After three months of eating from our pantry, freezer, and long-term food storage, our Quarantine Food Storage Challenge is coming to an end. Today I’m sharing some of what we learned. Hopefully something will be helpful to you as you plan to be more prepared with your own food.
First we’ll cover the three reasons we decided to end our open-ended challenge now. Then I’ll go over lessons we learned and what we plan to do about it!
For those of you who look forward to these updates, this won’t be the end of talking about food storage! In the coming weeks, I will take the focus off MY food storage and start talking about YOUR food storage (how to get started, what to store, how much to store, how to keep track, how to use it).
As I’ve started reading through hundreds of responses in the 2020 Six Figures Under Reader Survey, I see that many of you are interested in building up your own food storage and would like some guidance. (If you haven’t shared your thoughts, I would really love if you would take a couple of minutes to complete the survey).
Why we are ending our food storage challenge
When we started our challenge, we weren’t sure how long it would last. I know some of you will be surprised or disappointed that we’re concluding it now, and I want to explain why we are deciding to go back to grocery shopping. Essentially it’s because we accomplished what we set out to do. Let me break that down into specifics.
The primary reason we started the challenge was to keep ourselves and others safe by not going to the grocery store during the pandemic. At the outset of this, there wasn’t a full understanding of how this novel coronavirus was transmitted. Now that we have a better understanding, we feel like occasional trips to the grocery store are generally safe. Thankfully the outbreak in our area hasn’t been too terrible.
The secondary reason for undertaking a food storage challenge was to give our food storage a test drive. While we have stored food for years, we really didn’t have a grasp of how much we would really need and what things we would wish we had more of. We’ve figured a lot of those details out as we have monitored what we have used during the last three months challenge of not grocery shopping. Now we have a better idea of what and how much we should store for our family.
The third reason for ending our food storage challenge now, rather than continuing the challenge indefinitely, is so we can make the effort to restock and update our food storage. The future is uncertain in many ways, including potential continued disruptions in the food supply chain, so while we have the ability to stock up, we want to do so. You will see us implementing changes to our food storage in the near future.
What we learned from eating from our food storage challenge
How much food storage our family needs
As I’ve learned about food storage from a “scholarly” perspective, I learned how many pounds of this or that that you need per person for a certain length of time, but I had no idea how that would play out in real life. The suggested amount of 150 lb of wheat per person age 8+ (and half that for kids under 8) for a year supply doesn’t come with a menu or even a recipe book.
I had no idea if this was a low ball or high ball estimate. I wasn’t sure if that was a “keep us alive” amount or a “life as usual” amount. That’s about 12.5 lb per person per month.
Our family has 5 people age 8+ and 2 people under age 8 (I’m not including the baby in this count). With that estimate, we would use 75 lb of wheat in a month.
I would have to say that estimate is nearly spot on. We ate about 80 lb of wheat per month during our challenge. Essentially that was just used for bread, pancakes, waffles, and other baked goods.
I’m still working on recording everything in our spreadsheet so we can calculate our own family’s consumption rate and create a customized food storage plan just for us.
What surprised us
If you followed along with our weekly updates during the challenge, you may remember that in the beginning I was having a little panic attack about some essentials that I thought we were low on like yeast, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, salt, and oil.
In the beginning we had no idea how long the quarantine/lockdown phase would last and what shortages there would be. We didn’t know how long we would choose to continue our challenge or if at some point it would no longer be our choice. Either way, I wanted to be prepared, so I purchased some of these staples online.
As it turned out, I haven’t opened the 5 lb bag of yeast. We have used only about a pound and a half of yeast in the past 3 months. That is partly due to reducing the yeast in all of our recipes by half (with no problems).
We also haven’t had to open the 5 lb bags of baking soda or baking powder!
Of the 4 gallons of oil that I bought at the beginning of the challenge (knowing that they were essential for all of the baking I would be doing), I still have 3 left.
What we NEED to stock more of
We are probably good on wheat, powdered milk, beans, applesauce, etc, but there are some areas where our food storage is lacking. We’ll use a one-year supply as a measuring stick because that’s how many food storage recommendations are made. Feel free to divide by four if you want to build up to a 3-month supply or divide by two for a 6-month supply.
Salt– Salt is such a simple ingredient, but it’s essential! It’s literally the cheapest food storage item out there. And we didn’t have enough stored. In fact, we were nearly out! Right at the beginning of the challenge, I bought a few packages of salt from Walmart. Otherwise we would have been completely out! That’s embarrassing! For a year supply, it’s recommended that you store 8 lbs per person (that’s 4 regular salt containers per person).
