How to Stockpile Food in Storage
Stockpiling food can help your family if there is a natural disaster or a national pandemic. It can also help you to save money, since you can stock up on food items when the prices are low and only purchase the foods your family needs or is on sale each week. You can either build your stockpile a little at a time or you can make one big shopping trip to purchase everything you need. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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1
Designate a space in your home to store your stockpile. If your home has a basement, this might be the best place, since this area is generally cool. You could also use a walk-in pantry or an extra bedroom. Apartment dwellers aren't out of luck--you simply have to take care to purchase smaller items and store them in a large plastic bin.
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2
Make a list of your family's favorite meals. Some people purchase ready-to-eat meals when creating an emergency stockpile, but those foods don't always taste good. Whether you're using the stockpile for everyday use or saving for disaster, you need foods that your family likes--especially if you have picky eaters.
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3
Circle items on the list that you make with non-perishable items. The key to a food stockpile is that you can't have foods that will go bad. Canned goods, pasta, flour and dried foods will all last at least a year. These are your best options.
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4
Create a shopping list based on the meals you circled in Step 3. Some good things to have on hand are soups, canned pastas, vegetable oil, dried beans, rice, flour, oatmeal and pancake mix that only requires water.
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5
Put away items in your storage compartments. Store like items together and put the newer items in the back. If you're going to eat from your stockpile, eat the oldest items have first.
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6
Keep your stockpile area dark. Food will keep best if it's in a dark place. Keep your stockpile covered as well, if possible. If not, simply keep the lights off as often as possible.
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Tips & Warnings
Reduce costs by watching the store's sales fliers for the week's current sales and coupling these with coupons. Try to buy items only when they are on sale.
References
- Photo Credit Yellow tin image by Mykola Velychko from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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Anonymous
Apr 18, 2011
I like how the article stresses that you can build up your stockpile over time. To help you manage it, and make it a little bit fun, there are smart phone applications that can manage your inventory, expiration and rotation dates, and help you build up your goals over time!
