Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I finally started on some food preps this weekend. I'm trying to keep it simple at first and stick to vacuum packing dry goods in mason jars. Today I purchased two cases of quart mason jars and 30 lbs of grits, which I already eat many days for breakfast.

Well the wife is quite angry with me for wanting to do this. She thinks it's a waste of money and just me being paranoid and obsessive. But her big complaint is that we don't have anywhere to store food. Forget the fact that we have a pantry which is currently storing junk that hasn't been used in a couple of years and which could easily be relegated to the outside shed. No, I'm not allowed to store anything in there until such time as we remodel it, which I could do in a day by cleaning it out and taking out the shelves which were in it when we moved in.

But I am mainly dealing with increasing hostility the more I try to do anything with regards to preps. I'll stick with it but it's costing me peace at home.

:rant:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Just wait until you need the preps and remind her of what she said after you tell her she can't have any.:shocked_ma:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

hang in there man. I got told last week I must be having a mid life crisis, from someone who is totally exposed to both the UK property market and US equities and will be wiped out IMO. Anyway, I dont have to live with any one which makes it easy.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I live by, it is better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. You may just have to store your preps out of sight, you know out of sight out of mind...

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Suggest they read FarFal's description of what happened when Argentina
crashed. Might open their eyes.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

reminds me of the story as a kid... of the ant who prepares for the coming winter...only to be ridiculed by his peers. Winter comes and peers are sh1t out of luck, said ant survives frost...

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Get a divorce. It'll be cheaper in the long run.

Good luck.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Your wife is wrong about you wasting money. If you purchase things you use and in bulk you will save alot of money not to mention trips to the grocery store. I have always saved money when shopping at grocery stores however I was still spending about 120 a week at ralphs, vons, etc. I now spend about 320 at costco per month and have surplus groceries at the end of each and every month.

I did run into the space issue with my wife as well. We also had additional pantry space that was storing old useless junk... boxes from products and old magazines and such. I boxed up the rarely seen things that were worth keeping and stored in the garage. The rest went in garbage and I neatly stored the food. My wire now loves the additional pantry space as well as the additional selection of goods. It is rare we do not have all the ingridents to most things we enjoy cooking.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Why not just spend the day cleaning out the pantry & relocating the junk? That will solve the problem and also demonstrate to her that you're serious ("OMG! William actually cleaned out the pantry? Maybe this is for real?!")

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Mine was getting nervous about my metals aquisition binge towards end of 2007...
So I bought HER some metals. she likes them now.
Food stack was getting big enough to seem a little on the 'CRAZY' side early this year, started buying foods that SHE likes. In quantity.. tell her that is insurance, were I to drop dead, she will have plenty of _______ fill in the blank.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I am in the same boat, William. My wife will never awaken until she sees empty grocery store shelves with her own eyes and of course, believes this will never happen. When we married, we both were sheeple. I woke up, she can't or won't, I'm not sure which. I've tried talking with her many times, but it's not long before the eyes glaze over and she thinks I'm spouting paranoid fantasies. It doesn't matter with her, PM, food/material preps, or God forbid, weapons!

I don't let her stop me, I just don't bother telling her anything about it.

I wish this was true, but I'd get nuked in divorce court.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

i've been storing mountain house freeze dried foods in the basement.

i've been doing this secretly since my wife wouldnt approve.

if we need the food i'll be a hero...if we dont need it then thats ok too.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Thanks for the positive feedback. I love my wife and family and am honestly worried about the long-term. Storing food seems to be a no-brainer for me, but to her I'm the one with out brain :)

I'll get the pantry cleaned out next weekend, and I'll keep buying what I can despite her protestations. We don't keep separate checking accounts or anything so I can't hide my purchases even if I thought it was wise. As Goddess said, it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, and that's what I'll keep doing.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

http://www.ndvh.org/help/index.html

Being a real Husband today can get you a prison term. Instead, quietly establish a modest fully-stocked Retreat out of state and wtshtf leave the contentious wife behind. LOL.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

William,

A lot of people harbor an inner fear about the future, and if someone close to them forces them to actually THINK about the possibilities that life might not be the same as now down the road, they begin to REALLY resent it. Your wife could be afflicted with this.

Some people honestly have NO clue, and don't want to get one. I really don't understand that type of thinking, because when you question them, they all have house insurance, car insurance, life insurance, health insurance and so on.........but the concept of food insurance is just totally alien to them.

My suggestion is simply point out to her you COULD have some far more expensive hobbies like golf, and such, and at least this one keeps you home :D

A woman my wife used to work with complained about her husband stocking up on things like toilet paper, until one day the husband asked "Well, dear, in our married life, have you EVER run out of toilet paper....and would you like to ? ".....she got the point.

My suggestion is just keep driving on.....try to bring her along and get he involved as much as possible, and take EVERY opportunity to point out the advantage of having stuff if a storm hits your area, or you simply run out of some while doing a meal and you can go to your own "store" and get it......but keep on driving on. Your family's life is worth more than a bit of ridicule and harassment from a clueless spouse.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Damn. I'm lucky. My old lady loves the idea of storing food away.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Grits? You ARE crazy!

