Holiday Gift Series - a bonus gift!

We usually publish our series articles on Thursdays, but since we're running out of weeks before Christmas (!!!), we have an extra gift idea to share with you today.

All of my friends should be getting coal in their stockings this year.

Does that sound mean?  Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, someone asked us what the best way to store charcoal would be (like for using your cardboard box oven).  After some discussion with my mother-in-law, we determined that it would be a good idea to vacuum seal it in little pouches and store it in a 5-gallon bucket.  This is especially helpful if you buy quality quick-lighting charcoal.  Vacuum sealing the charcoal would keep the chemicals from deteriorating away.

So, I bought a giant bag of really nice charcoal from Sam's Club and brought it to my in-laws' home for Thanksgiving, and we spent an hour or two vacuum sealing them up (since I don't have a vacuum sealer).  We sealed them in packs of 9 or 10 briquettes, since each one gives off 40 degrees of heat and this would give me either a 360 or 400 degree oven.  Then my mother-in-law suggested that this would be a great gift for friends!  Just put a bow around the little charcoal pack, and include instructions on how to make a cardboard box oven, or just suggest that people add them to their 72-hour kits.  You know, "coal in your stocking".  I could even go to the dollar store and buy those small cheap stockings if I wanted to. Perfect!!

Since we didn't have a 5-gallon bucket handy, we filled a large garbage bag with our charcoal packets and threw them in the back of the car to bring home.  When we got home late Sunday night, I put the bag in the laundry room and told myself I'd take pictures and put bows on some of them the next day.

Well.... my husband lovingly took out the trash on Monday morning, and we have to walk through the laundry room to go out to the carport where the trash bin is.  He saw the garbage bag by the door and tossed it into the bin outside, then dragged it to the street to be taken away.

A noticed a few hours later that it was gone, but I was too late... the truck had already come and had taken away my big bag of charcoal packets!  I was really sad because I can't buy another big bag of charcoal, let alone a vacuum pack machine and baggies.  Thankfully I have lots of other options for gift ideas, but it's too bad I can't do this cute (and easy) one this year.  Maybe next year.

So, that is why I have no pictures to show you of this gift.  However, I hope you can imagine what I'm explaining, and I hope that maybe some of you can try something like this for your friends and family this Christmas.

Stay tuned for another great (and delicious!) food storage gift idea tomorrow!

Tuesday!

Every Tuesday we talk about items to buy for our 72-hour kits, 3-month supply, and longer term storage.

This week for your 72-hour kits it's catch-up week!! Check out our list on the left side of the page and see what you are still missing. If you are new to our blog and haven't started this project yet, don't worry! Once we are finished with these kits (in just a few weeks), we'll be making some car emergency kits, and then we'll be doing the 72-hour kits again. Of course, you are welcome to put together the 72-hour kits now, but it can be expensive to do it all at once, which is why we break it down into a few items a week.

For your three-month supply, grab a few extra canned goods as you do your grocery shopping. Someone made a great suggestion in the comments about always using BOGO sales for this very purpose - stocking up. Gotta love food storage for free! Just be sure you aren't storing random canned goods - plan out some recipes that you want to store. I also like to get large cans of fruit to eat as side dishes with our meals.

For your longer-term storage this month, we are gathering "other" items (besides the usual beans, wheat, rice, and oats). Consider powdered milk, honey (a great sweetener, and stores wonderfully), white flour, pasta, etc. For me, I am focusing on powdered milk and pasta (if I can find it on sale). Next time we have a month of gathering "others" I'll probably focus on honey, since I don't have much of that.

Thursday we have more food storage gift ideas, and Friday will be another delicious recipe using only non-perishables. We will also be posting more of your questions and answers on Saturday, so stay tuned!

Inspirational Thought

We really wanted to begin a food storage program, but as newly married full-time college students expecting our first baby, we wondered how we could possibly do it. Discouraged, I said, “Food storage must be one of those things you do after your children are grown up.”

My husband smiled at me and then dashed to our cupboard, opened it, and pulled out every box, package, and can. As he hummed a tune, he began arranging everything into groups. He looked at me, grinned, and pointed to a small stack of food.

“Food storage!” he said. I looked at the stack: two cans of green beans, a bag of rice, a package of spaghetti, and one jar of apricots. “This is our food storage?” I asked.

“Sure,” he answered. “This is our frugal food storage.”

Since then we have followed his frugal food storage theory. Each week we bring home our groceries, go through each bag, and ask, “Can we do without this item this week?” If we can, we set it aside as a food storage item.

This idea works so well that six years and three children later, we are still using it. Though we have more money now than we did during our first year of marriage, we are still on a budget. Following are a few other tips that help us add to our food storage when money is scarce:

1. Store any storable food that comes from an unexpected source. For example, if friends or family invite you to dinner or bring in a meal to you, store the canned or packaged food items you would have used for that meal.

2. Set aside a small amount of money each week to buy staples such as pasta, baking ingredients, and paper products. You may be surprised at how quickly you can build up a supply of these staples for only a few dollars a week.

3. Learn how to bottle, freeze, and dry fresh foods. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can preserve small amounts of fresh fruits or vegetables when they are on sale at the grocery store.

4. Set goals for your food storage supply. Work toward a one-month supply, then a three-month supply, and so on. Be realistic.

Try new ideas until you find the ones that work for you. The important thing is to start now; don’t wait until you have more money, or you may never start. Next family home evening, go through your cupboards and set some of your food aside for your food storage. You can have a food storage program, even on a modest income.—Colleen Hansen, Marienville, Pennsylvania

Frugal Food Storage
Colleen Hansen, “Frugal Food Storage,” Ensign, Jan. 1993, 73–74