Hi folks. I’ve been tracking down some tips that I’ve received over the past couple of weeks. The results of my research have been disconcerting--to say the least—even for someone as prepared as myself. So I thought that the results were significant enough that I should share my findings with all of you. Bottom line, brace for impact at the gas pump and the grocery store registers in October. You’re about to see key grocery prices DOUBLE.

First of all, please stop holding your breath—yeah you—I know you’re doing that right now without even thinking about it while you’re trying to read the rest of this. Breathe, nice, deep, cleansing breaths. If you’ve been reading me for a while or even watching my Facebook page this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, right? I’ve been telling you to expect seeing this kind of increase as a result of the bad drought that we’ve had, the damaged crops, the reduction in food crops in favor of ethanol crops AND the very real threat of another world war which makes imports and exports a bit more expensive.

Be calm. Don’t panic. Remember, you’ve been preparing for this possibility for some time now. Take comfort instead in the supplies that you’ve already got on hand, all of that canning that you’ve got done this summer, those beautiful tomatoes you harvested, and that great deal you got at Zaycon Foods for your all-natural boneless, skinless, chicken breast or hamburger that you got recently. So, let me just get right down to what I’ve learned over the past 2 weeks.

I’ve received a mountain of e-mails of readers and fans over the past two weeks alerting me to a bunch of issues that have the possibility of affecting every American. However, one theme has been more nagging than the rest and that’s the tsunami of high food prices coming, along with increased gas prices that we’ll be facing in October.

In addition to calling the standard points of contacts, I had a feeling that I should be calling on some food distributors. I’m actually going to be calling some more this week, but I’ve already got enough confirmation that I wanted to make you aware sooner rather than later because it looks like this is going to have very quickly. There were two calls that were rather disconcerting. One with a Midwestern food distributor and one with a southern food distributor. For those of you who don’t know, food distributors are the companies that typically provide food for restaurants. For years now, restaurants have been trying to swallow a lot of the food increases but with the ever increasing economic troubles, they’ve just been unable to do it. You’ll notice that a fast food meal doesn’t cost $5 on average any longer, rather it’s $7.50. (By the way, that’s a 50% increase—the magic number that illustrates hyperinflation.) Anyway, the two distributors informed me that they were having serious conversations with their route customers telling them to expect key items to DOUBLE next month—next month as in October. As if my phone calls weren’t sufficient to convince me, just today I had an e-mail from one of my readers/friends. To lend credence to this scenario she informed me of a conversation she had with the restaurant owner of one of her favored pizza places. The owner stated a couple of months ago that they couldn’t hold on much longer as they were informed their cost of cheese would increase by $600 a month. She and her husband recently went back and the restaurant is now under new ownership.

I would hope that you’re saving more money nowadays after my article on the reality for the financial collapse that’s already hit us, but in case you haven’t, pay attention. You’ll be seeing restaurants dropping like flies all around you. (I’m kind of bummed about that cause I love my television show “Restaurant Impossible”. But even the great Chef Irvine can’t help when food costs have doubled in cost!)

One other thing that was pointed out to me as an example was to take a look at the new small size cans of Spam that are out there. They are less than half the size of the regular sized cans and yet only 50 cents cheaper in retail.

On a whim my husband brought home two boxes of Raisin Bran last week. When I lifted the box my jaw dropped at how thin and light it was! I nearly had a heart attack when he told me how much he paid for them! Ack!!! (needless to say he know to never bring that stuff home again without a killer deal combined with a coupon)

So, what can you or should you do about all of this? Just keep focused on your goal. Kick it up a little bit. Spend that date money on groceries instead, perhaps. The best revenge against panic is to do something that promotes peace and comfort instead and to me, that’s stocking up. Here are a few other suggestions.

If you haven’t started couponing yet, um…what else do you need to convince you that you’ve got to do something proactive to keep up with all of this? Don't say you don't know where to begin 'cause there are a lot of great resources out there, including my DVD and Resource Guide that I've just put on sale for only $25. And please don't say that "couponing doesn't work in your area because you don't have any stores that double" or that "there's nothing that you get coupons for that you'd buy" or that "you only eat organic food". I get SO tired of those excuses especially since I don't have any stores in my store that double, paper towels and TP are good even on organic tushes, and you no one eats medical, cleaning, and hygiene supplies. I still manage to bring home all kinds of medical supplies, hygiene supplies, and groceries worth at least $300 every month, usually FREE or nearly FREE.

