Ah well.

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I can't sleep tonight either. I have an appointment with my priest. The appointment is early, the time is late, and if I slept I would not rise. So...

While awake, I decided to look at what I have, in the way of food, and what I need. I must admit that I have been... procrastinating, yes that would be it... procrastinating about buying food due to a number of factors. For grain, I have been holding back since I don't have a grinding mill, for example. For other items, it is because I don't have a good enough idea about how to store them, exactly. Oh, sure, I have been told, shown online, and researched, but it simply isn't the same thing. And for all of it, I have some worry about quality, price, and... everything! Much like a cat near water, new things, sometimes, often, perhaps too often, have me creeping around them, curiously toying with the notion, but getting nowhere near just diving in. *tap, tap, tap* *runs away (fast)*

I have, academically, in theory beyond that, decided that I need to just go ahead and buy the foods and worry about the rest of it afterward, to a degree. To a degree, I have to be a little less cautious with my money too. I end up spending it anyway. Bleh! I need to plug my emotional/intellectually questioning/pesimistic nose and take the medicine of buying the foods. There is a chance I will figure things out along the way, or shortly after purchase. If all else fails at least I will have some foods for some period of time. To that end I found one of the food calculators tonight and began playing with things. My goal, of course, is to have enough food for one adult for one year. However, I may have guests. Family is not the only potential, though there is that. In a true EOTWAWKI scenario, I am guessing some people will be absorbed here locally, even if most are rejected and sent on their way or outright fought off. I have room, and more hands (and boobs) would not be a bad thing. Just... sayin'. Having enough for myself, another adult, and a child would be a good thing. It would also extend my "year supply" even if no others arrived, or add barter goods to my list.

To that end, I am sort of picking an area, in this case sugars, to start. Why sugars and not wheat or beans or meats or whatnot? Because with sugar, or sweeteners actually, I can fill a one man one year supply this month. The list includes regular sugar, a bit of confectioners and brown sugar, molasses, honey, and maybe maple syrup (the real stuff, for my larder anyway). One of the recommendations is powdered drinks, which actually would be the most expensive part of that, for a year's supply, at least what I am considering. Most of that, barring the drink mixes, can be bought at any grocery store. I will need to read labels as one must make sure corn syrup is not mixed with the molasses or maple syrup because it shortens the shelf life considerably. I am guessing I could get a year's supply of all save the powdered drink mix for, say $50 to $70, even with pure maple as not all that much is recommended of maple syrup.

Now, as to powdered drink mixes? I had, quite honestly, never considered this before. It was on the lists I have seen, I am quite sure, but it wasn't something that showed up on my radar and so had never been considered. A bit of searching did come up with a drink mix. I didn't want simple Cool-Aid or such, it is empty calories. The problem is that the stuff I prefer is not recommended for children, pregnant women, women who are nursing, women during pms, or mean women. Okay, well, maybe I stretched the list. Oh, fine, I made some of that stuff up. But it's alllll twue! However, since it is just me and any women (I know of) who might show up are far past pregnancy, thus nursing (or pms, mostly), even if they are both mean, I will probably go with Emergen C.

I found one that is good for the heart. Now, a year's supply of mixed varieties, at one a day, would be about $100. Then again, I don't plan on drinking it every day in a grid-down. It would merely allow for a bit of flavor once in a while. But I do plan on buying enough for a packet a day. I had thought about replacing soda and my daily vitamin (if after closer review it seemed feasible) with this stuff. For the heart healthy stuff, actually, come to think of it and off hand, given their recommended amounts, it would be way too expensive to replace my daily vitamin and soda. Yep, a calculator check says the cost would be almost $800 for a year's supply at four packs a day. Not... going... to... happen. Though I will be including some of it in my order, and could always order a few extras to stock away. Hmm, as it replaces my soda, which can be $5 a twelve pack, I might be able to afford adding plenty of extra, over time, without killing my budget. Well, not really. But, not drinking soda will cut into the costs of the mix. Anyway.

So, my goal this month, I think, is to get my sugars in order. Next month, legumes/beans (which I will vastly overdo, as I am a bean eating machine) and "cooking essentials" (baking, leavening, and such items). Then dry milk the month after that. Then I will hit the big one, grains. Well, meats will be the most expensive, if a couple of cases of tuna, corned beef, and a few other such products will at least start the meat collection until or unless I can figure out home canning meats as they come on sale. I might, if I have enough to buy some kit while my mom is here, ask her to show me how it is done. Just a small sample size of some cut of beef she has canned before. She used to put up enough beef for about a year of her cooking, when we were kids, when we lived anywhere long enough to store stuff. I can't remember if she canned any meat other than beef, though I suspect so. Canned pork would do just fine with some Mexican dishes. Though I don't think she ever canned fowl (though D.C. did, and blogged it well). The reason I am trying to hit these food groups in this way is that I NEED to see success, movement, storage. Not so much because I believe the collapse is absolutely imminent, though there is that to a degree, we are on extremely globally shaky economic legs. More because success breeds success, and I need some breeding. Or... something like that.

Hmm, since I have to be up, and I am rather hungry, I may go into town and have a tidy little breakfast somewhere, go in and pay my auto tax and make sure the escrow is paying my property tax, and then, if there is time before my appointment, go in and buy some or all of the sweeteners to be stored. Hmm, no. I'll wait until after my appointment in order that I can do my regular shopping too. I am dithering about whether to order the mixes now, or wait until I get a better idea of my finances this month? No, I best order. I'll... figure it out if I begin running a bit shy. Actually, I am probably going to wait until the 3rd, and use the account that gets paid then. Yes, yes. It is a plan.

By the way, while visiting a blog, I was sort of given fresh ideas, thus this post. One of the other things included getting going on a trailer for a bike. So, while I happened to be at Amazon, I decided to see if anything new had come on their market. Sure enough, I think I found what I want. While it seems to have issues, mostly instructions being poor and the coverlet for the thing not fitting well enough to be water-proof/resistant, I figure I can handle that, and fix it if needed.

On to breakfast. Have a great day!