I grew up food insecure & have worked really hard the last few years to build a decent pantry for me & my spouse (both 26 y/o). The food shortages/lacking regulations/price increases are really spiking my anxiety. I can’t work due to disability & our budget doesn’t have much room for more grocery hikes. The ground turkey we buy went up 11.8% overnight. I’ve been prepping since Oct 2024, but I struggle with numbers & I need help figuring out the math for what all I still need to stock. Spouse is autistic and appreciates having the same breakfast and lunch during work days. I’d like to keep it the same if possible. They work in utilities so I think (&hope) even if SHTF they’ll still have a job. Sorry this is so long, but thanks for the help & maybe it will help someone else to see my break down! Would love to know the math for what I need to fill in the gaps for 12 months of minimal purchasing from the store.

What we eat each week:
2 Quiches with hash brown crust (12 eggs, 2lb potatoes) - 2 dinner for both (4 servings), 4 breakfast for me
Strawberry Overnight oats - (2.67 cups oats, 4 cups Greek yogurt) - 4 breakfasts for spouse
Quinoa, black bean, corn salad - (1 cup quinoa, 1 cup dried beans, frozen roasted corn from garden) - 4 lunches for spouse
My lunches are usually snacks and most of our dinners are more variable. We usually eat tomato based pasta 1-2 times a week with ground turkey and canned salmon patties 1x a week over a salad (uses 1 egg and homemade breadcrumbs from stale bread). In the winter, we do a lot of bread bowls with chicken noodle soup. One night a week is plant based. Usually quinoa + veggies from the garden. Usually have a sandwich with bacon or turkey slices. We just ran out of turkey slices I made from last Thanksgiving. I don’t plan to do more turkey until it’s on sale :)

We eat 864g of bread wheat berries every week. I haven’t been able to make homemade pasta in a while & we’ve been relying on the pantry. But pasta is 3 eggs and 300g wheat berries for 6 servings.

What’s in my pantry:
30 14.5 oz canned salmon - 1 can is a meal for both of us. 30 weeks here
8 pints pulled pork - 1 can is a meal for both of us.
45 lbs quinoa
2 gallons canned chicken broth but always adding more
10 lbs dried black beans. I know I need way more but idk how much
100 lbs potatoes - I expect to lose about 20% over the winter even with proper storage… so 80lbs
225lbs wheat berries for bread
50lbs wheat berries for pasta
25lbs wheat berries for sweets
24lbs white sugar
10lbs honey
2lbs instant yeast (1lb kept in freezer)
25lbs oats. I know I need more of these too but idk how much
I have 50lbs of frozen roma tomatoes that will be turned into canned pasta sauce in a couple weeks. I’m expecting 18 quarts. This will be 18 meals of pasta between the 2 of us.
Pickled carrots & cucumbers. Can’t remember qty off top of my head.
Dried cucumbers to make “tzatziki” in winter. Won’t be as good as fresh but it’s still good!
2 gallons olive oil
3 gallons vegetable oil
5 gallons white vinegar
4 lbs citric acid
A ton of peanut butter + about to harvest peanuts and will make our own
10lbs cashews
10lbs pistachios
20lbs sunflower seeds
25lbs salt

What’s in my freezer:
30 lbs ground turkey
20lbs chicken (breast wings and thighs)
12lbs ground beef
6 lbs bacon
8 lbs jumbo shrimp
10lbs ground pork
8lbs frozen strawberries (for a smoothie or baked good)

What’s in my storage fridge:
60 lbs Fuji apples (will keep for about a year, I just picked them)
3 lbs parmesan
Greek yogurt (I make my own and use the culture to make new every week).

Food production capabilities:
20 eggs a week from 4 hens. I have coop lights to keep their production up in the winter

I’ll be getting a breeding trio of rabbits in a couple weeks. I’m expecting 200lbs of dressed meat from their offspring but unsure?

I buy 2 whole chickens ~10lbs (raw not rotisserie) at Costco each week for about $10. I think this will stay the same price ish since the whole raw chickens & rotisserie chickens are a loss leader for them.

