Food and household supply prices are rising. Supply chain and shipping disruptions are common. What food and households supplies do YOU need to have on hand to be prepared for a full year?
It is such a great feeling knowing that if my husband lost his job or some other calamity happened — our grocery needs are covered. We need all the peace we can get when the world seems even crazier than usual, right?!
I’ve got an ENORMOUS (possibly overwhelming for newbees) Pantry Inventory Workbook to share with you. I use our family of 7 (five kids ages 13 to 2) as an example and then include a lot of blank pages for you to use as a starting point.
Here’s a summary of what is included in One Year Food and Household Supply Workbook:
- Example of Our Long Term Storage Inventory
- Example of Our Short Term Storage Inventory
- Pantry Preparedness Exercises
- Example of Our Weekly Meal Plan
- A One Month Dinner Supply Calculator
- Pantry Shelf Labels
- Blank Printable Long Term Inventory
- Blank Printable Short Term Inventory
Long Term Food Supply List
Our long term food supply includes only 7 basic types of foods. These are our most shelf stable long term storage items. I do make an effort to rotate through them, though not as quickly as the items in our Short Term Food Supply.
This is an example of how much MY family of seven needs in each of these categories for a 1 year supply:
Go to Provident Living Food Storage Calculator to find out how much YOUR family would need for a year.
Grains, legumes, sugars, salt, and leavening can last 30 years or more when properly stored. We keep ours in 5 gallon mylar bags which are tucked into 5 gallon plastic buckets. Each mylar bag contains an oxygen absorber. We store our buckets in the root cellar (an extension of our basement). The temperature there remains a fairly consistent 50 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the year. It’s nothing fancy, but it works for the purpose.
Dried milk, butter, and oils have a much shorter shelf life and should be rotated through annually as much as possible, We keep those in our basement pantry to make sure that I remember to use them in good order. I also make sure to put the newly purchased replacements at the back of each shelf.
Short Term Food Supply Lists
I organize my short term food supply lists by the following categories:
- Basic ingredients
- Starches
- Dairy
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Meat & Bouillon
- Dry beans
- Sauces and Toppings
- Spices
- Rising Agents
- Pressure Canned Soups and Stews
- Kitchen & Bath Supplies
- Sanitation & Medicines
- Food Preservation Supplies
- Medicinal Herbs
- Nuclear Shelter
- Water
I have included helpful information and lessons learned about each category OUR family’s example of a Short Term Inventory. I included examples as well as blank pages in my inventory worksheets.
One great way to create a one year supply tailored to your family’s needs is to do a “No grocery shopping month”. You can read all about how these No Grocery Shopping months have blessed our family in this post. In summary though, if you can figure out how much of each food or grocery item your family needs for a month — then you can multiply it out to learn what your goal should be for a year supply of that item
How to Start Building Up a Year Supply of Food
How to Not Waste Stored Food
Some of our friends have become disillusioned with storing food. They say that it is a waste of money because they never used it and the food went bad. The solution is simple – USE IT. Store food and household items that you use on a regular basis anyway. And then make a plan so that you use those items on a weekly or monthly basis.
Strict meal plans drive me crazy. It takes so much time and then when it comes time to make that meal, I don’t feel like eating it! Here is my loose meal plan. I base dinners around the starch that we’ll be eating for that day. That way I have a lot of flexibility. I can creatively use what we have on hand, but keep myself from getting in a rut and preparing similar foods every day.
Homestead Pantry Inventory Worksheets
This 62 page resource is now available HERE in my Etsy shop for $10.
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