The Organic Prepper Weekly grocery shopping is not the way to quickly build one-year food supply. But now that I have built a base, over the past two weeks I was able to easily skip the weekly trips and save up for a larger purchase.
To be able to afford large purchases when you are on a regular, week-to-week budget, you have to figure out a strategy. For me, that is the best way to save up for bigger purchases – skip a week of shopping and then add the budgets of the two weeks together in order to make some bulk purchases that I ordinarily couldn’t swing along with a week of regular grocery shopping. Other strategies could include:
- Selling something in order to come up with a lump sum of money
- Using coupons to build a pantry
- Taking a part-time job
- Cancelling something that you make monthly payments on and putting that money towards your stockpile (cable, cellphone, etc.)
(Go here to learn more about living a frugal lifestyle in order to meet your goals.)
This week I purchased 8 starter kits from a nearby LDS warehouse for $31 apiece.
Each kit contains 28 pounds of food, including: wheat, flour, pinto beans, rice, and oats, and the LDS considers this a one-month supply of food for one person.
Now, these kits are not the rock-bottom, cheapest way to purchase this longer-term storage food. I could have gotten the items for less money by purchasing them in bulk elsewhere. However, you have to keep in mind that I started out without most supplies. I don’t have food sealers or any of that stuff. I would have also had to have purchased Mylar bags, food safe buckets, and other items for repackaging. These came already packed in #10 cans, ready to sit on my shelves for the next 10 years if need be.
My purchase added the following to my shelves:
- 41.6 pounds of beans
- 88 pounds of wheat berries
- 32 pounds of flour
- 19.2 pounds of oats
- 43.2 pounds of rice
I spent $248 for the food that I purchased, so it worked out to $1.11 per pound of food that was pre-packaged for long term storage.
I also got serious about water this past week and added an additional 40 gallons to my drinking water supply. This is not the water we’ll be drinking week to week, but a stored supply to have in the event of an emergency. As well, I filled all of our empty gallon water jugs with tap water for pets or cleaning.
With this addition, my pantry is now up to about a 5 month supply of food for 2 people, although I need more fruits and vegetables put back to be truly well balanced. (You can see how much you need for your family members using this FOOD STORAGE CALCULATOR.)
- 8 lbs of pasta
- 68 pounds of rice
- 51 pounds of beans
- 54 pounds of flour
- 88 pounds of wheat
- 23 pounds of oats
- 20 pounds of sugar
- 5 pounds of organic cornmeal
- 19 pints of homemade jam
- 37 quarts of home canned fruit
- 41 quarts of home canned meals with meat (chili, spaghetti sauce, soups)
- 29 boxes of pasta or rice with sauce
- 11 boxes of crackers
- 6 jars of coffee
- 6 jars of peanut butter
- 4 pounds of dried fruit
- 11 cans of organic soup
- 9 cans of organic fruits and vegetables
- 10 pounds of coconut oil
- 3 pounds of nuts
- assorted pantry basics like baking soda, white vinegar, baking powder, and yeast
Grand total spent $611.55
In case you missed them, here are the other articles in this series:
The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months
The Pantry Primer: Grocery Outlet Victory
The Pantry Primer: Meal Planning While You’re Building Your Stockpile
The Pantry Primer: Getting Started
The Pantry Primer: Building Your Pantry on a Budget with Home Canning
Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca
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