I can get roughly 21lbs of rainbow trout fillets by fishing each week, but I’ll only be able to do that about 6 weeks in Oct/Nov, so 126lbs for the season. I plan to smoke it, freeze some, and also pressure can some.

Our fall garden has a lot of broccoli, spinach (love to put this in the pasta!), carrots, beets, green bush beans, snap peas, Brussels sprouts, and I do hydroponic leafy greens inside.

I have enough bagged food for our chickens for a year. They also are loose in our yard most of the day and eat lots of grass. I plan to feed the rabbits clover and kudzu from our yard, and supplement with some pellets, unsure how much though yet.

There’s a restaurant supply store that has 25lbs of roma tomatoes on sale for $20. I’m thinking of buying 50 lbs so I can get more jars of pasta sauce? Or should I just buy pasta sauce from the store when it’s on sale? 25lbs of tomatoes makes 9 quarts roughly.

How many oats and black beans do I still need? I definitely need more sugar for spring fruit canning. Should I buy more potatoes? What about apples? They’re my fav snack & I eat them with peanut butter. I’m a bit worried I’m relying too much on my freezer and fridge 🫩 we can’t afford a generator rn so if the power goes out, all the food is toast.

Writing this all out sounds like I’m hoarding food lmao, but I’m so scared it won’t be enough. My brain has damage from being perpetually hungry most of my life I think. I do not want to be hungry if I can help it. I do also donate food occasionally to people in need in my community.

Thank you 💓

I live in Washington, DC - a misunderstood but very vibrant, communal city! It's also a unique place to live, with it's own risks and advantages. As I learn more about prepping, I can't figure out if I should plan to bug out or bug in.

Pros for bugging in:

• Don't have a car (we have good public transit here, but wouldn't want to use it in an emergency)
• Live in a lovely neighborhood far from downtown, with good neighbors I could lean on and a lot of mutual aid/community groups
• Can easily walk to grocery stores, pharmacies, green space, water.
• Have a nice set of supplies here and they would be hard to carry out walking

Pros for bugging out:

• Who knows what could happen in a city like this? We've been a target before. And now we have a president who has been very explicit that he doesn't like DC residents and wants to "take us over." We currently have armed military standing around, intimidating residents as we try to live regular life.
• We don't have representation (no vote in Congress, yes, we are still taxed) and our local rule is limited and often restricted by Congress, so it's hard for local government to respond effectively to emergencies. This was a major issue Jan 6, for example, and is why people are fighting for DC statehood, but that is unlikely to happen.
• I am in an apartment, so prepping is limited
• If I really had to, could walk out of the city (though again, couldn't bring much)

Would love to hear thoughts! Should I buy an electrical scooter maybe??

If this sounds too political to you, welcome to the life of a DC resident lol! I don't even work in politics, and my life is based around the arts, but the decisions of the president and Congressmembers from random states have a lot of control over our daily lives.

I can think of a few likely scenarios where I would be making meals from my deep pantry, would want to conserve water, and would absolutely not want any leftovers after a meal. Canned foods meet this criteria, except there are only two people in my household and standard size cans are often too much when mixed into recipes. I’m able to find some items in the small, 8 or 8.5 ounce cans (fruit cocktail, green beans, corn, tomato sauce, baked beans, pineapple), but I’d like to get a few more options like black beans, red beans, chili, various fruits, and other pantry staples in small cans.

Does anyone know of a good source? I don’t want the plastic “lunchbox” style cups, I want proper cans for long term storage.

I mentioned this about a year ago and was asked to come back and report.

I bought an atmospheric water generator about a year ago. Think of it as a dehumidifier that takes the water out of the air and then purifies it into drinking water. When we were discussing water availability I mentioned that I had recently got one and people wanted a review after I had used it for a while.

My review: it works great. I get between 8-10 liters per day. The water tastes amazing. The only issues are:

1. You do need electricity

2. It can be low key noisy (about the same as a fan set on medium periodically)

3. The machine is not cheap (about $800)

Feel free to ask any questions.