Food Storage by the Numbers

Not long ago, the Sun Oven lady pointed out that a year’s worth of stored food equaled 4,380 meals.  That’s 365 breakfasts, lunches and dinners for four people!  (I’ve always hated math because you can’t argue with numbers!)  Put into that perspective, it made me realize just how much food my family consumes in a year, and that 4,380 number doesn’t include snacks, desserts or Starbucks Frappuccinos!

How does a someone begin storing that much food, and is it even possible or desirable to have that much food sitting around the house, out in the garage, down in the basement and under each and every bed?

If you’re new to my blog and the idea of food storage, you can pick up some easy strategies by perusing some of my older posts.  If you’re already into food storage, you’ve learned how important it is to keep track of what you have so you don’t blindly stock up on too much pasta and not enough sauce!  Last week I took an inventory of what I have stored.  I was delighted to find that I have 75 cans of ravioli, 50 packages of pasta (spaghetti, bow-tie, etc.), 45 cans of mandarin oranges, 3 gallons of honey, and on and on and on.  When I realized that the ravioli alone will provide two months’ worth of lunches for my two kids, I relaxed a little.  Three months’ worth of food is doable, and I know we have more than that.  I’ll bet when you count up what you have and divide it by meals, you’ll have more stored food than you thought you did!

By the way, I don’t count all the food I have in the freezer.  Between freezer burn and possible loss of electricity, I don’t view frozen food as truly long-term storage.  So, all the meat and frozen veggies that I do have in our two freezers just add a nice little cushion to everything in the pantry.

As you’re stocking up, keep track of how much toilet paper your family uses in a month, how much shampoo, conditioner and laundry soap is used a month so you can monitor your progress with those all-important non-edibles.

Three hearty meals a day is nice and all, but toilet paper is what makes us human!

Via: thesurvivalmom


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