Prepare Every Needful Thing

I do not have a food storage. I go through spurts of enthusiasm about getting one and I even start to buy food or google ideas about how to go about it. Every time though I always lose my enthusiasm and move on to something else. I have been thinking about this pattern for the past few days. Why do I do this? Well probably because I am human and get preoccupied with more fun things than gathering food. Getting a food storage doesn't happen in a week, it takes some time and I am undisciplined. I have also never known a time in my life when I didn't have food. If I am hungry I go get food, I have always had this option. The only times in my life that I have known hunger is fast Sunday. I don't know what life is like without wonderful food at my finger tips. I guess one of the reasons I have been thinking about food is the Hunger Games. Lame I know, but in the first book food is one of the main themes discussed. Katiniss's world revolves around the acquisition of food and not starving to death. I don't know what that is like. I am so blessed to live in America and to have been raised in a family that could afford food always. So maybe that is another reason, I don't feel a sense of urgency about making sure I have a food storage, because I think I will always be able to get food when I need it. But what if the day comes that I can't afford food or there is no food to be bought?. Hopefully this will never happen, but I would rather be prepared. What is that fable about the grasshopper and the other bug...? Anyway I am thinking that if I approach food storage in a different way I will stick with it. So here is my plan:

I am going to blog about my progress. This will be mostly for me because who reads this anyway? I think that if I turn this into a project like one I would get at school I might be able to track my progress and be more accountable.

Usually when I start trying to get a food storage I end up buying food that we don't eat and it just sits on the self till it goes bad. This time I am not going to even think about a year supply. I am only going to work on a 3 month supply. Start small you know? So no buying 20 pounds of oats when I know no recipes that require oats. Not that I have done that. So 3 months is 12 weeks and I need 7 meals per week, that is 84 meals always available at my house! All of this on a small budget too.



So a 3 month supply is mostly made up of the types of food we eat right now, the main meals I cook. And now I can finally say after almost 3 years of marriage and pinterest I now have enough meals I can cook with confidence. There are a few websites I know of that focus on meals that need no refrigerated products, so I think I will try some of those recipes out and see if they would work.

I also need to learn to rotate my food. I am horrible at that. I feel ashamed to confess how much food I have wasted because I simply forget to use it or go buy the same thing without checking that I have it first. I have gotten much better at this compared to even a year ago. So I am going to implement a rotating system.

I also would love to get an upright freezer! I don't know if it will be in the budget, but I am going to be checking out craigslist a lot for one. I also want to learn what food I can freeze. Thanks to pinterest I now know that you can freeze avocados and green onions... who knew?

Now I can't forget water. It is amazing how much water I use everyday and thats just me not the other two people who live here. We need drinking water, bathing water, and cleaning water. I have started to refill juice bottles for this purpose. It is gives me a little sense of pride to see them start to accumulate.

Preparing every needful thing is overwhelming. There is so much that I consider a necessity besides food and water. I know that I am spoiled living in America, I consider mascara a necessity most days : ) Anyway I am starting with a 3 month supply since it is at the top of my priorities. Wish me luck and any advise is welcome!