But seriously, a few posters have mentioned the key way to go about this, particularly in your situation: Buy stuff that you already use. If you don't normally use 30 pounds of grits in a year, then don't buy 30 pounds of grits.

Make a list of all the things that you and your wife typically buy. See which ones have expiration dates that go out 6-24 months, and then always keep on hand an amount that will serve you at your normal consumption rate through the expiration period.

Let's take tuna as an example. When you buy it, its expiration date is typically 2 years out (at least). Now let's say your family typically eats 1 can of tuna per month. That means you can always have 24 cans on hand. Once you have it stocked, you simply buy it at the same rate you eat it. Just make sure to rotate your stock.

Do this with 10 or 20 different food items. This won't seem nearly as "crazy" to a dubious spouse as 100 pounds of rice, or 20 gallons of vegetable oil. If you simply have a year's worth of many items that you routinely eat, you will sleep much better at night.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I for one

understand where you are comming from

& agree

BTDT

wont get involved unless she understands prepping :no_ma:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

My old lady gives me crap every time we put up super pails (mylar lined buckets) it's as if she can't be bothered, she'd rather I buy pre packaged. We've had some big fights........ if she don't like it tuff shite. Don't get me wrong my wife is very thrifty but we have a big difference in opinion when it comes to food preps. You know what bugs me, is in the end we'll both be half right, that's the way things always seem to be.....and that's not a bad thing.

She really gets pissed when we put up rice.....she hates it, I tell her she'll be happy to have it if the store shelves go empty, she says she'll just go to Mcdonalds if it gets that bad..... after all they never close the doors and they always have cheap food. We love each other but we're both hard headed ;)

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Sparky, I eat grits most every day for breakfast, and I'm vacuum packing the 30 lbs in mason jars so it should last a long time. Farina and oatmeal are next on the list.

Tn...Andy, you are an inspiration to me, thanks.

Lost_In_Soma, I'll try that approach.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

A one liner that sometimes works....

Things will not be cheaper tomorrow, so buy today!

Took my wife a while to come around. It was denial about the situation. Now she is always checking the expire dates, and uses a monthly replacement list. All is good. We are all set for at least 2 years.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Prepping saves money even if there is no disaster, because you are buying in bulk. Just remind her of this and be sure to clean the area out before you start stocking so there is room to store the stuff.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

That's the way to do it for those who are not in a position to go "full bore survival" due to family tension. Expiration dates, replacement lists, and stock rotation.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Great one liner!!

Your have done a better job than me!! The wife, ("always checking the expire dates" "uses a monthly replacement list") not happening as good as it should in this house.

Go for four years.

It's cold here in the winters and I'm getting older and don't like it as much.

I want to go to the winter home where it is warm most the time.

So I'm stuck and don't at this time know what to store and where to store it.

I have been giving all this a lot of thought.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I will remeber that one.


T

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Ok thats some serious prep storage, I dont care how big your family is.

William, you can maybe point out to the wife that inflation is driving food prices up pretty fast. Surely she has seen that in the last 6-9 months? All you are really doing is saving money and if food is up 20% by the time you use everything then you haved saved 20%. Just being thrifty is all.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Here is how I handle women.

1. She stays at her place
2. I stay at my place.
3. We go to each others house to have fun
4. At the end of our fun we return to our homes.
5. She pays her bills and I pay mine.
6. We leave all financial matters out of it.

If she starts demanding anything like moving in, having kids, getting married or any other such things then I just tell her that she is not the right girl for me and I stop talking to her. Then I go to the bar or any other hook up locations and find the next girl.

Simple and straight forward. I get to maintain my freedoms and control over my resources as does she. Of course the vast majority of women try to leech off men so I often have to change 'em quite often.

But none the less I get all the freedoms a man could dream of:
1. I can buy whatever I want
2. I can prep as much as I want. If I want to build a bomb shelter and stockpile 2 years worth of food, I can. If I want to spend 50%+ of my check on PMs, I can.
3. I can have sex with whoever I want. American men are IN DEMAND so no American guy should ever have to tolerate a female. Well that is if you have your act together - no debt, house, car, decent job etc.
4. I can have my house the way I want.

If you are married or attached to someone (ie. committed relationship) then you aren't free, plain and simple.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

IMO it has nothing to do with the preps, money or storage space.
You are challenging her programming; it is getting harder to maintain the illusion that everything is AOK. The mind of the willfully ignorant will go to almost any extent to preserve the denial, I have seen it so many times....
I have found the best tact is to realize their state of mind and practice complete understanding and compassion, but do not yield one inch. You are right, awake and not in denial, and she will be glad to eat your grits someday.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

It's worse than that; we have three kids ages 9, 4, and 2. :shocked_ma:

We're just in the modern life trap where both of us work full time, there's always things to do with the kids, and there's never enough time to plan for the future. We're better than many since we only have a mortgage left for debt, and neither of us is really driven by consumerism. But it's frustrating to me how much junk we've accumulated that we don't use and that I would just as soon put to the curb yet finding room to store food is a big problem.

