So long term preparedness is something that has to be taught to most but growing up in my family we seem have always 'stocked up' so I've had that mindset since a kid.

Fast forward to now, we are buying a house (as I'm sure you've been following the blog that I need to update tonight) that is 45 minutes away from the nearest wal-mart, 1 hour away from home depot, and those types of places. There are tiny local lumber stores, and hardware stores but nothing like you find in a 'city'. The city also has small grocery store or two (general stores) and a few restaurants.... Nothing like the city that has stores open 24/7.

So, the other thread about keeping bread, eggs, etc on hand got me thinking that people that live 1 hour from where I do now are technically more prepared for long-term related issues than MOST people in the city simply due to where they live.

Again, this is just grouping everyone together as I`m sure many people who live in the new area we are moving to (we hope) don't stock up on much more than the average city person and a lot may still eat out.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting observation to share that some people are more prepared simply due to the nature of their lifestyle... and others like myself and family are just prepared because of our upbringing

Anyway, enough rambling

Time to end this with a question for all to keep discussion going.

Does anyone else stock something because of their location or the way they were brought up? (Feel free to share 1 or more :))

If so then share what it is and why you do it.

One I can think of for me is Quaker Oats, I buy it when it's $1 off or so stores for long and provides good food since I eat it daily

"...stock something because of their location..."

Yup. Because of our nomadic lifestyle, often volunteering at places that are far from the beaten path, we are sure to keep a goodly supply of vittles on hand. To that end, when we bought our new home on wheels, we picked a model with a "laundry room," a closet sized space designed for a small RV washer/drier. What we put in it is an apartment sized freezer, with a portable ice maker on top of it. That way, we can make a run to something like Costco, pick up a couple hundred dollars worth of high quality meat and freeze most of it. A like amount of lesser quality meats would cost something like $500 in the more local to our location grocery stores. We figure that the first load of Costco meats paid for the freezer, and as an added bonus we don't have to go shopping all that often.

Side note, back in the '90's a freak storm caused a bridge on I-5 in central CA to go down, closing 5 in both directions. It also took out many smaller bridges on local roads which went back into canyons to the west of 5. Most of the people living up there, 45 minutes or more from town, did so in order to be "independent." Three days after all this happened, our helicopter, which was needed to help search for missing persons from the I-5 bridge collapse, had to divert to take some Quarter Pounders with cheese to those independent folks, who were reportedly starving to death. In THREE days!!!

I remember seeing on TV some Katrina urbanite "survivors" whining and moaning because they had to eat "cold military good". These whiners wanted - no demanded they "needed" hot food. I guess hey should have left when told to go, or at least supplied there own emergency foods. They should have been thankful they had anything, since they had not prepred for them selves. IMHO, real country folks are far better prepared for emergencies, than city folk, and wannabe country folk.

Raised as a spoiled suburb kid with replacement everything a few minutes away, I am still working on skills to begin to approach what a country, farm-raised person knows already from the experience of their childhood.

I always was into Scouting and backpacking on my own, and now take survival /primitive skills courses. I feel my biggest lack is hunting / trapping / butchering.

I had stocked about 4 months of food, water, and supplies but my impending move has led me to drop about a month of the less palatable food supply. Most of my stuff, inclusding tools, is now in a storage space.

It ain't easy being a city boy trying to be prepared - but it is kind of fun!

I store supplies for a couple of reasons:

I remember the stories of the great depression and of WW2 rationing that my grandparents told me as a child.

Having worked for my Uncle Sammy for 22 years and 5 months, I well know better than to trust or depend on any form of government to bail me out of trouble.

Being away from home 2/3rd's of each year, I am compelled to ensure that my family has everything they would need in an emergency since I will probably not be home when I am needed there.

Having a special needs child and mother living with us has reinforced all of the above.

Every location has it's STOBAR!!!!

I concur. Insiders have the best view of this.

Sigh. I'm still working on my wife with the whole food storage thing. We had a fight because I wanted to buy a $00.50 can of soup to replace the one we had eaten the week before. 50 freakin cents is all it would have taken to make me happy.

Most of you fine folks know that I am head of a large prepardness group, so I am talking about this ALL the time..
So ths is nothing new to me I started when I was 16, my Mom was a WWII baby (1942) and remembers rationing from her Dad.
Two friends of mine were delivering to La. and was turned away at the Texas state line, so that's one of the reasons why everybody was whineing about no hot food, my family could survive for 4 months before we need to worry about replacing things

Aside from preps for just in case. I stock up for two primary reasons.

First my folks grew up through the depression. A well stocked pantry was always a must. A pantry with at least several months worth of staples plus assorted odds and ends was the norm. Not only for them but also most of those around us. I was taught that was how it was done.

Second is economical. You stock up when things you regularly use when they are on sale. And now making fewer trips to the store adds up. Now you think about saving gas because of its price. I only live about a 15 minute drive from major chain stores. There is also the saving in time. There really isn't much difference in time between a full cart and a couple of things. Call it an hour to an hour and a half for a quick trip. Time to and from the store. The time to get around the store. Then the time in line. With a full cart call it 2 maybe 2 1/2 hours. Consider the savings when you make the trip once or at most twice a month verses 3 or 4 times a week.

One of those cylinders of oats contain about thirty half-cup servings. And those servings are pretty good sized. One serving and a piece of fruit, usually either a banana, apple or half an avocado, makes a nice breakfast.

In a disaster there isn't any requirement that it be cooked. Soaking pretty much does it. Heating after soaking works well and saves on fuel.

Oatmeal provides roughage, lowers cholesterol, and keeps you regular. Oatmeal is good stuff.

Toss in a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter and your well on your way to having the meals covered.