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Food Storage

Why do you need food storage?

I personally just think food storage makes sense and I can’t imagine living without it. Having this “buffer against the storm” is a big area of safety for me; to know that no matter what may happen to us financially, I can feed my family. We have a well-stocked pantry and more than a 3 month supply of food, so I can basically make any kind of meal without having to go to the grocery store.

The Food Storage Page | PreparednessMamaThis is smart because it keeps me from going to the store every day. You might say this is a country skill and while I don’t live in the country right now, it still saves me money in the long run to buy in bulk.

In addition, I have a year’s supply of various grains, beans, sweeteners, and spices. Many years ago, while my husband was going to college, we lived off our food storage. It was a valuable lesson in self-reliance for our family.

The 10 Laws of Food Storage | PreparednessMama

What you need to store and how much do you need?

You should only store what you eat. It is a complete waste of money to buy food that your family doesn’t like, even if some “preparedness guru” says you need it. That goes for canned food and prepackaged items. I think of those food bricks that people say you should have in your 72-hour kits. While they may be 2000 calories each, no one would actually choose to eat it. Why not spend your money on what you like.

The first thing to do is make a list of 10-15 meals that your family likes and build your pantry and short term food storage around those items. Take each recipe and list the individual ingredients. Now start buying extra of those items for future meals.

How to get it?

If you can purchase food on sale or in bulk you will obviously get a better price. Check warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s Club. I’ve also found great prices at stores like Grocery Outlet and dollar store. Remember, don’t buy it if it isn’t a family favorite.

Gardening can also play a key part in your food storage plan. People who live in apartments can still grow a surprising amount of produce in pots on the balcony.

The Prepared Pantry: A 3 month supply of meals | PreparednessMama

Your Prepared Pantry: 3 Month Food Supply

It's the Working Supply of Your Food Storage. Having a well organized pantry, 3 month food supply, and a good ...
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Lemon juice powder is a kitchen standby for any pantry. It gives you the ability to add a punch of lemon flavor to any recipe you are creating | PreparednessMama

How to Use Lemon Juice Powder For Cooking

Include This Flavorful Addition in Your Pantry. Lemon zest is a kitchen standby for any pantry. It gives you the ...
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Baking substitutions download for inside your cupboard | PreparednessMama

Baking Substitutions – Don’t Get Caught With Your Measuring Cups Empty

Download This Baking Substitutions Chart and Keep It in Your Cupboard for Handy Reference. It's that time of year. Just ...
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You may love to stock your freezer with the garden harvest, but hate to blanch vegetables ahead of time. Is it an extra step you can skip? Maybe, if you follow the rules | PreparednessMama

How to Blanch Vegetables: Prep Your Veggies for Dehydration and Freezing

Learn When and How to Blanch Vegetables This Harvest Now that vegetable season is in full swing, it is an ...
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5 Ways to store food using dry pack canning techniques | PreparednessMama

Use Dry Pack Canning Methods to Preserve Food

5 Ways to Store Food Long-Term Dry Pack Canning is the process used to store foods that have less than ...
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8 Family Friendly Chest Freezer Organization Ideas | PreparednessMama

The Chest Freezer Organization Guide

Make the Most of Your Freezing Friend Updated March 2020 - Since my original chest freezer organization ideas post in ...
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You see it on the grocery store shelf under many different names: canning salt, kosher salt, sea salt, and table salt. Are they interchangeable for canning? | PreparednessMama

What is Canning Salt and Do You Need It?

You See It on the Grocery Store Shelf Under Many Different Names: Canning Salt, Pickle Salt, Kosher Salt, Sea Salt, ...
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Cooking with peanut flour - How to store it, where to get it and how to make a peanut butter replacement | PreparednessMama

Cooking with Peanut Flour

This year, in an effort to diversify my food storage, I am trying to add new items to my plan ...
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The Make Ahead Kitchen: 75 Slow-cooker, Freezer, and Prepared Meals by Annalise Thomas | PreparednessMama

The Make Ahead Kitchen

75 Slow-cooker, Freezer, and Prepared Meals for the Busy Lifestyle Years ago when my family lived outside of Seattle we ...
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How to join or create your own food swap and 80+ recipes that will leave their mouths watering for more. Part how to, part cookbook, you'll be sharing and swapping in no time | PreparednessMama

Join a Food Swap Near You

 Specialty Recipes for Bartering, Sharing & Giving What if you could get together with a group of like-minded people, once ...
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Expiration dates on food storage - Know When to Throw | PreparednessMama

Expiration Dates on Food Storage- Know When to Throw

Are You Wasting Food Because of Confusing Dates? I love to get a good deal on the usual supplies I ...
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4 Paths to Your Food Storage Plan | PreparednessMama

4 Paths to Your Food Storage Plan

Looking for Ways to Put Together a Solid Food Storage Plan? Try These Ideas. I find it's best to constantly ...
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Getting out of my dinner planning rut with the Cooking From Scratch books being offered in the Back to Basics Living Bundle | PreparednessMama

I’m in a Dinner Planning Rut

...but I Found a Promising Solution This weekend I had a long talk with my husband and we lamented about ...
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You voted and chose the top 10 food storage posts on PreparednessMama in 2015!

