However, food storage is meant to be something we are daily using. Think of it as creating your own store at home. By stocking up on foods your family normally eats and toiletries you use regularly, as well as learning to cook with foods in your long-term storage, you will rarely "need" to run to the store for anything.
The Importance of Shopping Less
With some organization and understanding of how much your family uses and what your family consumes on a regular basis, you will find yourself shopping less, which will save you money in the long run. Just the cost of gas to run to and from the store for one or two items (like a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread) probably exceeds the cost of those items at this point in our economic condition.
The cost of gas aside, stores are purposefully structured to get you to spend more, and buy more of what you hadn't planned to buy, by strategically placing the most important items in the back of the store. Milk, for example, is always at the back, causing you to walk past hundreds of items that are strategically placed and packaged to draw your attention and cater to your senses. Impulse buying is almost guaranteed when we drive to and from the store several times a week.
So, rather than being emotionally controlled by the grocery store and its alluring schemes, our goal is to use it to help create our own store at home, thus becoming more self-reliant and more frugal.
Bulk and Sale Shopping is the Key to a Well-Stocked Home Store
By sale shopping when your family's favorite items are at a great price you will rarely, if ever, pay full price for anything you use. And you will rarely, if ever, run out of what you need.
When your family's favorite shampoo is on sale, on clearance or has a coupon that can be used on a sale, it's time to stock up. Buying 24 bottles of that shampoo in one shopping trip has not only saved you money on that shampoo because it was a good price, but you have just saved the gas and impulse-buy money on all the numerous trips you would have taken to replace the one or two bottles you might have purchased at regular price in a state of panic when there was no shampoo in the house.
Yes, this takes a little planning. But, a little planning and strategic shopping over a period of a few months will start a snowballing effect in your storage room.
Try looking for some good prices on what you normally use and push a little more of your budget toward purchasing several of that item this month. If you can, do this with two or three items. Put them away in a place where they are easily accessible and, over time, you will find that you are going to the store only for fresh foods and one or two sale items that you are ready to stock up on.
Bulk-buy shopping can also save you a bundle. For example, buying 50 lbs. of oats at the Church cannery will create a situation where you will never have to buy the grocery store packaged oats at a much higher price (even when it's on sale). This might also motivate you to start making your own cereals, breads and other items you will otherwise spend a lot more money on at the grocery store at a severe lack of nutrition.
Your home store has begun...as well as the path to greater self-reliance.
Getting Organized
It is always nice to organize your home store in such a way that it is easy even for the kids to find things. Being able to send kids to the basement when I'm cooking dinner and need this or that really takes a load off my mind...and my feet...not to mention saving me time.
In my home, I actually have plastic grocery bags sitting in boxes right next to the food storage areas so items can be taken to the kitchen easily...or to the bathroom or wherever they are needed. Often, the kids comment about how much fun (and I think they mean "satisfying") it is to run downstairs and come up with a bag full of things they need...conditioner, toothpaste, new toothbrushes, hand soap, food, snacks. Even they can feel the joy of self-reliance.
Staying organized and using what you're storing will also keep all your items from expiring or going to waste. It's always a bummer to throw out stuff you've spent money on. By knowing what you have and having it easily rotating through your daily life, you will know when it's getting time to give some things away. This is another benefit to your food storage and home store.
Being of Help to Others
It doesn't take a major catastrophe to find people in need and realize another great use for the resources the Lord has blessed us with.
If you have things that are coming up on expiration dates, or are past and you know you won't use them before they are useless (this is the lot of canned corn in our house because we grow our own and freeze it every year), then you are able to bless others with your abundance.
The Utah Food Bank will take food that is one year past the expiration date. But, I'm sure one question to your ward bishopric would easily give you knowledge of neighbors who could use it, too. There really is never a situation where food storage needs to be thrown out, if you are organized and rotating it through your kitchen and home on a regular basis.
Enjoying Your Spoils
Honestly, I often refer to my food storage areas as my own little "counting house". When my shelves are well-stocked and I am in a position to never run frantically to the store for anything (or do without because money is tight), there is a certain satisfaction that really can't be described. I admit that I have actually spent time in my food storage areas, counting what I have, straightening lines of items and whispering prayers of gratitude for the feeling of freedom, security and self-reliance the situation allows.
In fact, in our home, this feeling of self-reliance has actually inspired and allowed for experimenting in our own creation of things we'd normally find in the store like soap, laundry detergents, diapers, cheese, yogurt, etc. There is something that came alive in me when I felt that freedom from the mainstream way of doing things and I have learned what I can live without, how to function without many "common" things and what I am capable of doing.
Not only is a home store a source of enjoyment and security, but it is a visual and physical representation of the fact that the windows of Heaven have opened on this home and, many times, there has not been room enough to receive it. It is a constant reminder of the love and support of Heavenly Father and that He will not leave us comfortless when we keep His commandments. In fact, it is proof that when we go forward in faith, desiring to be obedient to Him, miracles will occur. He is mindful of all our efforts and the desires of our hearts.
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