how many months of food?

[Melissa in Australia]

 

just curious

How many months of food are you storing?

 what made you pick that length of time?

 

[Carrie12345]

I don’t actually have a calculation or a specific goal.

I can tell you that I would have a 100% normal-to-me meal plan for probably 2 weeks, except for truly fresh produce (which would be replaced with frozen or canned unless/until my container garden produces) without stepping foot out of the house. Milk, eggs, store bread, my favorite coffee creamer, etc.  After that, I’d be supplementing with more shelf-stable stuff.

”Survivability” wise, I estimate…. “Lots”. Not enjoyable normalcy stuff, but relatively inexpensive, long-term-storable, plenty to share with friends stuff.

And then there’s the in between. I buy what I can fit into a reasonable budget and in the space I have. I stick to things we use and rotate first in, first out. I try not to store more than we can use before a “best by” date and donate if I realize I’m not going to come close to that timeframe. And I try to spread it across products evenly instead of large numbers of one or two things at a time. It continues to grow.

One of the reasons I don’t have a target timeframe is because I have grown children out of the house who might or might not want to (or be able to) be here in tough times. That makes a difference! And then the whole neighbors in need concept. So I prefer to just chug along as I’m able.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

thank you 

very helpful

I also have adult children that most probably be drawing from our stored food. Just today we dropped 2 boxes of food off on front step of ds23 as both him and his girlfriend have come down with COVID. 

I think we are aiming for around 6 to 12 months . I have 12 months of rice, olive oil, pasta and lentils. 6 months of flour, chocolate and coffee . 

as for  garden produce I have just finished bottling 12 months of tomatoes, and tomato products, numerous preserved other fruits etc. We grow veggies year round, the varieties change with the season. We have enough garden produce that we regularly give away to neighbours, and have the capacity to quickly increase the size if needed.

 I just seem to have a panicky feeling that we don't have enough

[Carrie12345]

1 hour ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I just seem to have a panicky feeling that we don't have enough

I do, too.
What I’ve come to accept is that I’ll always feel that way, because I can ALWAYS come up with more what-ifs. I know that I could easily convince myself that it’d be nice to decide I simply don’t want to see another human for the next decade, lol. But it would push me to make choices that don’t really jive with my intentions.  So I just keep going at a comfy-to-me pace.