Revamping My LTFS

 

After doing a yearlong pantry challenge in 2023 and then embarking on a $50 a month grocery budget in 2024 I’ve had a few surprises.  The biggest one is I don’t eat as much food as I originally thought I did when I started setting up my long term food storage (LTFS).  That has been a real eye opener.

 

The other surprise is that I don’t need keep as large of a variety of foods on hand as I thought I might want.  It turns out that I have been able to scale back on some of the items I had been stocking and still make everything I like to make.  And lastly, now that I want to switch over to more of a REAL Food pantry I need even less of the store bought things I used to stockpile.

 

After sitting down with my LTFS spreadsheet and doing some much needed revamping and deep thought I was able to come up with a much more streamlined plan that now includes more home canned items.  The home canned items I want to stockpile in my LTFS has me expanding more into soups as well as readymade meals in a jar.  I have been finding that having these items on the shelf really helps me with my meal planning strategy this year.  Expanding my supply of home canned soups also will help me with my goal to eliminate all store bought soups from my pantry this year.

 

Now that I know how much I really eat and know what I truly wish to have in my LTFS I was able to sit down, do the math and figure out how much I really need to keep on hand for a one year supply of food for one and a half people (one person, occasionally two).  That has changed the game considerably as far as how I will be approaching future stockpiling this year as well as guided me in what I will continue to eliminate from what I already have in stock.

 

I’m really excited about this!  It means I’ll be able to be even more successful with my grocery challenge this year as I will not need to purchase as much food in order to keep my LTFS well stocked.  However, I will be doing more home canning this year which I am totally fine with because I really enjoy doing it.  I also feel like I’m heading in the right direction as far as improving my healthy eating goals while saving money in the process.  Part of my gardening plans this year, and I’ve already started work on them, is geared toward my health goals and my grocery budget challenge.  I now think I’m more than ready to keep on rolling ahead.