What do I buy?
Store what you eat, eat what you store. This should be the motto of any survivalist. You don’t want to store beans, rice and wheat if you don’t eat these foods. The first step in preparing to store food is to change your diet. Start eating foods that you can store for long term such as beans, rice and making homemade bread from your own wheat. This way when disaster strikes your taste buds won’t be shocked when your diet changes. Beans and rice are not the only items to store, but are staple foods and contain tons of nutrients that your body needs. Fruits, and vegetables are also very important and freeze dried or dehydrated fruits or vegetables is the way to go. In a survival situation, having a variety is the key to keeping a strong apatite and not getting bored with the same meals every day. Having a few good recipe books on hand that will show you how to make different homemade recipes from your raw materials will allow you to have a variety in your meals.
How Much?
This is another important question many would ask when faced with the fact they need to store food. Personally, I would start out small. Get a week or two worth of food and water for the whole family. Once you see what foods you need and the amounts you consume on a small scale, you can increase your quantity for longer periods on up until you have a year’s worth of food for the whole family. There are a lot of different opinions of how much of which foods to store. Most would agree that around 300lbs of wheat per person would be enough for a whole year, 200lbs of rice, and 50lbs of beans. These are the starting point of any long term food storage. 100lbs of salt, and sugar would also be other items to add for your year supply. From there you can judge how much on a weekly basis your family eats, and purchase accordingly.
How will I pay for this?
This question could be the most important question of all. When you hear 300lbs of this, 200lbs of that you think there’s no way I can afford that. In reality buying your basic survival foods in bulk is extremely cheap and will SAVE you tons of money in the long run. It might take a larger initial investment, but at the end of the year it will pay off tremendously. For example, 300lbs of wheat would cost you $100, and 200lbs of rice will cost only $60. Sam’s Club and Costco are great places to purchase bulk food on the cheap. There are many websites that offer freeze dried foods and dehydrated foods sealed in #10 cans for very cheap also.
Storing food, eating healthier, and cheaper is not hard and just takes a little work to figure out how much you need and which foods you would prefer. The bottom line is to try these foods out before you go out and spend money on them. Try eating pinto beans, black beans, and lentils and see which ones you like the best. From there you can choose which ones to store. Learn how to make homemade bread from raw wheat and decide what your favorite type of wheat is. Storing food is an insurance policy, just like we have car insurance and home insurance…why not have food insurance?
