing it into other things.

Hot Chocolate

http://amzn.to/2tHAnqG

The other item that I originally purchased from Sam's Club is Land O'Lakes Cocoa Classics Variety Pack, unfortunately no longer stocked there. If I want to have an assortment of flavors, it appears I will have to order the same multi-pack from Amazon, and I really like the assorted flavors and pack count in the boxes.

From the Product Description:

• 5 Delicious Flavors : Chocolate Supreme, French Vanilla, Arctic White, Mint and Caramel
• Just add hot water!
• Good Source of Calcium
• Made The Old Fashioned Way, Like Mom Used To Do. We Put The Nonfat Dry Milk In So All You Do Is Add Hot Water
• Total: 42 Servings, 5 Different Varieties, 6 Envelopes of Each Arctic White, French Vanilla and Caramel. 12 Envelopes of Chocolate Supreme and Mint

Since Mint is not a favorite flavor of chocolate, I leave it in the buckets and put another flavor in my GHB and on my pantry shelf.


There is some pasta, sauce, and a few other things being rotated out by the fall, so I've set alerts for this time every month up through November.
The Takeaway

• Rotate food to keep things fresh.
• Donate quantities that can't fit on my pantry shelves.
• Keeping interesting flavors stocked for an emergency can reduce stress.

The Recap

• One 6 pack of Canned Chicken Breast:  $9.98 from Sam's Club.
• One 42 ct pack of Land o' Lakes Hot Chocolate: $20.01 with Prime from Amazon.

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If you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please post them so we all can learn. And remember, Some Is Always Better Than None!

NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.