Week 4

Short-term storage

This is the stuff in your pantry that you will use before it expires the way it comes packaged. You’re using it on a regular basis, and these are the foods that you’re purchasing over and over and over again from the grocery store. So you’re always wanting to keep a few extras of those in your pantry, in your fridge, in your freezer. That’s short-term storage.

Long-term storage

This is where you extend the shelf life by doing something to that food. So if it’s rice, you’re either putting it in a five gallon bucket with some oxygen absorbers, you’re putting it in a Mylar bag with some of the oxygen absorbers, you’re buying it from a company that’s already canned, like in a #10 can, that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about long-term storage.

Here’s the reason I am doing both at the same time:

This differs from other people. You will hear a lot of people say, you should just deal with your short-term storage first. And once you’re done with that, then move on to long-term.Here’s why that doesn’t work in reality: Because your short-term storage is never done because you’re constantly using it. So if you’re waiting to like, get to the finish line of short-term food storage, you’re never gonna start your long-term storage because the second you finish it, you use something from it, and now it’s not finished. And there’s always more that you could do or holes to fill … and so my theory is:

Get started on both, and then at the end of this year, you’re gonna have a good head start to both of them.

So that is the explanation for our purchase this week.

If you are totally familiar with my with my account, you’ve probably heard me talk about Thrive Life. I’m gonna do a supplemental video for those of you who don’t know much about it (if you already know about it, I don’t want you to have to go through all of that). So, this week’s purchase, I am going to recommend that you purchase through Thrive Life, but you by no means have to order these through Thrive. If you wanna try a different company, there’s some companies on Amazon, you could just do a quick Google search…

This week’s budget is $120. There’s a reason for that.

(1.) Freeze-dried food costs more than normal food. You are paying a price for the process of freeze drying … that’s just a reality, and it doesn’t matter where you get it from. You’re gonna pay more than you would pay for that same exact food fresh from the grocery store.

(2.) With Thrive Life, which is the company I have chosen to purchase the majority of my long-term food storage from, they give you free shipping over $100s. So on the months that I’m recommending a Thrive Life product, I am going to budget $100 or more that month for your long-term item. And that is the reason because I can’t stand paying shipping when I know that there’s a way I could not do it. Now, having said that, I wanna make it clear that you can get freeze-dried food from a variety of different companies, websites, sources, all of that.

I like Thrive. I have my reasons for Thrive. I’ll go into those in the supplemental video, but you by no means have to order these through Thrive. If you’re new to Thrive, if you’re new to ordering from them, watch the supplemental video on this page, and we will dive into that and I promise the videos are not gonna be this long. This was just kind of the intro to long-term, why we’re doing it, and there was just a lot to say today, so I apologize for that, but I think it’s gonna be worth it. 

 Alright, this week we are making our long-term food storage purchase for the month of January. I did save it for this week because I wanted to give you a few weeks to get into the program, before I hit you with this. Because it can feel overwhelming if you haven’t been doing long-term food storage at all. So hopefully by now you have listened to or watched the other videos that kind of explain why I choose Thrive, and how all their stuff works. So this video is just to tell you what is on sale this month. So this is the monthly specials and I am just looking right here on the specials sheet.

The deepest discounts are not what I would consider more of a priority for your food storage. Sweetened cranberries. I don’t think that that is a necessity, to be honest.

Eggs

I would highly recommend, if you’re just getting started or even if you’re not, the scrambled egg mix. The picture on the can looks like it has ham pieces in it. It does not. That’s just a picture. It’s just freeze dried eggs. That’s it. So if you do not have some eggs in your food storage, I cannot recommend these enough. They are awesome. They make great scrambled eggs. I use them in baking all of the time. It’s awesome because there’s no shells to worry about with cracking shells. There’s no salmonella risk through the eggs… it’s awesome. They are expensive. They really are. But depending on where you live in the country right now, they might not be too expensive compared to what you’re paying for fresh eggs. These are still definitely most likely more expensive than fresh eggs. But the price sure is closing in, with all of the stuff with the avian flu. So anyway, I would highly, highly recommend the eggs. One thing to keep in mind, most of the food from Thrive Life has a 25 year shelf life, unopened. The eggs only have a 7 year shelf life. So you are going to have to use them more frequently than the other food storage that you’re adding to your long-term food storage.

But 7 years is still a really great shelf life. They don’t require refrigeration, even after opening them. They’re very, very convenient. So, you will not have any problems using your freeze dried eggs when it does come time to rotate them. So, highly recommend the scrambled egg mix.

Sweet Corn

The sweet corn is one of my favorite things from Thrive.

I eat it right out of the can, by the fistful. It’s an awesome, healthy snack. One ingredient, corn. It’s delicious. I cook it too. I reconstitute it and cook it. Put it in a casserole or use it just as a vegetable with dinner or whatever. But I really love it just dry right out of the can.

Ground Beef

The other thing that I would recommend this month particularly, is the ground beef, if you want to add some protein. The eggs are also protein, though. So, honestly, if I was just starting out, I’d do eggs and maybe some corn. The ground beef is really awesome. I do love the ground beef. I have used it several times. I’ve made several different meals with it, it’s awesome. The one thing I would advise you to do with freeze dried meat is once you reconstitute it, brown it. Brown it in olive oil, vegetable oil, whatever you’re used to cooking with, and then put it in whatever you’re making. It really does make a difference if you brown it, just for flavor. It is fully cooked, so you could just eat it right out of the can.

Summary

So anyway, those are my top three recommendations. And since this is our first month, I’m going to keep it just to those three so that you’re not even overwhelmed with all of the options that are on sale this month.

If you want to know any of my thoughts on any of the other items, I’m going to link my blog post here, but I wanted to keep this short because your other videos were so long this week, and this is a lot.

So number one recommendation egg mix. Number two, corn. Number three, ground beef.

Make your choice, establish your account if you haven’t had one previously, and get on the monthly delivery.

We will be ordering something most months. Some of our long term purchases will not be from Thrive Life. And by the way, you can purchase from anyone. I just prefer Thrive Life and I follow their sales in this program, but you could get this stuff from a different company if you prefer.

And that’s it! So let me know if you have any questions, and have a fabulous week!