Thanks again for the encouragement.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

The only thing I can recommend is to show her the presentation on US Debt by Chris Martenson (see my signature). He deals with the facts and that may help open her eyes if she is willing to see it.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

If you have close friends that think in the same vein of though that you think in, try exposing her to some conversation/information from other sources.

My wife thought I was being a complete retard until she found out that we have other friends that are also stocking up on preps and WTSHTF supplies/tools.
It helped especially that my good friends' wife was backing me up when I stated how important it is to have a food stock.
I find she will listen to other people before she will listen to me.
:D
Typical.

If you can get her to maintain an open mind and share some research with her, she will inevitably become more supportive.
There is no harm in having an emergency food supply. In fact, your own government suggests it. (Althought the government has also made it illegal to "hoard" food during a state or "national emergency" or "martial law")

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

You live alone, you die alone. What happens when your thing wrinkles up and no woman wants you any more? You sit in your house alone, paying some 20 year old to pay attention to you. When you die the only one who shows up at your funeral is your accountant and your lawyer. Yup sounds like your living the good life.:smokin::sarcasm:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I had a lot of trouble with my husband when i started this.

First I started selling my mutual finds to buy gold and silver. That made him weak in the knees .Then I brought metals home and started burying them. He told me i was acting odd. :bear_tongue:


Then I bought as shotgun and when he came home and found his wife and daughter and a strange man discharging weapons of mass destruction in his back yard he went mildly ballistic.

By the time I started carting home 50 pound bags of rice, flour and sugar he was positive I was having mental issues and didnt say much because after all I now had a weapon of mass destruction. :D

Here is my take on it.. My view comes from the perspective of someone who has been married a looooong time.

We each have our own idiosyncrosies and peculiarities in life. Im sure your wife has hers. [make a list]. We have to indulge and respect each others behaviors to some degree. We have to compromise and in good marriages they are worked through and not dismissed. Your wife needs to make allowances that you have this need. You need to make allowances for her odd needs.

If the worst problem your wife has from you is you need to stock up on 6 months of groceries she needs to count herself lucky. Inflation alone says that is a good idea.
If you can't appeal to her logic go back to my argument on good marriages and compromise. If that fails tell her to "get over it". :smokin:

Things that helped at least around here was to involve my husband as little as possible. I cleaned out closets and stored food when he was not around [out of site out of mind] I NEVER discuss the economy crashing, the end of the world or Armageddon with him. I do that on GIM..LOL
I keep my metals hidden, he knows where they are but I resist the urge to bring out my stash and point out to him how shiny and pretty my metals are. If he ever saw it all at one time he would have an anxiety attack and there would be a big fight. Once again, out of site out of mind..

Hope some of this helps..

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Slap her in the face

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I got some crazy looks and dismissive comments from my wife. I basically said we live primarily off my income. We are in a tough economy and are seeing rises in unemployment and those out of work are having a harder time getting back to it. I am responsible for providing food, clothing and shelter for you and our daughter. My setting up a few months supplies on a rotation basis, we build a buffer in case something happens like loosing my job or getting injured.

She looked at me and said "Oh, I thought you were expecting the world to end. This actually is a good idea."

Simple points make life easier: Me fired, you and baby still eat long time.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Ok, grovel and ask her if it would be ok with her if you stocked up on things SHE eats and likes that have long expiration dates, i.e., canned spagetti sauce, pasta, meat in the freezer, canned tuna, peanut butter, butter frozen, i.e., things you know you'll eat on a regular basis and do, just stocking up on the items that have long expiration dates, that's how we do it, because we then end up eating everything anyway and not too much goes to waste (except we went overboard last year on the canned fruit).

Show her the savings, and the convenience to her. If you both go together to stock up and she picks some things she wants, and it'll save her trips to the store in the winter time, and you'll stop by the grocery on your way home from work for the perhishables on a weekly basis, maybe, if she can see some benefit to herself in it, she'll give in, maybe even where you can stockpile maybe 3 months worth at least.

Don't forget the dollar store and cleaning supplies :) P.S. Including her in the decision-making will go a long way, maybe bite your tongue and at least plant the seed and move slowly, (then more quickly once you've warmed her up to the idea and she can see the benefit to having a mini-mart in the pantry).

May work, may not, some women can be very stubborn.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

feel for you man. four months ago i decided to get into a cheaper house and had to move my family in with friends to do it. we lived in a den until a month ago when we got a much more affordable house. the time spent living with friends was used to pay off all of our debt, including cars. now i have next to no financial worries, except buying pm's and stocking up on necessities.

it was a rough decison to say the least, but well worth the sacrifice. keep the faith and also keep in mind that most everything we see around us is telling your wife that what you are doing is stupid. according to them, you should be keeping up with the joneses, not planning for economic collapse.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Really to the point there! My wife has lived all of her life on information from the MSM, her friends and stupid relatives. This is both our 2nd marriage and as time goes by, I grow further and further from the mainstream, while yet she clings to it, even though I think she knows deep-down that things are FUBAR.

