Author of The Blackout Book and the online course Bloom Where You’re Planted
Here in the United States, many of us are in this strange kind of limbo called “lockdown.” Other states call it “social distancing,” and still others call it “sheltering in place.”
California, New York, and Illinois started the ball rolling last Friday, and since then, nearly half of the United States has joined in, to some degree or another. There are varying degrees of lockdown – nobody in any state is forced to stay inside their home at all times (barring quarantine due to infection or exposure.) You can still go to the grocery store or take a walk, but many businesses not deemed “essential” are closed.
At this point, we’re not sure how long the lockdowns will last. President Trump insisted yesterday in a press conference he’d like to see full churches on Easter Sunday, while some more conservative health experts have warned this could continue through June or longer.
Although people can go to the store, many have not. Some folks are serious about social distancing because there’s a loved one in their household who is greatly at risk, while others are waiting for that last paycheck after having been laid off from their jobs. There’s lots of chit chat online about the things people have run out of first, and some of these might be things to note when stocking up for future emergencies.
As well, it’s time to tap into your creativity and your problem-solving mindset instead of feeling sorry for yourself. We’re Americans. We’ve been through wars, shortages, and all sorts of hardships over our history and we’ve come through it stronger and more independent. This is just another challenge for us to accept and conquer. (And remember, a good sense of humor about some failed experiments can go a long way.)
Snacks
Some of the first goods most people opened when the lockdowns began was the snack foods. Potato chips, cookies, and candy have been the first to go in many households. Learning how to make your own from scratch is a great way to pass the time and still have some tasty treats.
Here’s how to make homemade potato chips. And here’s a healthier baked version.
Here are some simple cookie recipes.
Here’s how to make your own candy.
Fresh Produce
Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually the first things to go whenever we on this website have done a stockpile challenge. There are a few ways to get some fresh veggies in without waiting for them to grow in the garden. Sprouting is the very fastest way to get your nutrients and you can do it in any home, in any climate – learn more about it here.
Others are starting seeds to get their gardens going the moment the ground warms up enough to do so. Here’s a guide to gardening on a budget.
You may have to move on to frozen and canned veggies if you aren’t planning a trip to the store soon. Frozen vegetables will be the most like fresh. Canned vegetables may be more welcome if they’re included as ingredients in soups or casseroles.
Bread
If you’ve run out of bread, there’s no better time to learn to make your own, assuming you have the supplies to do so. Look for simple recipes – don’t start out with something super-fancy.
I discovered Gaye Levy’s favorite recipe years ago and this is still my go-to homemade bread to go along with a pot of soup.
You can also easily make pizza dough or biscuits.
If you didn’t pick up these items, make sure to grab yeast, baking powder, and baking soda on your next trip to the store. Or, you can order yeast, baking powder, and baking soda on Amazon. You can also try making your own sourdough starter – here are the instructions.
Milk
If you’ve run out of milk, there isn’t really a substitute unless you have powdered or canned milk. The next time you go to the store, keep in mind that milk can be frozen – just pour out enough to account for expansion when it freezes, thaw it in the refrigerator, and shake well before each use.
You can also pick up some powdered or canned milk from Amazon. With canned milk, you’re looking for evaporated milk, not sweetened condensed milk.
Hair color
Lots of ladies have expressed regret that they didn’t buy any hair color for touching up their roots before everything closed down. While it isn’t salon-quality, you may be able to find a match on Amazon.
I haven’t tried any of these, but this article has 7 natural hair dyes you can try with items you may have on hand.
Alcohol
One thing people are running through far more quickly than they expected is alcohol. Whether that’s wine, beer, or hard liquor, it’s flowing quickly and the folks drinking it have been keeping an eye on their dwindling supplies, dreading the day it runs out.
Now, I’m not promoting alcoholism and you may not have the materials to make a still or ferment your own wine. But in most states, some types of alcohol are still available. If you order food to be delivered to your home (some don’t think it’s worth the risk, while others are unconcerned) many restaurants will also bring wine or beer. In some states, the liquor store is considered an essential business, while in others you’re limited to whatever is available in the grocery store.
Ration, people. Ration.
Patience
Lots of folks have run out of patience, which is something you can’t buy at the store. The kids are fighting, your partner breathes too loudly, and people are feeling cooped up within their four walls.
This, of course, you can’t buy in stores. It’s a good idea to spend some time in your separate corners if your home allows it. Use headphones to listen to music and focus on your own hobbies. Set up virtual playdates for the kids using Facetime or Skype. Break out the old-fashioned games, make some popcorn, and hang out together as a family.
In most places, you can spend some time in nature as long as you keep some distance between yourself and other folks. So a nice walk could help break the monotony or even a hike if you live near a place where that is a possibility. What’s off-limits is going to the playground where other kids will be, congregating together in a group, or having a lot of people (aside from family) together in an enclosed space.
What have you run out of?
Now isn’t the time to feel sorry for yourself if you’ve run out of something of which you wish you’d purchased more. Now is the time for creativity, ingenuity, and a problem-solving mindset. We could be looking at a different way of life for quite some time, even after the lockdown is lifted, due to a change in economic circumstances.
