This is really beginning to drive me nuts. I keep seeing aggregations sites (those that do nothing but share other bloggers work… yes, I do plentyof that myself) continue to perpetuate ridiculous claims like the belief that you can purchase $300 worth of food that’s enough to sustain you for one FULLyear and, believe it or not, for a family of four! I don’t think so. Sadly, the particular article I keep seeing referenced of late is from a blog I fully respect.
I get it though. We bloggers often have to make BOLD claims to get you folks to pay any attention whatsoever. After all, if I said how to spend $3000 to feed a family of four for one year… you wouldn’t pay any attention to me. I doubt I would either. 😉 Granted, that would be a huge savings over what we currently spend.
Of course, we have to be realistic and this particular blog post wasn’t the first to make such bold claims and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Heck, I’m positive I’ve linked to such articles in the past simply because it’s eye-catching. That said, I think we all need to “take a chill pill” as my wife is fond of saying to my children and reconsider the math…
In my opinion, the most basic diet that a person can honestly store for the least amount of money possible is to follow the LDS recommendations. In general, their recommendations are for bulk dry foods, such as wheat, rice, beans, oats, and so on.
As an example, if I use the following Food Storage Calculator (which I assume is correct and based on the LDS recommendations) a single adult would need the following (ignoring ridiculous numbers like 14 gallons of water):
Now, using the LDS Home Storage Center order form I was able to sum up the following items for purchase and roughly get close to the recommendations for some of the foods:
As you can see, the sum total is roughly $700 of the recommended items from above and that’s NOTincluding a wide variety of foods that are also recommended, such as:
- cornmeal
- lima beans
- soy beans
- split peas
- lentils
- dry soup mix
- evaporated milk
- other dairy (whatever that is)
- honey
- molasses
- corn syrup
- jams
- flavored gelatin
- applesauce
- fruit mixture
- fruit juices
- corn
- peas
- green beans
- onions (I could buy bulk but didn’t add it for this exercise), and
- tomatoes
Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the variety of fats, oils, and cooking essentials. Fortunately, those items don’t cost a lot but they willadd up. I also noticed I could have made a few different choices (such as to purchase spaghetti noodles instead of macaroni) to save a few dollars. Similarly, I could have tried to purchase more beans and whatnot in bulk to also save a few bucks.
Without doing too much math, let’s say I saved a whopping $100 (I honestly don’t know but that sounds like more than I could truly save) by making different choices and buying in bulk (I’d also need to repackage the food) but then let’s say I had to spend at least that much buying the fats, oils, and cooking essentials. Now I’m right back where I started, right? Ok, why not.
We’re still at $700 for ONE person. Multiplied by a family of four that’s $2800 which is a far cry from the original $300 claim. In fact, it’s not even close.
The sad reality is that we haven’t even got to the foods that really cost a lot such as various vegetables and dairy. And you know what I don’t see? Meats. I also don’t see much in the way of fruits. All of the aforementioned foods–fruits, vegetables, dairy, and meat–are likely a regular part of YOUR diet (or that of your family’s) and, therefore, if you’re going to even attempt to do this right you’re going to want them in your food storage plan. Like I said, these items are no doubtthe MOST expensive part of the entire plan!
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if you at least doubled the current bill of $2800 to add a good assortment of these additional and nutritious foods to your plan. Yes, the fruits, veggies, meats, and dairyalone can get THAT expensive. Obviously, there are some ways to possiblyreduce the costs such as by gardening and hunting but these aren’t skill-sets that we all possess.
My request of you: the next time you see some ridiculous claim like “$300 of food for one year (for a family of four)” please don’t share it. Read it just to be sure I’m not crazy but don’t share it… you’ll just continue to encourage people to offer up moreridiculous claims in the future.
