7 Creative Ways to Build a 3 Month Food Supply

The provident lifestyle includes living within our means, working hard, being content with what we have, diligently saving and preparing for rainy-day emergencies. We have found great joy and peace as have chosen to live providently.

One important aspect of living providently is to have a pantry filled with nutritious foods that will sustain your family without disrupting your normal diet for at least 3 months. We often hear the question: Why should I stock food in my home when the grocery store is right around the corner? We have learned that food storage:

Saves time and money
Buffers against personal financial crisis
Provides hunger insurance
Reduces stress
Prepares for emergencies

If you are worried about just where you are going to put it, you will find great ideas at

Other articles by The Provident Prepper on food storage that might interest you include:

Thanks for being part of the solution!

[SN-blxm]

I have a tiny 1 bedroom apartment and my food and water is just stocked everywhere in my unit. Tomorrow I will transform my bedroom walk-in closet to a pantry. I ordered some shelves which I will build together tomorrow.
Good luck to everyone and stay safe!

[Alan]

I'm guessing 2020 is the year of the prepper and the year that the worldwide population of preppers doubled. Brilliant video guys, informative without being alarmist. :)

[christiana_mandalynn]

Such helpful information! When my husband and I were first married and dirt poor, we just bought extra pasta noodles and jars of pasta sauce for our storage . As we expanded, we just bought a few extra cans of food during sales and extra of whatever we usually eat. I always felt a little defeated because it wasn’t “real, dried, emergency food”.

Then we began having kids, and one of them is an EXTREMELY picky eater. Having a pantry x 2 (double of everything) has turned out to be a huge blessing. We lived off our food storage for several months when my husband lost his job, and we used our money to buy fresh things. I learned how to make my own bread with flour from our emergency bins instead of buying bread.

Also, having a deep freezer has allowed us to stock up on healthy frozen vegetables, fruits, and meats from Costco, this dramatically reducing our food budget each month because we have food stocked in the freezer. We just rotate what we need to buy and eat! Obviously this is not a power outage solution but having a deep freezer is tremendously helpful for meal planning and budgeting because you can buy in bulk (like at Costco and Sams club) and rotate. If we feel in the mood for milk shakes or smoothies, we don’t need to drive anywhere— we have vanilla ice cream and frozen fruit in the deep freezer!

I love the concept of buying and storing what you already eat. We truly are creatures of habit and during a disaster, we need something familiar, especially kids.
I need to start practicing cooking without power next.

[JM.]

I've looked at dozens of emergency preparedness channels, and yours is by far the best researched and most informative.

[traclynnhinton]

I have been prepping for 12 years. First off store what you eat, eat what you store. We eat out of our preps everyday. I don't use my freezer all that much. When power goes you loose it all. Canning, dehydrating, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers are your Best bets. I highly recommend even if you're not Mormon to go to the Mormon cannery in your state. Years ago when I started prepping they really helped me. Once you get your water and 3 months of food set up. Then you can start on other things like medical, personal hygiene and other things.

[SaintBernardPuppies]

I like Betty's idea.
Its crazy when you go to make dinner and the incredibles have been eaten. Then the store and that can wreck a day.
Smart Betty!!!

[susieawalt]

I was put to the test recently. We had a bad storm and lost power for 8 days. Out came our preps, candles, oil lamps, batteries, camp stove etc. The real task was to can the meat/food in the freezer. I canned for days to keep from losing it. Thank goodness I had enough canning supplies on hand.

[dmckean]

I absolutely love Betty's box a week plan. Looks like it would work wonderfully.

[HuplesCat]

There's a lot of American Government workers who really needed to follow this advice before the shut down. You never know and 3 months is both easy and smart to gather

[cerveza]

I like your channel. I can tell you are involved in a faith community because you are joyful and confident. You are so blessed to have each other and we are blessed by your hopeful message. Ty

[AnnBearForFreedom]

Re-visiting these videos as a "refresher course" in mid-February 2020--- having food put up looks like it will be critical this year and particularly this coming fall and winter. The trick nowadays is keeping medical supplies stocked and current. How bad will it get? Who knows...? But I will be as ready as I can be, Father willing.

[heartofdixieprepping]

I can not tell you how many times our prepper pantry has saved us!!! It's so wonderful to have piece of mind that it's there. Of course you know. I only started about a year ago. We ran out of milk and my granddaughter said she'd just grab a shelf stable carton. Lol the kids feel safe knowing I've prepared for them. She drinks lactose free and thankfully I had it stocked. Lately I've reached into our pantry for items. Such a good feeling to have it. When I go to shop only preps I come home all excited 😂
Thanks for making theses helpful videos.

[lindafiske]

And do not forget to stock up on manual can/bottle openers.

[shirleymorgan]

Thank you for all the great information, I’m so glad this video popped up. Great idea for putting your meals in a box I never thought of that. Thank you for sharing.

[atdepaulis]

Oh my gosh!! That box of the week thing is GENIUS!!! 😱

[bonniesplace]

It’s hard to get started. What I did was sat down and chose 3 breakfast 3 lunch and 3 dinners. Then I stocked up on those items. That was my start. Then I expanded that plan. When I felt comfortable with that phase I started on other stuff. Like jars for canning and spices and salt. Then you just keep adding

[MikeLuong]

Thank you for the tips and strategy and educating others on how to be prepared to take care of their family. Like. you, when we had triplets in the NICU for over a month, having a stocked food store was essential for us and our lack of time for every day errands. Take care and thank you for helping spread the knowledge.

[bernadine]

You are the first Vlog that really gave me organization to my prepping plan! Thank you. I have tons of food but not organized into a meal plan. I am going to do that now. Thanks again!

[valerieannrumpf]

Me and my brothers always joke about the fact that my parents always had (and still have) a grocery store in the basement, but it got all of us into the habit of always making sure our pantries are always full so that we always have the items we need on hand.

[allyroo]

I have been watching your channel for a while, but apparently watching out of chronological order. I had no idea how many children you have. I now understand why your long term storage is so large. I felt I was doing something wrong as I don't have that much. I understand now. LOL. I enjoyed your 90 day no shop channel. we are closing out NO SPEND NOVEMBER... it's not so easy! Thanks for all you do!