Oil– We used just under 1 gallon of oil per month. That means we would need roughly 12 gallons for a year supply. This is one of those things you don’t just buy and tuck away for a disaster. It’s important to rotate through your stored oil or it will eventually go rancid.
Sugar– It’s recommended to store 60 pounds of sugar (in some form) per person for a year’s supply. We don’t have anywhere near that, so this is definitely an area for us to work on going forward.
Oats– Oats are a major staple for us, but we haven’t stocked up for a while so we were low when the challenge started. My MIL gave us a 25 lb bag of oats that she had, which is what we’re currently eating.
Rice– We didn’t run out of rice, but we are low and don’t have anywhere near what we would need for a year supply.
Pasta– We generally eat a lot of pasta. It’s fast, easy, and everyone likes it. We had quite a bit on hand at the beginning of our challenge, but we would have run out during the second month if we weren’t being careful with it. Of course, with an abundance of wheat and eggs, we could decide to make our own pasta, but while that would be delicious, it would no longer be fast and easy.
Peanut butter- We typically buy peanut butter for about two months at a time, but we definitely need to store more. Peanut butter an jelly sandwiches are a staple in this house! As long as we rotate through what we have, there won’t be a problem with spoilage or waste.
Jam/Jelly– As an important ingredient in PBJs, we need to store more jam! In the past when we’ve had easy access to free blackberries, we’ve made loads of our own jam. It’s been a while since we’ve made jam in large quantities, so we’ve been buying it. We have both blackberries and raspberries growing on our property now, so hopefully we can get back into making our own jam.
Cocoa Powder– We have around 10 lb, but we need more for a long-term supply. And yes, cocoa powder is an essential storage ingredient for us!
What we WANT to stock more of
Some of the things we want to stock more of in our food storage are:
Cheese– Over the next few months, we’re planning to store more cheese. We’ll keep a reserve in the freezer and rotate through it. By no means will it be a year supply, but if we need to live strictly off our food storage again we can ration it. During this challenge we stretched about 5 lb of cheese to last for two and a half months, which, for a family with cheese habits like us, is impressive.
Butter– Butter is our fat of choice when it comes to baking and cooking, but throughout this challenge we had to rely on alternatives like canola oil and shortening because we only had 5 lbs of butter in the freezer at the outset of this challenge. We actually still have a pound of butter left because we were being careful to ration it. Like cheese, I plan to store more in the freezer.
Raisins– We eat a lot of oatmeal, cream of wheat, and other hot breakfast cereals and raisins are a favorite add-in. We should definitely store more of them!
Chocolate Chips– For baking and for mom snacks when there isn’t anything else sweet around.
Salsa– We are fortunate to have hens that keep us well stocked up in eggs (at least in the warm months). We love having salsa to make fried eggs more exciting.
This obviously doesn’t include the normal everyday staples that we’ll be buying when we go back to the store next week like milk, sour cream, tortillas, chicken, ground beef, or pork (if it’s available and not crazy expensive), lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, strawberries, apples, bananas, and other fresh produce.
Other things we learned during the food storage challenge
Understanding the practical implications of eating from our food storage has been very valuable and will help so much as we go forward. But a clearer picture of how long our food storage will actually last isn’t the only good thing that came from this challenge. Here are a few other things we learned (or re-learned).
Eat all leftovers so nothing is wasted
We’ve always been pretty good about eating leftovers and not letting them go to waste, but during this challenge we were especially conscious of not wasting food. Our food supply felt more finite that it normally does since we weren’t shopping to replenish it. That made us more aware of not wasting any food.
Don’t overeat just because something tastes good
Another way to waste food is to overeat. We don’t usually think of overeating as wasting food, but that’s really what it is. Mike and I were careful to stop eating when we were full instead of continuing to eat just because something was tasty.
Try new things
We took advantage of the extra time during quarantine to experiment and try making and eating new things. A lot of you thought it was funny that I had bever made split pea soup before. Well now we’ve had it several times and really like it! We’ve made tortillas from scratch. We learned a few ways to make cheese. And now that the older kids can make bread by themselves, we’ve been enjoying delicious homemade bread even though I haven’t made any for the last month!
Whew! That was a lot! Thanks for sticking with me!
Like I said, next week I will take the focus off MY food storage and start talking about YOUR food storage. I’m excited to help you get started on or improve your food storage situation. Let me know if there’s anything specific you want me to make sure to cover!
