anyone used their preps?

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by munchy, Aug 14, 2012.


  1. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Alaskachick and I both were introduced to REI, back when we were Kids, by our respective families. We both have 5 digit Membership Numbers, from back when REI was a Co-op....I went into the original Store up near Broadway in Seattle once with a pair of 10 year old Richle Boots, that were just "plain worn out" and asked the Shoe Manager to replace them....He looked a little weird, but said he would.... then I told him I was only kidding, and bought a NEW Pair of the same style... He gave me a discount on the boots..... A lot more Yuppified, these days, but the Return Policy is still the same... and I still get my annual Rebate Check, in the mail, every year.... ..... YMMV....
     
  2. munchy

    munchy Monkey+++

    Yup I felt like a douche tradin in the coat but at the time I was unemployed, and the size of my rebates has been in the triple digits for more than a few years, I need fewer hobbies lol. A friend worked there and people would buy gear and return it at the end of the season, talk about taking advantage. I thought they were still a co-op though.
     
  3. fedorthedog

    fedorthedog Monkey+++

    When we set out on prepping I tried to buy as much stuff as possible that we normally use. So flour rice ect comes from a bucket with a gamma lid and when empty the next bucket gets opened and the old one refilled, marked and stored.
     
  4. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    I am visiting my oldest sisters place in Utah... We had all our meals, prepared f r,om the rotating stock from their Preps. Not that much difference from what we would normally eat except we had fresh milk, instead of Boxed Milk.....
     
  5. JABECmfg

    JABECmfg multi-useless

    I've dug into the stash before, but never because of a real emergency and never for anything critical to survival - a roll of aluminum foil once, a bottle of whiskey more than once, and some hygiene items every now and then - soap, toothpaste, etc.

    I have a self-imposed rule that I tend to follow - when raiding the stash, always replace what you took with 2 of the same thing. My reasoning is that if I allow myself to run out of something in my normal daily life, it's because I have either overlooked it, or misjudged how much of it I would need or how long the amount I had on hand would last - and if I did it once, there's a good chance that I'd do it again and run out of it in a "situation", so I take it as a sign that I should be keeping more of it.
     
    munchy and oldawg like this.
  6. Turtle

    Turtle Monkey+

    in 2011 i was without power for about 12 days..people laughed at my trangia burner not a week before...wasn't so funny when they wanted hot coffee lol
     
  7. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Used ours last year during our week long ice storm that shut everything down including power, grociery stores and most gas stations. We did well when most of our neighbors evacuated for services at their families or other areas that still had power and heat. Had a good list of needed items for our prep's afterwards, call it lesson's learned.
     
  8. KAS

    KAS Monkey+++

    tard dart wha kinda things were u short
     
  9. Pax Mentis

    Pax Mentis Philosopher King |RIP 11-4-2017

    We rotate foodstuffs and paper products...on a yearly basis we use some of pretty much everything of that sort that we store. We have only in the past few years started storing freeze-dried foods , mostly staples that we like, and I make it a point to include them now and then (I make a great TVP taco...).

    As far as other stuff, pretty much everything I own is a prep...for something. I needed some motor mounts done for my car last week and dipped into the store of flat stock I have "just because".

    As far as actually needing to use my preps, no...but they sure make it handy to do stuff without running to town for the stuff I need. (or did before we moved to town) :)
     
  10. testhop

    testhop Monkey+

     
  11. testhop

    testhop Monkey+

    i always use my preps by taking from the shelf the oldest andreplacing it with new but 1 or 2 extra and all survival gear is checked often
     
  12. Kingfish

    Kingfish Self Reliant

    We just used some old Dinty Moore . The beef stew had a February 2012 expiration date and was excellent. Tonight we had Chicken and Dumplings with a may of 2012 expiration date . It was also excellent. The last peanut butter expired August of 2011 and I just used the last of it. I still have one jar left from that batch with the 2011 expiration date. So far Ive not seen any of our older preps gone bad. Im going to have to open some two year old Pan cake mix soon and check it for spoilage. But like the last post we rotate out our preps. This way we keep it as fresh as we can and still ave a two year food supply.
     
    VisuTrac and BTPost like this.
  13. Yard Dart

    Yard Dart Vigilant Monkey Moderator

    Sak- we were short on batteries of a couple of types and I decided I really need one of the hand cranked radios. We also used more cooking fuels than I thought and needed to make my supplies much higher than what I have. I think we added a lot more candle's to our supply knowing how much we needed them with no power for a week.
     
  14. hedger

    hedger Monkey+

    We have never been seriously challenged. My wife was, initially, thinking that I was onto a weird path as I acquired a variety of preps. As time passed,we ran short of routine stuff and she could just go to the preps and get whatever she needed whenever she needed it. We did have some storm-related outages of power and her appreciation of crank flashlights and the crank radio raised her eyebrows.

    She is completely on board these days with the prepper thing. Sometimes she prods me as to why I am not getting more of this or that. Everyone in our family now thinks that an individual or a family that does not incorporate prepping into their lives is just one disaster away from really hard lessons.
     
    munchy, tulianr and BTPost like this.
  15. gunbunny

    gunbunny Never Trust A Bunny

    We ate some stored food during Sandy. I learned that I should not run out of chocolate again.
     
    Evil, VisuTrac and MNMGoneShooting like this.
  16. kellory

    kellory An unemployed Jester, is nobody's fool. Banned

    I have a long way to go. We are down to one income, my daughter just had surgery, and my wife has several long term illnesses. My son just started college. My daughter is two years behind him. I have gear to stay dry, warm, cook, I have a generator, and I put in a natural gas wall furnace as a back up to the main furnace (which will not run without grid power.) (I will get a shunt for the generator) But I have no food stores left. We are living paycheck to paycheck right now. I have been building shelving for more food stuffs when I can get them, but we are struggling right now, just to keep our heads above water. So yes, we have used ours.
     
  17. Haven't had to use any stored food. But with power outages for several hours used weather crank radio. Crank lanterns, etc
     
  18. Desert Marine

    Desert Marine Certified Master Herbalist

    I always use my preps. Especially during family trainings. It help to rotate the stock as well. Several years ago I brought land and build our homestead on it. It is out in the boonies so we used our preps during that time. Everything was handy you name it water to food. We are in a much better situation in terms of having livestock chickens, ducks, sheep, rabbits, goats and even gardening. We have 10+ huge raise beds which we grow enough food to sell in the local farmers market. There is very little that we actual buy in the local stores. We when from prepping to full fledged homesteading and love it.
     
    Evil likes this.
  19. Tikka

    Tikka Monkey+++

    Yep, almost every time the power goes out and as we live in a "BOL" that happens at least once every winter. :D

    We didn't move here for a BOL; we did because it is a beautiful place to live.
     
  20. hedger

    hedger Monkey+

    Your feedback may be surprisingly good for us to hear because you get "tested" so frequently. It seems I am usually able to improve upon our preps after reading some accounts of those who have gone through situations that require the use of their preps. Sometimes, it is just a tweak but other times, I am stunned at my lack of vision for some things. As time passes, I get closer to where I think we ought to be and a large part of that progress is due to fellow monkeys sharing their experiences--for which I am very grateful!
     
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