Realistic Food Storage. Or, How *Not* to Find Oneself Crying with a Can of Wheat.
My husband and I have always made it a goal to have a year of food storage. This is a heck of a goal, especially when one has limited storage, and we’ve always let this goal fall by the wayside.
The same wayside as “eat better,” “read scriptures every day,” and “become supermodels.” (Reading this, he says to speak for myself in regard to the final item there.)
However, earlier this year I was listening to a speaker at church talk about the blessings of having non-food items stored as well. He’d been out of work for over two years, but through the prudence of his wife, had built up (and continued to build up!) a store of things like shaving gel, shampoo, etc.
I listened, and I heard – with my heart as well as my head. And a couponer was born. I was proud to report to this man six months later that I had been inspired by his words and had built up almost a year’s supply of items for very little out of pocket.
Alas, one cannot rest on their laurels, and as my husband is quick to point out, we can’t eat razors or drink body wash. So, I’ve been working to focus my efforts more on food storage and stockpiling. This is hard for several reasons, but I have found some ways to harness my efforts and tighten my belt budget-wise to build a stock of food. We’re nowhere near a year’s worth; we are at the three-month-supply mark now, and I am hoping to get it closer to six months by the end of the year.
Let me say that we are a one-income family, so money is tight. We also have a special needs child; my son has autism and requires expensive therapy. Insurance covers none of this. My infant daughter also needs special formula, which thankfully, my doctor and Enfamil generously provide much of.
This makes money really tight. Like “crying-and-prayer” tight sometimes.
We’ve all been there. I’m not telling you my situation for your sympathy; I love my life and left my dream job as a teacher to take care of my kids for the moment.
But I want you to know this: If I can do it, you can do it.
So how have I gone from nothing to three months’ worth? Well, I’ll share my tips with you. Hopefully they resonate with you and can inspire you to do the same.
1) Start small.
Set apart a portion of your budget every week – even if it’s just five dollars! – to building food storage. Then do what you already do: shop the sales and use coupons. For example, a few weeks ago, Meijer had a great deal on Healthy Request soup, made even better with Meijer Mealbox coupons and manufacturer’s coupons. Â That soup, my friends, is a perfect food storage item – long shelf life, and tasty to boot. Oh, tasty. That brings me to number two!
2) Buy things you will eat.
So many people think that food storage should be wheat they can grind into whole wheat flour and dry beans they can soak into a cheap, healthy meal. If you handed me dry-packed wheat and beans, I would probably either cry (because I have no idea what to do with them in their…erm…unprocessed state) or let my son do what he loves with them: stack and line up.
I digress.
What do we love to stock up on? Granola bars. Peanut butter. Rice. Soup. Canned fruits and vegetables. Mixes. Oils for baking. Chocolate chips. Dry pasta. Stuff we actually eat!
You can get more advanced and store things like powdered butter, powdered eggs, freeze-dried fruits and veggies, textured vegetable protein…
I’m going to stop now before we all hyperventilate. Breathe into your paper bag and keep reading.
Once you start a decent stockpile of these things, shopping the sales and spending your small, set aside amount on them, how do you make sure they aren’t just making your pantry look good?
Why, number three. 🙂
3) Rotate!
Even foods with a long shelf life lose become less tasty over time, but if you’re storing things you use regularly and rotating, this shouldn’t be an issue. There are lots of methods and even tools to help you rotate, but we’re a bargain-y sort of crew, so let’s keep it simple. And cheap. Take 15 minutes every week to put your new purchases behind your old ones. And if you are storing in different places, as we are about to discuss, just keep a master list in an easily accessible place. Make an Excel spreadsheet, or do it old-school and just write it on some paper and stick it up on the side of your fridge.
4) Sneaky, Sneaky – Creative Storage
Your pantry isn’t the only place you can store food. Up North, a lot of us have basements. At first, this Southern girl saw basements as creepy, but now sees them as beautiful junk repositories and food-storage heaven. You can put up inexpensive shelving (think cinder blocks and planks, or IKEA) and store lots in a small amount of space. I would stick to canned and jarred items in the basement, unless you have a dehumidifier or it’s sealed in airtight containers.
Also, you can put a chest freezer (something for food storage I adore) in your house and stock up on veggies, store homemade baby food and chicken broth, etc. I keep a list on the outside of mine when what’s in and when I put it there, to avoid the dreaded “chicken stored in an Ice Age” syndrome.
