Food Storage-Big Project to Small Project

Food Storage- How to Break Big Projects into Small Projects

When we think about food storage, we tend to think about large amounts of food on high shelves. What do I store? How much do I store? Where do I store? Soon the project becomes not only expensive, but also overwhelming and non-productive.

Storage is the first step. You must have a place to store your food. The food must be stored in a climate-controlled space. We live in Arizona and the heat will destroy your food. Other places have similar problems with the weather. Since we are starting small, start easy, how about under your bed. How about in that cupboard you can barely reach. It does not matter where, just start. As the project becomes more successful, you will discover other places you can store your food.

Let us break it down into small projects we can achieve. Start with one meal (using dry and canned/ bottled food) you and your family like. Put the recipe on a card. The recipe card serves as a reminder when you use the food as well as a reminder when you shop for the food. Now commit to buy the ingredients for that meal the next time you go grocery shopping. When you get home, store those ingredients and place the recipe in a folder with your stored food. Now choose a second recipe. In one year, you will have 52 meals and will not have spent anymore than your normal food budget. Make sure to choose a good variety of recipes. You do not need more than seven to fourteen different recipes, the more you have the better your family’s variety. When you choose recipes, remember to choose breakfast and dinner recipes. Now and then, you can add lunch and snacks.

Let us take the food storage one-step further. You have your seven to fourteen recipes. Make a list of all their ingredients and the amount needed to make each recipe. Multiply the ingredients by 52 or 26 to equal a total of 52 meals. Now make a master shopping list. Post this list on your refrigerator and refer to it when you look at the food advertisements. (Problem getting food advertisement? Most newspapers have them on line, call and ask. In AZ and UT look at http://sistersavings.net) Buy these ingredients when they are on sale and save even more. Each week look for one ingredient that is on sale and build toward your master list.

Now rotation, how are you going to rotate this food? This is the fun part. To rotate your food, prepare it for your family. As long as you buy it faster than you eat it, you will rotate the food naturally. Since you only buy the size food packages you use, no waste. Since you only buy foods you and your family like, no tears about, I do not like this. Since you have the recipes written down, you will not waste time wondering what to make with your food storage.

Using these methods, my husband and I have put together a 90-day food storage in one year and I have never gone over my food budget. In fact, the opposite is true. During the October meat sales, the prices on our favorite ground beef and beef roast were reduced almost 50%. Since I had been buying food storage for the previous 10 months, I did not buy any groceries. I spent that entire week’s money on meat. Each day after work I would go to the store and buy 10 pounds of meat. That evening I would both freeze and can the meat. By the end of the week, we had 70 pounds of meat. 35 pounds was cooked and frozen in my freezer. 35 pounds of meat was raw packed, canned, and stored in my cupboard. Then in November, I did the same thing with turkey. I cooked and preserved eight, 24-pound turkeys. It will be a long time before we need to buy meat.