My Latest Prepper Pantry Hauls

 

I have been prepping nearly two years now.  I got started not long after this whole COVID nonsense started.  Last year I felt like I'd made some significant progress in securing our long term food storage.  With many goals in mind for 2022 I did not establish a designated budget for prepping.  In 2020 I did not have a budget at all as going into the year prepping wasn't even on my radar.  In 2021 I devoted a large portion of my overtime earnings to prepping.  This year I'm trying to save up as much as I can in preparation of early retirement.

 

My first small prep was $5 worth of canned goods

and these 2 jars of pesto on sale for $1.98

In my wrap up post for last month I mentioned moving the leftover cash at the end of the month into savings.  This was primarily money left from my miscellaneous expenses budget.  Instead, I decided to add it to my February miscellaneous expenses budget and use those funds toward adding additional items to the prepper pantry.  I did not need to purchase any fuel for our vehicles last month in January so I still had the funds from that budget to add to the pot as well.

 

Pastas, beans, split peas, some sauces & condiments from Grocery Outlet

Meat prices are soaring, we've all seen that, and they are expected to continue to rise along with dairy and even produce.  Canned and dry goods can be hit and miss depending on the day.  Pasta options were pretty thing in January so I was focused on meat and pasta this time.  I ordered another can of freeze dried meat from Amazon to complete a four can "set", if you will - ground beef, diced beef, diced chicken and sausage crumbles.  I'm hoping to purchase one can a month this year as long as the prices don't go crazy high.

 

Black beans are my favorite

A large variety of different pastas

I like to do some small $5 and $10 preps and I'm using money from our regular grocery budget to complete those.  I plan to continue to do those as our budget allows.  This month if felt right to do a big stock up so we went to Wal-Mart in hopes of finding canning lids and we finally lucked out and they had some.  With canning lids it seems timing is everything and if you aren't in the store soon after they arrive they get scooped right up.  This time I was able to purchase fifteen boxes of regular mouth jar lids (they did not have wide mouth) to add to my canning supplies, which was fabulous as I only had one box left.  Jars themselves, are still scarce.  Wal-Mart only had a few flats of jelly jars, no pints, quarts or half gallons.

 

This made me very happy!

Canned meats are a good protein source to keep on hand

I prefer this instead of shortening

I picked up some more canned meat while we were there too.  This time I grabbed another four pack of chicken and three canned hams along with two bricks of lard.  Then it was off to the Grocery Outlet store just down the road.  There we picked up pasta and dry beans at prices we were used to seeing last year before all the price hikes.

 

An extra tub of oatmeal

I decided to add some low dose aspirin too

Albertson's has their Value Corner brand of toilet paper on loss leader for $2.79 for a twelve roll pack so we picked up two of those to replace the ones we've used since just before the holidays.  I may go back for a couple more before the end of the month if I can find a good place to store them.  Right now the TP storage area is completely full.

 

Did you ever think TP stashing would be a thing?

These were on sale plus I had a coupon

Prepping can still be done on a slim budget or in my case with no budget.  Once all the bills are paid and necessities are taken care of I feel good using extra money I have to add more items to the prepper pantry.  It is just another way I am investing in my future.