Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat

"Eat what you store, store what you eat," goes the old saying. But for many of us, this is easier said than done. If we buy a year's supply of traditional, basic food storage, it may go to waste because we don't like it or know how to use it. But acquiring a year's supply of regular groceries is a daunting, if not impossible, task.
What to do? One idea is to approach food storage from both directions: have some storage that consists of the traditional whole grains, powdered milk, honey, and salt. And have some storage that consists of the foods your family enjoys and uses every day.
This newsletter approaches food storage from the second direction, storing what you eat. Here are two ways to identify your own personal food storage staples.

Make a List of Favorite Dishes

Most people have 12 to 20 favorite dishes that they eat often. These are the old standbys that you fix all the time. They're what you eat when there's "nothing to eat," when you're in a hurry, or when you just want a dinner no one will complain about.
You may not be able to identify these favorite dishes off the top of your head, but if you think about it, you know what they are. (Our family's favorites include things like beef stew, chicken soup, and spaghetti.)
To identify your favorite dishes, get a stack of index cards and keep it handy in the kitchen. Over the next few weeks or a month, note what you're fixing for dinner, one dish to a card. Also jot down the ingredients for each dish (and the recipe, if there is one). These ingredients are your family's staple foods. If you keep all or most of them in your food storage, you'll always have something you can fix for dinner. Here is a form to help you identify you personal food storage staples.

Your Personal Food Storage Staples (worksheet)
Favorite dish	Ingredients	Number of times served	Quantity to buy
(example) Spaghetti	1 large can spaghetti sauce 1 lb hamburger 4 oz dry spaghetti	12 (once a month for a year)	12 cans spaghetti sauce 12 lbs hamburger 3 lbs dry spaghetti

To make things even easier, you may wish to keep recipes for your standbys in a recipe file or book (you can use one of the small 4 x 6 photo albums that holds 100 photos, or those "sticky" magnetic albums we're not supposed to keep pictures in). When you're stumped for dinner, you can just take a quick look through your recipes, then take a trip to the food storage room. You'll never be stuck with nothing to fix for dinner, and you'll rotate your food storage automatically.

Make a Price Book

 

(note: Portions of this idea come from Amy Dacyczyn's "The Tightwad Gazette" book I.)
This second method of identifying personal food storage staples kills two birds with one stone: first, you get a comprehensive list of what your family needs and uses, and second, you get all of these items at the lowest possible price. What is this method? It's a price book. Here's how it works.
Get a looseleaf binder, small or large, whatever works for you. Then, every week when the grocery sale flyers come with the newspaper, take about 15 minutes to scan through them. When you see something that you use, note the item at the top right-hand corner of a page, one item to a page, and arrange items alphabetically. Then note the date, the store, the brand, and the price.
After about 3 months, your price book will show you what you use and should therefore store. Before long, you'll know the best prices for the things you use. Over time, you'll even be able to track the price cycles, so you'll also know the best time to buy.
When prices are low, buy in bulk. Note your purchase in the price book, including the date and the quantity purchased. This will help you to track how much you use of any given item, and identify how much you should store.
A price book takes some time to compile initially, but only a little time after that. Considering that it can save you hundreds of dollars, and help you identify your family's needs precisely, the time is well-spent. Here is an example page.
Canned Corn
4/14 Savemart Green Giant 14 oz .69
6/17 Winco Del Monte 14 oz .59
7/1 Raleys Generic 14 oz .25
7/1 Bought 1 case