Updated 5/17/2025

When you first start preparing, food storage is usually your starting point. Depending on your preparation, you gear your food storage towards that direction.

What if I told you you could have your food storage covered in just about any situation? I believe in the three-prong approach to food storage:

1. Quick, easy foods that do not need to be cooked or minimally cooked
   
2. Long-term food storage, like freeze-dried foods, rice, and beans
   
3. Cook from scratch foods that will get you through a month of no money

In my experience, you should have all three kinds of food storage. You might be preparing for natural disasters and think #1 is all you need. However, you never know what life will throw at you. I truly believe in having well-rounded food storage that will serve you in many different situations. 

As with any suggested foods in these lists, they are only suggestions. You will need to tailor your food storage to fit your needs. If you have little kids, keep the food they love and eat in the food storage, especially in #1. If you have someone with a food allergy or intolerance, you should store foods they can eat and digest. You should not store food that you or someone else will not eat because it will be wasted. 

#1 – Quick, easy foods that do not need to be cooked or need to be minimally cooked

This is probably the easiest place to start with food storage because most of the foods in this area are easy to buy and store. As mentioned, these are foods you do not want to worry about cooking or might have to heat up over a camping stove or a small Sterno stove. Ideally, you can eat them cold or at room temperature. 

This category consists mainly of convenience foods that can be stored easily. The biggest downfall of this category is that you need to pay attention to expiration dates for the quality and taste of these foods. They are not meant to be put away in a tote for 3-5 years. You will want to ensure you rotate these foods yearly if you are not actively using them. 

Some ideas for this area include:

• Crackers
• Tuna Packets or Cans
• Granola Bars
• Protein Bars
• Fruit Snacks
• Fruit Leather
• Peanut Butter
• Pretzels
• Canned Fruit
• Canned Vegetables
• Canned Beans
• Canned Soup
• Canned Pasta and Sauce Meals
• Dried Fruit
• Cereal and Granola
• Nuts
• Shelf-stable milk
• Juice or juice boxes
• Bottled water
• Electrolyte and flavored water packets
• Candy and chocolate

This is a small sample of what you can store, but make sure you have a can opener and a pair of scissors with this food. The last thing you want to do is struggle to open any packages or cans. Also, this food will store easily in totes, which you might want to do. If you must leave (bugging out or evacuating), you can quickly grab these totes and load them into a vehicle or trailer. 

I also recommend having at least a week’s worth of this food on hand, but two weeks would be better. This way, you would be able to ride out any storm and stay put until the local stores are restocked. 

#2 – Long-term food storage like freeze-dried foods, rice, and beans

When you are stocking your food storage, you need to consider both short-term and long-term foods. You should start out stocking short-term foods because they are easy to build up your stockpile. However, you also need to consider long-term foods. 

Long-term food storage should contain shelf-stable foods lasting at least five years with few quality or taste issues. These foods would be considered your dried foods and staples. This category includes freeze-dried foods that can last at least 5-10 years with manufacturers promising up to 25 years. I don’t know if sitting on those foods for 25 years is prudent, but the promise is there. 

Foods you can store for the long term include:

• White Rice
• Dried Beans
• Salt
• Dried Potatoes
• Honey
• Rolled Oats
• Sugar
• Pasta
• Bouillon Cubes
• Powdered Milk
• Whole Grains
• Dried Corn
• Some Dehydrated Foods
• Freeze-dried foods

Can you just put these on your shelves and forget about them? No. You still need to rotate through your stock regularly. You also need to store these properly. The biggest problem with food storage is the storage of food. You will never regret the money you spend on Mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, and/or a vacuum sealer. Good sealing buckets, jars, and totes will keep your food from spoiling faster and keep pests out. You should also invest in a good dehumidifier for the area where your food is stored. You have invested a fair amount of money into your food storage and should ensure it lasts for as long as possible.

#3 – Cook from scratch foods that will get you through a month of no money

We have discussed short-term and long-term food storage. However, this is my favorite category because I have experienced it a few times. I have not had a month of no money, per se, but I have had a few times when there was very little to no money for groceries that month. For most people, this is the category that affects them the most. 

You must approach this category differently from #1 and #2. You have to think about how much food it would take to get you through a month of no grocery shopping. You can prepare for this is in several ways:

• You can shop for groceries once a month and see how you fare. You will be surprised by the results.
  
• You can do a pantry challenge and not do any grocery shopping for a month and see how long you last before you have to go shopping.
  
• You can make a monthly meal plan (2-3 meals a day) and try to live off that for a month. 

Either way, I encourage you to try one of these and see if you can make it through the months. You should make a lot of notes and know what you need to keep on hand for the next time. You will probably be surprised by how much food you consume during the month, especially if you have a family. 

You have to think about more than meals during this month. You will also have to think about snacks. To keep everyone fed, you will probably end up baking or making something from scratch, such as bars, cookies, bread, etc. 

The nice thing about this food storage area is that you could and should use foods from #1 and #2 to keep yourself fed throughout the month. However, I will not provide a list of foods to stockpile for this prong of food storage. I highly encourage you to make a meal plan, plus all the snacks you would need in a month with no money. You need to break down those meals into ingredients to understand what you need on hand. From there, make a detailed list so you can shop for those things in quantity. 

In this prong of food storage, I don’t think about what is just shelf-stable. I include the freezer, the refrigerator, and the pantry. You are not worrying about a natural disaster (hopefully!) and you are not experiencing a long-term grid-down situation (again, hopefully!). You are just trying to make it through a month without money for groceries. 

How much should you have on hand for any of these prongs? That answer depends on you and what you are preparing for. You should have a plan and decide how long you want to have food on hand. Some of that will depend on how much room you have to store food and how creative you want to be in storing food. I recommend starting with a month of food and building up from there. I believe in having 6-12 months of food to weather most situations. For some people, that is not enough, and for others, that is not feasible. 

These three prongs of food storage are not exclusive of each other. They do each have their place and should have their own focus. However, they can be used together to get you through any crisis or situation. 

Thanks for reading,
Erica

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