Rising Food Prices revisited

There is a lot of talk about rising food prices, both in the news, and in blogs.  This is one of the many reasons that I believe in food storage.
I have noticed that prices fluctuate up and down, with a gradual rise.  So, stock up when the price is low.  For example, when I find refried beans for $.59 per can, I buy 12 or more.  That way I never have to buy refried beans when they're $1 per can!  (I used to always wait for them to be $.50 per can, but I haven't seen that price for at least 2 years.  And, yes, I should probably learn to make refried beans so that I can avoid this purchase all together.)
Want more?  Check out this 2008 Wall Street Journal article.
Now, how do I afford this?  I budget $50 per month as my "emergency preparedness fund."  This money goes toward my bulk food purchases (i.e. 25 pound bags of wheat, oats, etc.), items on sale (chicken, refried beans, toilet paper, etc.) that I can't afford in my regular food budget, and emergency preparedness items (wind-up flashlights, items for 120 hour kit, etc.).  If I don't spend any of it one month, then I'll have $100 the next month.  When I first started using this category in my budget, I found that I spent significantly less in the regular shopping category of my budget.  It really all just evened out.
I mentioned the sale at Maceys last week.  You may be interested to know what someone crazy like me ended up purchasing.  I bought:
50 lb bag Morning Moos' milk alternative
2 cans powdered eggs
45 lb. bucket white wheat
50 lb. bag all-purpose flour
7 3 lb bags pasta

The milk was $60, so yes I went over budget.  But I had money left over from December, and I'll have less to use in February (bad idea to use next month's money).  But I have the peace of knowing that my family has plenty of milk to drink (although it's not real milk).
By the way, all of the bulk food items are going in buckets with gamma seal lids.  These are air tight.  The flour will last a long, long time, and the milk should last at least a year or two.

Cooking Dry Beans

Cooking Dry Beans

Note: Times may vary based on the type and size of the bean, as well as how old they are.

1. Sort the beans. In other words take out all foreign material, especially rocks.
2. Rinse the beans.
3. Long Method: Cover the beans in water, at least 2 inches above the level of the beans, and let
soak for 6-8 hours (or overnight). Short Method: Cover beans with water, boil for 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour.
4. Drain the water, then rinse.
5. Cover the beans with water, at least 2 inches above the level of the beans, bring to a boil, and
then simmer for 1-3 hours. Add more water if necessary so that the beans stay covered in
water.
6. Drain the water, then rinse.
7. Now your beans are recipe ready.

Beans may also be cooked in a crockpot (I have never done this), or in a pressure cooker (I did this for the first time last week-more to come!)

I typically cook a pound of beans at a time, use however much I need in a recipe, then freeze the rest for
later use. Beans can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months.  Also last week I canned beans in my new pressure canner (more to come!)

A recipe for how to restore very old beans may be found here.

Food Storage Basics

I have two food storage principles that I think fit in perfectly with my recently discussed topic of gluten free eating:

1.  Eat what you store, and store what you eat.  It's that simple.
2.  Learn to cook.  Even if you don't bake your own bread, for example, usually, know how to.  This way if you had to, you could.  So you should also store a little of these baking ingredients as well.

With these two principles in mind, it doesn't matter what food allergies or eating style you have.  Food storage does not need to be difficult or expensive.

Here's an example, continuing on with the bread example:
If you normally buy your bread, buy a couple of extra loaves to keep in your freezer.  You may also like to find a bread mix that you like, and store a little of that.  Once every month or two make some bread from the mix.  Then learn to make bread.  Store the ingredients to make this as well.  A couple of times a year, make some bread. 

More Reasons to Buy in Bulk.

In my Beginning Food Storage post I give a lot of reasons to store food.  I've mentioned that I buy wheat in bulk.  What I haven't written about, though, is why it can benefit to buy in bulk.  I found this article listing a lot of reasons to buy in bulk.  It lists reasons like less trash and transportation costs.  Good article.