Instead of letting it get you down, see it as a challenge and learn to come up with viable substitutes for any shortages you may encounter.
Is there anything you wish you’d gotten more of before the lockdown? Have you discovered some workarounds you can share with us? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
The county we live in here in Florida has a stay at home order. The only thing we are short on are eggs. Thankfully I purchased some powdered eggs from Amazon two weeks ago. FYI, we haven’t used them yet.
I also live in Florida, though our county on the east coast, is doing nothing to contain this.
Our grocery stores have been out of, for the last two weeks, eggs (except for the expensive ones), flour of all types and brands, canning supplies are there, but low, rice, olive and vegetable oil, cheese of all kinds, milk (except the expensive stuff and even that’s low), all the lysol and clorox stuff, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide and tp, of course, vinegar, aloe gel and liquid, cold meds, fresh lettuce and spinach and salad kits, apples and pears, baby wipes, kleenex and puffs get taken as soon as they’re put on the shelf, pasta sauce and pasta are out, as well as dried beans and lentils, oats, grits and certain dry boxed cereals. Oh yeah, fresh meat is pretty much out unless you get there and they are stocking it. Frozen meat is gone, too, as well as frozen veggies and french fries. This is true for our two Publixes, two Winn Dixies, two Save-a Lots an Aldi, Target & Wal Mart Supercenter. People are coming here from Orlando and are quite disappointed in not finding anything. If you didn’t already prep here, your sunk.
Hi Mary K, I live South of you and the other end of the county. Thank God Brevard County hasn’t ordered a lock down. My local Sav-a-lot has meat. I just bought Beef Brisket for Corned Beef a few days ago. They also had plenty of Milk, some eggs, plenty of butter and cheese. The Wally World had plenty of fruits and veggies and cerals. Give T-ville a chance, food trucks should be arriving.
Brevard has a whooping 11 cases and zero deaths so we’re not like Orlando, Miami or Tampa. Plus those places are democrat run which means it’s poorly run.
I’m fortunate enough to have my own chickens. I have enough eggs for my entire family of fourteen. (Adult kids and grandkids) I sell the extra eggs, and I have four dozen in the incubator.
March/April is my normal time to start stocking up for hurricane season. I’m not really out of anything, have enough food for a couple of months. I sprout for fresh greens, have “landscape” plants for more fresh greens & fruit. I have noticed that when trying to order some seeds for sweet peppers that many were sold out. Potting soil for containers is unavailable at WM – SW FL pretty much requires growing in containers.
I can bake bread, biscuits, tortillas and have wheat berries to grind for flour. I’m 90% vegan so meat is not anything I need and since grocery stores are empty of that I can make Seitan and bean burgers. I cook from scratch with canned tomatoes one of the few processed things I buy. I suppose it helps that I’m in my 70s and have lived thru Cat 4 hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, active volcano ash fall, blizzards, electric being out for days, unemployment, near bankruptcy, life-threatening illness of hubby, other serious medical issues – you know, the common stuff everybody goes thru. It’s just in how you face it – for me, there’s always a bright side. Stay the course, this too will pass and maybe we’ll learn from it.
I wish I had gotten more trees and bushes. If it ever stops raining, I plan to get gardening and yard work done.
I also wish I had more unbleached all purpose flour. I mistakenly bought bleached in January. Oh, well. I will use what I have.
@Grammy, I’ve got seedlings ready to go. I’m in Texas, and we’re having a time with rain too. Hopefully, this will be the last blast of rain for a week ( giving us just enough time to get some stuff planted ). Good luck to you!!
Here in Oklahoma, liquor stores are considered essential. They are allowing delivery until April 17 or so.
I’m not out of anything but I’m running low on cat food. We have an older blind cat & my grandson’s cat. I sat them down & told them how some cats have to eat mice & moles, etc. They just gave me a disgusted look & walked to their food dishes.
Hahahaha!!!! I tried explaining to my dogs that their pampered days of homemade dog food might be numbered but I don’t think they believed me.
Ha! I told my daughter’s dog, a jack Russel/Beagle mix that she needs to get to work. the next day she killed a rat! She received plenty of praise.
That was great…love the sit down talk.
Do you perhaps have some chicken broth the kitties can have or maybe the water out of your tuna can? If you put chicken broth on some bread scraps, they might eat it—after they get over being a sad sack.
Thanks for the laugh! My cat agrees with yours.
My only concern are the crazies that are at the stores. I’ve heard some stories of people fighting in parking lots and brandishing weapons.
I always shop the international markets and other small businesses, so I haven’t run out of food because I always buy in bulk, At one point I didn’t have flour for 2 days though.
I used rice flour to fry my chicken and it came out amazing.
One thing we are running low on is coffee creamer. A totally unnecessary item to some, but valuable to me. I know how to make a DIY substitute ( 2 cans evaporated milk and 1 can condensed milk mixed together in a jar) and we have those on hand *just in case*, but I was thinking that the non flavored coffee creamers might make a really good substitute for milk in cooking. It is refrigerator stable for weeks or even months.
