My food storage goals for 2011 (Hannah)

Today and tomorrow, Abbie and I will be sharing some of our food storage goals for the upcoming year.  I am always excited for the new year and the opportunities it brings, and I LOVED reading all of your New Year's resolutions as you entered our giveaway last week.  There were a ton of really great ones and I actually wrote down a couple of them for ME to do!  So thanks to everyone for sharing with us - we read a lot of food storage and non-food storage goals alike.  It was great.

My food storage goals this year will actually be quiet similar to my goals last year.  Last year, one of my goals was to actually deplete a lot of my food storage over the first half of the year, because we were planning to move in June 2010.  I was pretty successful at that, and we ended up only having to pack about 4-5 boxes of food storage to take with us.  When we got to our new apartment in July, I went on a big shopping spree and replaced much of my food storage with grocery money that I had been saving over the previous months (because we were eating our food storage).  I wasn't able to bring us back to where we used to be (food storage-wise), but it was better than nothing.

But now.... we are moving AGAIN this June!  My husband is only doing his intern year here in Virginia, and we'll be moving to Florida in June so that he can do his 4-5 year radiology residency. 

So... you guessed it!  Once again, for the first half of the year I'll focus on depleting my food storage, and carefully saving the grocery money I DON'T spend, so that I can quickly replace it all when we get settled in Florida.  My main goal for the second half of the year will be to replenish my food storage.

Don't get me wrong: I am not opposed to "moving" food storage.  I would definitely pack it all up and move it ALL if we had to.  But anyone who has moved knows what a huge undertaking it is, and to add a bunch of food storage into the mix is a bit overwhelming.  I know some people may tell me that it's a really bad idea to get rid of my food storage and, what if we NEED it?  I understand that that's a risk I'm taking but I feel good about our decision.

Plus, I feel like it's good practice for me to be using my food storage so often.  I'm getting a lot of experience with cooking with my canned goods, as well as with my longer-term storage.  It's been fun to see what I can come up with, and it's also a little exciting to see our "food storage fund" grow semi-quickly as we save money on groceries each week (since we're eating more from the pantry).

Once we move to Florida, one of my food storage goals will be to figure out a good storage and rotation system in our new house.  We don't know yet where we will be living, but I'm definitely crossing my fingers for a house with a pantry and lots of other storage space.  Here's hoping!  It's been difficult to really set up a "system" here because we are only here for a year.  We'll be in Florida for 4-5 years, so I'm really looking forward to doing some longer-term changes to maximize food storage space (shelving, etc.).

Ideally, I'd also like to get a good water storage system in place (after we move), as well as focus on some emergency prep stuff.

Food Storage Tuesday

Every Tuesday, we post specific items you should gather in order to supplement your emergency car kit, your three-month supply, and your longer term storage.  If you are new to our blog, don't worry!  You won't be left behind.  Just start up where we are and follow along.  You will eventually have everything completed.  Once the car kit is complete, we'll be putting together 72-hour kits again (week by week).  Once those are done, we'll gather the car kits again.  So don't worry, just jump on in and join us where we are today!


This week for your car kits, add some bottled water and some snacks (granola bars, trail mix without the chocolate (it melts), gummy treats, etc.).  In the past, some people have worried about having their bottled water in the trunks of their cars for so long (because of chemicals from the plastic).  If you are concerned about this, rotate your water regularly, especially in the summer.  I'm not going to tell you how often "regularly" is... I'll let you decide!

How much water?  It depends on how many people are in your family and how many seats you have in your car.  I have 5 seats in my car so I store 5 bottles of water, even though I don't usually have 5 people in my car.  Better safe than sorry, though! 


How's your three month supply coming along?  Make a plan!  I know it seems like we say this all the time but really is the key to success.  A bunch of hodge-podge food storage in your pantry will not do much good (okay, it will of course do the job, but it will be confusing and could be difficult to make meals out of random canned and dry goods).


This month for our longer-term storage we're still gathering "other" items (see the sidebar for a list of items).  I think I'm going to focus on powdered milk and white flour this month.

Motivational Monday

"Behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."

Alma 37:6