Food Storage on a Budget

Food Storage on a Budget

          What is food storage? Most people feel that simply the act of putting away emergency food items for those unexpected times in life brought on by weather, disaster, or other events. It’s a good beginning definition but there really is more to “food Storage”.  Considering the rising costs of groceries today, the mere thought of creating food storage causes many of us to shutter.  It’s hard enough to maintain enough food in our household to feed our families on a daily basis, let alone storing weeks or even months of extra food.  When planning to build a food storage, we often ask ourselves, "Where will I come up with the money?, maybe a better question to ask would be, "Can I afford not to have a food storage? " What would you do if there was an emergency and you were cut off from stores or markets?  What if you couldn't acquire food for several weeks, a few months, or maybe even a year?  How long would the food supply you currently have in your house last your family?  These are important questions that we must ask ourselves while times are good.  It’s too late to wait until the disaster is at hand before we begin to prepare.  My dad always said, “The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.”

            So how can we compile food storage while not breaking the bank or going into debt doing it?  The first thing we need to decide on is a specific goal, i.e. how many days, weeks, or months of storage can you accommodate or need.  Remember to be realistic and keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be put together in a day. Food storage programs are better built in stages over time.  Begin with a one week supply, then one month, then three months, and so on until you reach your goal.  Survivalcavefood.com has a handy calculator to assist you in determining how many servings you might need.

Some helpful hints to meet these goals are to determine what you should store (based on what groceries we buy each week), and ask yourself, “Can I do without this item this week?” If we can’t then we need to set it aside as a food storage item we will need to have on hand.  You should also set aside small amounts of money each week to buy staples such as pasta, rice, water and paper products.  You will be surprised how quickly you can build up a supply of these staples for small amounts of money.  Utilizing the purchasing power and low prices of bulk buying clubs and odd lot stores can also aid you in putting together your food safety net.  Using odd lot stores may result in odd brand names or uniquely labeled products but they are still helpful if you don’t have products specifically labeled for long term food storage.

Putting together a food storage supply will be comforting and will help reassure you that you are planning for a possible disaster.