I Already live a hyper frugal lifestyle, I might limit the number of coffee a day , but beyond that , not much else I could really do
What is your trigger to start rationing?
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For us, it will be transitioning to endeavor to prepare / cook Just what is Needed for that day - No 'significant amount of leftovers' anymore (for the Most part..) ie: Now, we will cook a full 1lb box of Pasta / add [whatever] and the 3 of us can 'Eat to Full' - and still have enough leftover for at least 2 of us to, say, 'have Lunch' off of it next day, or maybe 'expand' by making a 'cold pasta salad + tuna or beans', etc.. In 'crisis mode', we'd endeavor to simply cook 1/2 lb. or 3/4 lb. but Save the rest, for the Next 'pasta nite'..
..And there will be NO MORE "SCRAPS" / "WASTE", at ALL.. Everything will get used - for Something.. We're pretty close to that 'efficient', Now, but.. Sometimes, there are a bit of 'tossed leftovers', even if that's just 'in the Compost pile'.. Not Then, tho...
Probably not the 'Historical definition' of "rationing", but that's how We see it.. Not necessarily "eating Less" (than we do Now, gotta make sure Calories / Nutrition is kept where it needs to be for full-functionality / strength, etc) just being More careful to 'Eliminate waste', and 'stretch out Everything' as much as possible..
.02
jd
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That it, you are an adult & from your post a smart, well read person, but not everyone has the same diet or taste.
I sometimes get busy & for get to eat, maybe 4 to 8 hours, but if I was chopping wood or clearing a road/ fence line I would eat much more.
So the first thing is to slow work & play to conserve calories & water, then count calories intake, eat small amounts over the awake time, chew slowly to make the food last. Sleep as much as you can to conserve more calories. Hard Candy & gum can trick you into think you are eating, as well as adding calories to you daily intake. Less food for one person would be double for another, that why counting calories is the best way to ration food so you need a calories chart with your stores.
I sometimes get busy & for get to eat, maybe 4 to 8 hours, but if I was chopping wood or clearing a road/ fence line I would eat much more.
So the first thing is to slow work & play to conserve calories & water, then count calories intake, eat small amounts over the awake time, chew slowly to make the food last. Sleep as much as you can to conserve more calories. Hard Candy & gum can trick you into think you are eating, as well as adding calories to you daily intake. Less food for one person would be double for another, that why counting calories is the best way to ration food so you need a calories chart with your stores.
Peppermint hard-candies, IIRC, specifically..
Could also use a - Drop - of Peppermint 'essential oil', but.. Careful! A little dab'll do ya (but a Giant one'll Spew ya! 
jd
So....what is the point of starving more slowly? If that is what you mean by rationing?
Are you waiting for someone to resupply you? Or just....trying to buy a few more days before the inevitable.?
If that is what we mean....then my answer is....never. I don't see the point. There is no prize for starving last. I'd rather use the food I have, to solve the problem of where the next meal comes from, rather than just stretch things out. If push comes to shove, I'd hunt down the weak, sleeping people trying to ration their food and use the extra strength, speed and intelligence from not rationing to predate on them.
Are you waiting for someone to resupply you? Or just....trying to buy a few more days before the inevitable.?
If that is what we mean....then my answer is....never. I don't see the point. There is no prize for starving last. I'd rather use the food I have, to solve the problem of where the next meal comes from, rather than just stretch things out. If push comes to shove, I'd hunt down the weak, sleeping people trying to ration their food and use the extra strength, speed and intelligence from not rationing to predate on them.
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Or you could be stretching what you have until the garden or livestock is ready to harvest.
Sure. Could be.
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DW use it, smell up the whole room, I like the candy.Peppermint hard-candies, IIRC, specifically..
jd
Aerindel here your answer, I started to grow my own food at eight years old & after my Father left home I did it without any help from anyone at thirteen.
