Okay, last week we set our Ultimate Food Storage Goal. Now we need to develop a plan in order to be able to attain that goal. Now, since your Ultimate Goal may differ from mine, you will want to adjust this step to match your goal. But since I’m working around my goal, I will show you “The Plan” as it pertains to me. And if you’re on the same path as me, well then by all means just use this same plan!
So to recap: my Ultimate FS Goal is that I want a full year supply of everyday meals (at least 6 months of that is to be completely shelf-stable), some additional long-term food storage items, along with a 3 month supply of water.
So what do I need to do to get there? (Oh heavens, if you only knew how many “Dora, The Explorer” quotes just popped into my head to answer that question :)… those of you without 2-3 year old daughters probably have no idea what I’m talking about. Count your lucky stars!) Sorry, getting off topic. So let’s start with the everyday meals part.
- Okay, well I guess I need some ‘everyday recipes’ (shelf-stable or freezer food type recipes) in order to make those ‘everyday meals’ I’m aiming to store.
- Next I need to figure out how many times I’m going to make those ‘everyday meals’ in a years time.
- Then I’m going to need to determine the amount of needed ingredients in order to make those meals for their given number of times. (Is this starting to sound abstract to you? Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to clarify as we go. It will make perfect sense… promise!)
- From that information (the needed ingredients) I will create a ‘Master Inventory List’ that tells me how much of each food item I should have in my food supply at all times in order to constitute a ‘year supply’.
- Next I’ll need to compare that master list to what I’ve already got at home on my shelves. Whatever ingredients I’m lacking will then become my ‘Food Storage Shopping List’.
- Then I need to divide that list (the FS Shopping List) up into small chunks (number of chunks will be determined by how quickly I want to have my year supply purchased) so that each time I go to the grocery store, I can just take one of those ‘chunks’ with me and add it to my shopping list… making sure that I’m purchasing these items in addition to everything that’s already on my regular shopping list.
- And then each time I’m at home cooking/baking and I take an item off the shelf, it gets added back onto the ‘regular’ shopping list so that I’m constantly replenishing and maintaining what I’ve already accumulated.
- And once I’ve gone through and purchased all of my ingredient ‘chunks’… well whadda ya know!… I’ve got a year’s supply of meals!! Wahoo!
It’s as simple as that! Or did that not sound very simple to you? 😉 Oh, and the other beauty about writing out a plan like this… just add some check boxes next to each step and Ta-Da! There are our short-term goals! Just give yourself some deadlines to get each step accomplished by and you’re on your way to success!
Now, I know I need to clarify or spell out some (*cough cough* ALL) of these steps for some of you. (If you happen to be a lucky one where that all made sense to you the first time around, count your blessings and feel free to just take off running! :)) But if you would like some further clarification, I will take each of these steps for the next couple of weeks and spell out what needs to happen with them. And we’ll just start chipping away at these new short-term goals!
And, no, I didn’t forget about the water or the additional long-term food supplies, but since we’re working on not overwhelming ourselves, I’m just going to wait until we get our ‘everyday meals’ aspect well underway and then we’ll look at tackling the rest.
So if you’re going along the same path as me and this plan works for you, stay tuned for how to accomplish each step. Otherwise, your challenge this week is to develop your own personal plan to help you accomplish your Ultimate FS Goal.
Food Storage And Beyond 