Preparing For The Zombie Apocalypse
By Amy Miller
You don’t hear about many newlywed couples who have food storage, but we are now one of those couples. We’ve been planning since before we got married, to have a three-month supply of food storage, and we just reached that goal this week. No, this isn’t because we worry that a zombie apocalypse will occur. It’s because we fear the unknown.
I know many of you think that the topic of food storage is one that older people are involved in. The truth is, young people should be thinking about it more, because we could face an event that serves as a great reason for having a reserve of food: Unemployment. With bills to pay, and mouths to feed, including your own, it would be a relief to know there will still be 3 months of meals on the table.
We made the seemingly complicated topic of food storage more simple, when we planned our own. Here are 5 of our tips for creating your own short-term supply of food storage.
Research
Look up information on food storage. What types of food last the longest? How should we save and stock a supply? This is a useful source, providing great information on this subject: Food Storage Tips.
Inventory
Many people spend a lot for food storage on items they don’t eat on a regular basis, like wheat, or dried vegetables. In a catastrophe, or life event, you most likely will not be craving a bowl full of wheat. Check your current stock of food, and determine what foods you seem to be eating the most of, and what seems to be sitting in the pantry the longest. If you don’t normally eat canned tuna, then don’t buy a whole case of canned tuna for your supply, just because of its shelf life.
List
Write up this list of meals you normally eat. If you take out meals that require eggs, milk, bread, or other perishable items, you are left with a list of meals that can be made in the event when electricity or water is inaccessible, for any reason. These kinds of foods are rotatable foods, which is the key to having a successful food storage.
Buy
Take your list to the store, and purchase enough quantities for at least 3 months. For example, we normally use 2 cans of tomatoes to make spaghetti. If we make spaghetti 2 times a month, then we would need 12 cans total in our reserve. Don’t forget bottled water!'
Store
Find places in your apartment or home for this reserve, and create a good system for reusing it. As you can see in the picture below, we wrote dates on the outer packaging as well as our three month rotation system. The idea is that you (1) take an item from your storage to use for the week, (2) move the line across, and (3) replace it when you buy the same item in your typical weekly grocery shopping. When your foods are rotatable like this, food is not sitting on your shelf for more than three months at a time and nothing goes to waste. If you are short on space like us, try interesting places like underneath your bed. That’s where we put all of our water!
I hope you don’t feel intimidated by the idea of food storage. It just takes a little planning, and extra money, and honestly, it didn’t cost as much as you would think. Including 18 packs of water bottles, our three month supply was $200. If you have at least that in your savings right now, I suggest spending it on a food storage while you have the money, rather than later, when the opportunity has passed by. Knowing we have this short-term supply of food storage has lessened my worries in the possibility of a catastrophe, or one of life’s inevitable surprises. Even a zombie apocalypse. :)