Variety in Food Storage

I found this article about cooking from scratch.  She gives a list if ingredients needed to cook different items from scratch.  How you can start with flour, milk, salt, baking powder, and oil and make several recipes.  When you add more ingredients, you can make more foods.  The same thing applies with food storage.  The more different ingredients you store, the more foods you'll be able to make.  If you do have to live strictly off of your food storage, variety will be key.  Therefore, store a variety of foods.

Year Supply Chart

Someone asked me for a printable chart with recommended long-term storage needs.  Here it is.  Remember that you can adjust it to meet your and your family's needs.  For example, f you have never eaten barley, don't store it.  Store more oats instead.  Just be sure to keep the totals.

Beginning Food Storage

Why Food Storage?

Why should I store food? Because you never know when you might not be able to get food at the store, and food is essential to your survival. There could be a trucking strike. You could lose your job. You could get sick and not want to leave home. A reverse quarantine could be put in place due to a wide-spread illness in your area. There could be a natural disaster (where you live, or where the food you eat is grown). The government could put rations on what you're allowed to buy at the store. I think you get the idea.

What should I store?

What do you eat? This is what you should store.

How do I rotate the food?

One method is to put new food in the back, and eat from the front. More details below under “How can I afford food storage?”

How can I afford food storage?

Here is my method:

1. First I determined an amount of money that I could afford to spend on food storage each month. This amount was higher than what I originally supposed, because I saved so much money on groceries.

2. The amount of money I budget for food storage revolves from month to month. So, if I don’t spend the money one month, I can spend it the next, or the following one after that.

3. Next I made a list of canned/packaged food that my family eats regularly, and estimated how many of each of these we eat in a 3-month time period. See all my 3 month supply posts.

4. When each of these items is on sale, I inventory how much I have, and how much more I need to complete my 3-month supply.

5. I purchase this amount of the item, plus enough to last until the next time I expect this item to go on sale (usually 6 months). For example, my family eats approximately 6 cans of refried beans in 3 months. When refried beans go on sale, I look in my cupboard, find that I only have 2 cans, and then buy 16 cans, because I don’t expect them to be this price for another 6 months (12 cans to last 6 months, plus 4 cans to make a 3 month supply). I pay for these 16 cans using money that I have saved up in my food storage fund.

6. When I have a good supply of food for my 3-month supply, and/or don’t expect any good sales at the grocery store soon, I go to the cannery to work on my year supply items (wheat, oats, etc.)

7. I use the food that I store for both my 3-month and year supply regularly, so that the food doesn’t go bad, so that I know how to use the food, and so that I save money on groceries.

My Year Supply

You can find my year supply here. You can see that my goal is to have a year supply for one person. I have changed quantities on many items, but kept the total quantity for each food area the same. I have added several items on the "Other" section. This is an example of how you can, and should adapt the year supply to you and your family's needs and likes.

Year Supply

I would not recommend even thinking about starting to organize your year supply of food until you have your 3 month supply of food organized, and well under way. If you do not have your 3 monthly supply started, please consult my 3 month supply posts. If you feel comfortable with your position on your 3 month supply, you may continue reading.
Store a year supply of basics. If this sounds overwhelming to you for any reason (time, space, money, etc.), as it does to me, then don't worry about a year supply. Think of this in terms of 1, 3, or 6 months instead. Once you have and use basic foods, you may branch out to other foods as your interest, time, finances, and space allow.
So, what should you store? A calculator can be found online at About.com. Or you can use this spreadsheet that I created. Just print out each page of this spreadsheet, then fill in the highlighted cells, showing how much you want to store (goal), and how much you have. With both of these calculators, be sure to individualize it to your family's needs and preferences. If you don't like one type of bean, substitute for another. If you prefer one type of grain over another, make those substitutes, as well.
In future posts I will address each basic food storage item individually.

My Food Storage Philosophy

My philosophy on food storage is simple: store what you eat, and eat what you store. I frequently talk to people who store food that they don't have a clue what to do with. They either buy food simply because it seems like a good price, or they buy food (such as wheat) because they think that they should have it, but they really have no intention of using it. My #1 rule of food storage: Only buy food if you are going to eat it before it goes bad.