Passed a milestone

[cwconnertx]

Today, according to my inventory spreadsheet, I have a years worth of long term storage type foods stored!
About 1/3 commercial #10 dry cans, 2/3 self prepared dry goods, with about 20 days worth of miscellanous canned stuff (yoders bacon and hamburger, butter, cheese, etc)

It was slow going until I abandonded MH type cans for self packaged beans, rice, pasta, for the bulk. My costs per pound is around a dollar or so, MH not so much.

[RedJohn]

Very good. Maybe you need to start rotating some now. Have you tried to hold, let's say one week, just out your preps to see if it could go long or maybe missing something?

[bacpacker]

Most Excellent job! RJ has a good point, try stuff out and make sure there is no holes in the stash. Spices, gravy mixes, desserts, drink mixes, fruits, etc.
Again congrats.

[cwconnertx]

I have a 5 gallon bucket full of spices, and a separate full of oils, but I consider much of those as part of short term normal use since I rotate them. I define long term storage as things I expect to keep 10 years or longer and not require regular rotation.

My goal is to have two years of the staples I use on a regular basis and rotate through them.

So strictly speaking it would be difficulty to live off just the long term, they are intended to be used in conjunction with items that have shorter shelf lives like oils and such, but I do keep butter powder and canned butter to replace oils in the long term if necessary. I have never tried to live off of them, but spend a saturday verifying that I have the materials to prepare the things I think I can make from preps, for example, one of the things I want to be able to make is spaghetti, so I made sure I had butter, noodles, onions, tomato powder, and beef.

The definite biggest holes are fruits and veggies, but I grow some. The next biggest is meats, dairy, and oils.

My next long term storage items are fruits and veggies (I have a pending order for more canned butter and cheese).

I've also verified that I had long term storage items or substitutes while making meals for an entire weekend. I don't really want to break into a case of freeze dried mountain house beef, so I used frozen knowing I have MH stored. I used fresh butter, knowing I have canned, etc. That was about 6 months ago, and I filled some holes based on it.

[bacpacker]

You have a well thought out plan IMO. Well balanced and you've been looking for holes in the stock's. You can't do much better than that.

[cwconnertx]

Now if I only had more money, I'd add a lot more of the things I lacked before they get more expensive. Some of the things I know I need are relatively expensive, so its hard to justify getting a case of #10 cans for 100 dollars or more when I can get more beans or rice for 0.50-1.00 a pound. This week I've done pretty good on both. I plan to add three months of long term storage foods every month going forward, and hopefully add two months of regular items (many of which keep for up to 2 years, some a little more) every month (Yes, I just got a big raise with a new job)

For anyone new it hasn't happened overnight, took 3 years to get my first. Maybe we can start a saying like they have in business...

The first million is the hardest...
we can have
The first year of stored food is the hardest