So, How Much Food Storage Do I Have Under the Stairs?

Well, I've been wondering lately just how long our family of 6 could last using the food storage we have on hand.  Although I have a pretty good idea of how many cases of #10 cans I have stored, sometimes it's difficult to get a real good feel for just how long that could feed us. And what about all the pantry items I have - and all the frozen food (although I know this would not last long if we were without power for more than a day).  Then I ran across a really cool tool called the "Food Storage Analyzer" on the Preparedness Pantry Blog, so I gave it a try.

To start out you have to enter data about who will be using the food.  This is just everyone in the family's age and whether they are male or female. This sets how many calories the family will consume during a day.  For our family of 6 we consume 11,200 calories per day.  It then directs you to pages (via tabs at the top of the data entry table) where you can enter what foods you have stored.  There's even a page where you can input your own data if something's not listed.  Of course there is also a column for you to add in "Intended Purchases from Emergency Essentials" (they're even kind enough to put those items in your shopping cart for you) - hey, they've gotta pay for all the work that went into creating  that Food Storage Analyzer somehow, right?  When you're all done there is a printer friendly version that you can print out and voila you now have a beautifully organized inventory list that makes it super easy to see what you've got and what you might need to stash away next.

All in all it's a great tool, and I wish I would have had it back when I was starting out.  It would be much simpler to keep track of your supplies as you go rather than trying to move and shift boxes to get a good count later.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, we have enough food for our family for (drum roll please) 183.5 days.  Yay!  Here's the Food Storage Analyzer Button to click if you want to give it a try.