Providing Food to Your Family During Unemployment
- By Tom Selwick
- Published 03/25/2011
- Food and Drink
- Unrated
It is very important to prepare for difficult financial times by building up a large enough food storage for your family to survive on alone for at least three months. Many people think that food storage is only important for natural disasters.
While it is important to have for this reason, most families in the United States end up using their food storage when the primary breadwinner loses his or her job. While the breadwinner searches for another job, the family is forced to live on the items they have collected previously.
However, if you are caught unprepared for this situation or if you have used up your previous supply, there are many places that you can find free food as long as the rest of your town is not in the same dire situation. If most of the people in the surrounding area are also short on this item, you will find it difficult to find things you can eat, let alone things that are edible and free.
The first place you may want to look is at stores that offer samples of various items. For example, Costco offers a variety of samples of nutritious items than may feed your family for one night if you have a membership card from when you were still working.
Another option you may want to choose is signing up to be a mystery shopper. This means that you will be paid or compensated to go and try out various stores and restaurants.
Sometimes you will be asked to pose a complaint to see how the store does in regards to customer service. After your visit, you will need to fill out a report on what your experience was like.
The information you provide will be used for marketing research and for the company's use. It will tell them the areas that they can improve on and what they did well.
Not only can you enjoy delicious meals this way, but you may even be paid for it. Another alternative you may want to look into if you live close to the outskirts of a town or city is foraging.
Foraging is when you search for and gather edible foodstuffs in
the wild. In the forest, you may be able to find a variety of fruits, vegetables, mushrooms and nuts.
Of course, this will be much more difficult during the winter if there is a lot of snow on the ground. These things can provide you and your family with a lot of nutrition.
You can pick up many foraging skills by reading online, attending guided wild food tours, and so forth. Of course, you will want to be very careful to make sure that you do not make a mistake and eat something that you should not as you will probably not be able to afford the medical bills.
If you have a little money left for food, there are many ways that you can make this money go much further. One of the ways is to strategically use coupons in an effective manner.
In some cases, you can collect enough coupons that you will be able to get a whole bunch of free food from a grocery store. There are many coupon sites that you could join online that offer extra coupons for your area.
In addition, you will probably receive more coupons in the mail, or you can sign up to receive coupons from your favorite companies. As you surf the web for great deals, you will probably come across a variety of offers from free items.
Create a junk email and sign up to receive these free offers. These offers may be cereal samples, granola bars, or other fun snacks that your children will enjoy tremendously.
Of course, you can always go back to the old method of bartering. You probably have a variety of skills and talents that you could offer to others in exchange for food or even other items that you may need.
These skills could be incredibly valuable to others. For example, you may be able to offer car repair services, sewing services, music lessons, and so forth.
In addition, many schools, festival, churches, meetings, grand openings, receptions and other events offer free food along with the free event. Take your child to enjoy the free food and the fun activity.
This is another great way to get a meal that does not cost anything. There are many ways you can provide for your family in a situation like this until the hard time passes.
While it is important to have for this reason, most families in the United States end up using their food storage when the primary breadwinner loses his or her job. While the breadwinner searches for another job, the family is forced to live on the items they have collected previously.
However, if you are caught unprepared for this situation or if you have used up your previous supply, there are many places that you can find free food as long as the rest of your town is not in the same dire situation. If most of the people in the surrounding area are also short on this item, you will find it difficult to find things you can eat, let alone things that are edible and free.
The first place you may want to look is at stores that offer samples of various items. For example, Costco offers a variety of samples of nutritious items than may feed your family for one night if you have a membership card from when you were still working.
Another option you may want to choose is signing up to be a mystery shopper. This means that you will be paid or compensated to go and try out various stores and restaurants.
Sometimes you will be asked to pose a complaint to see how the store does in regards to customer service. After your visit, you will need to fill out a report on what your experience was like.
The information you provide will be used for marketing research and for the company's use. It will tell them the areas that they can improve on and what they did well.
Not only can you enjoy delicious meals this way, but you may even be paid for it. Another alternative you may want to look into if you live close to the outskirts of a town or city is foraging.
Foraging is when you search for and gather edible foodstuffs in
Of course, this will be much more difficult during the winter if there is a lot of snow on the ground. These things can provide you and your family with a lot of nutrition.
You can pick up many foraging skills by reading online, attending guided wild food tours, and so forth. Of course, you will want to be very careful to make sure that you do not make a mistake and eat something that you should not as you will probably not be able to afford the medical bills.
If you have a little money left for food, there are many ways that you can make this money go much further. One of the ways is to strategically use coupons in an effective manner.
In some cases, you can collect enough coupons that you will be able to get a whole bunch of free food from a grocery store. There are many coupon sites that you could join online that offer extra coupons for your area.
In addition, you will probably receive more coupons in the mail, or you can sign up to receive coupons from your favorite companies. As you surf the web for great deals, you will probably come across a variety of offers from free items.
Create a junk email and sign up to receive these free offers. These offers may be cereal samples, granola bars, or other fun snacks that your children will enjoy tremendously.
Of course, you can always go back to the old method of bartering. You probably have a variety of skills and talents that you could offer to others in exchange for food or even other items that you may need.
These skills could be incredibly valuable to others. For example, you may be able to offer car repair services, sewing services, music lessons, and so forth.
In addition, many schools, festival, churches, meetings, grand openings, receptions and other events offer free food along with the free event. Take your child to enjoy the free food and the fun activity.
This is another great way to get a meal that does not cost anything. There are many ways you can provide for your family in a situation like this until the hard time passes.
Tom Selwick
Tom Selwick has worked the past 21 years in the food storage industry. He suggests buyingfood storage from a quality company so you know your food will last. Contact Info: Tom Selwick TomSelwick09@gmail.com http://www.dailybread.com
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