How the Drought Will Cost You

[Hound dog]

Not included in this are areas that have seen severe flooding (both here and globally). Other areas around the globes crops / livestock are being effected by the unusual weather patterns ect too. They also neglected to say that farmers are selling off livestock in vast quantities right now because they don't have means to feed them. So you may see either good sales or a slight drop in prices for a short period then a dramatic increase. If farmers continue to send to market large numbers of livestock, it will take quite a while for them to recover back to normal levels even once the weather improves. Corn is being hurt bad, but we must remember other crops are also being affected too. They also neglected to mention, I believe, this is going to drive up the cost of fast foods too.

Like with that torrential rain in Japan......I know the rice fields are based in water......but I need to go look up an article that said something about many of those just running off into other areas due to the vast amounts of water. I'm a little frustrated I'm not finding much info on this subject. I don't know how much rice Japan exports.........but I know there was an issue with rice exports in other areas prior to this which has been driving the prices up.

I watch this stuff because I live on the line, literally. Every penny counts. And soaring food costs are NOT going to help an already very poor struggling economy.

I'm not worried about milk. I have it stockpiled, frozen in the freezer, shelf stable (real) milk in the pantry by the dozens, and huge cans of dehydrated milk as well. I just keep rotating it and stocking up when I can get it super cheap. Lately I've been concentrating on meats, waiting for those good sales and tucking it away in the freezer. Soon, I'll be canning it and tucking it away in the pantry too (lasts longer) and dehydrating it (last even longer than the canning). Everything I buy now? Is on rotating sales or dirt cheap at aldi's or save a lot. I even get lucky and manage to buy fresh produce sometimes at yard sales for a steal.

So my advice is if you spot a good sale, buy extra, look up ways to store it long term......and trust me there are ways to store it for years without it going bad. (including eggs believe it or not) It's a pain in the fanny, but write down lists of things you buy often, then put them in a notebook and keep track of which store has it at what price, then you'll know you're always getting the lowest price out there.

You all are my family, so just want to keep you informed.

 

[Jody]

Good advice, Lisa. How do you keep eggs good?

 

[TerryJ2]

by the way, 31 yrs ago, I read that Iran was no longer exporting pistacios, so I went out and bought several lbs of them in a panic. One day, by chance, I found a pkg in the grocery store that was very reasonably priced. The grower? California.
Same thing for rice, 4 yrs ago. I went to a local Korean mkt and bought a 50 lb bag. The prices never went up more than 5 or 10 cents and I was stuck with-so much short grain rice that the kids were really giving me gears.
Beward of warnings like this, Hound Dog; it doesn't always affect us. What has gone up and stayed up, for the most part, is paper prices and computer ink. Go figure.

 

[ThreeShadows]

Thanks, Lisa! You are really sweet to worry about others. Have you been satisfied with the flavor of shelf stable milk?

 

[Hound dog]

Eggs stay good for months and months (without refrigeration) by rubbing vegetable oil onto the shell. Just keep them in a cool dry place (or the frig). The oil protects them. I'll have to check again about canning.......but I believe you can do that too. I'll double check this with easy child as she's really in to doing it more than I am. I eat my eggs too fast most of the time. LOL

Terry, that's why I keep prices lists going for various stores. I note such warnings and wait to see how the prices do. Prices are gong to vary according to your location as well. But this drought and the other unusual weather is affecting pretty much everyone, or will in the near future. For those who are already having trouble holding on, it's going to hurt the most of course. Rice prices have gone up quite a bit, at least around here. Peanut butter is just plain ridiculous. I'm watching prices rising steadily. Even many of the awesome sales I used to get........aren't quite as awesome as they used to be (compared to prices a few months ago or last year), and finding freebies with coupons has become skimpy at best.