Our area is low on seeds and potting soil. So, those are things I am going to grab when and if I see them. Looks like there might be a lot of victory gardens here in the near future. How lovely!
God bless all of us, the whole world over. Thank you for your amazing information, Daisy.
See if you can buy the shelf-stable coffee creamers online like from Amazon. They’re 1/2 and 1/2 that needs no refrigeration. Good for coffee! Not alas for cereal…….
I have used the unflavored creamer many times in my cooking. I just mix the powdered the same way you do powdered milk. I have also used baby formula that way. When I was on wic we always had some left over at the end of the month and at the time couldn’t even give the stuff away.
I’m almost laughing at this post. We are truly blessed in America to have everything that we have.
I’d told my family a while back that it would go from “what do you want for dinner to what can we have for dinner to what’s left for dinner”. I’ve seen it. I’ll admit I’ve been hungry before but never experienced hunger. I’m extremely blessed.
Potato chips and hair color and talking about it wow lol
I totally see your point, Matt. This was meant to be a little bit light-hearted as opposed to all the deeply distressing news I’ve reported on lately. 🙂 Sometimes we need a break from despair, looming poverty, and disease, ya know?
Well I got the lecture on “look good feel good” from the women in my life on it so……LOL
Lots of people who wanted to bake bread when the stores ran out have said they either cant find or didn’t stock yeast. I wish I bought more chocolate and more oatmeal. Oatmeal is sold out everywhere.
If they can find flour, tell them to look for beer! Make beer bread. You do not need yeast. 🙂 There are also recipes for fry bread, etc that do not use yeast. Oatmeal did run out early everywhere. I remember trying to get some back in mid Feb, being concerned and it was hard to find then even.
Stalk WalMart online daily. I got a quantity of Quaker Oats by chance last weekend.
Also, do you have any bulk stores nearby? I’m not talking Costco. I get a lot of pantry goods from a locally owned bulk store. Oatmeal, freeze dried whole eggs and powdered eggs for baking. All purpose flour, bread flour. They even had wheat berries a few years ago with a store grinder. That may magically reappear!
Jenny, if there are any Amish or Mennonite-owned stores in your area, try those. I found a good supply of rolled oats there about a week ago in PA.
My biggest problem is getting the flour that I ordered 3 weeks ago and after hours on the phone at beginning of each week told on backorder and should be in soon. Nothing so far. I am friends with a chicken farmer who keeps us in eggs.i have about 5 to 6 month supply refrigerated. Because of location, no one has any gardening supplies, dirt, peat moss etc which would require I drive into a major city to Lowe’s. Even our walmart has nothing till may and we are just not going out. Both high risk. Just making due with what I have on hand. We container garden because we are in a rental house. For protection we are moving all of our containers to the fenced back yard. Also both vehicles are filled with gas but need gas and oil and stabilizer for the mover. Grass is going crazy with all the rain. Not quite sure how we will tackle this. Last year our younger neighbor mowed for us in exchange for using our mower. Worked well. We could leave supply money for him on the porch. We are well stocked but afraid to order anything with all the cases at amazon. We heavily lysol spray all boxes and contents on the porch before we bring anything in. Probably overkill but better to be safe. They’re saying the virus stayed alive in the empty cruise ships for 17 days.
We have to big dogs that go through about 50 lbs a month. We stocked for 3 months before walmart put limits. Their treats will run out so I will be baking dog biscuits.
One last thought if you have flour no knead bread is easy. 3 c flour, 1/2 t yeast, 1 t salt. 1 1/2 c hot water. Mix to sticky. Cover in plastic or lid 3 hours. Roll over couple times on floured board, shape and rest half hour while oven heats. If you want crispy crust heat Dutch oven 450 oven, drop in on parchment paper, put on lid and bake. You can bake 30 min and remove lid for 15 for very crispy, leave lid on 45 min for chewy or bake in a loaf pan at four 400 degrees till sounds hollow. More like slicing loaf bread. This recipe is so forgiving. I change out different flours, toppings, fruit nuts or seasoning contents or even form rolls. You can leave it sit to rise longer than 3 hours and it is just room temp on counter, not looking for a warm spot. Even adapted it to sour dough when I run low on yeast. I usually bake about every 2 days. We eat a slice of bread for snack or make our own potato chips or crackers. Saving all my fat, bacon, chicken, beef, pork and lamb separate and rendering for cooking. Dogs love the strained out cracklings on their dinner. Also making bone and veg broths from all leftovers once a week. That gives us a good soup base for soup for a few meals and lunches to intersperse with the canned. Any extra I freeze. Can also be canned. Good luck. Be creative. Get your kids involved and make feeding your family fun.
Recent reports from informed medical/infectious disease experts say washing hands, cans, bottles, outside of boxes with soapy water – doesn’t even have to be hot water – will destroy the outer coating on viruses. It’s what we’re doing, plus leaving the plastic bags outside (looks messy on our enclosed front porch but who cares) for 3 days, viruses should be dead by then.
