Perhaps when enough members don’t even take the 3 months’ supply to heart, the Lord will make it a 72 hours’ supply. (ha ha)

The Church started with its official website, http://www.providentliving.org and in the beginning there was info on the site about gardening and home production and food storage (among other things like employment, finances, welfare, etc.) But, if you look at the provident living website now, you will see it does not resemble how it started out in regards to gardening and a year’s supply.

The Church has rescinded all doctrine of the past with the new admonition of a 3 months’ supply, with longer-term storage considered as “going the extra mile.” The Church has also purged all articles and teachings about gardening or growing or producing your own food. The website also only has about one sentence on 72 hour kits – - stating that they are not discouraged, but are left up to the individual to decide.

But, as far as the provident living site leads us to believe, provident living has not gone away, but the emphasis SEEMS to now be on the financial aspects. Budgeting and debt seem to be far more emphasized than before.

But, I will speak for myself here. I feel that growing your own and preserving your own is by far the most economical thing you can do when looking at your food budgeting. And healthier, too. Growing your own also is cheaper than going out and buying your food supply from a “preparedness” store.

Also, a deeper concept applies to food storage as a way to save on your food budget. IT IS FAR CHEAPER TO HAVE A FOOD STORAGE PROGRAM THAN NOT TO HAVE ONE.

Food (and other items) have a cycle. They are most plentiful and cheapest at one time per year. For example, applesauce.

If you buy your applesauce a can at a time at a dollar per can, you might end up paying $52 dollars per year by eating one can per week. But, you run across the yearly case-lot sale and buy two cases at 50 cents per can and store the extra cans for later use during the year. Having the cans in your food storage has saved you 50% on your food budget for applesauce. But, say you have an apple tree like I do. And you already have some empty mason jars. My ONE apple tree gives me 50 quarts of applesauce every year! For free! Now that is a real savings on my food budget!

This is the value of a true “ONE year supply of food.” You can take advantage of this yearly cycle. You cannot do this with a three months’ supply. You really need to work up to a year’s supply as you find the case-lot sales or end of summer harvests. Even linens and such have a yearly cycle of sales in department stores.

Hopefully the saints can see the value of storing food by jumping from a 3 months’ supply to a full year’s supply of rotating food. This is where the real savings in $$ and peace of mind start to come into the Church’s teaching of provident living.