I’m enjoying reading about what you did during shelter in place. My family learned how to cook with sourdough starter as we couldn’t buy yeast. We made bread, pancakes, waffles and tortillas. Yum. I found out that you actually can use dried beans from 2003 if you soak them overnight and cook them for 1 1/2 hours in a pressure cooker. They become soft enough to eat. We stretched our fresh potatoes with added mashed potatoes made from potato flakes. We learned to start seeds in paper cups on our kitchen counter and then planted them in a garden. We learned that we used more flour than any other food storage item. We actually sprouted the leftover root end of a bunch of celery by putting it in a glass of water (like an avocado seed). After a week we planted it in the garden and it is growing.
That’s great that you learned so much during the shelter in place! The beans we’re eating are old too! I heard that adding a bit of baking soda helps with softening them up too! We just soaked them and cooked them really long in the crock pot, but next time I’m going to give the baking soda a try! I’m going to try regrowing celery now!
If you’re lucky enough to have an electric mill you can grind old beans into bean powder. This can be used to make soups. I’ve tried the baking soda method and I thought they tasted ‘off’.
I’ve actively started restocking my pantry and freezers in anticipation of a second wave of the virus in the northeast come fall. It’s been very challenging as I typically stock up when items are at rock-bottom prices, but with grocery stores having reduced weekly flyers and number of items on sale combined with a significant increase in prices almost across the board, I’m having a hard time.
I also keep a spreadsheet of:
1. Ideal amount of each item to have in inventory
2. What I actually have
3. The difference between the two
4. How much it would cost to purchase all desired quantities
5. Notes on where and when the cheapest price per item was purchased
I’ve loved following along these past three months as you have done this food storage challenge. The small amount of cheese used has been super impressive!
I’m just learning about stocking up as we anticipate another round in the fall as well. Can u share more info Libby?
Thanks!
Erin
Yes! I’m like you– I like to stock up when the prices are rock bottom, but now we have to be less particular and just get restocked anyway. The limits are hard for people like us, who have always stocked up! I also keep a spreadsheet to keep track. 🙂 I’ll be talking more about stocking up in the coming weeks.
Hi, I have quietly followed you for years. I have stocked up ever since we went to livre in Alaska. Food was very expensive. 1983 a gallon of milk was $4.00,fruit very expensive. The only way to get food and supplies was plane or barge. We ordered in spring because we had to wait for an I’ve cutter to break the ice so a barge could get through. We waited and watched and waited for the barge to be seen on the horizon. then waited more days before it came in to port. Some people bought a years supply of food so they would not have to buy from the stores. Fishing, was huge there then and hunting for caribou and other animals for meat. I remember a lady ordered a watermelon that cost $32.00. living in a village of 2000 was a learning experience.
Wow Linda! That sounds like such a unique and cool experience! You should write a book! I can’t imagine how exciting that must have been to see the barge coming over the horizon! I bet that experience would help you see the value of stocking up and rationing what you have so you can last until the next food shipment. And my family would need to learn to eat fish!!
Ooh! Looking forward to your food storage series! I know that’s one thing we really started thinking about in light of COVID-19 — not always easy in a small place but I’ve definitely committed to doing what we can with what we have as far as space.
I’m actually a bit curious — when you guys lived in the basement, did you have a large food storage supply then? If so, how did you manage that in a small space?
Cheese — getting two and a half months out of 5 lbs IS impressive!
Re: trying new things — what was your favourite thing you made? Also right on for the kids learning how to make bread themselves! That’s so cool!
Hi Tara. We actually had just about as much food storage in the basement as we do here, though there was less wheat and more bottled produce. We stacked it up in boxes and buckets floor-to-ceiling in the one large bedrooom where our four kids slept. It took up about 3 feet of floor space along that wall, so the end result was that the room had about three feet less of bedroom space in one direction. And it wasn’t going to win any decor awards. But it fit.
Cheese. We were super excited to stock back up in our first grocery haul after three months of eating from what we happened to have on hand when we decided to start our food storage challenge!
Our favorite new thing was probably lentils in lieu of ground beef for tacos. Cook them with taco seasoning, smash them up a little, and it feels and tastes almost the same. It’s especially nice because one of our daughters is a vegetarian eater, so we can use the one dish for the whole family.
I’m curious about one thing you mentioned: did you find that you were eating more food items that utilized wheat because you knew you were well-stocked, or is that typical usage for your family? When my 4 children were growing up I don’t remember using that much flour in normal times, but if I felt limited in other resources I definitely would have been centering meals around well-stocked ingredients most often.