Thanks for the bread recipe – I’ll give it a try this weekend.
Personally, we do not purchase milk very often…usually only when I have a plan to make something that requires it. What I do (lockdown or no) is always make sure to have a good supply of almond milk and coconut milk. I get mine at Trader Joe’s, but any that shelf stable for storage would be fine. I don’t know why I often see almond milk in the fridge at the grocery store, so I don’t know if it’s the same or if that type, for some reason, requires refrigeration for storage. Anyway, it’s not exactly milk but it works for all our needs. I also found real shelf stable milk at the dollar store before this all ramped up. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s too late to get this kind of stuff now, but it sure it handy to have milk ready that never goes bad (I open it up sometimes years past it’s exp. date and it’s always fine).
Trail mix.
Yep, that is my “potato” chip of choice.
Getting low on that.
Other than that, we have a well stocked pantry, as winter storms up here can be brutal.
But Covid19, I made an early assessment back in February and we stocked up back then. Rice, flour, yeast, pasta, dried beans, salt, flour, bulk whole pepper corns, coffee, tea and a whole lot more.
Now, just waiting for spring to really get here. Was looking good, then got 5 inches of snow the other day.
If you’re looking for trail mix or a granola to munch on, there is a recipe by Alton Brown on FoodNetwork for his granola. THE BEST recipe I’ve found. Sub your ingredients to taste. I make a pan of this and store it in a tight lid Rubbermaid container.
Thank you for the laughs. What a good way to get the morning going. We have not run out of anything but then we strategically bought last week. If you and or the kids are going stir crazy go to https://app.gonoodle.com/ for some fun exercise. Ok it is designed for brain breaks in the classroom but some are really great workouts. Most are free, you just need to sign up. We discovered the food dryer is broken yesterday after cutting apples to dry. OUCH. Time to use the oven.
Some things are coming in or trucks still but are getting bought out almost as soon as the store opens. Many stores are putting limits on how much of each product you can buy. Things that have been out: dairy, eggs, milk, cleaning products and hand sanitizer, paper products, flour, sugar, rice (I think beans have been low also), pasta and sauce, bottled water, meat, and canned goods. There has been plenty of fresh produce in the stores in my area. I have also been working on the yard and garden although I still work since my job is an essential business. Almost all the “preppier” food is sold out online including bulk wheat and freeze dried food. I’m thankful that we were not running out of much. I wish we had land good for a dairy goat.
Our stores in upstate NY are short on the usual paper and cleaning products, as well as rice, pasta, flour, sugar, and yeast. I’m running low on yeast so have been searching for it on my weekly shop.
Because of having “Prepper Sense ” (like Spidey Sense), I started identifying gaps in my preps back in January and filled in while supplies were plenty. Except the yeast! Forgot about that.
Prices on *everything* are significantly higher, even in high-volume large chains.
In NY, alcohol has to be sold in a dedicated store (not grocery stores) but our governor determined that liquor stores are an essential service and can stay open despite he shutdown, and they have been pretty well stocked, so I’m in good shape with wine. 🙂
Now for three weeks now, no store in my area has had toilet paper… are you guys saying you do not need any or what ???????? Strange …….
I think toilet paper substitutes is going to have to be a whole new article.
showers, have you heard of them?
😉
I’m running out of patience with all the fear porn.
But – we are getting to know our neighbors. Met the guy next door for the first time, very amiable fellow. His daughters are home from UVA because Gov. Blackface Klansman closed all the colleges.
He and I agreed to keep an eye out for each other and let each other know if any suspicious folks come poking around (not likely, conservative suburb of Richmond Va). I’m actually thinking about having a little cookout and inviting the adjacent neighbors to our property – social distancing be damned.
After my parents vacationed in Europe, where they first encountered bidets, they installed two in their home.
The wife and I joked about getting one.
We are not joking now and seriously looking!
You dont need a separate bidet. Both Kohler and Toto make a toilet with a rinse and even gentle dry arm.
Both quite pricey but no need for extra plumbing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJZuZzU2Vsg
TP humor! And substitutes!
There are substitutes for TP.
Have you tried Piccata?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ftOKO0nx-w
Yup
tuesdayissoylentgreenday there is nothing strange about constant preparedness at all. I didn’t need to binge buy TP because we stocked it then months ago when we heard about the virus we started increasing normal buying limits slightly.
It’s a lifestyle
Well Matt , I guess I should have also included my usual sarcasm btn on at the end of the sentence. it would have saved you some time… carry on
We cannot find any toilet paper at any of our stores . The hoarders wait for the trucks to come in, in the parking lot at 9am. They wait till the truck is unloaded, and in 2 hours they buy all of it. They come in in a huge mob. These are small towns. The shelves are wiped clean for three days. Then they start all over.
I buy very little food at Walmart, but went in last week to view the train wreck. It was stunning. In addition to the items mentioned above, my Walmart did not have any potatoes. The snack food aisle was over-filled.