I did take an 18 month break when I had to deal with Afib, other than that it has been 52 year of playing in the soil & planting something to eat every year. I will get to old to dig hole, but raised beds & mulch should (Ruth Stout) make it easy to grow food. In that time the kids will come home if they can not find food, & farm long after I am gone. Growing food is a way of live, not a hobby.
In that case.....you shouldn't have to ration anything.
Food growing for me IS a hobby. I would like it to be more, but I live in a dry, cold, dark, rocky, steep place so the amount of food I grow in a year is short of what it would take to live on by itself. I store enough food to last for...a long time. Hopefully long enough for me to find alternative sources of food, by leveraging the advantages of my location, in trade to people who can grow more food, but may have problems I do not.
I have a lot of 'triggers' but rationing isn't one.
Hunting everything within a 1/4 mile to extinction IS one however. That would be triggered by a collapse of local law enforcement and deciding that it has become too dangerous to drive to the nearest town for re-supply. That would gain me about another year on an average day. I think hunting is pretty much a one off though, at least for a few years.
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Hunting is a hobby for me, that include rabbit boxes.
I am willing to bet firearms are more than a Hobby to you. I live in sandy loam, so crops are easy, it can be done in dry cold rocky places, but hunting & raising small meat animals(goats, poultry & rabbits) is easier that digging 300 pounds of potatoes.
You may be able to fill that gap with perennial vegetables, that you plant once & only dig when you need a side dish to go with your wild game.
A few fruit bushes could help too.
Thanks for this thread it made me think about what could go wrong.
I am willing to bet firearms are more than a Hobby to you. I live in sandy loam, so crops are easy, it can be done in dry cold rocky places, but hunting & raising small meat animals(goats, poultry & rabbits) is easier that digging 300 pounds of potatoes.
You may be able to fill that gap with perennial vegetables, that you plant once & only dig when you need a side dish to go with your wild game.
A few fruit bushes could help too.
Thanks for this thread it made me think about what could go wrong.
Very very few perennials that are at all edible here, and nothing with much calories. But Its a rare day when I drive down to check the mail and don't see 1000lbs of meat on the way.
this is how an agrarian society works and has worked for 1000's if years. living season to season or harvest to harvest is the way it was. not only did you ration it but i submit the rationed even more as the storehouse emptied to ensure it reached the upcoming harvest out in field. one thing for sure is you need extra calories when working harder doing that harvest. be a shame to not have energy to harvest whats been grown last bit. we dont understand harvest on that level since we use oil as labor for so much from harvest to transport to drying of goods..i.e. propane grain driers...etc. if we look at poorer societies we see what this looks like when harvests are hung under roof edges,dried on hard tops and roof tops or concrete slabs and more. its reason so many culture had harvest festivals at end of gathering times.
if all hands are harvesting a field..you and neighbors..then it falls on your shoulder to feed these people during that time of hard work all they want plus drink..things like switchel(energy type drink of the day) back in the day..then when all hands moved over to next persons field they were expected to do the same. traditionally this fell on wives shoulders. i seen this here in my community well into the late 90's.often this was not paid labor it was just exchanged labor. harvest time is so important the workers need to work.in other words everyone has a role to play from children to adults and before you know it hardwork is over and food is secured in your storehouses. then n to next person field till the community is done and 'safe' from starvation.
I don't plan on rationing food. Ever.
Below a certain caloric intake, over a period of time, your mental and physical capabilities will become compromised. Your mental clarity,health and physical condition will begin to deteriorate affecting your ability to find more food , grow more food, or respond to imminent danger.
None of which is a good idea in any kind of disaster.
Realistically though, a few years post SHTF, presuming it's a serious situation there could certainly be enough calamities such as successive bad harvests, raiders, animal loss etc that could drive rationing between harvests.
I also don't plan on rationing things like treats, chocolate etc even though they are irreplaceable in a major crisis. The reasoning being exactly that. It will be TEOTWAWKI, SHTF etc etc. It will be very dangerous. Life expectancy is not good. Enjoy those treats while your alive to do so.
