How To Get Started On Building A 3 Month Emergency Food Supply For Your Family

While we currently live on some acreage and have a basement with shelves of food that we rotate, at one time we lived in an urban environment with 4 children and had to piece together an emergency food supply for our family in a small space with limited income. This has always been to ensure that if there was any reason from natural disasters to job loss, we would be able to stay on our feet for a little bit of time while we worked to adjust.

How to get started building an organic, nutrient-dense food supply for your family on a budget

There are some main questions you have to ask yourself before you can even start planning:

1. What is your budget? Can you rearrange your grocery budget to allocate approximately $100 to start a food storage emergency stash?
2. What kind of storage space do you have? And Where can you creatively put food if you live a small space?
3. What equipment do you already own or need to source?
4. What is your currently level of experience with food preservation? And how can you learn more and new skills?
5. How can you effectively optimize and grow your storage solutions over time?
6. What foods do you already have sitting on your shelves?

Related guide: Need to start bulk buying to better save money over time? Here’s how.

What foods and equipment to allocate towards a pantry food rotation with approximately $100 Per month for 4 months

In our family, we believe that the first line of defense in good health is through the foods that we eat. We will buy organic when we can and prioritize fresh even if it’s not organic when we can’t. This means we look to find the healthiest versions of foods that we can to support our health and wellbeing.

One of the best resources that I have found for my family to get the best quality food at the lowest prices in through Azure Standard. I spent many years ordering from them before becoming an affiliate; however, now I love them so much I have teamed up with them to share the products I love to help feed your family. I earn from qualifying purchases through my links to their products and any links to Amazon. I only share the products that we know and love so that you can ask any and all questions about them to find what works for your family!

Before you start accumulating food and creating shelf stable food options for your family, it is important to find a water bath canner, a pressure canner, and a food dehydrator inexpensively on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist if you do not already have them.

I want to walk you through how to create shelf stable food even if you’re a beginner and have never canned or dehydrated.

• Buy 5 pounds of organic white rice (~$13)
• Buy 5 pounds of organic dry pinto beans (~$9)
• Buy 5 pounds of organic dry black beans (~$10)
• Buy 5 pounds organic rolled oats (~$9)
• Buy 5 pounds of pasts in various shapes
  • Elbow macaroni, 2.5 pounds (~$7)
  • Spaghetti Noodles, 2.5 pounds (~$9)
• Grab a set of 3 buckets with 3 gamma seal lids for maximum protection from rodents, pests, and even children! (~$47)

This first month of food and supplies equates to right about $100. It’s a good and solid foundation to build on.

This first month, if you have no experience waterbath or pressure canning, practice canning WATER. Keeping water on your shelves takes the same space as jars do. Plus, it gives you practice canning without the fear of losing any money invested into food. Having water on your shelf helps if for some reason you have no access to clean water (like the time we had to turn our well off) but it also ensures you have water for cooking if needed too during power outages or other scenarios.

• 11 pounds fresh tomatoes (~$47)
• Grab 5 pounds of green lentils (~$10)
• Grab 5 pounds of fresh carrots (~$9)
• Grab 3 pounds of fresh onions (~$7)
• Grab 5 pounds of frozen celery (~$17)
• Grab 5 pounds of frozen blackberries (~$17)

Onions, carrots, and celery are a great base for many meals and soups, which makes them the ideal vegetables to focus on! Tomatoes also are in a lot of spaces that you can practice making, or you can simple slice and dehydrate for pizzas or other meals. A simple add on suggestion related to those three would be a a pound of organic garlic powder for approximately $13.

The reason so many things from this order or food suggestion is fresh or frozen is because it makes a great month to practice canning and/or dehydrating. All of the things listed can easily be canned or dehydrated (but celery should really be dehydrated instead of canned), but they also lend well to simply staying in the freezer as needed. In fact tomatoes freeze well and I prefer prepping them for canning from frozen, but they also slice well for the dehydrator.

This month’s focus is a little more intense, but hopefully it will feel manageable! Also, you don’t have to have a grain mill to “mill” wheat berries. You can blend them in your blender and see if it’s something you like eating and want to find a mill you like.

• Get 5 pounds of green beans (~$30)
• Get 5 pounds wheat berries or another whole grain that you can mill* (~$10)
• Get bones to make and can your own bone broth: beef and chicken (~$34 to $87)
• If the budget allows, add on something like 5 pounds of frozen peaches to can or dehydrate. (~$24)

You will want to freeze the green beans until you’re ready to try your hand at dehydrating from frozen or canning them in a pressure canner.

This month you will also be progressing from canning water to canning broth which utilizes a pressure canner! BUT You can make a simple chicken broth in a slow cooker or instant pot and freeze it if you’re not ready to can it yet.

• 12 pack case of canned organic corn (~$18)
• 15 pounds of salt (~$15)
• 6 cans of wild caught tuna (~$17)
• 1 gallon of avocado oil (~$56)

Salt is essential both for preservation but also making food taste great! Plus, a gallon of non-seed oil to have on hand for cooking and baking (we use avocado oil for literally anything that calls for almost any kind of oil) is a great swap for staying healthy. It’s a small amount of food in this month, but it’s powerful.

The most important thing is that you continue to rotate through it so that stays fresh and you are used to eating and using it.

1. Continue to build your food storage with each shopping trip.
2.  Keep an inventory of what you have and what you use. Gradually add more variety to your stock, including different types of grains, legumes, canned goods, and dehydrated foods.
3.  Continue to learn and improve cooking and food preservation skills to prepare meals from your stored food.
4. All of this provides a good foundation for building a diverse and nutritious food storage. Remember to adapt it to your family’s preferences and dietary needs.

1. Increase Quantities:  Gradually increase the amounts of each item you purchase based on your family’s needs and storage space.

 2. Diversify: Add more variety to your stored food, including different types of grains, legumes, fruits, vegetables, and canned goods.

 3. Advanced Techniques: Explore more advanced food preservation methods, such as making your own flours, sprouting, or canning complete meals.

 4. Bulk Buying:  Start looking at saving towards bigger bulk buys like 50 pounds of wheat berries, 55 pounds of sugar, and more. The more comfortable you are using ingredients, the better deals you will have buying larger amounts. Because we make our own baked goods and jams, we use a lot of sugar to make them but consume LESS SUGAR than the average person. And the more we are able to shift to bigger bulk purchases, the more we save in the long run. It’s just a gradual shift.

Here is my free budget tracker that will help you save the money to then start bulk buying food.

Kara Carrero

Kara is an author and advocate for positive, grace-filled parenting. She is homeschooler to her 5 children living on a farm in New England. She believes in creative educational approaches to help kids dive deeper into a rich learning experience and has her degree in Secondary Education & Adolescent Childhood Development. She is passionate about connecting with and helping other parents on their journey to raise awesome kids!