The most important step in starting your food stockpile is to just get started!
No excuses! I put off starting a stockpile for so long because I was afraid of doing the 'wrong' thing. I had read so many articles about avoiding costly mistakes and I kept thinking I needed to save up to buy a huge amount of food at one time.
However, the reality is that most people who have enormous stockpiles of food started by collecting a little at a time. While there are mistakes you do want to avoid, the biggest mistake you can make is to not be prepared!
Let's look at these 5 basic steps to starting your stockpile!
- Stock What you Eat
- It's easy to think that if you are starving you will eat anything. While there is a lot of truth in that, trying to figure out how to get your kid to eat that can of spinach for breakfast is not something you want to stress over! It's important to stock up on foods that your family eats, rather than things that are not common to your diet now. Then if your family needs to rely on those stockpiles, you will not add shock or stress to an already stressful situation.
- Size Matters
- Case in point, one of my first purchases was an almost 7lb can of pinto beans! My family of three will NOT be able to eat that in one sitting! For your family that may be a perfect purchase, but for mine, it's excessive. Make sure you think about the size of the packages you purchase/store so you do not create waste.
- Pantry Basics
- You will need items to cook your foods with. Remember things like salt, spices, sugars/honey (which honey has many, many other uses!), oil, etc. Make sure you think about how to prepare the foods you are storing and creating nutritionally balanced meals from them.
- Set Realistic Goals
- Remember those people we talked about with huge stockpiles? Well, for most families it's very unrealistic to think you'll achieve that same stockpile in 6 months. As with anything you are trying to accomplish, create smaller progressive goals you can meet as you move towards your ultimate goal. Start with a 72 hour food supply, then a week, a month, etc. Make sure you are storing enough food for the number of people you plan to provide for as well.
- Storage, Rotation, Organization
- Proper food storage is very important so that you make sure not to create waste. For your initial 72 hours goal, normal pantry storage methods are sufficient. However, when you begin to store for months and years you will to need to utilize storage methods that will prevent pests and spoilage. I'll share some tips on this in future articles. It's also important to rotate and organize your supplies so you don't have food expiring before it's used.
Also remember that you can help reduce expenses of creating a food stockpile by starting a garden and canning your own vegetables and fruits, make and can jams/jellies. We also can wild game (squirrel, deer, etc.) to add to our food stockpile.
When we started our stockpile it seemed like we would never get very much. I was buying just one or two items extra each time I went to the store. Here is what it looked like after about a month:
And here is what, most of it, looks like today (there are some things that won't fit, such as that 7lb can of pinto beans!!) - this is after about six months of buying one or two things each time I go to the store:
So, don't waste anymore time! Get started with your stockpile!! No matter what you are able to do, every little bit will help your family be more prepared in the event that you need to rely on your stockpiles. Keep in mind, a food stockpile can even hedge your family against financial losses - there is no disadvantage to creating a food stockpile!
No comments:
Post a Comment