Now. Where do you begin?
Here’s my plan of action:
1. Decide what we eat.
You don’t want to store stuff you won’t eat. So figure out what you DO eat. We had a Family Home Evening where we came up with this meal planner:
Everyone was to list their favorite meals. I was disappointed with the results. Breakfast and lunch were okay; in a time of difficulty, we could eat cereal or pancakes every day, and a PBJ or tuna sandwich for lunch would cut it. But dinner is a lot harder. I found it amusing that someone penciled in "cotin candy" and "pumpkin pie". Especially impressive is the tidy D'Nealian lettering.
2. Narrow it down.
Six or seven meals are easy enough to shop for, and can be rotated throughout the course of a few months. It may sound painfully tedious to eat the same 6 things over and over, but consider this:
a. It’s better than government cheese.
b. You are self-reliant and don’t overburden your church and government.
c. You’re guaranteed it’s stuff your family likes and eats.
d. Theoretically, it’s only temporary.
Here’s what ours looked like AFTER Mom did a little revising:
BREAKFAST
Oatmeal
Pancakes
Syrup
Cereal
LUNCH
Tuna
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Crackers
SUPPER
Soup
Chicken and Rice
Chili
Shepherd’s Pie
Enchiladas
Spaghetti
MISCELLANEOUS
Toilet Paper
Soap
Shampoo
Toothpaste
Popcorn
Canned Fruit/Veggies
Flour
Sugar
Salt
Oil
I will probably still need to make some changes to it; add on a few things. It's a work in progress. Much like my entire life.
3. Make your grocery list.
a. Figure out what ingredients you need for the dishes you’ve chosen. Make a master list. If, during this process, you find you’ve chosen recipes that require a lot of fresh ingredients, you need to rethink your choices. For example: Lasagne. Love it. But it requires a lot of fresh cheese. Not something you can easily store. Spaghetti, on the other hand, requires pasta and canned sauce. Easy to store. Yes, you will miss the fabulous taste of your homemade meatsauce, but we’re thinking emergency essentials here.
b. If you have planned seven meals, you will need enough ingredients to make those meals four times a month for three months. So multiply your ingredients by 12.
Next stop: "ANDREA B, COME ON DOWN! YOU'RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON THE PRICE IS RIGHT!!" Shopping for the best deal...
21 comments:
You are so funny! All your suggestions are great!
genius! love the week of meals x 12! I might just go with pancakes all around. Let's see. One box of mix makes about 3 meals so that would be one box a day, so for 90 days I need 90 boxes. Wow, this is so simple. But I have to figure in syrup too, huh? Seriously though, love the common sense approach of store what you'll eat. Since that has come about (over the stash all the wheat and dried beans that you can approach) I am a bit more inclined to work on my food storage. Good idea to have the family in on it.
Not to sound all doomsday 'nstuff, but half of the people who grouse that this isn't entertaining are really gonna be wishing they had listened one day soon.
Food storage is about SURVIVAL, and not just in hard economic times. I know, when life is all about Oprah at 4 and Ellen at 5, and Soccer Practice at 6:30... it's hard to imagine anything could interrupt our stable lives, but the truth is, every few decades, society takes a deep nose-dive into the crapper, and the have-not's are really scrambling to keep their heads above water long enough to survive, let alone envy the have's.
So kudos to you for writing about this. As much as I travel, I'm seriously thinking about carrying some food storage around in my car with me.
I'm sorry for the apathy you're running up against. If nothing else your mansion in heaven is being given an extra wing right now.
I appreciate this. As I've said, I'm asking Santa to help me with my food storage this year. Ours STRUGGLES.
So....NO beans and flour and wheat grinders? THIS is the kind of plan I can live with. THX!
Can't wait for the next installment.
P.S. How do you do chicken and rice? Canned chicken?
I am sure I was one of those who made a smarky comment before but in all honesty I am a firm believer in food storage. We have our third bay packed with food. I did get more ideas of things to eat though here, so thanks for that.
I think we are all just one day away from a total disaster. It can happen to anyone. Even though our life is good now, it doesn't take long for it to completely turn around. Supporting yourself and your kids shouldn't be a worry. There's my soapbox speech. The end.
Cereal???? What kind of cereal? You know each of the kids will want their favorite cereal. Now you are looking to store 3 different kinds of cereal (4 if you count Skip). Not as easy as it looks......
This is so much more interesting than what they say in RS. Please continue these. I'm feeling slightly inspired by you.
I'm working replenishing mt 3 month supply too. Good on you for posting about it. I like your ideas, you smarty pants.
This is all very educational! Love your daughter's batgirl costume. I have the same one for me, not slutty one though. It's so fun to wear!! She and I would get along well.
I think the WORST thing in the world would be listening to my children cry for food.
Food storage makes me feel better.
You make me laugh Andrea.
We've been working on it since September. Our stake has a goal to increase each member's supply by 3 months. Party on.
I love the list. I store candy. I figure I can use it to barter.
See, I just needed someone to do the math and work for me.
Now I don't need to make a list. My family likes those meals and if they don't, tough.
you always make everything so simple and reasonable. i could probably do this. OR, I could pay for your flight and have you become my personal food storage consultant. this could be a money making opp for you...or a good way to travel the country visiting your friends...
I am with Lisa Marie, I am asking Santa!!!
Hey, have you looked in to shelf reliance food storage racks? They are awesome--hold SO MANY cans and solve the problem of rotating, etc. They are a little pricey, but worth every penny. Check out their product at http://www.shelfreliance.com/ (I have no ties to the company, just bought a rack several years ago and it has helped our food storage so much! It allows us to store the kind of food my family eats) Kudos to you for working on your food storage!
i have seen that, brynne. my parents actually just ordered a set of those shelves. we move a lot, and never know what our next house will be like. but once we settle down... hopefully in the next 5 or so years, i would really like to get those shelves. they are fantastic!!
I've never posted on anyone's blog besides my wife (Brynne) so this is a little weird, especially since I don't know you so hope you don't mind. We have a pretty large everyday food storage. But we found a company www.dailybreadus.com that provides food storage that lasts over 25 years. Their parent company is a well known backpacking company that has been in business forever. Just like backpacking food you just need water to bring the food back to life. We tried several of their products (free) and they are actually good. We bought a bunch of their product for the long term emergencys. I figure when I'm around 60 we will buy some more of a similiar product and when that expires I'll just mooch off my kids or the government, thats ok right? And regarding moving a lot, the 4 months of food we got from them is extremely compact. The boxes are about 2 feet by 3 feet and about 7-8 feet tall.
umm, my family writing them all down... would be so embarrassin, I woulcn't be able to share.. Scary.
Brave woman.
YEAST, don't forget the yeast. Bread - yeast = tortillas. In response I love canned chicken, tastes great when cooked (not bad cold either), candy is always good, Santa comes through, we got food storage last year and this past couple weeks it has been a life saver-literally. Keep it up, I am loving the motivation. PS I just ground 25 lbs of wheat and am now making all my own bread. Wish me luck.
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