Key Points:
- Make a list of foods you eat on a regular basis, and determine how much you would go through in three months.
- Gradually purchase these foods in bulk as they go on sale (see below for more details).
- Use and rotate these foods in all your daily cooking.
- Constantly replenish the stocks of these foods as they go on sale again.
- Don’t forget to include non-food items in this step as well. Get a 3 month supply of NECESSITIES such as diapers, medications, toilet paper, toiletries, etc. Remember, only the essentials for now.
- Benefits include: saving money by buying foods on sale and having foods you normally eat in times of economic or any other type of hardship.
Helpful Tools:
3 Month Food Supply Excel Spreadsheet
We have developed a 3 Month Food Supply Excel Worksheet that will help you outline meal plans, convert them into the number of items you need to buy AUTOMATICALLY, and then track your inventory including current prices for each product. We highly recommend viewing our short video tutorial before you start inputting information into your spreadsheet. If you aren’t familiar with excel this will make it seem so easy!
Our Approaches:
I tend to be really anal about lists and organizing stuff. Our excel spreadsheet is SO wonderful but I stressed myself out about it because I couldn’t figure out if I should do all shelf-stable recipes or just stock up on my regular foods. Julie helped me to realize I just need to simplify and plan on doing my normal recipes and stock my freezer with some extra meat and chicken. In tough times I could very well still buy some fresh items to supplement my non-perishables.
For step 3 I really didn’t want to be so picky about it that I never got it done. The biggest lesson I have learned doing all of this, is if you wait while you try to figure out the absolute most ideal plan, you never do anything. So rather then getting stuck on if I should only use shelf items, or this or that, I did typical normal meals, did my spreadsheet and I continually buy and restock items. One day I might get really ambitious and try to make more of the meals the type that don’t require fresh produce or meat – but honestly – if you are supposed to eat what you store and store what you eat, I’m not going to pretend I eat canned meats regularly.
Resources:
Provident Living Website - Detailed recommendations by the LDS church on building your 3 month supply
GrocerySmarts.com - An excellent source for finding cheap groceries and household items in the Utah area
The Obsessive Shopper Blog - General tips on saving money and organizing your coupons
Can’t wait to try some of your methods out. I also use the milk jug for our 72- hour kits. I’m trying your method I want to see how yours compares to price and weight of mine. Also, do you have a price on how much the water containers are from Walmart? Good luck on your adventure and I’m excited to follow your game plan.
The water containers were $6.88 each at Walmart. We looked around at a bunch of stores and these seemed very reasonable. I considered doing the pop bottles, or juice bottles idea, but figured I don’t normally buy that stuff anyways, so I may as well get these. If you buy juice or pop, they are good bottles to store in also.
When I try to download the 3 month plan worksheet, it says that it is read only, and by the time i get it, I had 155 errors. What do I need to do.
Thank You
Laura M.King
Laura, what version of excel are you using? We’ve had other people download it just fine so I’m thinking it must be a problem on your end somehow.
When I try to use the drop down menu it has no options. I put the ingredients in column A, but when I go to C62, it has no options in the drop down box. Is there something that I am forgetting to do?
When you hit the drop down box, scroll up in the little box. If you don’t have that many ingredients, then it seems blank because it’s showing you the lower half of the list (and if there aren’t a lot of ingredients it’s blank) .
Thanks, it worked. This website is great, thanks for putting it together.
Great site with lots of useful information. I wanted to give you an updated formula for your spreadsheet that will reduce the DIV/0 errors in the cells with formula’s.
For the PLAN, use this formula: =IF(B4=0,0,B4/D4)
For the INVENTORY AND SALE SHEET, use this: =IF(D2=0,0,D2/E2)
The IF statement says if a cell equals zero, then put zero, otherwise run the calculation. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks John- I’m getting ready to upload a new one that allows for more ingredients and a couple other little details, I’ll include these new formulas when I do it. I wasn’t terribly worried about the DIV/O Errors cause they go away once people fill the sheet out, but it would look cleaner without them for sure.
and it made sense… good explanation
Thanks for the information and the Excel Sheet! I can tell you have allocated a great deal of time to create your site. I just happened across your site and have not yet begun my food storage process. With all this information you have Greatly Simplified what would otherwise be an Overwhelming Experience! Thanks Again!
Thanks for your spreadsheet! The video made a hgue difference in understanding how to use it! To set it up, it will take ALOT of time, but I can see in the end- it wilbe worth it! Thanks again!!
Corby, it is definitely worth it! Julie has made great use of hers already. I am a bit behind because I am having conflicts about what recipes to use. Haha. Hopefully I will get caught up soon.
Prepare B4 Emergency, I’m glad you found our site and hope that it helps you as you get started. We have found that by working on this site it keeps us motivated and accountable and helps us do a better job at working on our own food storage.
That is a fantastic tool. I can’t wait to show my wife, as we’ve been working hard to get our 3 month supply up. I hope lots of people follow you on Twitter and join your facebook page.
http://Twitter.com/ZoomJer
http://tinyurl.com/JerryAulenbach
-Jerry
I just taught a class to bunch of the ladies in my church on how to use this spreadsheet, and it was a hit! They all loved it and thought that it was very helpful.
