Thunderwolf Ranch

Buy food for a year????

I was reading a magazine called marriage partnership. It is a christian magazine. I found an article on shopping for you families food once a year. I thought is was very interesting. They bought most of the food and house hold products at a club store. They set an amount a each week for fresh fruit and milk. They also bought gift cards to have a monthly meal out , they bought cards even for fast food!!. They also bought all the hardware they felt they would need for the year.  The exception was prescription medicine ,and car care. They were able to pay off many bills, but the house payment.  Wow does this give me some ideas.  I keep my house fully stocked each month , but could I buy all our food for a year at a time? We grow our own beef and pork, we are going to try cornish cross chickens for meat and turkeys. We have 60 and some odd chickens , ducks, geese, turkeys for pets and eggs. Could we grow them for food? and how much would we need?

How many pounds of canned vegies would I need a week?  I feed 5 to 7 people a day.  So lets say 26 large cans green beans and 26 large cans of corn. Us girls each other vegies for lunch during the week. How many jars of spgti sauce would I need to buy ( or can) I would say 15- 20 bought and about 50 if I was to can. How many pounds of flour for hubby and one daughter ? ( one daughter is developing wheat allergies) 50 pounds of wheat flour. How much rye flour? 50 pounds? I use corn starch and potatoe starch for my breads  how many bags of each? maybe 15. What about sugar? 50 pounds? oats? 25 pounds? salt 10 pounds. Rice? how many pounds? 40? how many boxs of my wheat free rice? 25? dry milk? 10 boxs?

spices? oh boy. Then we have house hold stuff , how much cleaner, how many bars of soap? how many bottles od shampoo ? so much to think about. The article said they tried this 1st for a month , then 3 , after that a year. Wow I wonder if I could do it? What about pet food? Cat and dog? I could never do that for the farm animals I would have the space for that. I see an idea to give some thought too. Has any one out there tried this? if so please let me know. God Bless m.j.

I dont think I could do it..lol!

{ 11:40, 2006-Jun-19 } { Posted by marthaskitchen }

About one month at a time is what I currently manage. I just dont have the space or freezer space to do a year. It certainly would be a challenge though.

I dont think I could do it..lol!

{ 11:40, 2006-Jun-19 } { Posted by marthaskitchen }

About one month at a time is what I currently manage. I just dont have the space or freezer space to do a year. It certainly would be a challenge though.

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{ 04:44, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by MicheleC11 }

You could try making a menu first for the whole year, then making your shopping list... Just a thought. Wow! Where would you put all that food? LOL

Wow....

{ 05:23, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by homesteadinthemaking }

I guess my biggest obstacle would be the space for all the food. I have a small pantry that is stacked to the ceiling now. I don't know where I would put it all.
Blessings,
Trixi

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{ 05:54, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by barbieheart }

Besides the space issue, mine would be a money issue. If I got a year's salary pre-paid, maybe I could pre-buy food for the year....

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{ 06:04, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by momof2 }

I know there are some links online that will calculate food for your family for a year. I don't know any of them right offhand, but do a search on google for LDS food storage calculator and you should be able to find one.

I also read in a preparedness type book to write down every ingredient you use over the course of a month (right down to 'a dash of salt', 'a tsp. of pepper', '1/4 tsp. ginger', etc.). Add it all up and multiply by 12 to give you approximately what you would need for an entire year. Of course you'd have to take into consideration if the type meals you have vary during the seasons, etc.

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{ 08:54, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by Carol }

We have a good stockpile most of the year. At present we don't because I wanted to use up everything that was in it and begin to stockpile for the coming winter months. A number of years ago, dh lost his job and we lived off our stockpile. It does work. However, you need to have the immediate cash outlay and that can often be the clincher in not doing it. What we now do is stockpile on loss leader. Here is a great site
http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,1706-1,00.html
I do believe with all that is happening with N. Korea, we really do need to be prepared. I'm also convinced a well stocked pantry and stockpile saves you $$.
~carol
Edited to add - here is another one http://waltonfeed.com/self/plan.html

Edited by Carol on 2006-Jun-20 at 12:00

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{ 01:59, 2006-Jun-20 } { Posted by morningsunshine }

I don't know about shopping once a year... but I like the idea of "eating out" cards... we eat out too often, I am afraid.
One way you could start a year's supply is to buy a case of tuna fish when it is on sale 4/$1 or things like that.
My church gave a pamphlet about how to get your food storage going... let me see if I can find that!

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{ 06:38, 2006-Jun-27 } { Posted by KimMC }

I shop weekly right now. But I'm working at building up a years supply of food to start. An emergancy stash that will be rotated with out "normal" food. I think it's a great idea, you never know when a job lay off will come or any other emergancy.

stockpiling for a year

{ 09:11, 2006-Jun-28 } { Posted by frugalmel }

I know of one family that does it. They shop at Walton feed (link in previous comment) and stock up on things like soap when they are on sale at the store. (Loss leaders). From what I remember they use large food-safe buckets (like icing comes in at bakeries) to hold grains, rice, etc. They also store things like canned goods under the beds, on shelves in the pantry (top to bottom) and in closets. They don't have alot of other clutter in their home, so they are able to put useful things in those places.

I am not quite at that level yet though. :)

HTH

Edited by frugalmel on 2006-Jun-29 at 12:11

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{ 09:45, 2006-Jul-5 } { Posted by ncmom }

I wish we had that space and money to buy once a year. We try to go once a month. But that sure would be nice to only have to go once a year. Maybe one day!!!