Econony and buying extra food

We've seen the marks of the economy and how food prices are rising. That's the reason I'm putting in my Freedom Garden. I mentioned in a previous post all that I'm planting, so I won't go over that here. We've also been stock piling canned goods and gluten free noodles. There are several survivalist sites where you can get dehydrated basics like eggs, cheese, etc. I even found a place that has several varieties of gluten free MRE's. Right now we're just piling boxes of canned goods in the house. I have the floor of my pantry lined with banker's bokes. My bedroom closet has a few boxes in it. I have 3 dresser drawers that didn't have clothes in them, packed with food. We have also been stocking up on bottled water.

As a way of conserving, we put a 55 gallon drum at the corner of our house where the rain drips down the most. We learned a lesson over the winter: cover the top with a mesh. We went to clean out the water, and it smelled like something had died in it from all the debris. My husband (bless his soul) carried all the water over to my compost by the buckets full. My Father-in-law, when he was here delivering compost for my garden, put the pompus grass from the yard into the compost along with a huge bag of leaves. My husband added another bag of leaves today. My Father-in-law says not to touch it beyond watering it everyday, for about 6 weeks and then I can start turning it.

We know that the economy will price alot of people right out of buying food, or else make them choose between utilities and food, we just don't know when. We don't want to have to make that choice. That's why we're stocking up. Luckily we have an Aldi's nearby, but even they are going up in price. When they first opened here (new to Texas), they were offerning milk for 99 cents a gallon. That, of course, forced Walmart to lower their prices. By the way, Aldi's opened up right across the street from Walmart. We decided to keep our receipts to prove that prices have gone up. But that's not something I'm going to post here, as regions differ.

As I plan my garden, using the square foot method, I'm planning to have an abundance so that I can can the left overs. I've never canned anything except stewed tomatoes (and that only once totally by myself). But, I have a Betty Crocker cookbook, an older model, and it lists how to can. I planted corn so I can have corn if I don't eat it all. I hope to have lots of tomatoes left over so I can do my own garden stewed tomatoes, or at least add them to it. We have a Mexican store that sometimes puts tomatoes at a really low price, and I gobble them up for canning. I just don't know if this summer 1) they will have them at a really low price or 2) I want to BUY fresh tomatoes to do the canning. I may decide to use only what I have and put my money to canned goods.