Top 10 Food Storage Posts of 2015

PreparednessMama is on vacation this week. We hope you enjoy the top 10 food storage posts from 2015 Food storage ...
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How to repackage bulk food for optimal storage | PreparednessMama

How to Repackage Bulk Food for Storage

For Short or Long Term Storage Purchasing in bulk is one of my favorite food storage tricks. Bulk purchases are ...
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Make butter in a jar | PreparednessMama

Preparedness Skill: Make Butter in a Jar

Have You Tried This Old Fashioned Skill? I've been collecting a list of preparedness skills that I want to learn ...
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Cookware Compariosn Chart | PreparednessMama

Cookware Comparisons Chart

There's a Pot for That! Today I'm sharing an interesting infographic I found at fix.com. There are so many choices ...
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Frozen Food Storage Infographic | PreparednessMama

Recommended Storage Times for Frozen Food

March is National Frozen Food Month Food preservation in cold temperatures has been practiced since the early days of mankind, ...
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What is a slow oven? Cooking conversion chart for old time recipes | PreparednessMama

Old Time Cookbook Conversions

Finding Natural Recipes from the Past I love to look through old cookbooks and find recipes for my family. You ...
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5 Ways to Use a FoodSaver Every day, PLUS enter to win one of your own | PrepaprednesMama

5 Ways to Use a FoodSaver Everyday

My Foodsaver Is an Indispensable Appliance in the Kitchen In fact, we use our FoodSaver more than our toaster! It has ...
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5 Ways to preserve 10 pounds of blueberries | PreparednessMama

5 Ways to Preserve 10 Pounds of Blueberries

Preserve Your Blueberry Harvest This is one of my favorite times of the year when all the perennial fruits ripen. In my ...
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Preserve Strawberries - 5 Things to do with 10 pounds of Strawberries | PreparednessMama

5 Ways to Preserve Strawberries

Preserve Strawberries and Retain That Summer Flavor By now you know I love a good bulk food buy. It is ...
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Rethinking food storage - The Law of 3's | PreparednessMama

Rethinking Food Storage – The Food Storage Law of 3’s

The Food Storage Law of 3's I learned a valuable food storage lesson a few weeks ago by a Master ...
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Powdered milk cooking conversion chart | PreparednessMama

Powdered Milk Cooking Tips and Recipes

Learn to Use Nonfat Dry Milk in Your Food Storage, It Will Save You Money and Time I have about ...
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February is National Canned Food Month | PreparednessMama

February is National Canned Food Month – How Will You Celebrate?

Now Is the Perfect Time to Add Canned Food to Your Food Storage Plan Yes, there really is such a ...
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Storing Yukon Gold Potatoes | PreparednessMama

Storing Yukon Gold Potatoes – How Long Do Potatoes Last

Freezing Is the Key to Potato Storage I purchased a 40-pound box of Yukon Gold Potatoes last week. I’ve done ...
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If you could only prep one kind of cooking oil...Cooking fat storage | PreparednessMama

Using Cooking Fats in Your Prepper Storage

If You Could Only Prep One Kind of Oil What Would It Be? There are many answers to that question ...
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Re-think your food storage | PreparednessMama

Re-Thinking Food Storage

Rethinking Your Food Storage We've all heard the adage "don't put your eggs all in one basket." It's not just ...
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10 laws of food storage

The 10 Laws of Food Storage

PreparednessMama’s 10 Laws of Food Storage When I was beginning my food storage I thought it was all about long ...
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The Spice of Life

The Prepared Spice Rack: Adding Spice to Life

The Prepared Spice Rack: Adding Spice to Life I love to cook, better yet I like to experiment in the ...
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How to Store It

I learned a valuable food storage lesson from a Master Food Preserver. It has me rethinking my whole food storage plan. It’s this concept – to think about HOW you store your food and not just WHAT you store. For example, if you live in an area where storms frequently knock out the power, then relying on your freezer as the only source of food storage could be asking for trouble.

Grandma’s adage, don’t put your eggs all in one basket, rings true even today. The Law of 3′s in food storage is this: Always have your foods stored in at least three ways.

