Unless someone has a peanut allergy in the family, peanut butter makes a great storage food:

–inexpensive

–filling – “sticks to your ribs”

–protein rich and calorie dense

–can be used in a variety of ways such as as sandwiches, sauces, cookies, shakes, spread on crackers or eaten right out of the jar.

–long shelf life.

Besides the obvious food uses, there are several other uses for peanut butter:

• Remove chewing gum out of hair.  It’ll also remove gum stuck under your shoe
• The high oil content makes it a decent lubricant to get rid of squeaks
• Attract birds- coat a pinecone with peanut butter and feed the birds
• Easily give your dog medicine by coating the pill with a light coat of peanut butter
• Some people swear eating peanut butter helps alleviate diarrhea.
• Fix scratched CDs and DVDs by smearing the scratch with smooth (not chunky!) peanut butter and polishing it off.
• Again for smooth peanut butter, I’ve heard it can be used in place of shaving cream, but I don’t know if I’d want to smell it all day long!
• Use peanut butter instead of cheese as mouse trap bait.
• Remove a sticky label
• Clean off glue from your hands
• The high oil content would also make it a good firestarter.

Store Peanut Butter On Its Side To Make Stirring Easier

When you pop open a jar of natural peanut butter, it often seems all of the oil has separated to the top, which makes it difficult to stir back in. On a recent episode of the Spilled Milk podcast, Molly Wizenberg offers up the simple solution of leaving it on its side.

The idea is that when the oil is coating the side of the jar, it makes for easier stirring, since you’re working it in horizontally, as opposed to trying to mash the oil back down into the jar. It’s certainly just a minor annoyance, but if you’ve been stocking up on peanut butter, it might make things a little easier.

Even with limited space, an item as tasty AND useful as peanut butter deserves a spot in your storage shelf.

If you have any other unconventional uses for peanut butter, please share in the comments!

By Bernie Carr

About the Author:  Bernie Carr is the author of The Prepper’s Pocket Guide:  101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster. Her latest e-book, How to Prepare for Most Emergencies on a $50 a Month Budget, provides tips on low-cost prepping.

Her blog, Apartment Prepper,  is about family preparedness while living in a city apartment.