The frozen food cases were all empty. Apparently we have more healthful hoarders than I thought.
Vitamin B6 is out everywhere, whether Walmart or not. Looks like a lot of Clif High/Webbot fans got it.
Just kidding. EmergenC is out also.
Both my Walmarts are near distribution centers. it didn’t look to me that these centers were distributing anything. The hardware one (can’t remember if its TrueValue or Ace) has so many parked semis that each space was taken, plus semis were parked perpendicular to those (2 rows) , plus they were parked down the road to the side of the center. The Walmart distribution center looked all parked too, but I could see movement the following week, plus a few driving on Interstate 80.
The following week it was obvious that restocking was taking place, but only to 1about 10%. The chips and junk food were still 100%.
According to IceAge Farmer last fall, canneries were closing because there was nothing to can, and now can makers are going out of business due to lack of demand. I think this pandemic was a pretty convenient cover for something else; like possibly food shortages.
An idea I found online I got really excited about: cut the root ends off your green onions leaving about an inch or so. Place them root down in a dish of water leaving the top exposed. Change the water daily and in two weeks they will have grown to the size of the original green onions.! I have three dishes going on my windowsill now. I may never have to buy green onions again. We are also sprouting broccoli seeds for salads and cilantro on the windows sill.
I’m doing that with celery – don’t get real stalks but tall enough, about 4″ after a week to use as an addition to salads, stir fry, etc for the taste. Also doing that with iceberg lettuce core (I know but I use it as a base for my 6 cup dinner salad), started it in water and now is in a pot outside. I think I’ll have a mini-head in about 2/5-3 weeks. My from seed romaine is about 1″ tall and this year I’ll only harvest leaves so should grow for a long time.
Please note: I believe Baking POWDER contains aluminum — which one may wish to avoid building up in your body.
There is a company that makes aluminum free baking powder. I just don’t remember who it is….anybody on here know?
Found it! It’s “Argo double acting” … available (maybe) on Amazon. You might find it locally as well….
and Red Mill
https://www.amazon.com/Bobs-Red-Mill-Baking-Soda/dp/B004VLV2V0
Rumford has an aluminum free baking powder.
Years ago, I looked at the ingredients list of baking powder, and saw that the active ingredient is … baking soda. Haven’t used baking powder in years.
As a long time prepper, I am not running low on almost anything, except fresh veggies, like onions, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, etc. I have canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, so we are good on that. Have about a year of toilet paper stocked up, and Puffs Plus, as well as cleaners, so we are good for a long time. We have frozen meat to last about 6 weeks, so hopefully things will be getting back to normal by then. Personally, I am not worried. I am more concerned about the “powers that be” trying to usurp new powers, and NOT ALLOWING us to get back to normal. Starting seeds indoors, and hopefully planting outside soon, if the rain has finally stopped! Prayers to everyone!!!
PS. We are not drinkers, hardly ever imbibe, but we do have a stash of beer, wine and harder liquor we plan to use as a barter item. We also have chickens, and have started eggs in the incubator. First hatch gave us 10 baby chicks. Second hatch will be in 3 weeks (just started it last night,) Making bread today and will try making hot dog buns in a few days.
How is the cereal supply in stores?
We are eating more hot cereal to reduce bread consumption.
My wife bakes delicious bread but good flour is hard to find.
Can brewers yeast be used as bakers yeast? The Frontier yeast flakes cannot be used for bread baking!
Apparently, yes. 🙂 https://pastrychefonline.com/baking-with-brewers-yeast/
Yes you can.
BTW, let your dough rise over night in the fridge or a day or two.
It will have a slightly alcohol (this is even with normal bread yeast) smell to it, but does not impart a alcohol flavor to the bread.
What it does do, is your bread will go longer before mold sets in. Like up to a week in a plastic bag in the pantry.
My wife made bread without letting it rest overnight, and it went moldy in 3 days.
I was in San Antonio on Monday for a medical appoint which got canceled two hours before I was suppose to be there. So I took my mother who lives in San Antonio shopping. She is 81 years old.
The moral of the story deals with the Haves and the Have Nots. Central Market grocery store was well stocked although there were a few limits on some items. The HEB by mother’s house had lots of bare shelves. The middle eastern store across town was full of people, product and no restrictions on how much you could purchase. This is over by the money part of town. The HEB by my mother’s house had people standing out in the hot sun for their turn to go into the store and had limits on what they could buy. The other stores did not restrict people to be outside.
I belong to a co op that I rarely used due to its hours, but yesterday I picked up four gallons of raw milk. I keep hearing this is another shortage. This co op is outside of San Antonio which I use when I have trips to visit my family. It is also in a rich area. I buy very little from them due to my lower income, but the milk is convenient for pick up on the way back out to west Texas. It is the same price as when I go to Miller’s Farm. There is no real shortage of milk. The same amount is being produced as it was a month ago.