My stores are to the point where I don't actually need anything. I could avoid stores for months if I wanted or needed to. This gives me elbow room to watch for those really awesome stock up sales (as well as save up the money to pay for it). And trust me, I stock up when they come along. Learning to can, dehydrate, and freeze those foods and how to store them long term helps a ton. I don't have to worry about what I buy gong bad before Travis and I can eat it.

And heck, it's a win/win thing anyway. Even IF prices don't go through the roof, I still get awesome deals on the stuff I'm buying......and if a natural disaster hits home, I'm not going to be one of the hordes swarming the stores scrambling for supplies.

 

[Hound dog]

3S in my opinion shelf stable milk is GOOD!!! Tastes just like milk out of the frig as long as you serve it cold. I prefer it over dehydrated 100 percent, which is why I stock so much of it. Krogers tends to have it on sale fairly often, every time they do I pick up 4 of them. I just keep it rotated and use ones that are close to expiring. My girls looked at me weird, but they like it too now.......and also stock up on it in addition to the dehydrated.

 

[TerryJ2]

Interesting about the oil on the eggshells. Don't think I've heard that before.
Wow, HoundDog, you really do keep a record!

 

[Hound dog]

Well, I try my best to. I don't have a choice. I don't have any money to waste. I need to know exactly where it is going and why and try to keep it low as possible.

You think that's bad, you ought to watch me water the garden. I know where every drop of water is going too. I got some strange looks from the neighbors yesterday while I was filling up milk jugs for the grandsons to lug into the back yard to do the watering. I use a watering can, but it's filled up via the jugs to cut down on trips to the faucet.

 

[Mattsmom277]

Read a very in depth article on this just tonight. For Canadians and those of you all in the US, the worry is people don't see immediate big cost adaptions so feel its not a big deal and high pricing or even shortages are far fetched and won't occur. The thing is this drought is kind of unprecedented. At least in most of our life times. And affecting so far wide and so many crops.

The article explained that anywhere from 6-9 months from now and as far as 12 months, is when the sticker shock will hit. It is being labelled a food crisis and likelihood for food shortages.

The good part at knowing now is the prices are still ok. And sales come up If you watch your store flyers. You can easily pick up extra flour on sale here and there in the next months. Stored properly, it is fairly easy to calculate your usage and stock ahead at sale prices for a longer time. Also if any of you are bakers at home, consider extra flour and cornmeal etc for baking bread. Shelf stable soy products are said to be things to stock now during sales. There are plenty of products many don't think about regarding wheat and corn that are used so commonly. And then there is meat. With the animals not having adequate feed supplies the prices will creep way up. Those with freezers I would say stock the non perishables first. Then in fall begin stocking sale priced meats that are predicted to increase in cost for a while.
Then the trickle effect happens certain goods increase so high that people switch to eating different. When suppliers see demands for alternate products, often they increase price for pure profit. So really stocking any sale priced things your family uses at good low pricing will help. Those savings now can offset needs to purchase high priced items when the sticker shock creeps up.

I'm so glad that I've come to love canning. It's so fun and inexpensive. I just cracked a jar of last years four pepper salsa and it is wonderful. Down right, home canning can pay off for sure.

I know it's so easy to see prices fairy normal now and not see what there's to worry about. The thing is these things take months and months to trickle down to consumers and then if unprepared, people are forced to pay so much for their needs. I hate to see that.

Today I paid $224 at the grocery store. I bought as a stockpile shop. Not a immediate needs shop. I bought only items on sale at the lowest I know they ever get. Before sale prices, my groceries would have cost $401. That's a heck of a savings. All Non perishables and things we use for healthy meals. I'm even stocking rice and pasta. I stocking on thing canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, baby corn cobs , every type of bean, etc. I'm actually having s/o make a extra pantry out of the spare room closet.

Even with no impending price issues? It's sensible savings. Buy at bottom pricing that which you often use. Never again be stuck paying full price. That's a win itself. But when prices jump and things you still need are crazy priced, you have leeway in the budget because your staples are stocked up so cheaply ahead

I'm nearly completed stocking my "pantry list". Once done, the spare room pantry will be used for a new list which will include even broader items.