This thread is a big help to me. Somehow, I thought that most GIMmers had spouses that were 100% on board with them and hearing Avalon's POV is most interesting.

Thanks everyone!

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

By your account he should just tell her to........EAT MY GRITS !! :applause_

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Keep buying GRAINs and other long term storage foods.
When it becomes obvious that solar cycle 24 is a bust, and the ice sheets advance over the grain fields of Canada and Russia you wont be able to buy bulk foods at any price. the ration books will not be printed with increments larger than one days caloric intake.
Tell the dear wife, who is only concerned with your sanity that you would like a fighting chance that at least one of your offspring survive the iminent culling of the herd.
Ask her for her best estimate of the world human population in the year 2020.
Then ask her if she wants any of her 3 kids to be among them.
Personally, given the choice between crazy and starving...... I will take crazy.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

"Personally, given the choice between crazy and starving...... I will take crazy."


Amen to that, brother.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

You are so correct. Many times when I've tried to get her to read something or if I question why she believes what she does she accuses me of trying to brainwash her. Like the majority of people she doesn't want to consider that she's been deceived by her society for essentially her entire life. Whereas while I'm by no means as aware and proactive as I should be I've known for most of my adult life that many things really aren't the way they appear.

I think I need to stop trying to convince her, shut up about how I see the world, and just get about the business of doing what I can to help us prepare.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Wise choice of action! I stopped trying to convince my wife several years ago. +1 on the accusations of brainwashing. It probably didn't help my cause by replying in the heat of argument "You can't wash something that doesn't exist". Poor strategy there. :banghead:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

My spouse is always furious, so just be thankful it's only about the preps.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Try to remember that she (and most others) are in a state of altered consciousness. Through no fault of her own, she has fallen victim to the grand illusion, and who can blame her?

I know The Matrix may be used a little too frequently in this respect, but two images come to mind from the movie:
Neo, after taking the red pill, seeing the earth in flames and humans reduced to batteries.
And Cypher, eating a steak with the agents, pleading to be 'plugged back in', 'I know this steak is not real, but who cares, it sure tastes real'

Truth may not be pretty, and may be downright ugly.
But truth stands alone; once realized, truth needs no confirmation, your personal truth endures even if you are the only one on the planet that sees it, so does her truth.

Again, compassion and understanding should be the MO for us all. Judgment only serves to alienate others. At the same time we have to have courage of conviction to navigate our way through this troubling time.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I think women have been taught by pop-culture and television to question and disrespect the male figure in the household.

Look at every sitcom on TV. The guy is ALWAYS depicted as some dipshit moron...

Just a thought

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

when did that start? I don't watch much TV but when I sat down and watched one night I was stunned that every husband and Dad is portrayed as an idiot married to much smarter, younger and more attractive wife.

I hate to say this and don't want to ignite any arguments but when it comes to a wise well organized and thought out food plan some of you guys need to assert yourself as head of household and just do it.

If you have approached your wives with a logical argument, have been organized and not presented yourself like a manic nutcase and they are not responding then try a new strategy. First try the argument about compromise and equal rights and tolerance in a marriage.. If that fails just tell your wife it is your responsibility to look after your family and that's the way it is.. She may scream , kick and fuss but deep down many women will respect that.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Television is one battle I managed to win about 8 years ago. We have a nice 37 inch LCD but only DVD's and videos for the kids get shown on it. No cable, satillite, or even broadcast TV comes into the house and my kids aren't exposed to it. Now whenever I do see any sort of "normal" television it almost makes me sick because it all the people on it look so plastic and fake.

Of course the DVD's and videos aren't that good for the kids either but at least they don't have the rampant commercialism trying to sell them junk while they are watching..

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I too am in this boat. However I have made some headway...

1. I have a PO Box where I get any PMs sent too that I don't buy locally.
2. I gave her the argument that prepping just prepares our family in the event of a bad storm, hard winter or other disaster to make sure the our son is safe and taken care of.
3. Trying to convince her to prepare for economic collapse usually just overwhelms her, so I don't do it as much as I used to.

The problem is my generation has grown up in an era when the economy was so strong we can just consume consume consume with no need to worry if the products you were consuming might disappear. Some people realize this but to most it's just so different than what they are used to that they don't want to accept it.

