Food Storage - Getting Started - Step 4 of 6

Your next step is to determine how much of each item you use on a weekly/monthly basis. If you have no clue then for the next month or so monitor your usage. This may seem a bit tedious but you don't want to have too much of something and not enough of a critical item you use.

This does not have to be an exact science. Just keep track of your receipts and then at the end of the month or week see what items you need to get and how much of what you have left. If you choose to monitor it on a weekly basis it will save you from having to remember what you used three weeks ago when the month ends.

One way is to have a pad in your kitchen and when you use a pkt of say almond nuts then you write down 1 pkg almond nuts, when you use 1 lb wholewheat flour you write down 1 lb wholewheat flour. When your sweetener gets close to the end write down the amount you need to purchase to replace it. You get the picture. At the end of the month you should have a general idea of what you consume.

After that is done then take your figures and multiply by the appropriate number to fit in to your master plan. For example if you decided on a 3 month plan and you have figures from monthly usage then multiply what you have by 3 and put the appropriate numbers in the GOAL column of your notebook next to the item.

You're almost done. Step 5 coming up tomorrow God willing.