Food Insurance: 2 Weeks of Emergency Food
It seems a day doesn’t go by I’m not propositioned to buy some type of insurance. Switch my car insurance and they promise I’ll save $500! Get your infant a life insurance policy, it’s not creepy we swear! But seriously, we insure our cars, computers, bodies, health and lives; why shouldn’t we get food insurance?
A few years ago in Illinois, some parts of the state were without power for two or more weeks after a crazy ice storm. This is when the reality that we are one bad weather event away from hunger hit me like a ton of bricks. Our nation’s “just in time” food delivery network is just too fragile to guarantee that your local grocery store can feed you in an emergency.
Before you roll your eyes, this post will not be about crazy conspiracies or life without electricity. It is simply about making sure you have at least a two-week emergency food and water supply on hand for your entire family. It is also not an advertisement for any company selling food insurance: this is something you can do on your own at your local grocery store.
Food insurance needs no middleman, but they are certainly out there if you don’t trust yourself to do it right.
What is Food Insurance?
For our purposes, food insurance is simply you planning to acquire and keep two weeks of food and water for your family, and following through. If you want, you can purchase ready-made kits of freeze dried food. But if you are on a budget like me, you can make your own food insurance.
Recently I took a trip to our local Aldi store. They sell mostly store-brand foods and their prices are really low. My goal was to acquire enough food and water for 2 weeks for two adults and two children.
I was able to do all of this for about $100, a solid investment in peace of mind if you ask me.
What Did I Buy?
Canned goods are your friends here. Your food insurance stash need not be things you eat every day, but it is helpful to have some familiar items to make a tough situation easier. The most important thing is that it will last (in a can), and is something you have the ability to prepare (buy a camping stove and fuel, but that’s a different article).
Many canned goods can be eaten straight from the can, especially canned beans (please check before doing this). While it would be nice to heat them up, just knowing that they can be eaten no matter what makes them the best choice. Plus, beans are high in protein and low in fat, making them a superfood.
Here is a rundown of what I bought:
- Large container of shortening (for emergency cooking)
- Cans of spinach
- Cans of mixed vegetables
- Cans of meat (tuna and chicken)
- Cans of beans (black and pinto)
- Canned spaghetti and meatballs
- Small bottles of water (for rationing)
- Box of powdered milk
- Peanut butter
- Large 2.5 gallon jugs of water (one gallon of water per day, per person)
- Gallon of bleach (water purification if needed)
Make sure your containers are conspicuously marked with the expiration date. It might not be a bad idea to mark on there when you bought them, as well.
Also, if you have pets, make sure you include them. The last thing you need in an already stressful situation is to be worried about a hungry pet, or even worse, trying to share your food with them.
Giving your family food insurance isn’t difficult. Most of the stuff I bought will last at least a year, (closer to two) so I really don’t have to think about this now that it’s done. I just need to remember to either eat it or donate it to a food pantry when the expiry date gets close.
Now that I have a good base of food and water, rather than forget about it, I plan to have us buy a couple items each trip to the store. Maybe grab a couple extra jugs of water and some canned goods every week until space runs out.
Keep It Simple
If you do any research on food storage, you can quickly become overwhelmed with options. Rather than getting caught up in the different storage methods, ground grains, which food is better, etc, I plan to take the easy way by simply taking action. If you spend months trying to figure out the best approach, you are no better off than doing nothing.
By starting with two weeks of food and water for your family, you can become better prepared for life’s emergencies. After that, you can either forget about or continue to build your food stash.
Like regular insurance, food insurance is something you hope you will never have to use. While it’s nice to be an eternal optimist and hope and pray that food insurance will never be needed, when it comes to my family’s well-being, this is not something I am willing to gamble on.
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Not a bad strategy. I used to live in the tropics where cyclone were common, so having emergency food was common place. If we knew a storm was coming we’d add a few luxuries to the supplies, like chocolate or other little treats, just to keep spirits up
That would put a whole new spin on having emergency food. I’ve seen one or two twisters, and in fact, a few years before we moved into our house, a tornado tore the roof off. They never strike in the same place, right O_O
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
I have two weeks of food without even wanting to have it! Lol, in early January I did a food inventory and determined that I cool live off of the food I have for a couple of months. So far, I’ve been successful, only spending a few dollars a week on fresh produce that would spoil otherwise. It’s a good thing to have – I suspect we’ll still have a bunch left over after the month is up!
