I had a great conversation yesterday with one of my LDS friends at the boys school. I have no idea how we started talking about it, but we did and it was a real eye opener for me.
Let's just say I'm not doing a great job at food storage. (To say the least!) There are a few reasons why I'm not good at it. I have never been to the cannery or have purchased actual food storage food. I always buy extra of everything like cereal, crackers, canned goods, water...and also soap, toothpaste, shampoo....But I have no where near a 3 month supply like the church has asked of us.
Why? Why do I not make this a priority?
Talking with Diane she helped me realize a few very important and easy things to do to start and maintain food storage. One thing that really hit me was that she said when she was newly married, like 30 years ago, she never would allow her children to go hungry. I would never allow my children to go hungry either, but I have not planned accordingly to prevent this from happening. Of course they are my responsibility. Why would I not put food storage higher on my list of things to do.
She offered some great websites and advice. I have heard great stories of families that the husband lost his job and the family lived off of food storage. So I commit to you today that I will be better at collecting my food storage. If you have any good advice for me, let me know!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Food Storage
Posted by Lori Thompson at 8:58 AM
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One thing I heard a long time ago that I thought was pretty cool was to write down your family's 14 favorite meals and then start collecting enough stuff to make those meals 26 times. That's two weeks of meals and stuff you know you like, not just 5000000 lbs of flour. You can take anything you want to the cannery in Mesa, like lucky charms, or rice krispies, or whatever can be preserved that you want and buy just the cans there and they will help you can it....very cool! Then you know you also have some stuff in your food storage that you like and are used to eating. Have fun!
you remember just before we left campus? i bought 5 of those huge tupperward tubs...one for canned fruit, one for canned veggies, one for pasta, one for rice and one for seasonings and sauce mixes. i had a little extra cushion in our "food fund" (wink, wink)...can i just tell you that we lived on that food until about 2 months ago? it stretched the meager $400 we could budget for food a month! there is no way we could have done it without that! i like deana rasmussen's lesson on it out there...she said one month focus on spices and buy an extra spice every time you're at the store, the next month focus on pasta and just spend $5 extra if that's what you can but at least you're doing it!!!
my parents' had a years' supply of food in their basement when they lost their entire home to a fire (i was 17) my mom said well...it must be something i'm to continually be showing obedience in...what would i have done if i had it all done :) she started it right back up again and to this day just buys a little here and there and has plenty for all of the extended families. we're tryin' to figure out how to store water since we can't get our hands on those cheap barrels from sis. leonard out here :)good luck..and remember...a little at a time adds up fast!
I'm terrible at this because we don't have any place to store it! : /
www.sistersavings.net The R.S. E.mail that goes out each week sometimes has this website posted.
My problem was where do i start?
If you take some time to explore all the tabs on the website, you'll be amazed at how easy it is to find where to start. Plus there are links to great coupon finds! Also, I like how it provides PDF graphs to help organize your 3 months of planning storage. Check it out!
I'm glad that you have a plan. You'll need it... When Charlie lost his job, back in 2002, we just had an FHE about food storage, so after paying off our credit card, we hit Costco and bought extra food with the little "cushion" money we had left while we waited out 5 months of job searching. It killed me not to have money to get the basics, but Charlie loved powdered milk and canned veggies. I bought a lot of cereal, rice, ramen, plus I portioned all of our meat. We also prepaid most of our bills, so we could focus on using his umemployment on any emergency expenses. It was scary because we didn't have any real food storage food items, but the fact that we had the canned foods like corn and peas, carrots and the powdered milk plus 6 water jugs we refilled each week; we did just fine with very little until we moved into a new apt and Charlie found a job. I held a daycare in my home for a year to supplement after that and Coupon Sense helped feed us with a lot of free food items.
The point is, having a plan helps and the faith that you can do it. Since then during easier times, I do a Costco run twice a year to replenish and add to our food storage. Good luck!
Oh yeah, I was also grateful that I was breastfeeding the two little ones and I had a lot of baby food for Ian and pasta for Jasmine. We bought two big jars of animals cookies and portioned those out to 5 pcs twice a day after naps, even for Lisa. Also, it was a good thing that we were paid up for Lisa's school lunches and when he lost the job, we reapplied for the lunch and by January 2003, she was getting free lunches and breakfast.
Well, there is no better place to get serious about food storage than in Gateway ward with Sandy Leonard there to guide and inspire, and sometimes scare you awake about the importance of food storage ha ha :-) There are so many good resources there that the ward we are in now looks like they have never heard of it! Good luck, and happy hunting for great deals on the extra food!
Take advantage of the union card and couponsense! We have been so blessed and I actually was going to post about this sometime. My food storage has gotten so much better since I started doing these two things. I was going to focus on doing 72 hour kit stuff with my union card next week. We could all make it a girl's trip. Also, I hate the idea of buying foods that we wouldn't eat or that I don't know how to prepare. I have never really ordered from the cannery too. I have been there though. :)
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