In my situation I've accepted that I have to keep some of my prepping from her or she'll bitch about how that money could be better spent on things like..purses and shoes :no_ma:

We aren't married(and she is bothered by this) so I keep telling her there are certain skills I want in a wife. Things like sewing or knitting that she can't do. Learning to garden with me ETC. This may be a little brutal but it's my way of trying to force her to learn some good post-SHTF skills.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

My wife is quite the skeptic about my survivalist mindset, especially when it comes to firearms. However, when it comes to stocking the pantry, she is 100% with me. It's like money in the bank, doesn't draw much interest, but it covers the hard times. Ours is stocked by mostly garden produce. This year we also added chickens to the "retreat"/ homestead, but we over did it a little and if we can't find an outlet for some of the eggs, we'll be eating chicken.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

WilliamC,

I'm in a relationship that will probably become more formal next year. Luckily I bulked up the pantry earlier this year. She noticed that I store a lot of food, but doesn't question or care about it now. I also decided to step up my firearm related purchases as a goal this year. She has seen me buy several guns, accessories etc., which I agree has consumed a huge amount of spare cash this year. I have told her that I will be done with buying guns and accessories by year end, and she is cool with that.

I guess it is all timing for me. Seems like I was able to get my preps done while in a less formal relationships, and just in time.

I think you should set expectations with your wife. Let her know why you are doing what you are doing, but set some boundries, so she knows the limits of your activities. Something like the max you will spend per month, and/or the amount of food other supplies you have set as goals.

I just made my last gun related purchase for the year of 2k rounds of .223. She knows that I will still buy ammo for range trips, but my bulk purchases are done.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

...Or she can just pick up the phone to report Domestic Violence and watch her "assertive" husband lose his Right to bear arms forever. After six months of court-ordered Anger Management classes he won't be so assertive anymore.

Women have out-smarted themselves with this Feminist Equality and are now stuck with p-whipped "partners" who meekly seek domestic advice in internet forums.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Last night I finished vacuuming packing the other 15 lbs of my grits. FWIW one 5 pound bag of grits fits nicely into 4 1-quart mason jars.

This time my wife didn't give me any grief at all, and I asked her what I could get that would be something the rest of the family would potentially eat (note that I have asked this before). She was much more accepting of the idea and does agree that food prices are only to go up in the future. I let it go at that for now. Progress has been made :D

I must have caught her at a bad time last weekend or come off as too shrill in trying to explain myself. This weekend I'll go ahead and clean out the pantry and buy the last couple of cases of wide-mouth quart mason jars that are locally available and pack away some oatmeal and farina.

But in the near future I'll be buying cases of 1/2 gallon jars and then get some rice and flour and cerals and grains and nuts and dried fruits and pasta and beans...

Well, one thing at a time :wink:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Be aware that flour and pasta do not keep well.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

PrincePasta.com says on their web site that egg pasta products, like egg noodles, will keep peak freshness for 2 years. Non-egg pasta products, like macaroni and spaghetti, are good for 3 years. Note, that this is in the original factory packaging (card board boxes.) Sealed with oxygen absorbers in glass jars they should keep much longer (especially the non-egg products.)

Ideally, one should store whole wheat berries and grind flour as needed with a mill. Whole wheat berries, properly stored, last nearly forever -- and that's no exaggeration. And if you're feeling creative, you could even make your own homemade noodles from scratch; it's not difficult to do.

If WilliamC takes the precaution of rotating his stock, he can find out by direct experience how long the products keep and avoid the problem altogether. Experimenters have determined that stored foods, long past their prime, are still entirely edible (if not as yummy tasting as fresh) and much preferred to starvation.

Having said all that, shades2 is fundamentally correct.

P.S. The oxygen absorbers that I'm using are actually much bigger than necessary for 1 quart or even 1/2 gallon jars. That gives me the option of sampling the goods, so to speak, and re-sealing the jar with the only partially depleted oxygen absorber.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Wow... Well, I am sure that some of it stems from the fact that deep down, the thought that we might be in turmoil so severe that it would disrupt our food supply is DEEPLY unsettling to almost anyone.

Perhaps "out of sight, out of mind" is the best way?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I think that it has to do with 'setting the bar' at a certain level. The woman I am seeing now is the same... She allows certain behaviour because that is how I was when she came into the relationship.
For instance, when I bought a ring for her, it was very modest. I set the bar LOW on purpose. Now, I can start buying better quality jewelry for her, and I am the Way Cool and Loving Guy because the shiny stuff keeps getting bigger and better in quality. I shudder to think where I would be now if I had started out with a $10,000 ring! *smile*
On that same token, she does not bat an eye when I get a huge box of surplus ammo deivered.

Maybe if you take a "pass" on ONE firearm you wanted, and bought her something nice instead, she would be even MORE COOL with your purchases! :)

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Good for you on starting, but grits? They have zero nutritional value. Worse, it's like eating pure sugar, which is THE worst thing you can put in your body. You should be stocking foods that will sustain and keep you healthy. Get some grains that haven't had the nutrients stripped off.

Good luck!

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

You know what I'm going to say...

Don't save food! Ever get sick of hearing citizens referred to as "consumers"?

And what's the opposite of a "consumer"?

A "Producer". You need to be a producer of food, then you won't need to take on the difficult task of stockpiling 6 or more months which can't be moved but can be stolen.

That sounds like I'm asking you to start a chicken farm, but I'm not. If you live anywhere temperate, you can plant pretty apple trees in the yard and grapes on the fence. Then you plant some flowers that also happen to be edible, and nut tree in that empty space. --Your wife doesn't need to know anything about it.

