Food storage can be really overwhelming when you don’t know what your doing. Then add to that the stress of not wanting to spend money on food you won’t eat. Before you start to buy food storage, read these 3 mistakes that rookie preppers make when buying food storage to save you money, time, and space in your storage.
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3 Mistakes That Rookie Preppers Make When Buying Food Storage
1. Not having a plan.
If you don’t know what you want to eat when you buy your food storage, then you’ll end up buying random food. Then, when you go to use your food storage in an emergency, it’ll be a modge podge of food, instead of actual enjoyable meals. A few examples of buying “random food” are:
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- Buying food from a weekly or month list. Such as buy, 5 lbs of peanut butter this month, or 5 lbs of flour this week. Although this does stock up your food supply, it does not give you the specifics your family needs to make meals.
- Purchasing an extra can or two each time you go to the store. This does allow you to pick up food you currently eat and use, but it doesn’t include everything. You’ll miss out on spices, grains, and other item’s you use to make a full meal.
- Buying whats on sale at the time. Yes, this does allow you to build your stock pile for cheap, but you’ll end up “paying” for it in wasted space. Typically when buying items on sale, people always over buy, then they end up going way bad and you get bulging cans, or forget what you actually have stored.
Solution: Build a recipe based food storage plan. A plan based off recipes you eat right now, and shop from that.
2. Not having an inventory list.
An inventory list allows you to see what you have, how much you have, and gives you a goal of what to work for. I recommend 2 ways to keeping inventory.
The first way is with each shelf/closet/bed. Take a small piece of paper draw 3 columns. First, write what you have on the shelf, or in the closet, or under the bed. In the second column write down how much you have currently (pencil is best). Then in the third column write down what your goal is. So when planning for a 3 month supply of food with your recipe based plan, it will tell you how many cans of beans you need for 3 months, write this in that column so you see what you need each time to add an item to your inventory.
Grab my FREE Class on 3 steps to starting your food storage HERE.
The second way to keep track of your inventory is having a “Master List”. This is a list of each room in your house that stores food. So one list will be boys bedroom. On that list you’ll write what items (not worrying about how much) you have in the boys bedroom (in the closet, under the bed, everywhere in there). This allows you to see at a quick glance what you have where throughout your house.
Solution: Grab a few pieces of paper, pencil, scissors and tape and work your way around your house making your lists. Or have me walk you through my exact inventory and organization method in the Food Storage Inventory Master class.
3. Not having a re-stocking list.
A lot of people stock up on food storage, and then don’t touch it. Now that may be okay about 30% of the time, but not all the time. Most of the time you should be consistently using and rotating your food storage. When you use your food storage, you need to restock. Here is why:
- When you start by buying 5 cans of beans. You spent money on that and stocked it up.
- Then you USED 2 cans of beans for dinner so that you can always use the oldest food first and your food doesn’t go to waste.
- Now you immediately restock your food storage from your grocery budget because then you aren’t spending extra money, later on, to buy more food storage.
It’s a simple formula:
IF you eat one can, THEN you buy one can.
When you have bought your 3 month supply of food, you won’t be spending MORE money on that 3 month supply… because as you use it you buy it like you would buy any food for your meals. Is this making sense?
The ONLY time you’ll spend more money on food storage (once it’s completed) is when you’ve used it for a long term emergency (like going without income for a few months and you don’t have the income to replenish what you eat).
Solution: With your recipe based food storage plan you’ll know EXACTLY how much you need (for 3 months or what every time frame you want). There WILL be a stopping point to buying food storage, and everything will just continually go on your re-stocking list (AKA your weekly grocery list). When you use a food storage item, add it to your grocery list right away.
In conclusion
Grab my FREE Class on 3 steps to starting your food storage HERE.
The 3 mistakes that rookie preppers make when buying food storage DO NOT COST MONEY TO FIX!!! It just takes a little bit of time and organization, and you’ll save tons of money and space from storing and buying stuff you won’t use.
Do you build your food storage from a recipe based plan? Comment below!
Further Reading:
Top 3 Planning Food Storage Mistakes
5 Steps To Start Your Food Storage
Where Do I Get Food For Long Term Food Storage
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