Just as a heads up, there are still some ways to save. Costco has started stocking their own honey and also selling coconut oil as well as maple syrup. I’ve also started being more aggressive in calling butchers to get my hands on their scraps. I can make a delicious soup out of just about anything. I’m also being more proactive in taking whatever excess produce I can get my hands on. Good grief, you can home-can just about anything nowadays—even bananas. So it’s worth the effort.

Did I mention that Tattler Lids is having a great sale on their reusable lids? That’s 20% off of 100 lids PLUS there’s a coupon code of “100Days” for an additional 5% off and they have free shipping.

For pity’s sake, if you haven’t done it yet, at least get the notifications of Zaycon Foods sent to your e-mail. When all of the dust settled, this month I ended up getting 120 POUNDS of all-natural, hormone free boneless, skinless chicken breasts F-R-E-E from them thanks to the referral dollars I saved up over a few months and I’ve still got another $40 to spend on the next sale that they will launch! Yup, that's fighting back all right! And I just discovered that they also offer 10 points just for logging back onto their site each day. 100 Zaycon points equals 1 Zaycon dollar . (Zaycon Rewards discontinued but their awesome referral dollars is still kicking! Woot!) Just one more way to fight back against panic. In times like these, we’ve got to do everything proactive that we can to stock up and be ready for even tougher times.

This past week, I had some friends give me some DEE-ISH-LUSH melons from Green River, WY (known for their unrivaled melons due to their moist ground there). They are these white fleshed Israeli melons and so fabulous. For the first time ever I had the sense to save the seeds—something I only seem to remember to do when I have maximum frugality on my brain. But doing so made me feel like a million bucks as I counted nearly 100 seeds when I packaged them up! Feeling like a million bucks is a GREAT cure for panic and fear. We should all be taking advantage of the fall weather to stock up on any left over heirloom seeds at the greenhouses and nurseries. October’s always the best time for the best deals and as long as you don’t smother them, they’ll last for years and years.

I’m also being seriously more diligent in sticking with my grocery price points. If I have a specific price point, I refuse to purchase something until it hits that price point of 70% off or a specific dollar amount. For example, I don’t purchase toilet paper nowadays unless it’s 29 cents a roll or better (it was 25 cents a roll up until 2012). Every item you will ever purchase at the grocery store is most likely to go on sale twice a year. So a little patience really pays off. Additionally, I’m restricting most of my coupon buying with stores that also give me gasoline discounts and extra store spending dollars. Leverage your shopping dollars for all it’s worth, folks. And if there’s something that you really love that’s just not getting cheap enough for you, then for goodness sakes, get your friends together and get a big enough order to put a wholesale order together. That’s essentially what Five Star Preparedness does on a product every month for their customers. But it’s certainly something you can do too. (By the way, Five Star’s October Group Buy with be the Mountain House in the #10 cans)

If you can do it, purchase your meat in the form of a cow, half cow, quarter cow, pig, etc. I get some friends together and we purchase an entire cow and I’ll be doing the same for my pork and my veal meat. I’ll can some of it, freeze some of it, and make sure I plan my menus accordingly too. Not only is it much less expensive to do that way, but it’s also safer knowing where that animal came from and being able to trust the ranch that’s selling it to you. For those of you who hunt or fish for part of your food supply, I’d suggest you go “all in” and get as much as you’re legally able to and then preserve it for the road ahead.

Lastly, I’d suggest that you go and order and pay for your Thanksgiving turkey and ham NOW instead of when it’s closer to Thanksgiving Day when the prices will be reflected at the stores.

One more thing to mention...expect to see your water prices rising significantly both at your meter or at the store. Even USA Today (usually one of the lasts to step up to the plate on news like this) posted this article a couple of days ago discussing the stark increases in water—even doubling in price all over the nation!

When all is said and done, I'm simply suggesting that you stock up on your favorite key grocery products (such as CHEESE!) this next week as much as your budget permits in order to stabilize your purchasing power and hang on; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

I'll be calling the Kroger and western Wal-Mart divisions this week in my area as well, but I’m already very comfortable with the confirmations that I’ve received to post this article. If you’ve read me at all you know I’m not one who posts things lightly.

So take heed or don’t. My responsibility to share this information ends here. What you do with it is up to you. But just in case you’re one of those people whose purpose in life is the mock or scorn people like me for sharing information like this—don’t bother. It won’t phase me one iota when you do and I also won’t permit you to harass my other readers by publishing your garbage comments anyway. Instead, how about you go to the grocery store and stock up a little bit? What’s it going to hurt?