If you don't have a yard, don't dispair--there are trainyards, highway margins, unused commercial lots, and other endless space throughout North America. Plant there and few others recognize or expect what those "wild" plants and weeds are either--yet they're there, your plan B, ahead of Plan C, D, and E.

Why do I say this? Because let's say you need 2lbs a day at starvation level, plus 4 gal of water. 2lb x 2 people x 365 = 1,460lbs/year. A TON of food per year. A single apple tree can produce 500bu/acre, or at 100 trees/acre = 5bu./tree. Walnuts or chestnuts are not far off that yeild. At say 30gal of liquid volume per 5bu x 8lb/gal = 250lbs of food per tree, or 120 days food. EVERY YEAR. For about $35US and 3 years patience. You only buy it once, not continually, which frees up income that will be scarce in a troubled future scenario. In fact, it will MAKE trade income in that scenario.

My other suggestion is, why does she need to know you're storing anything? Find a storage location that's not at home (you can be VERY creative here), or is but isn't seen. Cache it, bury it, borrow it, but I wouldn't trust the too-easy rental locker, as those would be first raided or sold off, plus possible calls from the Co. to your home address, with the resulting questions. Research your 5-gal bucket and "Gamma Seals", which could last years underground, in any slope, yard, or wilderness. Make a string of them all the way to your fallback location.

And remember, seeds are far, FAR smaller to fit in a given size per food value than anything else. They keep years, can be edible as well if you buy properly, and will be in the greatest demand in a crisis.

DON'T STORE FOOD. There's not enough money or room to do enough.

Stop being a mindless consumer. Produce something.

TS
"Help Take a Bite out of World Hunger"

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

always enjoyed your posts, simpleton. i second the (non-hybrid) seeds suggestion. my partner has been pretty patient with my small efforts in storing some food, but i've gradually come to the conclusion that the best preps are the mental ones, being ready and able to deal with a potential gradual collapse of society. i don't think we'll enter mad max world, but i do think basic neccessities will keep getting more expensive, to the point where there will be unrest, just a gradualist approach to the end of consumerism. my take on what will then be necessary is silver/gold, to keep up with price inflation, seeds for when the time to become self sufficient arises, and spirulina for the interim period (a blue green algal superfood, lots of vitamins/minerals) so that i have some nutrition along with the rice'n'beans! hemp oil too, in the same vein.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

:sarc:
LOL ...and pull her hair too?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

one option to becoming a "producer"...

www.portablefarms.com


"Imagine growing 100 pounds of home-grown fish and more than 400 heads of lettuce per year in a small 6 foot x 8 foot space with your own Portable Farms� Kit! Become self sufficient and self reliant by raising fresh organic table vegetables and home-grown fish to help feed your family, year round, by owning your own Portable Farm�..."

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Uhh no. What you need to understand is that there is no guarantees in life. You think just because you marry someone means they will stand beside you until you die? I think not. The divorce rate is in excess of 50%. That means that 50% of all people who get married will eventually go their separate ways.

What you need to realize is that women live longer than men. So as I get older the amount of women available to me increases. Also since I will have accumulated tons of assets there will be no shortage of women who will happily fulfill my every desire. The only time I will be a lone is when I chose to be a lone and that is the best freedom a man could wish for.

Just think of the saying, "You have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Stop being afraid of being alone.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

how much does a hamburger cost in zimbabwe?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Mc Donalds closed here in Louisiana during Gustav and only has a limited menu back right now! The golden Arches was closed for 2 weeks!!!!

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

You needs a shtrong Pimp hand.


My first garden has done very well, next year there will be more melons, root veggies, broccoli, cabbage and maters these all did very well , I will cut back on the squash and swiss chard because they were overly plentiful. Swiss chard has got to be the greatest green there ever was, we eat it at least 3 times a week and it makes a great salad green also. I threw seeds around my house last year and swiss chard has been popping up since April, not to mention when you cut it it just grows back , you can cut it about 10 times. I have baggies of swiss chard seeds that I'm giving to friends, if you let it go without cutting it turns to seed ,thousands of seeds per plant!


You can take the stalks, boil them briefly till tender then lay in a baking dish with butter & garlic then sprinkle with parmesan cheese, bake at 350 for 15 min. Maaan you ain't never ate nuthin so tasty .Otherwise we just chop up the leaves and stalk and boil..... throw the stalks in first and give them a few extra minutes before throwing in the leaves.....that's sum good eats!.You can also use the leaves for a regular ole salad...quite good. You talk about a renewable food source, it's hard to beat swiss chard IMHO.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Cajuncoin, I didn't see where you had quoted me prior to my above post Hahaha

I'm going to have my wife read your post, hope she doesn't get to POed at what I posted......after all she is the boss :applause_,she knows how to duck and counter my shtrong Pimp hand :wink:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

So how about us guys who don't have a wife? Maybe I should start a dating thread. I am 33 live in Maine looking for female prepper. Interests are shooting, hiking, climbing, fishing, hunting and gardening. Any takers?:bear_w00t:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Things are going a little better. She's still not really on board but she isn't going to stop me either.

