"How Much Food Do I Store?" Calculator

I just got frustrated at plugging things into a calculator. It was kinda shocking how much 1 person eats in 3 months, so I wanted to run some simulations.

The old rule of thumb is;
stock what you eat and eat what you stock.
lds.about.com/od/preparednessfoodstorage/fl/How-to-Calculate-Your-Food-Storage-Needs.htm

Yep definitely working on the growing part.  There's no way storing that many kg of vegetables and fruit is going to pan out.  That leaves growing/foraging.

A few times over the past years I have put my family on rations that were available during ww2 in the Uk! It was designed to keep people healthy as possible on what the government was able to guarantee on rations. Any thing else was on a points system depending on the availability! Of course people were encouraged to grow their own vegies etc! So you could base your store on this as it has already proven to work out ok (even if people where not too happy on it)! In fact try putting your family on it for a week or two and see how you go! (I had all my older children with me and my son in law at one time we did this, and taking them all to the shop to get their 90gms of sweets or chocolate for the week was fun to watch, young adults taking their time to choose carefully what they wanted to have!)

Allowances per week (this is per person)

1) Bacon/Ham 125gms
2) Meat 500gms (this became smaller as time went on)
3) Eggs 1
4) Butter/Marg 185gms
5) Ghee/Lard 60gms
6) Cheese 60gms
7) Milk 2 liters
8) Jam/Preserves 125gms
9) Sugar 250gms
10) Sweets 90gms
11) Tea/Coffee 60gms
12) Custard/Mousse 1 box every so often
13) Dried eggs 1 Container/month
14) Dried milk 1 tin/month

Alternatives:
Combine cheese and butter ration to make 245gms, which can be split between butter, cheese and yoghurt.

Non-Rationed foods:

Vegies (you were encouraged to eat a lot of potatos and carrots)
Fruit (mainly fruits like apples and berries in spring, oranges were hard to get and no bananas were seen during the war)! Lucky us here
Flour
Bread
Fish (if you can afford it)
Chicken (if you can afford it)

Food on points:

You are allocated 24 points per month to spend on other foods. The points can change from time to time depending on availability of food. Food point values on following pages.

A family of four would have a total of 96 points per month or 24 points per week. Discuss with family on how you will spend your points.

Eating out is not rationed but can be expensive so limit it.

Dried (points per 500gms)

Rice/Pasta 8
Currants 16
Sultanas 8
Biscuits (dry) 2
Sweet (sweet) 4
Rolled Oats 2
Dried Beans 16
Dried Peas/Lentils 16
Spices 4
Gravy Powder 4
Stock Powder 4
Arrowroot/Baking Powder 4
Nuts 12
Cereal 8
Milo/Cocoa 18

Frozen (points per 500gms)

Peas/Corn 14
Beans 12
Frozen Berries 8


Canned (points per 400gms)

Sardines 2
Baked Beans 2
Stewed Steak 20
Tuna 20
Spam/Corned Meat 12
Tomatoes 16
Pears + Peaches 16
Pears + Peaches lge 21
Pineapple 18
Pineapple lge 24
Juice per 600mls 15
Soup sml tin 6
Tomato Paste/Tamari/Mustard 15
Olive Oil 4
Vegemite 8



Notes (Clothing/Toiletries)


Clothing

Clothing coupons are 24 per 6 months. Children were allowed about 34 0r 36!

Toiletries

Toiletry coupons are 4 per month.

WOMEN

Undies 3
Petticoat 3
Singlet top 3
1 pr.Socks 2
1 pr.stockings 2
2 Handkerchiefs 1
Nightdress 6
Pyjamas 8

Slippers 5
Shoes 9

T Shirt/ Top 5
Dress 7
Jacket 13

Shorts/Skirt 6
Jeans/Pants 8
Jumper 10

MEN: 

Undies 4
1 pr.Socks 2
Shoes 7
2 Handkerchiefs 1
Singlet 3
Vest 3
Shirt 7
T Shirt/ Top 5
Shorts 6
Jeans/Pants 8
Pyjamas 8
Slippers 5
Tie 1

Jacket 13


Suit 26
Jumper 10

TOILETRIES:

90gm bar of soap 1
100gm toothpaste 1
Small Deodorant 1
Large Deodorant 2
Moisturizer 2
Small Shampoo 1
Large Shampoo 2
Small Conditioner 1
Large Conditioner 2

Oh my Jo for sure! I remember times in my younger days (No I am not that old yet AUS) when there was very little money! At one time in my early teens mum had me and my 2 of my sisters plus a couple of our friends living with us, and all we could afford for shopping was a block of cheese, some 2 min noodles, tinned tomato and a bag of oranges! Really though 2 min noodles with cheese and tomato was ok to eat! HAHA

It is amazing what tastes good when we are hungry..... just 2 min noodles by themselves while not that nutritious certainly fills a hole till the next main meal or can make a great side dish ..... stir fried veges,a bit of soy and 2 min noodles has got me through a few nights as a student/poor hospitality worker and is very yum

brilliant idea. I would go with 5kg packs though since I'm asian and rice is my staple.

But that said.. Jo.. you should try simmered cabbage with carrot. Its a simple and nutritious dish. So what you do is

1. shred the cabbage
2. julienne or cube the carrots
3. Boil some water in a pot/saucepan, about 0.5cm of water is sufficient
4. once the water starts boiling, add carrots
5. about 2 mins later, add the shredded cabbage, cover. salt to taste.

depending on how crunchy or soft you like your carrots and cabbage, time for that. The missus likes soft cabbage and carrots so we cook it for a longer time.

If you don't want to add too much salt and you have silver fish, asian dried shrimp, asian dried scallops or asian dried squid, you can add that before the carrots.

Tastiness depends on how much of the ingredients you add. but the broth and veges should taste sweet (from the cabbage and carrots).

Have this with white rice.

oh I should've done this in Frank's food forum... lol

edit: wrong person, should've been frank. Copy and pasted to food forum.

Awesome tip - thanks for that.

Do you up end the barrel so it's first in first out or do you use them fairly quickly?