In the home that we live in right now we are lucky enough to have a back-porch/utility/laundry room area that includes some upper and lower cabinets as well as another sink. I use these cupboards for most of my canned food and "extra" food. I buy things on sale, and if I find a good sale, pair it with a coupon, then I'm really a happy girl.
I keep extra canned food and baking items on hand and rotate them through. When I buy something new to restock I try to move it to the back of the cupboard. Items that I think will not be rotated as quickly I will jot down the month/year with a sharpie on the top so I know to use the oldest first.
The lower cupboards hold my canning equipment and water storage. We fill up gallon sized water jugs, 2 liter bottles and clean juice bottles, plus a 5 gallon water tank. I'll be adding some more water storage little by little. We've actually had to use our water storage a couple of times when the city pumps were down for a short amount of time. So glad we had it! I also keep my empty bleach bottles and fill them up with water to use for household cleaning or laundry.
When I do my menu planning I take into account the items that we have stored for short-term and for long-term. We have rice, beans, pasta, oil, sugar, flour, milk and some other basics in our long-term storage. We also buy some fruits and vegetables in #10 cans.
This week's menu includes 3 Bean Salad made from canned beans. I used regular rice from our storage instead of Basmati rice for the Cilantro Lime Rice from Monday night and it still had plenty of flavor.
Some things that are must-haves in our storage? Cocoa powder, mayonnaise (I've discovered that the Kirkland brand mayonnaise from Costco is very inexpensive and pretty tasty) olive oil, Jell-0 and pudding mixes, lots of different types of canned tomatoes, and yeast for baking.
This is just a peek into how the household runs (sometimes it's a little bit touch and go!) and how we are trying to "Be Prepared".
4 comments:
I dream of our pantry looking this good...dream...i'm failing in the kitchen category of my wifely duties -- big time!
Man Wife and Dog
wanted to come by and thank you for visiting my blog. I loved looking through your also. Great ideas!
I'm not sure how I found your blog now, but hopefully that's ok?? :)
I had a friend who asked me for some tips for shopping on a budget. My first tip (which I thought was a no-brainer that she'd roll her eyes at) was to stock up when something is on sale. But she was astonished at the idea -- she said they couldn't afford to do that. Until I showed her how spending a bit more now on the basics she used will save so much more later.
Love your storage -- I have a nice sized pantry, but I would love a better storage area upstairs (mine is downstairs).
I have to agree, it does feel good to be prepared! We have a food storage room and I loved to keep it stocked!
You have wonderful tips so I'm glad I happened your way!
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