Looking for quick information to start building your food storage? Check out this video series that I recorded on my Facebook page. They are all grouped together to help you learn how to build your food storage in 4 easy steps!
“Updated November 2020” – This post may contain affiliate links. Read my affiliate link disclosure here
How to Build Your Food Storage
Step 1: Find recipes
This is the HARDEST step I think for everyone. I think the mentality is
“Food storage is difficult. The meals are gross. The food is expensive. How do I cook with it?”
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Don’t let this trip you up! Watch the video for my insider tips on HOW I find meals to build your food storage.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1732535100410031
Now, read 7 tips for picking your food storage meals for some more ideas.
Step 2: Make your shopping list
This video is a little bit longer. It shows you the exact method I have used to create many food storage menu meal plans. I am really bummed that Facebook didn’t rotate the camera when I did, so some of the images on are on their side… but it’s still great information! If you want me to screen shot some versions, I can totally do that! Comment below and I can send you some shots!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1736541376676070
Step 3: Shopping!!!
I know, this isn’t until step 3! Don’t make one of the BIGGEST mistakes you can make when you build your food storage. That is shopping for items first! How do you know you will even USE those items? Do you even like them? That’s why shopping isn’t until step #3. Go back to #1, and start over! “Sorry” #notsorry!
FREE CLASS! How to build a food storage you’ll actually eat. Sign up here.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1739522696377938
Step 4: Storage Options
I show you how I choose to store my food storage. That is to say, I’ll show you what has worked best for me, and I have tried MANY ways!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1743954772601397
And I forgot to go over water storage quickly! Here you go!
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1743958645934343
In Conclusion
I’m going to be honest with you. Food storage takes time, planning, and organization. But YOU can totally do this! It is 100% worth it! Read about the uncomfortable truths about food storage to be sure you know what you are getting into.
It took us 5 years to build up our one year supply. Can I tell you what a relief it was?! However, we feel much more prepared for when something happens.
Are we 100% ready? No.
We still need to work on our water, improve our 72-hour kits, and collect our “non-food” items. And honestly, I would LOVE to change some of the meals AND build a 3 month freezer meal supply.
It will happen, in due time. Building food storage is like a marathon. It takes a lot of thinking and planning BEFORE you even start training. On the other hand, you can also buy my pre-made long term food storage meal plans here.
FREE CLASS! How to build a food storage you’ll actually eat. Sign up here.
Further Reading:
What are you Forgetting in your Food Storage?
So, I need help! What didn’t I cover?
As always, if you love what you read or have found it helpful, please PIN, share or comment below.
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Thanks for reading!
4 thoughts on “How to Build Your Food Storage 4 Step Video Series”
Love how organized your planning and shopping system is compared to my almost slap-dash haphazard method of accumulating supplies. I did break down and buy a Harvest 72 with all small rows (from ThriveLife a few years ago when they still had customizable options on the website) since it was getting too hard for me to reliably rotate through stock and after one too many purges I had to do something. No more waste now. Hooray!
Most of my early prepping purchases were either #10 cans of FD pre-made meals (Beef Stroganoff, Pasta w/meat sauce, etc.) or 25 pound bags of rice. I’m a big fan of mylar bags since they keep the mice from smelling the food and ruining things for me. I store the sealed mylar bags in 5 gallon buckets to make them resistant to puncture or crushing damage. Oh, and since I’m prepping for two, I use mostly the 1 gallon ziplock style mylar bags. I did use some 5 gallon mylar bags for wheat and corn, but for most items I wanted to limit the amount of food I have exposed to the elements at once. Which leads into…for folks thinking about storing wheat…make sure you have some way to grind that into flour that will work when the grid is down. A hand crank mill like the Wondermill Jr is a must have if you store much wheat.
Now that I have over a year’s food for my family I tend to just buy replacement cans from the supermarket or wholesale club, except for when some FD #10 cans go on sale. When the sales start popping up I’ll take a peek at my inventory, then see how much money I have left in my prepping budget and go for it. Lately I’ve been concentrating on meal ingredients like chicken, beef crumbles, onion, or fruits and veggies. All the better to give some variety to my meals during an event.
Where do I tend to buy my stuff? I try to mix it up, I got a lot from Nitro-Pak before they closed up, but I’ve also used both The ReadyStore and Emergency Essentials. Of course I’ve also bought Mountain House food too, although in limited quantities given their prices.
I’ll definitely be making a menu plan to see if I need to fill in any supplies to make those meals. Thanks for the ideas!
Wow, you have a great storage going! That’s great! Pre-made meals are great, but I don’t store many since they are expensive for a family of 5. But I defiantly recommend having specific meals planned with your storage. If it comes down to not being able to get any food anywhere… then you want to make sure you have enough of all of your ingredients to make some great meals. You don’t want to have too much of one ingredient and end up needing to eat that for days, or not enough of another (esp the baking items). And I totally recommend buying a hand crank mill before investing in an electric one. A lot of people feel with having a meal plan that they need to eat those meals constantly. But in an emergency you don’t, you just need to eat meals with the same ingredients to help you rotate your supply. Tomato sauce or cream of chicken soup can be used in a variety of meals.
The one thing I think you can’t have too much of is rice. It’s cheap and nutritious, and easily used as a side dish to fill out the calorie count of other meals, or with a bit of protein and some veggies, it can be a meal by itself. My wife and I regularly cook fried rice at home for dinner (usually using left over meat and veggies) and while we normally eat it with dumplings, in a grid down event after the freezer is emptied, we can just put a bit more protein into the rice and call that the dinner.
And, yes, pre-made meals are expensive, but unless you have a bunch of cooks in your group, it’s a good idea to have at least a small supply of almost ready to eat meals. Sure, MREs fit the bill, but they have a short shelf life compared to the #10 FD cans…
To avoid food fatigue I made sure my early purchases included tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, cheese powder (think Kraft brand Mac & Cheese and you’re pretty close), hot sauce powder, soy sauce and a selection of vinegars. That gives me a lot of flexibility to use the same base ingredients with just different sauces and flavorings to mix things up a little. And I have a lot of salt and peppercorns (with a couple of hand mills) so everyone can season to taste.
Sure, it’s taken me years to get this well stocked, but I always recommend folks start with the cheap and nutritious to get going and slowly add to the prepper pantry as time and budget permits. Your meal plans are a good way to do that, so thanks again for the tips!
Rice can be turned into a million types of meals with the variety it fits well it, and it’s cheap. I’ve never been a fan of rice, but as our family has grown, I’ve started incorporating it more into our meals, because I do store it.