Daisy recently posted..The Life Enrichment Project
Even better if you live with a good buffer. Then you only have to buy the fresh stuff, like you mentioned. Thanks for stopping by Daisy.
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
Glad you mentioned the need for an independent cooking system during emergencies.
Do you guys already do meal planning? My wife and I stockpile a little of our soup into the freezer each time we make some so we don’t have to buy cans for everyday living, and with the highest likelihood of an emergency power outage striking us in the winter, I count them towards an emergency supply as well.
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Funny you mentioned the meal planning because one of my most popular posts was on Meal Plans – http://marriedwithdebt.com/2012/01/meal-plans-kick-grocery-lists-a/
We also freeze soup to double up on meals, but don’t have a deep freeze for long term storage.
Thanks for stopping by!
good idea to also include pet food for the animals.
That’s a great point Leanne, thanks for bringing it up. The last thing you need in an already stressful situation is to be worried about hungry pets. I will add this to the post.
Thanks again for reading and commenting.
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
This is a great idea. Me and my boyfriend have thought about doing this for years. We live in Missouri and a couple of years ago his family was without power for 2 weeks. They had to stay with other family and were able to leave in time. But when they came back they found that everything was frozen in their house from the snow storm. The fishtank was even frozen.
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Wow, a frozen fishtank – I guess they had fish sticks for dinner! I think a lot of people just think “well I’ll go to so-and-sos’ house if it gets bad.” Problem is So and So might be thinking the same thing.
In the Caribbean, where hurricanes tend to pop in between June and November, we are encouraged to have enough food and supplies for a couple weeks. Canned foods, water and biscuits (crackers) are the non-perishable items that are encouraged. Supplies include things like toiletries, batteries, flashlights, lamps, lamp oil etc.
Dannielle @ Odd Cents recently posted..Comment on Tag! I’m It! The Personal Finance Tag! by Elle
How does one prepare for a hurricane as far as shelter? Do people go to their attics, I wonder?
John recently posted..Food Insurance: 2 Weeks of Emergency Food
Our homes do not have attics and basements are rare. Our homes are built a lot stronger – some are made out of concrete blocks reinforced with steel and and others are wooden homes built with pine, green heart and purple heart. Window shutters are becoming more popular. I think our biggest problem is flooding in low lying areas, but generally we don’t fare too badly. The winds destroy trees, power lines and turns almost anything into a missile. It’s similar to the destruction left by a tornado.
Dannielle @ Odd Cents recently posted..Comment on Should I Pay My Course Fees as a Lump Sum or Installments? by Christopher
Sounds a bit scary, but certainly worth it to live in that part of the world!
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
Bummer…I tried to tweet and twitter denied me!
I stockpile a decent amount, so we probably have two weeks of certain foods (three weeks of others). We definitely have less than one week of water though.
Amanda L Grossman recently posted..Frugal Uses for Used Candle and Food Jars
Hmm. I will investigate. Was it through the sharing button above?
John recently posted..Food Insurance: 2 Weeks of Emergency Food
Great idea to create an emergency food stash. Since I live on the west coast, there is always the threat of the next big earthquake. So I’ve got in the habit of keeping a bunch of canned foods in the cupboard. I’ve got a little lazy with it lately though since we have limited cupboard space. Thanks for the reminder to restock.
Jeremy @ Modest Money recently posted..Buy An eReader & Save Money On Books
I need to restock too because I started a diet that is bean heavy, and I’ve been raiding my stash already. I’m going to buy double the amount of beans this time!
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
There’s nothing wrong with raiding the stash if you replenish it right away, especially if beans happen to be on sale at the time. It might actually be a good idea to periodically raid it to avoid suddenly needing to use stuff that is expiring soon.
Jeremy @ Modest Money recently posted..Buy An eReader & Save Money On Books
That’s true. A food stash you actually use will probably be better stocked. Time to double down on beans.
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
I read an article not too long ago that said that the best water purifier is sunlight(UV) and listed how long water needed to sit in a plastic jug in sunlight to be safe. It wasn’t long and no more than two hours even on a cloudy day.
Thad P @ Thadthoughts.com recently posted..Keeping Track of Passwords
I will have to read into that because most of my water is in clear(ish) jugs anyway. Thanks for the tip!
Great idea. I wonder if the food has long shelf life. You may not need it for a long time. So — it’s good that it is cheap — you don’t want to spend money for food that has a short life span.
