Food storage (also known as "stockpiling") is a huge part of my life. There have been countless times both while I was growing up and since I left home that I've been able to survive difficult financial circumstances because I took the time to store food and other needed supplies on a regular basis before the crisis hit. I am an avid believer that couponing is the smartest way to grow a stockpile while spending as little as possible. It allows you to grow your stockpile faster and do so without breaking the bank - which is why couponing has it's own section on this blog. This section of the blog is a place to record our food storage so that I can keep track of what I need, what I have, and how I acquire each thing. I wanted to have this space to also talk about how having food storage is blessing me right now.
I have found that building my food storage was a challenge for me for the first few years we were married. It just seemed we never had enough money to spend on extra food that wouldn't be eaten until later. However, I have found that when I stopped making excuses and just started doing it, God recognized my obedience and blessed me with more food storage in addition to what I was able to store with my efforts.
I grew up in a home where we always had a year's supply of everything, and it was used and replenished on a regular basis (often referred to as "rotating"). Since I was born 6th of 7, I didn't witness whatever struggle my parents went through financially in the early years of their marriage, and whatever struggles they had in trying to build their food storage. I just always knew that if anything were to happen to my Dad's job, we wouldn't starve, because we had a miniature Walmart in our basement. It was kind of a security blanket to me.
So now that I'm married and don't live at home anymore, that security blanket is gone, and it makes me feel vulnerable. What if a natural disaster were to happen and I didn't have enough food stored? What if my husband can't find work and we have no way to feed our family? There are a million "what if's", and I can't be prepared for all of them, but I still want to do my part to take care of my family. For a while my excuse was "I don't have room for food storage" but once we moved into a house, that excuse wasn't valid anymore.
When I stopped making excuses, and started just being obedient to the counsel of our church to build food storage, I found that God didn't make me do everything myself; He met me halfway. We took the time to grow a garden, and He helped me learn how to store the food. In addition He helped me find ways to prepare the food that I don't use very much, so that I can utilize what I have a lot of (like zucchini). It also helped my family eat healthier, which is a big deal for us since both Ben's family and my family have health histories with a lot of complications.
I found that when I started couponing I was able to find great deals on things that I use all the time, thus saving us money. It took me a couple of months to get the hang of it, but I've learned a great deal about the value of a product and what a great deal is. I'm almost to the point where I don't need to check my "buy price" list anymore; I've done it enough that I know a good deal when I spot one, and I know what coupons I have that match. It's become a lifestyle for me, and we've been blessed to build our food storage quickly and for a fraction of the cost.
I also started preparing foods to be frozen, and once our freezer in the house was full to the brim, God helped us find a great deal on a chest freezer that now sits in our garage, and is also almost completely full of food. I say God helped us find it because I had been looking for a little while and could never really trust the people on Craigslist (they say the freezer runs, but when you check it out the component that makes the food freeze is broken haha), but then someone we know approached us about one they were getting rid of. We paid $100 for it, and it's never been used before. It works GREAT, and has allowed me to do even more food storage than I thought I would be able to do during this chapter of our lives.
God has also met me halfway in filling my food storage, not just finding the space for it. A few months after we moved in, several new stores went up right next to where we live. They built a Grocery Outlet and a Dollar Tree literally across the street from our subdivision. We walk there most Saturdays and get our week's supply of bread and bagels super cheap, and check out anything else they have. Twice employees in Grocery Outlet have approached us and literally gave us free food (they were past the date that they were allowed to sell them for). Actually, they were discounted more than the original price, so we made money on it since it was combined with the rest of our purchase. That food has gone into our freezer and helps build our food storage. During November someone gave us a box of food for Thanksgiving dinner along with a $50 gift card to Winco. We had already planned to spend Thanksgiving with family, so the food went into our freezer and storage. Now we have a 15lb turkey in the freezer that will be used for Christmas dinner and the left overs will be used in freezer meals for when I have baby #2 in February. Once in November someone else (who knows that I'm trying to build my food storage) called and asked if I wanted several flats of canned vegetables. She had too much and wouldn't use them before they expired, plus her family had recently had a change in dietary needs and some of it she wouldn't use at all. That was especially a huge blessing to us because I didn't feel good about the prices of most of the canned veggies during the case lot sales in October, so I didn't buy them, and was holding out that they would go cheaper before I really needed them. Someone else gave us a box of excess food storage just this week. It's been truly amazing to see my shelves continually replenished by God's providence as a reward for doing my part to make sure my family is prepared.
We have had so many instances where God has blessed us through someone else's generosity, and it has directly benefited my food storage and grocery budget. I can't say enough how good it feels to have my cupboards and shelves and now a chest freezer full of food. I'm almost to the point where my food storage needs to start going in boxes under beds or in the tops of closets, and I'm actually really excited about that.
This has also helped me realize that God WANTS to bless us. He wants to help us out and protect us and provide for us. As soon as I stopped making excuses and started simply being obedient to the extent that I could, He made up the difference. I used to imagine a scenario where I was trying to build my food storage, but only had 1 months worth when a natural disaster happened, or when a financial crisis hit. In my mind I figured that we would only be okay for that 1 month, and then when the food ran out it would be my fault that we starved because I didn't have a full year supply, even though I was trying my best and all I could manage was the 1 month supply. Throughout this experience, however, I have realized that no matter how much or little I have, as long as I'm honestly trying, God will provide for my family, and make up whatever I lack. He will also teach me to be better and more efficient so that my efforts are more effective.
So that is how we started our food storage. My regular posts to this page will be a records of how much food I stocked up on (either through gardening or finding good deals) and also a record of what I still don't have that I need to keep an eye out for. These posts will include not just food items, but also personal hygiene and other items that are used regularly (like ziplock bags and batteries). Hopefully this list will help give you ideas on things that can and should be stocked up on in order to be prepared for future emergencies and hardships, and also, just to have a lot of them at a super cheap price, rather than a few at a time for a more expensive price. I hope this helps!
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