If you don’t have a basement or a chest freezer, don’t fret – you have closets. If you don’t have one to spare, get creative: One of those over-the-door shoe holders double as a great place to store cans. Under-bed boxes can house lots of different items in a space you rarely use. Bottom drawers of dressers. Behind sofas. Under cribs. On top of the fridge. Any nook or cranny you can spare gets you closer to those goals.
So, in a nutshell, here’s your review:
1) Start small – set a weekly storage budget aside and shop the sales.
2) Buy things you’ll actually eat.
3) Rotate what you buy!
4) Get creative with storage.
Feel free to post comments or questions and I’ll be sure to address them!
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ABOUT the AUTHOR
Molly is the mother of two gorgeous children and the admittedly non-supermodel wife to a wonderful husband and father. She is a pro couponer and bargain shopper, English teacher, and autism advocate. Read more about her family on Molly’s blog.
stephanie says
Molly, as I was reading this I was thinking, wow, I may have found someone in a super similar situation…then I read you were an English teacher and that sealed the deal. 🙂 Am excited to start reading your blog. Thanks for your post.
kristen says
I have found some great deals on storage for the basement in the IKEA as-is section if you’re not fussy about how it looks.
Dawn B says
This may seem like a stupid question, but how do you figure out what you need in order to get a years supply? I have some back up but it might be able to sustain us for a few weeks.
TAMMY says
Dawn B that is not a stupid question. I believe that is a great question. I’m sure that there is something out there that would help each one of us figure out what is needed to make a years supply for our family. We just need to research and keep track of what we use and how often we use it.
That is the best I can come up with, I hope others jump on board and let us know how they determine how to supply for a year.
molly says
Dawn – I actually posted a response to that same question on Facebook. Here’s what I put. I hope it helps!!
I tried a food storage calculator, but it told me we needed 150 lbs of wheat and I started laughing so hard I couldn’t read the rest. My less scientific method? I look at what it takes to feed us for one night (IE a box of pasta, jar of sauce, 10 meatballs) and multiply it by 6 (or however you many times you’d eat it in the 3 month period).
So, pretty much what Tammy said. 🙂 If your family goes through 3 boxes of cereal in a month, you’d need 9. We go through 4 boxes of brownie mix a month…we need 12 for a three-month storage. We have priorities!
Dawn B says
Thanks for the pointers. My husband is now officially afraid of the food supply take over! (“That’ll take up half the basement!!”) Guess I have some shopping to do!!
Jes says
Up until this moment, I had never even thought of having more than a two week supply of food in the house, let alone a YEAR. Now I understand where my instincts were trying to get me! This is a really great project for me to take on for the next few months until our new baby gets here and we cut our income in half. Thanks for the insight and tips….excuse me while I make some more space in the cold room….
Marilyn says
Where can I find the above mentioned food storage calculator? My family of 6 — four teens/preteens are eating me out of house and home. I’ve been an avid couponer/stockpiler for a year.
Amy E. says
Dearest Molly
Fabulous guest blog piece!! love you dear friend and once Jack arrives we will have to talk baby food, homemade that is!! My November goal is to get back to couponing once again!!
You always inspire me. Kiss those babies for me!!
Michelle says
Wow – good for you! I’m a teacher too and wish you all the best with autism and am frustrated that insurance does not cover your child’s expenses. I have a daughter with an eating disorder and have found the same thing. Oh, if she had diabetes then she would have coverage. Like you, I began researching like crazy and doing all I can to help. I’ve discovered some amazing and maddening information that eating disorders (like autism originally) were thought to be a result of bad parenting! Eating disorders are an organic physiological disorder that some children, unfortunately, are genetically predispositioned for – no child asks for an eating disorder! Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are awful in that they have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness for teens, are difficult to treat, and coincide with depression/anxiety (many commit suicide). It is not some simple materialistic idea just to be thin. I write this in the hope that it might help another reader/family as eating disorders affect 5% of teens – that’s a lot! There is help, actual evidence-based therapy, that is still not popular in the U.S. though it is the common practice in all of Europe, Canada, and gaining popularity in Australia. It’s called the Maudsley method. For parents who have that “funny feeling” that’s something’s not right (your child starts to eat less, cut out sweets, exercise a lot more), please read Brave Girl Eating a Family’s Struggle with Anorexia and the book Help Your Teenager Beat an Eating Disorder by James Lock (both were available from my library) and google this site: F.E.A.S.T. Catching this early makes the recovery significantly easier. Best wishes and God bless!
Monroe on a Budget says
Stuff you actually eat! Excellent advice. When people are stressed out, they want comfort food not weird food. Admittedly, the definition of weird food will differ from one family to the next …