How I got started

Last summer, 2009, while visiting my family in San Diego, I happened to randomly buy a book at Deseret Book called "I Can't Believe it's Food Storage". The concept of food storage was so confusing and overwhelming to me, and this book was like a lightbulb went off! It actually started to make sense!It made me understand things and get excited about starting food storage, and using food storage. And 4 years ago, when we moved to Kansas, I started feeling an insane desire to get us prepared...in all aspects. Sad to say I haven't done much, but I am working on it very slowly. I am learning a lot though, so that's a start!

After learning more about food storage and getting basics from the LDS dry-pack cannery, I started looking into freeze-dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables to round things out. I had heard about the new THRIVE line from Shelf Reliance sometime last year,and had been watching the videos on YouTube of them cooking with the THRIVE products. So when they had a booth at Time Out For Women last October, I ordered a 6-pack of fruits to try. I opened both cans of the pineapple...both the freeze-dried and the dehydrated. I have consumed both cans almost entirely by myself! It is really yummy just to snack on.

Anyway, the cans are super cute too, which is a draw for me! I like cute things...I can't help it. But my concern was about the price. I knew the basics like flour, wheat, sugar, macaroni, rice, oats,powdered milk, etc. are WAY cheaper from the cannery. That made me assume the other products were just as expensive, and feared that other companies would have items for much cheaper.

I learned sometime early in the year that Shelf Reliance was starting to do home parties. Now that's something you don't see everyday! Anyway, when I was in Idaho this summer, I bought some Augason Farms powdered eggs from Wal-mart. I think it was about $18? for the #10 can. THRIVE eggs are $21.89 retail, or currently $19.64 through party pricing. You can get special low prices only if you order through a party or a consultant. With the Augason Farms eggs, there are only 56 servings in a can. I assume that is 56 eggs. It takes 2 1/2 Tbls. of egg powder to equal one egg. The THRIVE eggs only use 1 Tbls. of powder to equal one egg, and there are 236 eggs in the can! So, basically for only $1-2 more, you get almost 20 dozen eggs as opposed to almost 5 dozen eggs in one can! $3.86/dozen for the Augason Farms eggs. $1.00/dozen for the THRIVE eggs. Much better than the average price of fresh eggs in most cases! At Walmart the other day, eggs were $1.88/dozen. This is just an example. In general, compared to other food storage companies, SR prices fall right in the middle. Some items are cheaper, some more expensive, etc. but the quality is far superior.

While researching things a bit more, I requested a consultant contact me. I wanted more information...either to host a party, or place an order, or to find out what a consultant for SR does. A lady from Ottowa contacted me and she came over one day and made me lunch using THRIVE food. She made me a chicken salad sandwich using the freeze-dried celery, onions, and chicken. (real chicken, not TVP...although they do have TVP too.) She also made me a smoothie using the freeze-dried strawberries and bananas. It was all so good! I really would never have known it was freeze dried food if I wasn't told. Anyway, she answered a bunch of questions,and left me some info. I talked to Tony about it over the next week, and tried to find out as much as I could. I watched two videos of sample parties, and I listened to a conference call one day. That pretty much sealed the deal. I was really impressed with the company, and the quality of the products, and the efforts they have gone to to make sure their food and products are THE BEST! I am soo excited!

Anyway...this is how it works. Anyone can order online at anytime. But, if you order through a party, or a consultant, you will get the party pricing which is less. Each month there are different items that will be on special, so they will be even better prices. The big food rotation systems that hold all the cans that are so awesome, but are $459.99 retail, you can get for $279.99 through party pricing. Awesome deal!

They also have a great program to help people build their food storage without going into debt. It's called the THRIVE Q. Basically it's like Netflix for food storage. You can choose any amount you want to spend, go online to their Q planner, enter the info about your family, and it will populate a food storage program for you depending on the amount of time you want...3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc. You can also go in and customize it to your own preferences, change the amount, freeze the shipments, etc. And it will just ship the food right to you each month! It's super cool!

Go to www.shelfreliance.com to play around and see what they have to offer. But don't be deterred by the prices, cause they don't list the party prices online for you to see. You will have to ask me.

As a consultant, I get 10% of all sales. I get 20-32% of the first month sales of people who sign up for the Q, and then I get 5% of the monthly Q amounts for as long as people are on the Q. The earning potential is really great! AND something else that is cool about hosting parties,is somethiing called the double dip program. If you go to a party and want to order, but also want to host a party and think you want to wait to order until your party, you can do both! If you order at the party, you can also count that order amount towards the party you host, so you can get more benefits! No other home sales company does that! And of course for hosting, you can earn 10% of sales in free product, and additional half off items depending on the sales. It's a great way to get free food, or free or discounted shelving, or even emergency preparedness supplies.

I told Tony, by signing up for this, I am not wasting money, since it is all items we will use. It's food...or emergency preparedness stuff...all useful and of benefit to our family. Not like stamps...which are now sitting in the basement collecting dust. You know what I mean? I figure this will be one more avenue to help me actually get my family prepared, both with our food storage, and our emergency preparedness items, 72 hour kits, etc. It can only be a good thing in my book.

I am really excited to be starting this Adventure in Shelf Reliance. I wanted to start this blog to have a place to share my thoughts and experiences along the way. Since starting this adventure, I have scoured the internet to find as much info as I possibly can, but since the home parties are new as of this year, there is not a lot of info out there yet. Maybe what I experience will be beneficial for someone else down the road.