I have chickens, ducks and turkeys. I have been giving away eggs to friends and family. That is the one thing they say they have a hard time getting. The other thing is more an American Dad thing. My dad has to have his sliced white bread from the store. Luckily we have some friends that are keeping an eye for a loaf to bring my parents when they see it. As for me, I am good for the year.
My elderly FIL is in west Texas and they have an HEB. We ordered online from HEB to have it delivered to his house. We figured it would be easier that trying to explain to him how to do curb side pick up. The good news is that HEB is not charging the $5.00 delivery fee during the Covid-19 issue but we did include a $5.00 tip. We were able to order quite a few things but there is no guarantee that all of them will be in stock on the delivery day. We had to sign up for a delivery date/time that was 5-6 days out. The delivery day is 2 days from now so waiting to see how it turns out.
I ate a whole bag of Golden Oreos in the first week at home. The creamy insides gave me diarrhea, so I used up an extra 3 days of toilet tissue in one week. But I have plenty. I ate all my Hershey bars too. Thankfully my daughter hung a bag of Pay Day bars on my door knob today. I am 67 and have cancer so I won’t go out. It’s a good thing too, or I might buy more Oreos.
You might be able to find milk in your grocery store in asceptic (or tetra) packaging. I picked up a few at our grocery store a few weeks ago. This is the kind of packaging you get in Europe for milk. Here a site where you can check in your state for who produces milk in this kind of packaging:https://www.dairyfoods.com/directories/7376-dairy-plants-usa/topic/105511-aseptic-packaging
I found most people don’t think to look for milk this way.
Also, in Costa Rica, they had only lowfat milk. Well, I’d grown accustomed to my half-and-half, so asked someone who’d been there longer than me…you can get a can of Dulce de Leche in the stores there, which is similar to cream. Not sure where you live, but for doctoring your coffee, you might try that.
Another Floridian here. Looks like laundry soap is on the endangered commodity list. Dish soap has been on it for awhile. Publix has limits on many items and for ground beef you need to go to the meat counter. Paper goods are coming in but it is hit or miss. I just went the Amazon route and expecting deliveries for dish soap ( from Germany ) and TP from probably China in a month or so. And yes people from the rural areas where there is one or 2 stores are coming in to the cities hoping to find things.
I’ve been looking at sour dough recipe the past few days. Are there some good ones for the and whole wheat?
So here we are in a TEOWAWKI crisis. I loved the original “Star Trek”, the episode which this crisis brings to mind was called “The Tholian Web” , the Enterprise could represent America, the trap has been laid, we have been ensnared in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLBXfKDbbI&feature=emb_title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNB6fniJnJQ
I am out of patience. But we worked hard today getting the greenhouse going and our very first attempt at Stout gardening. I reassured them, a little elbow grease now, will save us a lot of elbow grease later. Thank God we haven’t run out of elbow grease yet.
I also rewarded them with mac n cheese and hot dogs (the cauliflower was met with less enthusiasm) and we broke open a 2 liter cola treat. Lots of praise and atta boys to kids and adults for their hard work. We have also designated Sunday nights for a Disney night. Last Sunday it was Swiss Family Robinson. That was a treat for all of us.
I found a couple dozen cans of evaporated milk from 2015 that I did not want to waste so I made coffee creamer with it. Add 16 oz. water to each 12 oz of milk. Add vanilla and sugar as desired.
Wish I had a little more potting soil but I’ll squeeze thru. I definitely see a run on heirloom.seed.
I don’t even know what our store is out of, because I haven’t been there in weeks. Eating what we’ve got, leaving whats on the shelves for the people who need it more. My husband went for fix-a-flat for the tractor and picked up chips and cucumbers.
Running out of alcohol is a thing. I have 3 separate stocks: nice stuff available on the counter which will get drank at one drink per day until it’s gone. Cheap stuff on the shelf I use for deodorant and disinfectant, which will last over a year for those purposes and anybody would have to be desperate to try and drink it. And nice stuff hidden under the bed, to pull out when the other stuff ran out long ago and my husband has had more than enough toddler for the week.
i’m MORE worried about people’s attitudes nowadays, when i HAVEN’T run out of anything. just look on fakebook and see what people think of someone that had 10 small bags of rice to give away. HOARDER, they called her, and as i was about to post “how do you know how LONG she’s had that rice?”, the original poster spoke up that she had bought it for thanksgiving to make christmas gifts with it. there is SOO much hate and vitriol on the web now, it’s quite obvious, people are losing it ALREADY.
peanut butter, it’s my favorite shtf food….don’t run out of it!
tomatoes and tomato sauce
cornmeal
flour
sugar, brown sugar
tabasco sauce
oats
BBQ sauce
popcorn and seasoning
olives, black
canned chilli
canned soups…my favorite, cream of mushroom
cake mix, 7up or sprite, and canned fruit…to make cobbler, apple or cherry is MY faves(google that) pie filling will be GREAT shtf food…..NObody has enough canned fruit stored.
honey
syrup
vinegar
shortening/corn oil
soy sauce…teriyake
beef/chicken bullion
tuna, spam(don’t stack it very high)
powdered eggs
well, that’s enough for now….u guys add to it and i will see if i want to add anything to MY stores…remember, this list is like a thousand lawyers chained to eachother at the bottom of the ocean……a place to START….
we order vitimins and minerals from Swanson.. here’s a whole page of B6
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/b-vitamins?kw=vit+b6
husband just restocked everything needed for each of us.
https://twentytwowords.com/costco-is-refusing-to-accept-returns-for-toilet-paper/
very odd. some places out of TP and others have this happening..haha
I totally forgot about the fish and had to get water conditioner to clean tank… Also forgot about coffee filters…
Otherwise we are doing well….