Thanks for all of your hard work, this site has helped our entire congregation obtain our food storage easier.
I am sending it to my mother in law, who is going to have a class at her church.
HOLY SMOKES!! My husband and I stumbled across your site today while looking to find info about grinding wheat. I am seriously impressed! You all have done an AMAZING job! I am definitely inspired, and will most certainly pass your information along. Thanks so much for all of your hard work!
Billie
Hi Ladies,
This is such a great site. I am now working diligently to purchase my three month supply of normal foods. I want to interject a critical point that I have incorporated as I really felt the need to do this step for myself. I have begun the process of purchasing the basics of personal hygeine in this step (just a three months supply for now). I have three girls, a husband and myself, and I could not imagine being without tampons, wipes, toilet paper or shampoo, laundry supplies, etc. so, I have begun to purchase enough of one thing, each week that will last 3 months. Hope that helps. I have had to live off food storage before as my husband was out of work for several months. I was so glad that we had these items available to us.
Thanks for the great website!
Debbie, we totally agree with you about the non-food items. No toilet paper … eek! In the bullet points above we DO address this briefly, but it’s not included in the spreadsheet. People seem to really want it included so most likely in version 3.0 of the spreadsheet it will be added. We’ll post when we do the upgrade. Thanks for pointing it out!
I read a comment from Laura King and I have that same problem. I am only downloading it into Word. Let me ask a stupid question….do I have to have Excel to download this and use it? If I fill it all in and not download it, then it will disappear, right? So if I don’t have Excel then am I out of luck?
Column D will not allow me to type anything in. It says it is a protected cell. Any way around it?
Thanks for a great program!!
Please disregard comment about column D. I figured it out.
I also had the same problem as Laura King, but I fooled around with Edit at the top of page. I can’t remember what I did, but it worked.
Wow, this is amazing! Thank you so much for putting this all together. I have been trying to figure out a simple and organized way to do my 3 month supply, and this is absolutely perfect. Exactly what I needed! Thank you!!
Ladies, I am really curious as to what your opinion is about storing normal food items beyond the 3 month supply. Luckily most of the recipes that I already use at our house a very basic, start from scratch recipes (as I have an almost non-existant grocery budget). I already use a lot of flour, rice, beans, and so forth. But what do you think about storing a year supply of other items, such as canned vegetables, sauce mixes, or soups. I know that it is best to try to grow your own garden and can your own items, but those mason jars get pretty expensive.
Also, as far as the non-food essential items, I came up with an idea that’s a little cheaper and doesn’t put a huge burden on my already meager grocery budget. Each time I run out of a commonly used item, i.e. toothpaste, contact solution, bath tissue, I simply buy the double pack and put half of it away. It makes it cheaper per item, and I don’t really notice as much that I’m doing it.
Personally - if you can manage more then 3 months, I don’t see the problem. I think the reason 3 months is good is because it really is an attainable goal for everyone. We’ve noticed that the recommendation for how much you should store has gone down over the years and I think it’s because people (like us) found huge goals too hard to tackle. Good call on buying extras when you get your non-food essential items. It feels much less of a burden if you are constantly buying bit by bit, little at a time.
Trying to wrap my head around the new 3-month supply concept, and I have a question. In the FAQ section on providentliving.org, it says that this should consist of non-perishable foods with a stable shelf life. Does this mean things that will require nothing from our fridge, or does it include a well-stocked fridge and freezer as well? I like to have a good stock of meals in my freezer that just require heating or reheating.
Now, I realize the if I were without power, that I’d lose that gold mine of frozen storage, so I shouldn’t rely solely on that. But if I stocked up on only shelf stable things - like canned chicken, which I don’t like as much as the stuff I cook, dice and freeze - I worry that I’d never use it before it went bad. What are your opinions on that?
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this for me (and everyone else out there). It is really a blessing to have so many things explained so plainly, so that I, who am easily intimidated by things I’ve not tried before, can get a grasp on all of this. I hope you see many blessings for all you’re sharing and the time you sacrifice.
Tracy,
We have pondered over and over again this VERY topic. We finally came up with a couple of conclusions.
While storing ONLY items that are shelf stable, and require no power is probably ideal - it can be so intimidating and overwhelming that people just get stuck thinking they have to do THAT and don’t do ANYTHING.
Another conclusion we have come up with is that an economic crisis (personal or national) is much more likely to occur then some major event that makes you loose power for weeks and months on end. So it would be a really big blessing to have your freezer, fridge and pantry stocked in case of job loss, or injury preventing you from work, or any of the other many things that could happen.
We’re trying to make sure we have our long terms foods- grains, legumes, baking supplies in stock, and rotating them - but for the 3 month-supply we have found that doing the normal foods you normally eat is a MUCH more attainable goal and easier to start. Once you have that done, sure, explore the more shelf stable stuff, or canned meat, but it’s better to start somewhere.
More then anything we have learned that starting with small steps, you figure out what works for you and each next step becomes so much EASIER. We are so grateful for all we have learned.
Good luck. We know exactly how you feel.