Welcome back to “Tax Refund Week” where we’re sharing with you how to get big chunks of your Food Storage built, if you happen upon big chunks of change.

Today we’re going to talk about Assessing your Long Term Food Storage- and how to make a GAME PLAN from there. There are really only 2 things you need to know when you’re assessing and making a game plan. Remember, you may wish to consider your 3-month supply foods as part of your “year supply” so you would only need 9 months of traditional long term food storage.

Method 1: Food Storage Calculator

The Long Term Food Storage we’re talking about – is the basic survival foods. Grains, Legumes, Baking Supplies, Fats, and Dairy. There are a lot of calculators that generally give the same basic recommendations of what to store- and how much to store. Our excel calculator will tell you what you need to store based on how many people, and how many months you tell it you want to store for.

Know What You Need

Use our calculator to determine how much food you need to store depending on your families needs and goals for long term food storage.

Excel Spreadsheet

Tutorial Video

The Food Storage Calculator is also available in printable pdf format

Know What You Have

Once you have inputed how many members in your family, and how many months, use the spreadsheet to input what you already have in your storage – then watch as the numbers automatically are calculated and you’re given your own customized shopping list of what to buy.

Method 2: Food Storage Software

We were recently invited to test out a new Food Storage Planning software and we think it may be a good solution for those who like to track their storage in great detail or who may have unique circumstances where a standard calculator doesn’t meet their needs. Food Storage Planner is fully customizable for specific needs, gender, and age, such as diapers, allergies, toiletries, and so forth. You can read more about all of the features on their website.

Know What You Need

You can plan for any time period from 1 week to 1000 years. This software automatically gives recommendations for many many items but has the flexibility to choose the items you want to track and make substitutions as necessary. Go through and input your customizations to get your personalized plan for your family. Since we are talking about Long Term Food Storage this week I would stick with just those food items for now.

Know What You Have

The software will let you input what you already have and also helps to track expiration dates. You can then sort your shopping list by whatever way makes sense for you to stay organized. Print out your list and reports so you can have them right in front of you and THEN it’s shopping time!

DISCOUNT

The owners of Food Storage Planner were kind enough to offer a discount to Food Storage Made Easy readers. If you order their software either on disc or in download form simply enter FSMADEEASY as a coupon code and you will get $13.00 off. You enter the coupon code at the END of the checkout process.

Now that you have your plan, and know what you need, tomorrow we will cover Part 2: Buying Long Term Food Storage.

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net