Tips on How To Prepare Your Food Storage for Tough Times & Emergencies
Most of you know that I have lost my job.
Over the last couple of weeks my family and I have been taking needed preparations with our food supply, trying to reduce costs with groceries and trying to build up an emergency supply of food to fall back on during tough economic times.
While this pictures is not my food storage pantry, parts of me wish it was.
Our first step in preparing for tough times is to put together some shelving that we have down in our basement, get some food storage products and slowly learn to build up our emergency food supply with storing of essentials.
Do you have an emergency food storage to help your family through tough times or natural disasters?
I’ve found some recommendations from websites such as Wikipedia.com on how to store and maintain essential food items. There are even food storage calculators to give you an idea of how much a person would need to store in order to sustain life for one full year.
A lot of this information is overwhelming to read, some of it is information you already know but would never think of when preparing your emergency food storage.
For example, stocking up on foods that provide you with essential nutrients to maintain normal body functions. At the same time avoiding foods with a higher salt content. The more salt you consume, the more water you will want to drink.
Stock up on high protein items. Protein is an essential to our diets and our bodies cannot survive without it. Things like canned meat and beans provide a great source of protein..
Did you know that the oil in your canned meat can also be used as an emergency candle?
The basic kitchen essentials, cooking oil, flour, salt, sugar, vinegar, etc. When you are doing your couponing, these items often get overlooked. If they are a staple in your kitchen they should also be a staple in your emergency supply.
With so many people losing their jobs and conflict that is going on over seas, it really isn’t a bad idea to think about these things. I sure didn’t think about them until it personally effected my family..
I had a little of food storage going on but for the last two months I’ve been using it up so it doesn’t get too old. I keep brown rice, flour, peanut butter, honey, pudding, jelly, dried pasta, jarred sauces, canned goods. But honestly, there wasn’t much of it since I’m on a tight budget, it’s difficult to get it together. I also have some water stored. The first thing I get into that I’ve tried to save is coffee and tea. :)
This is such a great idea! I would never think about what products would provide you with the essential nutrients when thinking of an emergency stockpile of food. I didn’t know oil from canned meat can be used an emergency candle that is definitely good to know. Thank you for sharing!
We love stocking up on food items! It’s such a relief to know that we are prepared for any situation and we never have to make an emergency run to the grocery store!
Im a part worker and a signal mother to two. I beleive this is great to have something just in case. I never think to stock up on basic thing like the sugar, flour thing that would be used everyday.
I do indeed have emergency food supplies and essentials stored in the pantry over the winter, never know when weather takes a turn for the worse so best to prepare!
My grandma’s basement looks like the picture above. And ours is a miniature version of that. It is SO nice to have that back-up!
I wish we could do this since times our rough with us as well, however with a one bedroom cluttered apartment, this would be almost impossible for us. We only have 2 closets, no dressers yet so the closets is where we store things. We have a hall closet with shelfs but that alone just holds my beauty supplies
Thanks for the Wiki link – bookmarked.
I am sorry about your job. We don’t have an emergency food storage, but we are going to start stockpiling soon
Thanks for the great tips…I always struggle with buying food and then storing poorly, so it goes bad. =/
i can’t wait until I can have a dedicated pantry space so I can organize mine. I have a bit of a stockpile but it’s not very comprehensive.
I honestly did not know that you could use canned beef as an emergency candle. We have solar lights outside and work great as extra light inside the house when the electricity goes out.
We’ve had to fall back on our food storage before, and there is a very real possibility we will again soon (hoping not). It’s something always in the back of my mind nagging at me.
Oh I wish we had a basement. We use our laundry room to keep what we can… would like to have room to keep more though. Thanks for the tips!
Food storage is awesome. We have one..definitely not as nice as the one in the picture…but it is there. It makes me feel better to know that we will atleast have food to eat. The hard thing is rotating it so that you don’t have food go bad. I’m sorry about your job. I hope things get much better for you and your family.
That photo looks like it could be the Duggar’s pantry.
I’m sorry about your job.
my family has always been big on the food storage thing. Getting what they can here and there, for us its been hard. We never really had a lot of left over money for it and we move at LEAST once a year. I am hoping to be better at it thought.
Thanks for the article. I’ve been meaning to make a stockpile of food to use in an emergency (or even to have on hand for a day-to-day basis that’s made up of items purchased when on sale & had coupons for). I didn’t know you can use the oil in canned meat products as an emergency candle…thanks for the info!
Great article. We too are a one income family at the moment due to by husband being injured on the job over a year ago! Nice to know we aren’t alone out here!
We have the opposite problem – we buy all these things with great deals of coupons and sales – and then we never use them! So our goal this year is getting better about using our stockpiles!
I think you make a great point. My mom has been stocking up on items for years. While we have laughed at her at times..it is always nice to have things on hand and you really never know when we might need to have a stock pile!!
When my husband lost his job a couple of years ago, right after our son was born, we relied heavily on my mother in laws pantry to keep us fed. Thank goodness for relatives.