Sugar (in various forms) in your food storage. What kind should our store and how much do you need? | PreparednessMama

Sugar in Food Storage – What Kind and How Much

Can You Live Without the Sweetness of Sugar in Your Food Storage? This article is not about whether you should ...
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Storing sweet onions | PreparednessMama

Storing Sweet Onions

Get 4 to 6 Months Storage Time in the Pantry. This week's bulk buy is sweet onions. Lots of sweet ...
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Store bulk flour in 5 gallon buckets | PreparednessMama

Store Flour in Bulk for the Long Haul

Do you buy your flour in bulk? At PreparednessMama, we always like to give our readers the best tips on ...
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Seven Ways to Preserve Eggs

The Best Part of About Summer Is the Abundance of Fresh Eggs. Grow Your Own or Get Them From a ...
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How to store sugar in long term food storage | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Sugar

 How to Store Dry Sugar Even if you are trying to limit the amount of sugar you consume, it's almost ...
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How to store garlic

6 Great Garlic Storage Tips

Easy Ways to Store Garlic All Year Round With spring now in full bloom, there’s no shortage of great springtime ...
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Does vinegar go bad and other pressing vinegar questions | PreparednessMama

Does Vinegar Go Bad? and Other Vinegar Questions

Does Vinegar Go Bad? I Took an Unopened Bottle of Distilled White Vinegar From the Pantry the Other Day, and ...
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Drying and storing your herbs is a great way to save money. You can extend your harvest when you learn to store dried herbs for optimum flavor | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Dried Herbs

Drying and Storing Your Herbs Is a Great Way to Save Money. You Can Extend Your Harvest When You Learn ...
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The "How Do I Store That?" Series all in one place | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That?

Have you followed the "How Do I Store That?" Series? This year I have undertaken a quest to learn more ...
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Make your own herb saute cubes from fresh or dried herbs | PreparednessMama

DIY Herb Saute Cubes

A Healthy and Quick Alternative to Store Bought Cubes When cold weather hits and you are expecting the first freezing ...
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Bulk Buy: How to Package 40 Pounds of Chicken for the Freezer | PreparednessMama

Food Storage Bulk Buy: Packaging Chicken in Bulk

How to Package Chicken in Bulk Recently I was able to jump in on a wonderful bulk buy that has ...
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How to store brown rice for up to 2 years | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Brown Rice

Save Money, Be Healthy – Store Brown RiceToday let’s talk about how to store brown rice. We all know it’s ...
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How to repackage bulk food for optimal storage | PreparednessMama

How to Repackage Bulk Food for Storage

For Short or Long Term Storage Purchasing in bulk is one of my favorite food storage tricks. Bulk purchases are ...
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How Do I Store That? Fresh Herbs | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Fresh Herbs

Extend the shelf life of fresh herbs Have you ever purchased a bunch of cilantro or parsley, only to have ...
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How Do I Store That? Vitamins | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Vitamins

Include Vitamins in Your Preparedness Plan Vitamins and minerals have many unique roles to help to maintain our health. For ...
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Tips to store fresh milk in the freezer | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Fresh Milk

3 Tips for extending your milk storage time Milk can be expensive. In my neck of the woods, it's going for ...
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How do I Store That? Fats and oils storage recommendations | PreparednessMama

How Do I Store That? Fats & Oils

How to Store Fats and Oils for long term My son in law deep fried a turkey for thanksgiving.  He ...
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How Do I Store That? Powdered Milk

Powdered Milk Storage Can Be Easy Once You Know How Does your fresh milk ever go bad? It does at ...
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What are thry types of rice to have in food storage? Find out what kind to store and how long it will last| PreparednessMama

Types of Rice to Have in Your Food Storage

There Are Over 4000 Varieties of Rice! Rice is the most consumed food in the world.  In fact, there are ...
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The Benefits of Raw Honey

Raw honey contains many wonderful characteristics that make it so healthy and the perfect sweetener. It is ‘a good for ...
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Date Sugar Storage 101 - Does it have a place in your food storage? PreparrednessMama

Date Sugar 101 – Does It Have a Place in Your Food Storage?

Date Sugar Can Be a Great Addition to Your Food Storage Plan On a recent trip to Bob's Red Mill, ...
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Visit the other Food Storage Pages: Canning Techniques – Wholesale Bulk Buying – Long Term Food Storage – Other Preservation Methods – Grains – Thrive Life – Recipes – for other in-depth articles on getting your food storage plan together.

Some posts on this blog contain affiliate links. At no additional charge to you, I receive a small commission whenever a product is purchased through these links. Occasionally I receive products in exchange for a review or giveaway post. PreparednessMama.com as an Amazon Associate may earn from qualifying purchases.
I am not a doctor and the statements on this blog have not been evaluated by the FDA. Any products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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