My Food Storage!

After a few years of trying to get my food storage going, I finally have succeeded! Well, at least got most of the basics down. Ever since we got married, I've really felt the need to get going on food storage. Also, the first ward that we were in, always talked about food storage. The Relief Society was always giving handouts and they even started a food storage group that I went to a few times before we moved. Needless to say, it's always been in the back of my mind. When we moved to CA, I finally felt we could get going on it. However, it hasn't been until the last few months that things have finally come together. Below are some of the pictures I took of what we have. It's all kind of crowded in our 2nd bedroom. I wish I had a room I could completely dedicate to food storage, but that will just have to wait. 

Here is a shelf that is like our 3 month supply of food. I still need a lot more canned foods, but there's a decent amount there.

This shelf is for items like toilet paper, soap, etc. I still need to stock up more on that. In the bathroom, we have a large drawer full of toothpaste, mouthwash, floss, etc. Whenever Costco has their coupon sale, I usually buy stuff for the bathroom and for this shelf. On the bottom is our water supply. We still need to get larger containers to store water in. 

 

This picture and the other two after, are full of long-term storage items like flour, rice, sugar, cornmeal, oatmeal, whole grain wheat, and beans. I think I have around 200 lbs of wheat, 100 lbs of flour, 75 lbs of beans, 25 lbs of oats and corn meal, and 75 lbs of sugar.

I have found that if you're living in Utah, going to the cannery is the cheapest way to stock up on these items. Dan's family came out a month or so ago and brought a truck. I asked them to bring me some wheat and beans. It only costs around $6 for 25 lbs of wheat. That's like dirt cheap! I got a bag of black beans and pinto beans (25 lbs) and I think it was like $10 or so. For the other items, I ordered them in bulk from Winco. I got flour, sugar, oats and cornmeal. 

The wooden shelves I got at IKEA for $40. The metal one, also from IKEA, cost $12, I think. It's not like heavy duty metal, but it works. For buckets, I got some at the BYU Creamery for 50 cents. The other larger buckets, I got from local bakeries. I just called them or stopped by to see if they had any buckets. They usually throw them out, so they're happy to give them to you. Otherwise, you're looking at paying around $5 for just one. 

There are a lot of recipes you can find online that use food storage item. I have a lot that I need to try out. For Christmas, we bought an electric and hand wheat grinder. Lately, I've been making whole wheat bread instead of buying it. I've also made chili with the beans that I have. 

Anyways, I just thought I would share what I have so far.