Today I want to touch on the topic of food storage. Food and water storage needs to be a staple in any preppers lifestyle. The general rule of thumb is that you need 25 lbs of grains like rice, wheat, corn, etc for each person per month you are prepping for. On that same scale you will need 5 lbs of dry beans. For example. if you are prepping for 3 months for a family of four you need 300 lbs or grains and 60 lbs of beans. You also need 1 gallon of water per each per for everyday. I will discuss water storage in another post. These are very general rules.. I'm sure you can imagine how expensive prepping can get if your buy all of your food at once. They is hope for those of thus that don't have a whole lot of extra cash laying around.
First of all, you NEED a 72 hour kit. Go ahead and shell out the cash to get that kit in place. If disaster strikes tomorrow, and it WILL for someone, you will be glad you did. Now that the 72 hour kit is in place just set it aside. That kit does not count toward your food stores. To start on your food stores you need to go look in your pantry. Make a list of what types of canned goods you keep at home. This list is going to be the basis of you food preps. Any time you go into the grocery store you are going to but a bag of dried beans and a bag of rice. Those are only a buck or two each. You are also going to buy three canned goods from you list. You are out $5-$7 and you have already increased your survivability by a few points. Be sure to mix up the types of beans and canned goods you buy so you have a little variety. Pretty simple, right?
You want to build up at least 3 months of food and water stores as quickly as you can but I suggest just taking inventory once monthly or bi-monthly. Progress will seem slow is you recalculate every time you add to your stores. Storing food preps is not a daunting task but it sure can seem to be sometimes. One way to save a lot of money is to get more bang for your buck. Use coupons! You will get more product for less money, in turn your food stores will grow exponentially faster. Buy one get one free offers on canned goods are like a guaranteed win lottery ticket to preppers.Once you have built up your three months of food stores you should consider preserving your own food too. Canning is is great way to preserve some good food. Canned meat will be like gold when the SHTF! You can can almost anything including pre-made meals. I love to can molle chicken with green salsa. It goes great over all of that rice you have stored up.
