How to Figure Out How Much Food to Store?

This is a question I get asked a lot. How much food should I store?

Unfortunately, there’s no good answer to this question. We should be storing as much as our budget and space will allow.

So then the question becomes, how can I figure out how much food to store for my household?

This is a real tough question! Every household is different and while I don’t have a specific answer, I do have a trick or two to help you figure out how much food to store for 2 weeks, a month, two months, 6 months, a year, or whatever your food storage goal is.

Step 1

Speaking of goals, that’s step 1! Figure out a food storage goal. I would suggest starting with a goal of 3 days worth of food. Three days is generally a manageable number for most people, especially when it comes to working within a tight budget. Once you reach your goal of 3 days, move onto another 3 days, or up your goal. It’s up to you.

Step 2

Figure out your budget. I think this step is crucial. Please don’t go into debt to get prepared and certainly don’t spend your rent money on preps. Preparedness needs to be part of your life, it needs to be a helpful asset, not a stressful hinderance. Take it one step at a time. Figure out how much money you’ll be able to set aside for preps specifically. Even if it’s only $5, you can make it work!

Step 3

Make a food storage menu plan. You can do it for just a few days, a week or the entire month. Or if you’re feeling really spicy, do it for a whole year!

By sitting down and writing out a meal plan for a month using food storage items, this will help you not only visualize the types of food that you’ll be eating, but also help you to figure out exactly how much food you’ll need to be storing.

For instance, if your meal plan accounts for 1 cup of rice 3x a week, every week of the month, that would mean you’d need to store one 5lb bag of rice per month. How did I get to this conclusion?

• 3 cups of rice a week for 4 weeks = 12 cups
• A 5lb bag of rice has about 12 cups of rice

Badda boom, badda bing.

One of the best ways to figure out how many servings or cups are in particular items is to either do an internet search or to look on the bag itself, or even portion it out yourself just to make double triple sure your numbers are correct.

Regardless, to be safe, you may want to store double the amount of food, just in case you change up the menu, you need to eat more or just for extra food security.

Don’t forget to account for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks as well as drinks. This is a great time to calculate for water needs in addition to food needs.

Also try to account for some overage, especially if you’ll be working a bit harder during the emergency (like if you have to haul water or fix up your home).

No matter what, remember this:

Preparedness is a journey, not a race.

Take a breath. Take your time. Do the best that you can.

Instead of going into your food storage blind, a little bit of time spent now to make that food storage menu will help you be a lot more focused with what exactly you want to store and how much of it. This will help to reduce wasted money, time or space.

One last thing, store foods you enjoy eating and know how to cook. If you don’t know how to cook beans, learn how! But also, here’s a video about how to do it.

Want to learn more about food and water storage? Take a look at my online courses below!