3 Month Supply: Putting Together Your Plan

If you want your 3 month food supply to be more than a random collection of cans, box foods and wheat, and instead be something you can use, you need to determine what a 3 month supply actually means to you.

Answering the following 5 questions will help you do this:

1. Why am I building a 3 month supply of food?

• Natural disasters
• Economic crisis
• Health benefits
• Everyday Emergencies
• Religious Reasons

2. What kinds of foods do I want to include?

• Shelf stable items only
• Fridge and freezer items
• Fresh produce

3. How will I plan what to buy for my supply?

• Paper and pencil - click here for worksheet
• Excel spreadsheet - click here for spreadsheet

4. How much money can I afford to budget?

• All at once
• A little at a time

5. How will I shop for my 3 month supply?

• In bulk
• Coupons
• Weekly sales

Now that you have answered these questions you're ready to put your plan together.  Use the worksheet or spreadsheet to plan out 1 months worth of the following meals: breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks. Remember, these should be meals that your family likes to eat so get them involved in choosing which ones make it to the plan.

Once you have your menu put together, collate all the ingredients from all the meals to come up with the total amount of each item you need for 1 month. For example, if I plan on using 1lb of ground beef in 4 of my recipes I will need 4 lbs of ground beef for 1 month. Now, simply multiply that number by 3 to get the total amount needed for your 3 month supply. Don't forget to take into account any of the ingredients you already have on hand.

For those of you comfortable with MS Excel I highly recommend using the spreadsheet created by the wonderful sisters at FoodStorageMadeEasy.net.  This spreadsheet does all the calculations for you and allows you to easily figure out how much of each item you need. 

Below is a basic tutorial on how to use the spreadsheet.



For those of you, like me, who have struggled with what a 3 month food supply really is, I hope that this sheds some light on the subject.  For me, the aha moment was when I realized that my 3 month supply can include refrigerated and frozen items and that I can use fresh produce, if I want to. 

The important thing is that your 3 month plan needs to work for you.

Good luck sisters.

Shelving Options

Before you can start building your food storage supply, you have to have somewhere to put it.  Below are a number of shelving options to fit every size of home and budget.

Build your Own:

Cardboard Rotating Rack - cheap, but time consuming.  Click here to download instructions.



Wooden Rotating Rack - you'll need a handy person around to figure this one out!



Decorative Rolling Rack - what a great idea for a small home or apartment.



Purchase Shelving:

Metal or plastic shelving - inexpensive and available at stores like Walmart and Target.  A really good starting point but don't allow for easy rotating.

CanOrganizer.com - good value, but made of cardboard so may not last too well.


www.canorganizer.com/

PharaohsStorehouse.com - mid priced shelving options with in-wall, on-wall, pull out and lazy susan designs

http://www.pharaohsstorehouse.com/

ShelfReliance.com - The Cadillac model of rotating shelves systems.  Very expensive but oh so cool!

http://www.shelfreliance.com/