This weekend I'll be loading up a good bit more food preps, so I'm sure she'll get riled at me again.

Oh well.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

My Girl is great, and she was prepping on her own (but didn't know for what) before I even met her. However she is pretty quick to bite my head off if I mention that a person is a corporation. She is performing a wedding over the weekend and I asked her to look at the marriage contract as a legal merger between two corporations and with the state. She about flipped her lid with anger.


She loves lentils, beans, and rice, though, so what is there *really* to argue about?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Wife doesn't like beans 'cause they upset her digestion :rolleyes_m:

My family is addicted to convenience foods. Microwave, frozen, sugar, preservatives, yeck.

Of course I've been the same most of my life so the fact I'm trying to change is still a novelty. Due to my participation on this forum I've given up my 30 + year addiction to Dr. Pepper. Going on my second week without now and I don't miss them. I've also cut way back on my coffee consumption, like down from a couple quarts a day to maybe 3 cups. Tonight I'm up studying Calculus so I'm drinking more than my new usual, but I can tell I've turned the corner on my caffeine addiction too.

I'm trying to get my wife to help me prioritize food preps. The more she's involved the better. But I'll still be loading up on staples and canned goods too.

When the time comes that we need it it will all be good.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

First I will ask you if you have any hobbies? If no than tell her that you really feel the need to do this, and tell her that you do not have any hobbies, and this is one that is not wasting any money because you will rotate stock and use it for the family, and if nothing happens like you loose your job for 2 months or any thing like a worst storm in recorded history and no one has food.
also tell her that no one needs to know but you and her, she may feel like people will giggle and point at her and you. Besides you do not want people knowing you have a stash anyway.
if you have a hobby that is spending cash on something that is wasted than take that money and put it towards your stash.
if you need to tell her you want 50 bucks a week for a stash and she can have 50 bucks a week for what she wants. I bet you can get something worked out with her.
Good luck my friend

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I'm lucky in that my wife, who grew up in hurricane country, is onboard. But good for you for doing it anyway. All the suggestions seem like possible helps. I think a combination of getting it cheaper by buying bulk ahead and the benefit in case of some disaster like these hurricanes might make it seem at least not silly. If you need it drastically you win, and if you don't you still win because of inflation.

But if she never agrees, maybe she can just accept you as having an eccentricity that has a loving basis - to take care of the family if a rainy day should come.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

We had a knock down drag out fight tonight !.....I'm still try to get back into the house :fight::embarasse:bawling:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Buy all new furniture. Remove the stuffing and springs etc. and put your preps in there.

Grits, oatmeal, and the like can go in your new couches and chairs.

Cans and harder stuff can be concealed behind the wood on the desks, tables, or what have you.

Your wife will be happy and have a full belly if this thing goes sideways.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I have asked my wife to help me prioritize what to buy so I don't buy stuff no one will eat. This morning she was looking at some websites on buying food in bulk!

She made a list of some things she thinks would be ok to stock up on, and we will be heading to Sams Club this afternoon to do some shopping.

We still both have a lot to learn about prepping and such, but at least we are starting to cooperate on it.

Thanks to all for listening to me vent:rant:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

The happier a married man looks the more pissed off the wife becomes.

Try to not look so happy about your preps.

Sure- you laugh now...

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Make-up sex is always great... especially if you're still a little angry. :D :O

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Hi ya'll.

I'm mostly just a lurker here, but love these preparation threads.

I can't believe I'm female and have the same trouble as you guys are having; what a hoot!

William, sounds like you're goin' good, man....getting her involved and asking her opinion gives her a sense of being needed, something us women always seem to want. In fact, it may just work on men, too?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

The turning point for me was when I added female hygiene products to the shopping list, in QUANTITY.
Effectively including her needs in my disaster planning.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Had some family friends over today for my daughters' 2-year old birthday. They have 5 kids, we have 3, always a full house when they visit.

We got to talking about the economy and the bailout and such and they mentioned they were starting to worry about food if things break down and the supermarkets start to run short. This of course led to me bringing up the idea of food preps and such. They thought it was a great idea. I showed them TechGuys sticky thread about storing dry goods in mason jars and the Wendy Mae Youtube video about making superpails. They were very enthusiastic and I'm thinking they will start stocking up for themselves now. Also, it turns out they had already started taking their cash out of their savings account too.

Now my wife has solid evidence that I'm not alone in my concerns and I think I will be getting more cooperation from her from here on out. Tomorrow is Sunday, methinks we'll be hitting the canned goods pretty hard and rounding out some more dry goods too. Also need to get at least some water put away.

It'll be nice to have a partner in prepping from now on :)

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Ooooooh... Female type Goldbugette.

Not quite as rare as they used to be.

