Meat. What is there to say about meat except life is very sad without it. Maybe you’re a vegetarian and you live a happy meat-free life. I don’t understand that. Let’s just pretend that we all love meat and need some every day. Some people eat lots of beef. Some prefer tuna (gah! Again, no comprende). Some are happiest with chicken. Whichever you prefer, we’re going to concentrate mainly on canned meat. Certainly buy some frozen as well, but the idea is to get meat that is shelf-stable. You want meat that you don’t have to worry about if your fridge and freezer suddenly have no power. This means canned meat. Or meat in pouches.

I stock up on this stuff at Costco because it comes in larger cans (for our larger family) and is a little cheaper. But as I say every week, the point is to get this done, not to be a super-bargain coupon lady. Build up your supply and think of it as insurance. Spend the big bucks on meat because it could be the difference between keeping your sweet kids alive and, well, not.

I had someone ask a while ago if we are supposed to be eating this food that we buy every week. Yes!!! Yes, absolutely. That’s the whole point behind buying these foods rather than #10 cans full of wheat and barley. You will eventually use up this supply of food you’re building up. So really this endeavor is a habit to get into for your whole life. It’s not a one-shot thing that you can check off of your to-do list once and for all.

Some things, like canned Salmon, are not going to go as quickly as peanut butter. That’s OK. You might end up throwing some food out. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they don’t store up food because they would always forget to use it and it would go bad before they could eat it. First of all, you can eat canned food long after the expiration date. Just make sure the cans aren’t swollen or opened and you should be fine (it may not taste all that great, though, if it’s been several years).

But as I said before, consider your canned food as insurance. How much money do you waste every month on car insurance? Home insurance? Health insurance? A lot of times it’s just money flushed down the drain. But we have insurance anyway because we are supposed to be prudent and prepared. Think of a pantry full of food storage as just another type of insurance. You may not need it. And you probably won’t have your house burn down either. But just in case! Just in case there is a famine/trucking strike/zombie apocalypse/massive economic turmoil you will much better off. You will have that peace of mind that your family will be OK for at least a little while.

This is just a smart thing to do. And you’re smart, aren’t you? Then go out and throw a whole bunch of cans of spam in your shopping cart and pat yourself of the back!

(try for 5-10 cans of meat per person. It’s one of the more expensive items we’ll be buying but do the best you can! Hey, how about you give your husband a bunch of canned meat for Father’s Day. He’ll love that!)