I like to think of my food storage as insurance. How much money do you pay every month for your car insurance? House insurance? Health insurance? We spend almost more on insurance than any other expense we have. And what do we get in return? The kids get free vaccinations, but other than that our insurance money is essentially wasted.

It’s helpful to think of your food supply as another form of insurance. Yes, you may end up throwing some things out that have passed their expiration date, but the peace that’s gained because you were prepared outweighs the cost of food gone bad. It isn’t money wasted because you actually have something to show for the money you spent.

This week we’ll be working on vegetables. We already took care of beans so that leaves the rest of the veggie kingdom to partake of. I much prefer frozen veg to canned, but canned has the massive advantage of being shelf stable. No need to worry about the power going out and the freezer staying cold. There’s a real balance between buying things that you’ll eat vs. things that you might not eat unless necessary but that store well. I like to do about 25% frozen and 75% canned. The added benefit is that I have a lot more storage space for cans than I do for frozen items.

Think of what your family eats. You might want to branch out into other items since canned corn is going to get old fast. Who knows, maybe your kids will end up loving beets!

Get as much as you can afford/have room for