That said though, there should, as someone mentioned above, never be food discarded uneaten after a meal. But seeing as its a super rare day now I throw prepared and cooked food away, I suspect just a little more care will be needed and there would be no food waste.
Below a certain caloric intake, over a period of time, your mental and physical capabilities will become compromised. Your mental clarity,health and physical condition will begin to deteriorate affecting your ability to find more food , grow more food, or respond to imminent danger.
None of which is a good idea in any kind of disaster.
Realistically though, a few years post SHTF, presuming it's a serious situation there could certainly be enough calamities such as successive bad harvests, raiders, animal loss etc that could drive rationing between harvests.
I also don't plan on rationing things like treats, chocolate etc even though they are irreplaceable in a major crisis. The reasoning being exactly that. It will be TEOTWAWKI, SHTF etc etc. It will be very dangerous. Life expectancy is not good. Enjoy those treats while your alive to do so.
That said though, there should, as someone mentioned above, never be food discarded uneaten after a meal. But seeing as its a super rare day now I throw prepared and cooked food away, I suspect just a little more care will be needed and there would be no food waste.
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We still have the "feed the harvesters" after the field is done thing going on in our community. It is not unusual to see and hear harvesting continuing to all hours of the night. They take a supper break which the wife provides. Or in the case of rain being forecast, the wife is also out there harvesting to get it done faster, and they call in a burger order for everyone at the local place. That's what I saw last year with a cousin.
My grandparents had a farm down the road from us, and all people that were hired to work the farm were fed a noon meal.
My grandparents had a farm down the road from us, and all people that were hired to work the farm were fed a noon meal.
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To be honest I think we have been "rationing" since March 2020 when we saw empty shelves for the first time... We don't eat out, we eat what we have and each week we try to replace everything we have eaten and add some more to the kitty....
We force ourselves to eat our leftovers before cooking something else, so we are learning to cook in smaller amounts...
Some things we use daily as supplements and even those we have evaluated what the minimum is that is needed for the benefit to be achieved. Many of those things we have reduced consumption by 50% or more, but we have tried to maintain an inventory. The juice that the medical folks told the wife to use to wash down her potassium is the worse, the price is ridiculous and it is almost impossible to find.. she drinks 1/2 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup in the evening; she says it's like trying to wash down sand.... Each week I try to buy a weeks supply of that stuff, but some weeks they just don't have it, so IF I can find it at a reasonable price I will buy all they have, but I the most I have been able to stock at any one time is about a 3 month supply.
We force ourselves to eat our leftovers before cooking something else, so we are learning to cook in smaller amounts...
Some things we use daily as supplements and even those we have evaluated what the minimum is that is needed for the benefit to be achieved. Many of those things we have reduced consumption by 50% or more, but we have tried to maintain an inventory. The juice that the medical folks told the wife to use to wash down her potassium is the worse, the price is ridiculous and it is almost impossible to find.. she drinks 1/2 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup in the evening; she says it's like trying to wash down sand.... Each week I try to buy a weeks supply of that stuff, but some weeks they just don't have it, so IF I can find it at a reasonable price I will buy all they have, but I the most I have been able to stock at any one time is about a 3 month supply.
Good point: I've told Hubby, we've become such an entertainment centered society that folks don't know how to entertain themselves. We don't have TV, no movies, don't attend sporting events etc. We do watch the cat chase moths, watch the deer cross the field, the hawks hunt mice and so forth. We read probably as much or more than most and we work at home and at work. I guess I'm trying to say our entertainment isn't dependent on purchases.
That's my "gripe" if you will with candy. It does virtually nothing nutritionally. Natural fats feed the brain/nervous system and are extremely important for the reasons you pointed out.
We did this on the ranch at branding time. The neighbors all helped each other and were fed as payment. It was a time everyone looked forward to.
My thoughts exactly
Growing up everyone who was helping with whatever job was being done was fed a huge lunch. Plateful of veggies out of the garden or freezer, meat, usually cake or pie for dessert. Usually had to sit around an hour or so to digest. Then back at it. Didn't matter who you were working for
