Most families or individuals eat the same meals over and over. Setting up a meal plan shouldn't be a problem for most people. Sit down with your family and map out a meal plan. If you like a lot of diversity you can plan as many meals as you like. It would be best to try to use some of the same ingredients in each meal. Spices can dramatically change the taste of a meal without changing many of the ingredients, so use them as much as you can. I suggest getting some sort of beans or rice in every evening meal. Beans and rice are good for you, and are great fillers.
I would suggest no less than 14 different meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Once you have your meals planned then you can start buying the ingredients. Buy a little bit at a time, and buy canned or other foods that will store for a while. Each time you buy a can of beans or a bag of rice; buy two. This way you can start eating on the one, and store the other one. As your food storage gets bigger and bigger you will eat the items that you purchased the earliest. Once you get the hang of this it will become second nature. You can set your own personal goal but I challenge you to work towards a whole year of food storage.
You can have you own grocery store in your pantry or basement. No need to run to the store, it's all in your own home. This also might seem like a big task but working on it a little at a time you will be there in no time. And by buying a little bit at a time it's not going to cost you a lot. If you have a garden you can can or dehydrate your own produce or do the same with purchased produce. There are tons of different ways to do this but as long as you have a meal plan mapped out and the ingredients available for those meals you're going to be in pretty good shape.
