This food plan was designed with the goal of allowing the average person to systemically store a year's worth of food over the course of about 14 weeks for about $226 (prices as of March 25, 2009). If you include a bulk vitamin C supplement (to avoid scurvy), the total cost approximates $272. This works out to just under $20 a week. If you have more members of your family just multiply the given amounts by the number of people in your family. I also assumed when developing this program that people on this plan could substitute four normal meals a week from their normal routine (underlying assumption of a normal cost of $5 per meal which will vary from person to person) with freshly prepared foods using the ingredients in this food program. This could be accomplished by preparing two meals a day on the weekends, or scattering them throughout the week. In general, it is probably a good idea to get used to preparing food in the eventuality you have to use it.

The basic ingrediants used in this plan are the following, with the prices listed being the nearly Costco prices as of March 25, 2009:

The basic assumption underlying this plan is that the average person will consume 2,000 calories per day (although people can get by with as little as 1,200 calories, which is what a lot of freeze dried companies assume when they sell you a "year's supply" of food). Please note that you do need a variety of food to get a complete complement of proteins. For example, even though it says $153.97 per year for flour in the table above, you could not live off a year's worth of flour. When you complement it with other foods such as rice and beans, you get all the essential amino acids. Essential fatty acids are also necessary for a balanced diet which is one of the reasons olive oil is also included, in addition to needing oils for a variety of recipes. The sugar and salt are also included as they are commonly used in a lot of dishes and chances are no one will use nearly this much in a year (If you are using this much sugar you might want to consider cutting back--it is not healthy. An even better choice is honey for those who are particularly health conscious, although it is much more expensive.). I have not included the calories in sugar in the calculations as I assume that people will use minimal amounts of sugar per year and because sugar represents empty calories with little nutritional value whatsoever. You should also not underestimate the value of salt. It is plentiful when the transportation grid is running, but natural sources might not be available in your area. My advice is to stock up while it is cheap. You should not need that much, but it can also serve as a great barter item and could also be useful in setting animal traps if necessary.

The detailed food plan is below which outlines which of the above ingredients can be purchased each week, the total price spent per week, and the days equivalent food purchased each week. The Accumulated Days Equivalent column totals show the amount you should have stored total at the end of the given week, if you are incorporating roughly two days of food stores per week in your meals. Note that if you do not purchase groceries every week, you can double up every two weeks, for example, to accomodate your usual schedule. If you do not have a Costco account you can also network with other members on the Arm in Arm Network to schedule trips with them on convenient days for both of you (or find alternate suppliers).

Now, this is not a perfectly balanced diet, and I am not by any means a nutritionist. This represents something I have developed through my own indepedent research and attempts to factor in the limits of convenience and cost in the food storage equation. Notably absent for example are sources of calcium and Vitamin C which happen to be much more expensive to purchase (i.e. powered milk and canned fruits and vegetables). There are low cost ways of dealing with these here. For vitamin C, arguably the most vital vitamin to consume, you can take a supplement. Roughly 1 kg of ascorbic acid will last several years even at a generous dosage (90mg is the "official" recommendation, but I generally take 1 g per day), and as little as 10 mg a day will be enough to avoid scurvy. I am continuing to research the most cost efficient manner of obtaining this and other vitamins as bioavailabilty is as important a factor as cost (the vitamin does no good if it is not absorbed into the blood stream). Right now (3/29/2009) you can purchase 1kg of bioavailable pharmaceutical grade ascorbic acid for $46.50. Click here to go to the link where you can purchase this product. More natural sources such as Acerola Vitamin C can be purchased for just under three times as much. Those on the budget can stick with the bulk ascorbic acid (or even buy less as 1kg is really an excess just to be on the safe side as vitamin C could be difficult to get if fruits and vegetables become scarce.) and it will bring their total food budget for one year to the $272 mentioned above.

You do not necessarily have to store vital sources of mineral components such as calcium, particularly if you live outside of deserts and large cities. Wood ash can be an excellent source of calcium and other essential minerals that is readily available in your environment. In fact, this is one of the ways mankind supplemented its diet for thousands of years before the advent of gas and electric stoves. There are those who argue the absence of this long standing practice combined with modern agriculture methods are largely responsible for health epidemics such as diabetes and obesity which have become rampant over the last several decades. For those who have a larger budget to work with, you can also purchase colloidal mineral supplements and highly bioabsorbable multivitamins to supplement your storage program (good colloidal supplements can be bought for as little as $38 per month--a great investment for your overall health).

Storage is an important consideration if you do not plan on rotating through most of the food. I recommend getting food grade plastic buckets which can be purchased for about $5 a piece new and for between $1-$2 used. There is a much better way of getting them though. Find a local grocery store or bakery and ask them for their used buckets. Many of these stores have to pay money for a recycler to come pick them up. I have found that these establishments are often thrilled to give them away, particularly if they have not gotten around to washing them out yet. These buckets are pretty air tight when properly sealed and are resistant to pests. You can get an even better seal by using Gamma Seal lids, but for the extra $5 or so, I really do not believe it is worth it.

If you really want to extend the life of you food you can go a step farther (particularly with rice and beans that can be stored for many years if prepared properly). The main contributors to food decay are oxygen and water. If you place a nitro-pak (or even a cheaper salt pack I am told) in the bucket, that will help absorb water vapor. If you put a dime sized piece of dry ice in the bucket and allow it to sublimate prior to placing the bucket cover over it, the carbon dioxide will displace oxygen.

Flour is one of the bulk ingredients used here which has a particularly low shelf life (although it can be good for 10+ years if sealed in a can), so I would recommend leaning heavily on using it in your rotation strategy, while accumulating the longer storage life rice and beans. Flour also has the advantage of being one of the most common ingrediants in a variety of recipes, so you can get pretty creative in using it. After you have accumulated the flour as suggested above, I would probably switch over to wheat in terms of long term storage food as it is much healthier and stores incredibly well for a long period of time. If you decide to mix in rice to your daily routine you can also substitute brown rice for white rice, which is also more healthy, but has a shorter shelf life. Over time as your cushion grows you can optionally add other foods such as powdered milk and canned vegetables, which will give you more natural forms of essential vitamins. There are many more ways of storing food, this is just a starter plan designed for a low budget. In fact, as we find more good ideas and suggestions from our members, it is likely that this plan will undergo several revisions as I have been quite surprised the cornucopia of great ideas that people have gleaned over the years in food storage.

One final word--if inflation really picks up, food will get a lot more expensive. Every food purchase made today, will save you a lot of money in the future. Just get started on a systemic plan and you will have incredible peace of mind knowing that your family will be taken care of in terms of sustenance if times get really tough.