What you SHOULD be buying for your 90-day pantry food supply
It’s always good to be prepared for an emergency and have enough food for your family. But sometimes we overthink the food that we need to buy. My husband and I just restocked our 90-day pantry food supply and you’ll probably be surprised by what we bought. Check it out!
When people talk about emergency food storage, the first things that comes to mind are cans of wheat and rice that sit in your basement for 30 years. That’s definitely part of it but not all of your emergency food should be long-term, vacuum-packed canned food.
What is recommended for food storage?
You need to think of food storage in two ways, short-term and long-term. As a family of seven, we try to have a short-term pantry food supply that will last us three months or 90 days. This is food that sits in our kitchen pantry and we eat it on a daily basis.
As for long-term food supply, this is food that has a very long shelf life (up to 30 years) and should be used once your short-term food supply runs out. This includes items like wheat, powdered milk, beans, rice, etc. For more information on your long-term food storage, click here. You should also have an 72-hour kit in case of emergencies for each member of your family.
What should I buy for my short-term food supply?
According to Ready.gov, you should buy foods that your family will actually eat. My husband and I used to stock up on items during the case lot sales at our local grocery stores. We would buy canned fruit cocktail and green beans. But our family never ate that stuff before. Why would be eat it now?
Finally we wised up and went to Costco and filled two carts full of pantry items that we know our kids eat. Here’s the list that we came up with for our family of seven:
- Pickles (1 jar)
- Chunky soup (12)
- Chocolate chips (2 big bags)
- Hot chocolate (100 packets)
- Cereal (four boxes)
- Salsa (six bottles)
- Spaghetti sauce (24 bottles)
- Honey (three medium jars)
- BBQ sauce (six bottles)
- Gravy mix (one big container)
- Peanut butter (eight large jars)
- Granola bars (200)
- Instant mashed potatoes (12 packs)
- Tortilla chips (2 large bags)
- Pasta (12 bags)
- Brownie mix (six boxes)
- Mandarin oranges (12 cans)
- Ramen noodles (200 packs)
- Syrup (six large bottles)
- Pancake mix (four large bags)
- Oatmeal packets (24)
- Ranch (two large bottles)
- Ketchup (24 bottles)
- Jam (four jars)
- Black beans (12 cans)
- Graham crackers (two large boxes)
- Nuts (one big bag)
- Sugar (one 25-lb bag)
- Rice (one 25-lb bag)
- Flour (one 25-lb bag)
- Fruit snacks (200)
- Bumble bee tuna packets (36)
- Ritz crackers (two big boxes)
- Pam spray (four bottles)
- Pretzels (one big bag)
- Microwave popcorn (one big box)
- Powdered sugar (2 big bags)
Don’t overthink it
Sometimes we think we have to calculate the number of calories each person in our family eats and determine how much food that would be for 90 days. It gets overwhelming. Just go to the store and throw stuff in the cart. Your pantry will be full and you’ll have food for your family to eat.
The one thing I would recommend is checking the expiration date on each item. Just make sure the food will last long enough on the shelf before you eat it.
Grand total
All that food for our family of seven for 90 days cost us $764. Honestly, I thought it was going to be more. And it should last us 90 days or more. Plus, we’re supposed to do this every three months, but it ends up being about every six months to a year.
And the best part, it was a great reason to clean out my pantry, ha ha. Are there any foods that you would recommend putting on the list? Let me know in the comments below.
More from My Silly Squirts: 72-hour kits for a family of six