During the past couple months we’ve been to the store a few times, trying instead to use what we had on hand first but not always exclusively. We have an annual garden; this year we filled it with okra, tomatoes, green peppers, green beans, onions, and parsley that we have been harvesting (we planted the week before the shut down; in hindsight I wish we’d have made room for a few other items like lettuce and squash). It seems like butter is what we are currently the lowest on of all the food items we typically consume – we actually surprised ourselves by how much we went through, and my yeast supply is lower than I’d like. Stores around here are still out of yeast, baking powder, baking soda, powdered and canned evaporated milk.
I learned that while I’m pretty good about stocking up on toiletries, cleaning supplies, meats, pasta, canned goods, and even chocolate, I need to be more precise about keeping a storage of baking items. Before I always thought that things like baking powder or salt wouldn’t store well, and I should buy as needed to know that the ingredients were rotated regularly on grocery shelves and as such would be kept fresh. I also understand now why the price of vanilla extract is as high as it is after I looked into possibly making my own; vanilla beans are not cheap around here. I’m going to be on the hunt for a food dehydrator when garage and estate sales crank back up to be a little more precise for garden food storage, and we’re considering adding perennials like berries and perhaps an avocado tree for the future.
Hi Karen! Good question! I think our wheat usage was due to making everything from scratch. In a normal month where we are buying bread and tortillas, we don’t go through nearly so much flour, but for a month where we are baking from scratch, I think our usage was normal. We eat a lot of bread around here!! And we like to bake. 🙂
That’s great that you have a garden and that you’re well stocked! Now you can get stocked on yeast (stays fresh indefinitely in the freezer) and baking soda and salt (they will stay good pretty much forever too)! And butter you can freeze or you can actually can it too!
I remember once when I was a youngster, seeing my mother digging through all of her cabinets with a distressed look on her face. When I asked what was wrong, she said, “Salt! I’m out of salt! How can I be out of salt? That’s something you should never be out of!” And to this day, I have not let myself run out of salt. I don’t have any in storage, though, so that’s something I’ll remedy now. I am building my food storage these days and I’m including freeze-dried foods as well as dried and regular foods. Here’s a storage hint from me — peanut butter powder. It’s lightweight, lower fat, mixes easily with just a little water and tastes like — peanut butter! Try the cocoa/peanut butter version in a smoothie, yum.
That’s funny JD!! We are stocked up on salt now, so I won’t let that happen again! 🙂 I’ll have to try peanut butter powder! Chocolate + peanut butter sounds great!
I’m glad to read that you are going to resume shopping. Personally I don’t consider now the time to be eating down food storage. Continuing to rotate yes but not reduce.
In a previous post you mentioned order pasta from Walmart but mentioned Amazon. The Walmart link showed 4lbs for $5.8x, when I looked, for store brand. Maybe it is cheaper out there? I routinely get name brand pasta on Amazon for under $1lb, just have to watch for it. Of course you take what you can get in the current situation. Just mentioning it so you can watch for it, if desired.
Hi Sara! I’m glad to be back to shopping now too, but I’m also glad that we challenged ourselves and were able to see what living off of our food storage was like. We definitely didn’t want to eat it down drastically without need, but just using it for a couple of months worked out well for us. I don’t remember exactly what I paid for that pasta, but it was probably around $1/lb. At the store I usually get it for around $.89/lb, though I’ve recently found that the larger packages (3lb+) are even cheaper! 🙂 I’ve never bought pasta on Amazon, but that’s nice that it’s comparable! Good to know!
I just recently found your site and totally LOVE it!!!! Thank you so much for sharing so much detail! This is so helpful!
Thanks Tauna! I’m glad it is helpful!
I also store a lot of food and have always wondered as well how long it would last us. I really appreciate you doing this experiment and sharing the outcome with us! It gives me some good ideas of what to focus on. At the beginning of the pandemic my husband and I also had the conversation of whether we should eat what we’ve stored or continue shopping. We normally cycle through our food storage very well to keep it fresh and we decided to keep doing that and also replenish it. The potential for food shortages are what concern us. I’ve tried to shop much less frequently and have started doing a monthly grocery haul and really like it. It stresses me out to spend so much money at once, but I remind myself it’s for the entire month!
That’s great Katie! I really like doing monthly shopping. 🙂 It was hard to decide if we should keep going on our challenge or not, but like you, we are ready to replenish our supply!