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Very true. Most of the cans I bought are good for almost two years. We will probably just eat them when they are close to expired, or donate them to a food pantry then buy more.
Although not done on purpose, I believe we have the suggested amount of food insurance within our home at most times. I probably should update my water storage though.
Call me crazy, but I make sure water is near our “bunker” in the basement. (area underneath the workbench designated as our hideout for severe weather emergencies). I also keep a hammer and hand-saw nearby, in case we need to dig our way out of the rubble. Canned goods and a can opener are not far away in a basement storage pantry. Perhaps I should just upgrade slightly and call it what it is, a bomb-shelter!
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Now you’ve got me thinking about what more I can do. I hadn’t thought what to do if the house is leveled. Probably should, considering it was passed over by a tornado about 3 years before we moved in.
We used to have an “Armageddon Stash” of canned goods and fruit juice and such in our basement.. That might sound a little paranoid, and we really don’t expect the world to end any time soon, but the thinking was that if the local grocery stores ever had a shortage, we would have enough food to get by for a month or two until hopefully the situation improved.
That said, it didn’t really work out. All the food that we had down there expired and we had to throw it all out. We haven’t restocked since, and we probably wont
If you do keep a “food insurance stockpile”, be sure to monitor expiration dates!
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I don’t think it’s paranoid – just a rational preparation for something that has happened, and will happen again. People get desperate and mean when they are hungry.
Now I know not to come to your house when it gets rough because you have no food
(or maybe that was your plan all along!)
This is definitely a good idea. I experienced the ice storm in the north east, specifically eastern Ontario and Quebec in 1997. I remember the grocery stores got pretty bare and ran on generators for a few days. However, I think it’s people in rural areas that need to be a little more prepared for these natural disasters. There you’re looking at needing sources of heat, water and food in many cases. A lot of people had to buy generators, and they still keep them around.
TheDailyThinker recently posted..Dig Yourself Out of Debt by Making Sacrifices
If you are in a rural area, this will be much worse for you. Not only are the grocery stores smaller and more remote, there are other challenges if you get snowed in away from civilization.
I hope to move to a very rural area in the next twenty years. Can’t wait to acquire all those necessities.
John recently posted..Food Insurance: 2 Weeks of Emergency Food
We have a deep walk-in pantry, and additional storage in the ‘camping closet’. I haven’t broken it down to how many months or weeks or days, but it’s something. Mostly it’s almost like a food savings account. For example, if we happen to run out of a particular staple like coffee or green beans or olive oil, we’ll just check the camping closet. More often than not, there will some of what we’re looking for in there.
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That’s a good way to avoid those trips to the grocery store for one or two items that turn into $100. I’m in favor of this because it keeps us out of stores. I love camping and most of my supplies double as camping gear.
John recently posted..Thought Leader: What Makes One?
I personal like to get canned soup. I take it to work all the time and rotate through my stash to replenish it. We also have quite a bit of water in gallon jugs that we keep in a storage room. My wife and I have also been considering getting an emergency generator just in case power is out for an extended period of time. The problem with a generator, they’re expensive. Our cats almost always have a pretty good supply of food, but we should add a bit more just in case. Great advice!
CultOfMoney recently posted..Academic Investing Advice – What do PhDs know that you don’t?
Thanks, Cult! I would like a generator too, but like you said, they are expensive. Maybe I’ll wait until I move to the country.
Thanks for reading
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This is an important topic people should consider. We have a stockpile of food in our pantry bought at rock bottom prices, so that serves as our food insurance. Luckily, we aren’t in a hurricane zone. We only use bottled water when driving on vacation, so what ever we have extra sits in our pantry until the next trip or if there was an emergency.
Melissa@PersonalFinanceJourney recently posted..How Do You Know When a House is Right for You?
I live in earthquake country, so I am all for having emergency food and water supplies on hand. It’s worth having peace of mind that there’s one less thing to worry about if the worst happens. We never know when the next big one will hit. Hopefully not in our lifetime but you just never know. It’s good to be prepared! -Sydney
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Good to see you, Sydney! Earthquakes are tricky because they destroy, and could destroy anyone’s preparation efforts. Good thing you guys have a lot of practice with them out there.
Thanks for reading
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Unless you are planning on sending a container full of food and water what’s the point in knowing that information.Rest assured the Japanese government has set up centers all over the affected areas to feed and water the survivors.