I used to buy exactly what I needed each week for groceries. I couldn't see why those huge warehouse stores were so popular. I had no desire to buy 50 rolls of toilet paper at a time. Then, I moved from the big city to a more rural area. There were fewer stores and they were further apart. I began to stock up a little, but still didn't see a need for a three to six month emergency food supply.

No, the day I realized I needed a food stockpile was the day I went to the store after a storm came through. Although our area only had a bit of weather, other areas, including the state our local grocery store's warehouse was in, were hit harder. I went to the store that week and...nothing. No milk. One or two broken cartons of eggs. Huge gaps on the canned good and cereal shelves.

When I saw how fast a store could be depleted, I realized I could not truly depend on being able to walk into a store and buy enough food to feed my family. The only way I know I can feed them is to create an emergency food supply that will last for at least three months.

To set up your food supply, you'll need to:

• Figure out how much food each person in your family will consume in a three month period.
• Find a dry, secure spot to store everything in.
  
• Budget a set amount to spend on food, health care products and other necessities each month.
  
• Gradually add to your supply until you have the three or six months worth of food and necessities that you wanted to store up.
  
• Use the oldest items in your stockpile and replace them on your next trip to the store so nothing gets spoiled.
  

Buying and storing canned tuna fish or jars of pasta sauce is pretty self explanatory, but perishable items like eggs is another story. How do you store items with a short shelf life? The answer is dehydrated and freeze dried foods.

I bought powdered eggs and milk from Honeyville Farms and have sliced bananas from Mountain House on my shopping list. I can gradually add more perishable things to my stockpile so we don't spend a few weeks eating canned tuna for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we have a big storm!