Noticeing TP, bottled water hand sanitizer, dry pasta and sauce and frozen frozen veggies were first to go in stores.
Al
S long as the power and internet stays on we are good… Otherwise yikes.
milk…didn’t freeze any.
thanks for the great tips, i like people that help other people .
Almost out of milk but we have powdered milk as well as powdered creamer. Did major shopping in February and feel we’re in good shape. Although there’s a few things I’d like to have, we have substitutes so no big deal….running low on fresh fruit/veggies, but we have frozen, sour cream, tortilla chips but we have extra frozen tortillas so could make sub, have frozen bread dough and ingredients to make fresh. Big missing is soil for my additional raised beds I am adding this year. Still hoping for bulk delivery since most are buying bags at big box stores. I understand running out of patience…but find a good walk helps.
I just bought my house less than 3 weeks ago- very interesting to close on a house in the midst of a pandemic! So because I had been traveling and was mostly overseas, I didn’t have furniture, kitchen ware etc. I’ve had to scramble to buy some stuff, mostly online(I love my UPS and Fed Ex guys who are doing such an awesome job, may they stay healthy!). I also don’t have a freezer; considered one a month ago but wasn’t sure about the measurements and thought I’d wait til after the house closing. Ha ha! Little did I know that everyone in the country would buy out the freezers; long long list of people waiting for one now. So will use other food preservation methods this summer I guess. Also wish I had some furniture! Do have a few dining table chairs I got at a yard sale and a small folding table. Sleeping on my roll-up camping futon on the floor. Not exactly a good time to go shopping for furniture and yard/garage sales will be a while here in the frozen north. But it’s home and warm and life is good!
I like your attitude!!! You’re going to succeed.
“Here in the United States, many of us are in this strange kind of limbo called “lockdown.” Other states call it “social distancing,” and still others call it “sheltering in place.”
You imply these terms mean the same thing depending on where one lives in the US. However, they are totally different in meaning and application.
Eggs, bread and of course paper products were all out here, I have heard there is some stock coming in now. We have plenty of paper products, I bake my own bread , so eggs were the only thing I felt I wasn’t prepared for. Mind you, we have our backyard chickens (3) , but they are getting to be old ladies and only lay when they are in the mood. I learned my lesson! I ordered chicks arriving today! And every year will cull and rotate my hens with some new additions. My biggest gap in my preps (so far) will be rectified. I will also get some freeze dried for shelf storage once that inventory starts to be available again!
Stay safe!
Homemade seed starting mix… equal parts coconut coir or peat/spaghnum moss, perlite and mushroom compost. Wet the coconut coir or moss to rehydrate it, dampen the perlite to cut dust. Can add earthworm castings if available or Biotone Starter Plus. Make sure consistency is very fine with no lumps.
Homemade potting mix…. equal parts peat moss, pine bark and mushroom compost. Add earthworm castings if available.
For garden soil Lowes has a decent topsoil about $2 a bag. Add peat moss, pine bark and mushroom compost to the topsoil. This should give a good consistency. Mulch heavily (6 -8″ of mulch) around the plants to cut down on weeds and conserve water.
I have been redoing our container garden tubs. I start with a layer of gravel for better drainage, then a layer of pine bark for moisture retention, then the garden or potting soil mix, depending on the size of the container and what is going to be planted.
Here in NW Florida, TP, paper towels, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, Clorox anything gone. Milk and eggs starting to come back on the shelves. Sandwich meats/cheese spotty.. but available ..Hamburger hard to find, but available for greatly increased prices. Bread in limited supply except for hamburger/hotdog buns. Canned meats/veggies/fruits available but you may have to go to more than 1 store to find what you need.
We were well stocked before January, but have added to the canned goods stockpile. We ordered a year’s supply of vitamins and supplements. Are increasing hubbie’s stock of prescription meds. Got a dehydrator… Have also added more cat and dogfood and increased the amount of on hand livestock feeds. Grateful spring is here and the grass/brush the goats eat is available for forage.
A nice, big, green salad would be lovely! Other than that, we are making do with what we have. No grocery store trips. Have planted some seeds inside to get garden started and sprouts.
The most annoying thing to happen here has been a broken washing machine. Thankfully I had a wonder wash, so am just doing by hand and wearing stuff that is easy to wash by hand. Since we are not going out in public, it is much easier than it would be otherwise.
