if you are buying dried foods in bulk to help with costs that are rapidly rising in the grocery store, here a chart to help guide you on how much you can store in the two most common size containers used for storage.

Food Item

#10 Can 5 Gallon Bucket

Wheat 5 pounds 37 pounds

White Flour 4.5 pounds 33 pounds

Cornmeal 4.3 pounds 33 pounds

Popping Corn 5 pounds 37 pounds

Rolled Oats 2.5 pounds 20 pounds

White Rice 5.3 pounds 36 pounds

Spaghetti 3.9 pounds 30 pounds

Macaroni 3.1 pounds 21 pounds

Dried Beans 5.6 pounds 35 pounds

Lima Beans 5.4 pounds 35 pounds

Soy Beans 5 pounds 33 pounds

Split Peas 5 pounds 33 pounds

Lentils 5.5 pounds 35 pounds

White Sugar 5.7 pounds 35 pounds

Brown Sugar 4.42 pounds 33 pounds

Powdered Milk 3 pounds 29 pounds

Powdered Eggs 2.6 pounds 20 pounds

you can give my lima beans to someone else ;-)

That is a big help.also saw a chart that showed how much food a family of four needs for 3 months and 6 months.

I think all of that would last me for YEARS! And where is the chocolate on that list!? Now that would be #1 on my list. :thumbup:

yours AND mine! peas as well!

I sgree chocolate #1 and NOo Lima beans!

I'll take your lima beans!!! :-)

thanks, we are doing that.....and your figures are a big help!!!

Zoe Zat says....What about cat food!!!!!!!

I would have to figure out a place to put all that stuff (except for the lima beans)

PS - just say no to Lima beans.

There was a time when I didn't like lima beans. Now that I've learned how to cook them, I have changed my mind!
We have been stocking up plus raising a big garden.There are a lot of things I haven't bought in bulk yet, but plan to.
We are hoping the world situation and the economy aren't as bleak as they look but, we would rather be prepared then not! ;)

We do something similar starting end of May getting ready for hurricane season each year...never Lima beans...mostly things that do not need refrigeration or cooking. The first year my dd was married her dh called to find out what kinds of things I purchased. She comes home that night and calls...."Mooooootherrrrr"..(you know how that can be said sounding like two very long separate words) you didn't give him the list with chocolate on it!!

I am stocking up on tuna....cheap protien AND cat food in a pinch, lol!

You and my husband must be of the same family.....he'd rather die than eat lima beans :-D :-D :-D

Those of us that eat Paleo and Gluten Free really have to think long and hard when we stock up. Our food items aren't so readily available for long term storage. Almond and Coconut fours do not have a long shelf life. I am great about some items for long term storage but others are problematic.

So anyone out there with the same issues have you found a solution to help us all out?

For all those that can eat just about anything you can go to the Mormon website and find the place where they tell you all about stocking up and storage. They have been doing this for years and are masters at keeping their stockpiles of food and water. It is truly amazing!

AND.....THIS IS WHAT I WOKE UP TO THIS MORNING!!!! :lol: :)

SAME HERE...ditto

Should I be stocking up too? How about the rising price of quilting cotton? ;-) Seriously on the food, I don't know if I should stock up. Is it to save money?

Buying some things in bulk is cheaper in the long run. Just take a look at the price tags the next time you go to the store - there's a list of "unit price". The bigger the item, the cheaper the unit price is.

The drawback is if you buy things in bulk that you don't use most of the time. Example - flour. Sure I could buy a 15 lb bag, but I don't use flour all the time so it would go bad or the weevils would get to it before I used all of it.

same here, I don't use 3#'s of flour all year...of course if I have to start baking bread for the guys to have sandwiches on the weekend, then I might have to buy more and store in the freezer!

I bought a pressure canner, just have to get brave enough to use it now!

Isn't toilet paper and paper towels made with cotton products? Better remember those will go up more also. So many things to think about and remember to get extras when on sale. The list goes on and on......

You don’t run through the stop light and then stop…….. Like the scout motto “ Be Prepared“…

Mine too...everything else, OK!!

I just remembered - Backwoods Home magazine has lots of good tips for bulk, growing your own, etc. A lot of their articles are free at their website: http://www.backwoodshome.com/index.html

NOTE - they are very much a conservative/libertarian magazine but the reference articles are very sensible.

Another good magazine is Countryside, a simular magazine to BWH!