Preparing For Turkey Season
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It’s that time of year again, Turkey season! Time to get out in the field and hunt for some birds. Before we can get out hunting though, we have some things to take care of first. We gotta get all of our gear packed, and pack food. Most importantly, we have to stick to the budget!
If you are new here, you might not know that we are on a debt free journey following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps. Because of that we have to make sure our hunting trips are within budget. In the interest of being honest, I forgot about turkey season when first doing the budget for this month. I had to tweak things to make sure that Aaron was going to be able to go.
Hunting is super important to our family and being able to stick to our budget throughout the year. It allows us to add organic meat to our freezer at a much lower cost than picking it up at the grocery store. Having this meat readily available in our freezer significantly reduces our grocery bill because we can just sub something like deer in place of beef. Or wild turkey in place of chicken. Plus, it tastes amazing.
Alright, back to preparing for the trip. In a previous post found here, Aaron talked about his excitement for this upcoming trip. He also talked about some of the new gear he got for the holidays and how he was going to be testing it out on this trip. We should have a review of the gear sometime towards the end of the month, so keep an eye on the blog!
Packing
This is just a general packing list we use for every hunting trip we take. This list is for what we want packed up to take with us in the field and I am sharing it with you! Just click on the picture and it will take you to a PDF copy to print your own. Obviously, it’s a super short and easy list. YMMV.
Hunting Food Plan
Choosing what foods to bring on a hunting trip can be a bit tricky. Depending on how long you will be gone and how far you will have to drive are definitely some factors to keep in mind. Aaron will only be gone about four days for this trip, but he does have about a 5 hour drive ahead of him. He is going to need some quick snacks, not only for the drive but field time as well.
For this hunting trip we are going to try out a new recipe for No Bake Energy Bites that I found on Pinterest. The recipe makes about 2 dozen pieces and this will be perfect for the amount of time he is gone. The best part, we already have all the ingredients in our pantry. Yay for our budget!
To keep the grocery bill for this trip down, we are going to be raiding our pantry quite a bit. I know Aaron has requested some pumpkin bread or muffins to take with him, just for a super quick breakfast. I am also planning on sending him off with some homemade chili too.
It’s very important to have easy and quick meals when hunting, because the more time you spend preparing a meal, the less time you get to hunt. This doesn’t usually include dinner. Depending on the time of year you don’t typically go out after dinner. You most likely just collapse into bed after eating just to get up early the next day. It’s a tons of fun.
Since we are trying to keep this within our budget, a lot of sandwiches will be had over the 4 days Aaron is gone. They’re simple, and cheap. Bonus is that they don’t take a lot of time to make, so it won’t cut into his hunting time. We will try and make them a bit more exciting by doing something like croissant sandwiches.
I will be sending him off with a few helpful Beachbody products as well. For a quick, protein packed snack these Beachbars are amazing. Since he doesn’t drink coffee, I am going to send him with Energize to give him a quick energy boost in the morning. We love the lemon flavor!
Stay Tuned!
The turkey season meal plan isn’t as exciting as the plans we have to make for deer season. This year, we are going together with my Dad and taking Wildchild. This means a lot more food and cooking. Plus, we have the added component of making things child friendly. So stay tuned for that prepping post!
What are some things you do to prep for turkey season?
- Barbara
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