How to build a 3-month food supply

A three-month supply is enough of your normal food to get by for about 90 days without shopping. Because it's food you already eat, nothing goes to waste: you use it and replace it in the course of normal life.

Step 1: Write down a week of meals

List 7 breakfasts, lunches and dinners your household actually eats and that can be made mostly from shelf-stable food: spaghetti with jarred sauce, chili, oatmeal, rice and beans, tuna casserole, soup and crackers, pancakes.

Step 2: Turn it into a shopping list

1. For each meal, write the ingredients and amounts for your household.
2. Add them up for the week.
3. Multiply by 13 for three months.

If chili night uses 2 cans of beans and you have it once a week, that's 26 cans of beans for three months.

Step 3: Buy a little at a time

• Add a few extra items to every grocery trip instead of buying it all at once.
• Stock up when things you use are on sale.
• Start with one week, then two weeks, then a month.

A starter checklist

Keep it fresh

• Put new purchases behind the old ones, and cook from the front.
• Canned fruit and tomatoes are best within 12 to 18 months; most other canned food within 2 to 5 years.
• Check the supply every few months and move anything getting old into this week's meals.