Frugal Emergency Food Storage

An emergency food storage can be extremely important in case of something extreme happening. Thinking of spending the extra money toward building food storage seems almost impossible with the tight budgets many of us are living on now. Yet a food storage can save you money in the future. Spending large amounts of money on special packaged food doesn’t help the situation and in the end won’t save you money, but slowly building a proper food storage using only $10 a week over a long time will.

Being with listing the reasons for needing a emergency food storage. By knowing the reasons we need it give a springboard to where to begin and what to buy. Many of us think of a emergency food storage good for weather or man made disasters. Unless we face the possibility of these kinds of disaster often, such as the hurricanes we are seeing in the south, we generally believe these disasters don’t happen to us, but most better knock on wood. There are other emergency situations that a food storage would become useful. The possibility of long term unemployment is one situation we don’t link to food storage, but we all know is very possible. A severe economic depression, also well known to everyone, is also another possibility to need a emergency food storage.

After knowing what reasons you need a food storage for, look more closer at your list and arrange them beginning with the situation that would last the shortest and the longest at the end including how much time your food storage would have to cover. This gives you goals on how much to set aside. Once you have completed the shorter situations then you can move to the longer ones. Also keep in mind your living conditions such as being able to cook the food, because it won’t do no good to end up in a situation and not be able to eat the food. If you won’t have a way to cook, then having flour for bread isn’t much help, but maybe flat bread will be good. If you have to leave quickly, then your food storage should contain items that don’t take a lot to prepare.

Don’t begin the important step of running up credit to buy all that you need. In the end, especially using credit cards, you are going to be using more money including interest to pay for it. This wouldn’t help what you are trying to do. Begin by taking only $10 a week to spend money on the basics such as rice, flour, beans, milk, sugar, shortening, Tang, canned greens, carrots, pumpkin, and tuna. By the end of the month you should be able to spend a total of $40 and have all or at least close to all the above items. These items will make a very bland diet, but they are high nutrition wise. Rice and beans make a good amino acid combination and tang is extremely high in vitamin C to give a few examples.

Although this list is only suggestion, you must be willing to eat or learn to eat the foods you buy as you continue to purchase them. If you won’t eat them, then it won’t do any good buying them. It is good to take these food out and work towards learning how to make them tasty as well as rotating what is in your food storage. Some food have a life of about two years, but rotating them will keep them within their shelf life. To learn how much life food items have just search for prudent food storage.

After the first month, and having the basics, you then can expand your food storage and widen your selection of food. Also look for sales for the food items you need or shop warehouse groceries. You also want to think about how to store food. Some ways of storage like pressure canning are very expensive and will defeat the purpose, however drying might be a better way to go. So list your reasons, research what kind of food you are going to need, and how you are going to store it. Remember a small amount every week will help you to build your storage over a long time period and make it worth the little extra.