Food
You can live three weeks without food, but we wouldn't recommend it! When you've had a busy and crazy day, make your day easier by having some food and meals on hand. Here are simple steps to build your pantry so you spend less time at the store and more time relaxing at home. Listen to our podcast for ways to save money by getting food storage.
Protip: Start at number 1 and don't even look at number 2 until 1 is done. Then go on one at a time.
01
List What You Eat
Food storage should be food you can actually use. To help get you started determine the 10 recipes you use most frequently. Then try and think of how you can adapt the ingredients to be more shelf stable. You could you use dehydrated or freeze dried onions in place of fresh, or could you purchase powdered or shelf stable milk, etc. Get planning your food storage and creating a shopping list with our free PDF below.
02
Estimate Storage Amount
How much you can or want to store is very individual. To keep it simple estimate how many times you want to be able to make your 10 recipes in a given amount of time. IE four bean salad 12 times a year or oatmeal 3 times a week for 3 months. Start with whatever works for you. It may be different for various recipes. Over time your may find you are ready to increase your food storage, but don't put it off now because you think a little food storage isn't worth your time. On busy, crazy day's you'll be thankful you have it and you'll be better prepared for emergencies. See our free PDF below to get an overview of starting your food storage and examples of how to estimate.
03
Create Shopping List
Once you've estimated how often you want to make your recipes you can estimate how much of each ingredient you want on hand. IE 12 cans of kidney beans to make four bean salad this year or 72 cups of oats for our family for 3 months. Create a shopping list of how much of each ingredient you want to get.
04
Storage
Wait for good deals or search for bulk discounts as you purchase the items on your shopping list. At home store them in a way that keeps them safe from oxygen, light, heat, and moisture to help them stay fresh longer.
Protip: Shop classifieds, secondhand stores, and yard sales to get shelving on a great deal!