How do you feel about pickles?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Yet another pathetic example of how the 'average' spoiled US citizen is going to have a VERY rude awakening if :fan:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

So don't prep. Instead, buy food when it's on sale, and buy extra. "Who can pass up a bargain?"

I know how you feel because I was married once. I wanted to buy a set of pots and pans and she threatened divorce. I think she was afraid I might expect her to cook for me. I'm not married any more.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

The wife has already made a list of some extras she wants us to stock up on tomorrow when we go to Sam's Club.

Seems this thread has done its job :)

Thanks all!

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

:o Are we really in situation where a woman will divorce her man just because there is a possibility she might have to cook for her man at some point of her life?

We live in sad times.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Understood. Good bye.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Speaking of contrary spouses: Mine has been okay about normal food storage (grocery store extras) but thinks I'm nuts for having #10 cans of FD. Over time he's gotten uglier about anything to do with preparedness, and lately, with all the stuff I've said about the economy coming to pass, he's gotten so ugly about the whole preparedness thing that I can't even make a joke about it without upsetting him. (I should point out that I was into this before we married 18 years ago, and I've never talked about it much...I just sort of do it as a lifestyle.)

So, today I made a pot of spaghetti. The only FD "storage food" ingredient in it was hamburger, and my hubby noted the #10 can on the counter. When the spaghetti was finished, he took one look at it, wrinkled his nose, and said, "Umm...it's awfully red." Red???? "That would be the Prego spaghetti sauce from the jar you bought," I told him. He begged off eating any of it. Mind you, this is a guy who has no problem eating freeze-dried camping food from foil envelopes.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Funny story, Maddie. I'm sure you weren't laughing at the time, but I can say that I've been there. The girlfriend is sometimes very against bulk purchases because we have a small apartment, but hey-- I'd rather have a little less room than potentially run out of food. She learned to deal with a little extra clutter in the kitchen, but she reminds me of it often :bear_w00t:

I've found that if I just encourage her stock up on her favorite foods as well, she is less recalcitrant.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Next time hide the #10 can!

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

You know, it's not that easy to hide a #10 can! My stash is in the basement, but once that can's in the kitchen, the only place it fits is in the fridge, on the big shelf, next to the beer. Not much chance of hiding it there...:biggrin:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

He has "his" beer, you have "your" preps....its all about priorities :tongue_ma:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

.................................................. .................................................. ..................................................................................... ................:moon:
Yeah these really are sad times. Sad that you call yourself a man, but expect your wife to cook for you. How the hell do you expect to survive if :fan:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Probably with the pans he wanted to buy....

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Whenever you open a #10 can break it up into ziplocks and throw it in the freezer.

Hide it in plain sight.

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I cook 9 times out of 10 in our marriage, thank you very much -and that's because I LIKE cooking. However, if my spouse NEVER wanted to cook and would divorce me because she might have to, I would have a problem.

But thanks for your insult. :sarcasm:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

I actually usually keep it in some great plastic storage containers with rubber gaskets. They're great at keeping FD food. Plus, they can't easily be seen through. Your idea of hiding them in the freezer is good, too. I could stash them under the bags of dead rats. My husband doesn't much like to handle those. (That probably sounds disgusting to anyone who doesn't keep reptiles. Lol! Morticia Adams would envy my freezer...).

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

What is FD food?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

If those are considered food preps he should run like no tomarrow....:36_1_30: :wink:

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

FD is freeze-dried. Dead rats and mice are food preps for a large lizard. FD hamburger is food prep for the human (and canine) members of the family so that when TSHTF they don't have to eat rats...

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Next time. Take out one of those dead rats. Thaw it, gut, skin and clean and leave on counter. At dinner time after husband sees rat , say "I know you don't like the FD stuff so I am trying to prepare a little differently now.
I forgot to throw that one in the pot".

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Rats in the freezers to feed the snakes with?

That's dedication to your pets!

My wife keeps a couple of bearded dragons where she works (Biology teacher at a Community College so it isn't as odd as it sounds).

Lucky for me she also keeps the crickets they eat up there too, and not in our house.

I'm not completely out of the woods yet in terms of this prepping lifestyle.

Buying food in bulk is one thing but recently I've ordered a couple of books on Disaster Preparedness and Planning. Also, I mentioned to her last night I was talking with a guy where I work who might start raising rabbits and I am interested in helping him in exchange for meat.

So this morning the wife, in all seriousness, says shes starting to worry about me (like she doesn't already) and thinks I am going to join a miltia or something!

Guess I won't be telling her about the third "B" I am contemplating getting started on soon.

You know, Beans, Bullion, and .....

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

........Boogers ?......... just funnin whit ya WillieC.



Yeah your pushin your luck with the armory.....maybe a sling shot?

Re: Spouse Is Furious About My Food Preps.
 

Show her some of the recent stories from Iceland.

I wonder who WE will get a loan from if/when the shelves run bare because importers don't want U.S. dollars for their goods.

Honestly, I don't know how much debt we have to pile up before they say NO, but we sure are working hard at piling it up as fast as we can.