Living On Food Storage Day 17

I've been somewhat surprised at how little life changes when living on food storage. We've definitely noticed the loss of fresh milk and veggies, but while using our 3 month supply things have changed very little.

Breakfast is a bit different. I can't just grab a box of cold cereal on those days we are in a hurry. You have to plan ahead to make granola, bread, pancakes or whatever, but really it isn't all that different. Most days dinner isn't any different than any other day.

So why does this seem like such a big deal when we talk about living on your food storage?

I think some of it comes from all the classes about living on your year supply. Using your wheat as a meat replacement is sometimes interesting, but it seems a little odd. (I've always wondered why you would make wheat chili when beans are in your year supply as well.) It's kind of strange to me that we look at long term food storage for times when we have nothing else. Food storage has been taught in modern times since Brigham Young, yet how often have 99% of us us had to live on our long term food storage only?

I suspect that one of the main reasons we have it is not so that it can sit around for 30 years when a famine comes around, but so that we can live the Word of Wisdom more fully. I've learned the past year that using my food storage on a regular basis is so much easier than I thought, not so strange as I thought and I feel better physically when doing it.

Another reason I think food storage is a big deal in our minds is the storage of it. Honestly, it can take a lot of room to store it and if you are organizing challenged as I am then it can be an overwhelming task. I'll be the first to admit my organizing efforts of it have been less than good. We're one of the lucky ones that have the long, skinny food storage room in our basement and still I struggle. I imagine some of you have it much tougher than I do. That's something I will have to work on and I'll pass along what I learn.

The last thing that makes it a big deal is money. If I just buy wheat at the http://www.providentliving.org/location/display/1,12568,2026-1-4-39291,00.html for my family of 5 it will cost $468 for a year supply. If you start thinking about it those terms it may start to get overwhelming. Remember though, we need not try to do it all at once. Buy an extra can of tomatoes when they are on sale. Plant a zucchini and freeze what you can't use. Little by little you can build your storage.

Stock Up Food is a great tool to help you build your storage and give you incentive. Right now it only deals with your year supply, but the owner has plans to someday expand it. This site allows you to put in how much of each of the basics you have and then will tell you in percentage how much you have saved. For example it may say I have 15% of my grains, 100% of my water, 50% of my beans with 60% of my food storage overall. I can't tell you how excited I was each time I went to the cannery and then came home and increased those percentages. It also allows you to take out what you have used so you can keep up to date with it.