It actually gets quite fun to get those good deals on things you know you always need. I loved saving about $175 today.

 

[Hound dog]

I LOVE buying things and stocking them at rock bottom prices. I just bought 20 more lbs of sugar the other day........I have 20 lbs already. Now for people wondering why on earth I want 40 lbs of sugar......did you see the price jump of sugar in recent months?? It hit flour too. I have ohhh, about 60-80 lbs of flour (stock up at aldis, it is dirt cheap) Speaking of storage.......especially long term storage, the girls and I order mylar bags online & O2 absorbers.........then we pick up food grade 10 gallon buckets at Lowe's cheap and lids (look at the label, food grade because you don't want chemicals leaching into whatever food you have in them). Buckets are to keep critters out. The bags with the O2 absorbers keep it fresh for years, actually eons as far as flour goes. And yeah, I'm done buying flour for a good long time.........at least until I use a great deal of it up. Now while that sounds like a ton of flour (and you might be thinking omg I could never use so much) stop and think how often you use flour and how much you use at a time, then if prices really really go up........are you going to pinch pennies by cooking from scratch......so how much more flour will you need in addition to normal usage? (bread, noodles, biscuits, pancakes, ect) You can use the bags/buckets with all sorts of dried foods to stretch their shelf life far beyond normal. Buckets also help cut down on storage area. That is a LOT of sugar and flour alone........and out of buckets it takes up way too much space.

I was raised by my grandma who lived as an adult through the great depression. I heard horror stories from as far back as I could remember. My step dad (the man I call dad) was a child in the depression......and his stories were right up there with my grandma's. Both remembered standing in endless lines all day hoping for bread and soup that was mostly water. Both could walk along a field and tell you every wild edible plant in it, how to prepare it, because it made up the bulk of their diet much of the time until gardens ripened and produced. I wish I could remember the edible ones.....I know a few, but haven't a clue as to what to do with them to eat them. That part didn't stick as well because they didn't show me, they just told me.

I'm actually surprised that the news is just now getting the word out. Because I've been hearing about what was coming for quite a long while. But then I"m rural and know quite a lot of farmers, and I know farmers from my home town which is another state.......and I know others in several other states. Even the govt can't claim they hadn't been warned because they started actively encouraging people to use their food stamps for seeds to get more food out of them.

We have farmers starting to sell off 250 lb hogs for 150.00 because they can't afford to feed them anymore. FYI that is an amazing price. And if both my freezers weren't packed to the brim, I'd have done thirds with the girls and snatched it up too.

This drought is not only unprecedented, it's far worse in it's own way than the dustbowl, but you have other growing areas affected by other disasters too. Which I don't recall happening in the 1930's. And I've yet to hear one weather expert even attempt to say how long they expect it to last, because they've never seen it act this way. .

There are lots of other ways you can pinch pennies and make dealing with higher prices not quite so painful too. Actually, it's becoming quite popular in our neck of the woods. We have people learning to make their own laundry soap and fabric softeners, cleaning supplies and such. I'll admit at first I wasn't all that interested.........give me my Awesome and I'm pretty much good to go as far as cleaning supplies......but I just bought vinegar super cheap at wallie world and got 12 bottles of free (yes I said free) Suave conditioner to make fabric softener for when I hang my clothes outside they won't be stiff as a board.

Internet searches will turn up all sorts of amazing things.

Just a side note here, for those who think I'm doing Chicken Little's job; easy child and I are not the only ones in the area stocking up in a major way. I've noticed a huge shift in this in the past 3 months or so.

The great depression just sort of snuck up on people too. Shoot, most of the country didn't even know the dustbowl was anything to worry about until the huge dust storms started arriving in the major cities. They'd just come out of the prosperous roaring 20's and couldn't imagine anything else. We don't have dust flying everywhere (thanks to top soil preservation methods) but it's the same type of weather pattern only worse.