This is my very first blog. A friend at work thought it would be cool if I started a blog. Since I have a fear of Facebook and Twitter, this will be new territory.

I just got done with an experiment regarding home preparedness. I convinced (forced) my wife to go one month without shopping at a supermarket or eating out. Everything we ate came from home, things that were already in the house. We started April 1 and finished May 1. We discovered several things along the way. I saved about $400.00 to $500.00 just in meals outside the home. We also uncovered cases of food items that had long since been forgotten. If the can didn't bulge, like my mid-section, I ate it. Not once did I get sick. Here is an example:

I often travel to other states because of my job. Two weeks ago I found myself in Yakima, Washington. Although there are good restaurants in the area, I brought my food with me. In my suitcase were a few cans of sardines, dried apple chips, oatmeal, and a backpacker lasagna meal manufactured in 1994. The expiration date on the lasagna was 2001. For dinner one night, in my hotel room, I heated up some water in the coffee maker and got ready for some fine cuisine. When I opened the mylar pouch that held the lasagna, I was treated to a smell that can only be described as the old gym sock you find inside an old gym shoe. I was hesitant to even look at the contents. My hunger got the best of me and I dumped a cup of boiling water into the bag. After letting the lasagna ferment for the required 10 minutes, I tasted it. The smell was still there but it tasted fair to just less than good. I at the entire contents and got ready for a night of diarhea. It didn't happen, I was fine.

I did not subject my wife to any of this experimentation with old food, she ate things out of the fridge, freezer and cupboard. After a month, I took a quick inventory and discovered we had not eaten much. In fact, we didn't touch our food storage at all. You may wonder what we did for milk and eggs. We have been drinking dried milk for the last year and a half. I mix up a half gallon at a time. Since we quit buying a gallon of milk, the last quart or so doesn't go bad. It is real milk, you just have to mix it yourself. We didn't eat eggs in April, I made up for it by eating almonds That were stuffed in the back of the pantry.

Another thing we discovered, you may have 3 or 4 bottles of the same item in the back of your fridge. I found 4 jars of pickles, each jar was a quarter full. I dumped all of the pickles from the other 3 jars into the fourth and now there is more space. The best thing about this experiment came in the form of some weight loss. Since I didn't go to the local stop and rob to get a colossal size fountain drink, I saved money on gas, the drink, and I lost weight. About 5 pounds, not bad.

The whole experience was great for me and not bad for my wife either. We learned a few things from it and will be better prepared for times when we are in a need of our food storage. Did I mention, the first week of April, we turned off the power to our home. Seven days without assistance from the power company. I will write that little story next time.