Storage on a Shoestring

With the daily cost of living tugging at your pocketbook, you may wonder how in the world you can afford to add one more item to your budget. You may want to store food, but don’t see how your income can be stretched any further.

Picture from www.yourmarketingcorner.com

The following tips may help you see how a food storage program can be put together without sacrificing money earmarked for existing bills:

• Set aside a plot of land to grow specific "food storage" plants. Consider growing tomatoes, peppers, and parsley. Or grow other fruits or vegetables that your family enjoys.
• When the next urge to splurge on fast food or a pizza hits you, resist it! Take the $10 or $15 you would have spent and invest it in your food storage.
• How many times do you buy food at the store, and put it in the refrigerator--only to throw it out a week or two later because you forgot to use it? Plan a menu and stick to it. Cut the waste, and every time you go to the grocery store for your major shopping, set aside an extra $5 that you normally would have spent on perishable vegetables you usually end up discarding. Within a month, you will have enough savings to purchase a "favorite something" on your food storage list.
• Come up with your own creative ways to save or make money, then use it to add to your food storage. Involve the whole family if possible. Here's one - Can you see yourself saving 25 cents, 50 cents or even $1 a day? If the answer is yes then you can build up a good supply in your cupboard.  Get yourself a cash tin or piggy bank of some sort and whenever you or your husband(if he is game) gets change put it in this cash tin.  At the end of one, two or three months, you choose, count the coins and take it to the bank to get it changed and use that to get some of the items you need for your storage plan.
• Store what you and your family will eat. Don't just arbitrarily put together a food storage list. Purchase the basics (honey, rice, salt, powdered milk, evaporated milk, grains, legumes) and build upon that (don’t forget the non-food items as well). Sit down with family members and organize a personalized plan. Systematically develop your storage according to you and your family's food preferences.
• Remember that a short-term, as well as a long-term food storage program is the most sensible. If you cannot afford a year supply, work on a 72 hour supply, then a week supply, and so on.

Remember that storing extra food and other necessities is just as important as having money saved in the bank.  When a crisis arrives, good people work together--so do your part to prepare and share.  It is amazing how we can help each other.

Adapted from www.beprepared.com

If you have any suggestions, comments, or articles you would like to share, please share them in the comments. Your experiences can help teach me and others.