Suggestions for Building Up a Food Storage

We have lived off our food storage for a while now, and there are several things I would suggest to one who is building up their food storage, even if you don't foresee yourself unemployed anytime soon. (You very rarely get sufficient notice, so it is always a good idea to start early!)

1. Store the things you need to eat the things you like. Make a list of the meals that your family eats, and store all ingredients needed for those meals. Don't forget about things like side dishes and desserts. 
2. Make a menu plan for several meals that you could eat if you only had your food storage to live on. (A couple years ago our Providential Living Specialist suggested planning 19 days of meals, and acquiring all the ingredients needed to make each of those meals 19 times for a one year supply.) Center your meals around inexpensive grain/starches like rice, pasta, or potatoes, add a tasty sauce and vegetables. Meat is more expensive, and not necessary for every meal. Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, waffles, coffee cake, muffins) is a big hit at our house.
3. Make sure your menu plan includes a few fast-and-easy meals as well as a few more elaborate Sunday dinner or holiday type meals.
4. Where you might not have enough freezer/fridge space to store many perishable goods, look into canned or dehydrated items that could be used as substitutes - and incorporate these things into your diet now so you will know how to use them when the time comes that you have to.
5. Make sure you will use the things you have stored. If you have whole wheat, make sure you have a wheat grinder and know how to use it. If you store beans, make sure you have recipes to use the beans and that your family will eat them. (My kids won't eat most beans and so I don't use them much.)
6. Learn to make things from scratch. Usually homemade things cost much less than mixes or prepared meals. 
7. Be sneaky if necessary. If your children don't like the taste of powdered milk, mix it half and half with fresh milk. It will go farther and the taste is disguised.
8. Store lots of extra comfort food items: Chocolate chips, peanut butter & jelly, baking staples, hot chocolate and marshmallows, whatever your family tends to crave when they are feeling stressed. (I really wish ice cream were easier to store...) 
9. Use the oldest stuff you have. There is nothing worse that pulling something out of your food storage to use only to find it rancid or spoiled. Store only what you use and use the oldest stuff first.
10. Make sure you have plenty of the extra things you use when cooking, like foil, plastic wrap, non-stick spray, Ziploc bags, dish soap, cupcake liners, birthday candles, matches, paper towels, etc.
11. Store extra non-food related items that get used up as well - TP, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, diapers, feminine products, makeup, tooth brushes, sunscreen, cleaning products, laundry detergent, etc. Remember to use the oldest of these items as well.
12. Do you have any pets? If so, don't forget to stockpile food and other supplies for them, too.
13. Think of what holidays are coming up and try to get things you will need for them now. It's a great idea to buy things on clearance after the holiday to use for the following year - just don't forget to use it, and then restock for the next year if possible.
14. If possible, buy clothes and shoes a size or two bigger than your children are wearing now so you have something on hand that they can grow into.

We've been using our food storage for so long (2 years now) that while we still have a lot of a few things we originally stored - like wheat and vegetable oil, we have run out of most things and had to replace them. We do go shopping when necessary, because things like fresh produce (think lettuce) can't really be stored. When we do shop, we make a list and only get the things we really need for the next two weeks or so. (I usually try to only go shopping twice a month.) We buy whatever is cheapest, or what will go the farthest. When I'm looking for fresh fruit for the kids' snacks, I often look for the smallest apples, because that's the amount the kids will eat anyway, and I get more snack for the lbs. Some things are just too expensive for me to justify buying them, so we haven't had real orange juice in a really long time.

The LDS Church has a lot more suggestions that can be found here. I am tremendously grateful that the Church leaders have always taught us to have a food storage, and to pay off our debts, so we were in a good position when this started for us. I wish I had known some of the things above before Steven was laid off too; I would have had a lot more chocolate chips stockpiled!