Here in this part of the midwest, groceries are overflowing with plenty of fresh produce, cheeses, and fruits. Wheat bread is in short supply, but plenty of white bread at the local Aldi. I have wheat flour and know how to bake, so I am not worried. Chicken is almost nonexistent, but the meat departments are slowly being restocked with beef and pork as they become available.
Kids are home from college, so I am having a hard time with the chips, pretzels, cookie supply in the kitchen cupboard, although those items are in the stores.
Homemade baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp corn starch
Makes 1 tsp baking powder equivalent
I’ve been a prepper for a long time so was lucky to have most of what I needed already. I did stock up on typical things prior to the start of the panic just because I was running low on some things. We did a pantry challenge in January so I knew the items I was short on. A pantry challenge is great practice to see how long you can eat at home from your supplies without buying anything more than produce and dairy. A good time to use the older things from your pantry. No eating out. (Make your own rules.)
One helpful hint I have is in stocking up milk, look for the organic milk. They have crazy long dates on them if they are ultra-pasteurized. I usually keep 6-8 half gallons in my extra fridge for convenience sake. (Out in the boonies – we shop 45 miles away) The ones I have now have a date of May 12. They are crazy expensive but we mostly drink regular milk. Keeping the organic milk means my grandbabies never have to go without and I can go longer between shopping trips. Besides they taste awesome! 1% tastes a lot like whole milk. And I never have to run to the store if a storm is coming. (Living in blizzard country)
We’re on quarantine day 10. If there is any upside at all to this quarantine, it is that some people are realizing what they need to do to be better prepared. Knowledge at a terrible cost. Keep safe everyone!
I’m from West Virginia. We have zero virus deaths across 55 counties and confirmed cases in about ten counties. The majority of the cases are in one nursing home. Almost a non-event here. The same amount of people are seen open carrying pistols in Walmart as usual. Gas is $1.90 per gallon and getting cheaper each day. The stores were initially depleted of toilet paper, frozen pizzas, eggs, and then canned goods but that stuff is getting back to normal levels each day. It reminded me of people buying for a blizzard. About 35% of daytime FM stations from WV and PA are now broadcasting religious programming instead of music. Our governor waived fishing licenses and encouraged residents to get out and enjoy the woods. Life goes on.
I have purchased my quarts of UHT milk that lasts over a year without refrigeration. I always keep some available no matter what is going on outside. There are dollar stores that have it for $1 per quart. It comes in skim. 2% and regular.
Here in the UK,we are locked down,so to speak. Last night I got laid off.We have been ( my wife and I) self isolated for the last ten cays with very obvious virus symptoms.We are definitely getting better!
Anyhow,we are well stocked,but we are beginning to see gaps.Fresh vegetables and the likes.I am pleased to say that we have been able to put together a bag of ‘ groceries ‘ for my wife’s elderly parents from our pantry.However,she has told her brothers to pitch in too,as our incomes and savings are going to take a hit: big time!
On the plus side,I get to spend time with my wife,and I am catching up with chores.My vegetable garden will be more important than ever this year!
Good luck to you all wherever you may be.
We are doing good here in NH so far. I have purchased more food before this event came about. I had already starting making my own bread before Winter so every week I make bread. If I can’t get yeast I will make unleavened bread “cookies” My husband loves them in his soups. This eliminates the need for crackers. They are also just fine by themselves. Not the greatest “bread” but if you need something like bread there it is. I also have been searching out different food options online in bulk. I hope everyone out there is doing well. Thanks Daisy for all your work!!
I can’t regularly eat eggs or other sulfur foods. Instead, I make oatmilk- 1 cup in a quart canning jar- fill with water- soak overnight- blend – squeeze through a cloth. You end up with oatmilk and the ground up, wet oats that I call ‘oat curds.” 2 T oat curds = medium egg in any baked recipe. And oatmilk can substitute 1 for 1 in any recipe. I love to make oatmilk puddings because it naturally thickens itself much like milk. Stay safe everyone and Wash Your Hands!
I recently joined Rebel Canners, a group on Facebook (yea, I know, the evil FB). People comment and share info from all over the world. I learned how to can milk, cream, butter, cheese, all sorts of meats, potatoes, banana bread. Very interesting site.
For milk alternatives – you can make almond milk if you have almonds and you can make your own coconut milk if you have coconut flakes. There are recipes online.
Excellent Advice and recipes. Thank you.
I’m no prepper, but I do have a cache of canned soup because I bought a lot of it when I was eating it to lose weight. Back in the first week of March I decided to “close the border” and hole up for at least a month. I filled my refrigerator and freezer. Now in the sixth week, my fresh food is down to four eggs and a few onions and potatoes. Still plenty of frozen veggies and lasagna, plus my 100+ cans of “Chunky”-style soup. But I overlooked SPICES! I’m out of red pepper and trivial as it sounds, that stings a little. I wanted to lay in some acidophilus milk but no-one seems to carry it anymore. I find it lasts far longer than ordinary milk before it sours.
Rice…no stores have any rice around me. I had to resort to a small bag of organic brown rice because that was all I could find between three different stores in town.