Buying Enough Food for Three Months

3 month shelf stable food (shelf stable means it doesn't require refridgeration). Everything for every meal for 13 weeks.

“We can begin ever so modestly. We can begin with a one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months.”

Gordon B. Hinckley, “To Men of the Priesthood,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2002, 58.October 2002

Here's an example of a way to build the three month supply for your family.  Food storage, especially the three month supply should be food that your family likes to eat.  To plan out the three month supply, you need to make a plan for 13 weeks.  First, collect the recipes of some dinners that your family likes.  Write down all the ingredients right down to the teaspoon of salt.  Decide how much you like that particular meal.  If you can eat it weekly, multiply the ingredients by 13.  If you want it every other week, multiply the ingredients by 6 or 7, etc.  Then you know you have all the ingredients to eat dinner for three months.

You can also do the same with breakfast meals, and ingredients for one loaf of bread a day.

Store what you eat. Eat what you store. Rotate, rotate, rotate.

The ladies on FoodStorageMadeEasy.net feel that it is okay to keep meat in the freezer for their 3 month supply. Some don't want to rely on the power grid though so they can their meat.

Canned goods can easily last 1-3 years, no problem.

Boxes can get bugs in them, rotate them quickly.

Here are some examples of meal plans for a three month supply that I found on some other websites.

Taco Soup. We can easily eat it twice a month. Twice a month for 3 months = 6 times. So I bought 6 bags of Fritos at Sam's, and all the cans of beans, corn, and tomato sauce, bought a big jar of Taco Seasoning Powder, and canned some ground beef. Now I have all the ingredients except lettuce, and we could eat it without lettuce if we had to. (If you don't want to can the beef, just keep it in your freezer.)

Spaghetti. Twice a month. Spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, powdered Parmesan cheese, oil. Buy enough for 6 meals.

Canned Soup- I buy it on sale. We have lots and lots of this.

Hamburger Helper, Asian Helper. One can of chicken for 2 boxes. Oil. Powdered milk.

Snacks and desserts, not just main dishes. Cake mix, can of frosting, oil, powdered eggs.

Jellos and puddings- two per week for 3 months. Remember to store ALL the ingredients. Jello just needs water. I store evaporated milk or powdered milk to make the pudding.

Eat cold cereal half the days for 3 months-11 boxes for our family. I have the powdered milk stored just in case, but for now I'll buy the milk at the store.