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 There is something very secure about having a bit of food in your home and being
able to go to the grocery store when you please. There is something even nicer about planning sufficiently to have an
extra supply of food in your home
under any circumstances.
If you could reduce the number of
times you went to the grocery store, the number of decisions you made every time
you went, the amount of food you carried out of the store, put in your car, and
then brought back into your home on your regular grocery trips, wouldn't you
consider a change? The concept of food storage, for our
purposes, simply asks, "If I buy one, why not buy two?" And,
"If I like the item and use it regularly, why not buy enough for
month?" And then, "If I do that, why not buy for six months or even a
year?" When you begin to think long term about
groceries, you begin to save time, money, and a great deal of hassle. Any items
that can be stored safely for one year's time can be purchased in bulk.
Breakfast cereals, crackers, pastas, canned goods, cake mixes and on and on can
be bought in larger quantities. The best way to start is to make up a
simple chart with SEVEN columns, listing in the first column those items which
might be possibilities for your food storage. Go from cupboard to
cupboard and through your pantry for possibilities. (When you get really
serious about food storage, you might want to make up a "form" listing
these various items which can be copied time after time.) The next
three columns are
for listing how many items to purchase, the expected cost per item, and the
total cost for all items. The final three columns are for listing how many
items you actually purchased, the actual cost per item, and the total cost for
all items. Let's say,
for instance, that you have set up your Master Menu.
From that beginning, you can easily see how much you will need of any one
"storable" food for a year's supply. Let's say, for instance,
you are planning to serve mandarin oranges on Tuesday nights. That means
that you will need 52 cans of mandarin oranges for a year. You will need
52 cans of fruit for Monday, Wednesday and so on through Sunday. You will
need so many boxes of cold cereal and so many cake mixes and so many packages of
pasta. All these
items can be listed on your chart, bought in bulk, and stored for easy retrieval. Just think of the hassle you will save. Once you have decided what kind of
mandarin oranges to buy, have found them at a great price (see Best Price Box), have purchased a year's supply, and
then stored them away in your home....well, you will never go back to the old
way of shopping again! Find more helpful ideas in
the "House
of Order" Handbook, Chapter 23, "Food Storage". Also see: Food,
Best Price Box, and Recipe
Box.
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