Thanks for the ping! Just went to Sam’s this am and spent $400. Downright scary. The hardest thing here is keeping stuff. Hot, humid, and muggy here 9 months out of the year. Without ac, the stuff isn’t going to last long, even in airtight containers.
But I’m trying! :)
That is where mylar and canning comes into play. Regardless of humidity or heat it will stay for 5-7 years. You can purchase huge quantities at Sam’s or even the dollar store. Then find out when your local LDS church will have the canner/mylar machine available and go and can/seal it.
They have all of the supplies that you need to use such as the oxygen removal packets.
I bought my supplies when I knew they would have the mylar sealer available. Depending on where you live, many times it is available as often as once a month.
The only thing I would do differently is to not use the oxygen removal packet on sugar. The sugar tends to become hard as a brick.
It is so nice when you are baking and cooking to not have to worry about whether you have the staples necessary to cook with.
We bought plastic storage bins on sale at walmart.
Remember that the food such as sugar and flour is very heavy so it is better to store items by mixing them. Part pasta, part flour and sugar. We put what we thought we would use in one month in one storage container. We found that we go through more sugar and less flour than we thought but if we had to make everything from scratch it would have been about right.
1. Do not spend money sealing anything your family would not ordinarily eat. I packaged the soup starter which had all the dry seasonings and macaroni shaped like alphabet letters. We just don’t use those things. I suppose if we were starving...... I also packaged powdered milk. Another thing we would have to really starve before we would use (except for cooking). We didn’t need nearly the amount we bought.
2. Do keep a small quantity of those things such as dehydrated eggs and milk on hand just in case. You could can those or put them in mylar and just replace them if you haven’t used them within 5-7 years. There are certain dry milk products that taste better than others. I keep dried buttermilk on hand. When I run across a recipe that calls for buttermilk, I don’t have to go to the store to get a quart to use a cup and throw the rest away.
3. Pasta products last much longer than the sealer has you put on the mylar sticker. The average “Use on or before date” recommended is 5-7 years.
4. Once you have your initial food storage - start rotating it. when your supplies get down to 3-4 months on an item start looking for sales and use the sealer when you buy the product.
5. Remember your family and neighbors. We have enough food storage to share with our two daughters and their families. They are young and do not see the perils of not having food storage. We are their insurance until then. We have helped neighbors who have financial emergencies by taking them a month of food storage. They are always grateful and it helps rotate our supply.