For tracking consumption this first month, your digital camera could come in handy and prove telling. On Day 1, and the last day, take photos of:

Your open fridge and freezer.

Open cupboards/pantry.

Cooking oil bottle(s), jam, peanut butter, other basics (hygiene products).

-- you might also mark the start and ending levels on the bottles with a sharpie

TP supply


A picture is worth a thousand words.

This is an interesting project. Most of us aren't really aware of our rate of consumption (which makes it impossible to accurately plan for long-term sufficiency).

It was only this summer-fall that I actually tracked my dog's consumption of her food. With surprising result. A bag of her food lasted a lot longer than I had guessed it would.

Dagny, brilliant.

Wonderful idea using a sharpie, now that I've learned something useful I'm going to go mark my oil.

I really like the tracking idea.

I think it will help save a good amount of money knowing what you will run out of and possibly getting it on sale etc.

For my list, I went through in my head everything in our house and how often we replace the consumables. I left out alcoholic beverages since that is such a big variable. My focus waned towards the end so I know I missed a lot, but for what I do have, the quantities are about right based on our history. Bear in mind I have to accomodate two grown daughters on occasion, so there's a bit of distortion in my estimate. However, I think that provides a decent buffer. You could replace a fair amount of my larder with ready made meals, like frozen dinners, shelf stable meals and such, but since I like to cook and can probably save a buck or two doing it myself and have a higher quality end product, I figure it's a wash. My list discounted forage and cultivation, so if you are going to garden, hunt, fish, or pick wild edibles, then that would relieve the burden of having to stock all your food up front, but the amounts should remain about the same either way, just the source would differ. For instance, I can pay someone $30 a gallon for huckleberries, or I can go pick them myself and if my time is worth $60 based on what I make at work, then the cost for the huckleberries would theoretically double, as it takes me about an hour to pick a gallon on average.

I also didn't bother to estimate hardware and maintenance consumables as I have accumulated so much of it I seldom have to buy any. Cans full of nails, screws, bolts, nuts, and various assorted items have filled half my garage over the past decade. This is a carry-over from the hoarding my grandparents did and taught me based on their life living through harder times.

We will be seeing how long it lasts for 'around the house' duties.

For my wife driving to work, etc it won't be counted because in the case of staying home we would not be driving 1hr down the mountain. We would be driving around the neighborhood, probably in something that gets great gas mileage and has a trailer IE: 4x4 ATV.

Great info thanks!

Yeah, we have tons of hardware too from projects.. seems I always need something I don't have or more likely can't find HAHA

Todd,

There are a number of on-line calculators that may help you with overall planning. Most of them take number of adults/children and then plan based on a basic number of calories per day per individual. Just do a search on food storage calculators and you will probably bring up several of them.

Non food items will be more difficult to plan without any real data on consumption I imagine. Plus everyone is different of course, I know looking at Ben's list that we would blow through a few of his items in no time (like olive oil), but others might last us 5 years.

Interesting concept though, I look forward to learning from your experiences.

Greg

Appologies if it's already been discussed, I didn't see it. What about electrical power or fuel? Are you already independent in that area? In addition to the obvious of cooking and heating, power/fuel makes cleaning people, clothes, and dishes a lot easier.

We have a generator (2 actually), I want to get a propane conversion, and within a year add a 3rd, the Honda EU2000i.

We can run our entire house minus the dryer on an EU2000i, and our well can run on one of the other generators. Fuel is the biggest issue for generators thus the desire to get propane conversion. In a long-term emergency the fridge would probably be fazed out, and power would be used for essentials only and it would last a very long time.

We have 250g propane tank and use it only for cooking and hot water (on-demand system), so it will last 2-3 years full. It's been almost a year since it was filled and I think it may have gone down 15%. We also have 2 33g tanks, and 2 13g tanks as well as a couple 5g tanks.

Our hot water heater can run on any generator, or even a battery backup.

In the end, our home is setup in such a way that electricity is ultimately a luxury. It's used for cloth drying, washing, lighting, and other luxury items like a microwave, toaster oven and fridge/freezer (combo). Ultimately the ONLY thing we need power for is to get water from our well, and I have the wire, adapters, plugs, etc, so that we can do this with our generator.

We plan to add a 2600g water tank and another pressure tank within a year too so our water supply will be much larger w/out the need to run the well itself... the pressurizing pump will not be 220v, and the tiny generator could then run it. 2600g + 80g + water in the lines would last the 2 of us a very long time, especially if we were conserving it.
This also doesn't count the water we have in 5g containers or the fact that we live near a stream, and a river a little walk away.

Thanks for the comment

Ultimately we'd love to go solar but since our electric bill never really tops $60 a month it's just not cost affective right now, and in itself a luxury. To maintain our exact lifestyle in an emergency it would be essential but we can survive w/out electricity a lot easier than most. (No real need for AC in summer, and wood stove for heat.)

This may be a moot or fickle point and not so much for just yourself but also others that are planning.. If your working from home there would be less temptation. However, if you are going to work somewhere where do (and to each their own) vending machines at work, coworkers putting together a take out list of fast food to be brought back for lunch, tobaccoo, coffee/soda figure in? Not a biggie in a week scenario, but a year would be a stretch for some.

(I do work from home.)

And the idea of the experiment is more of home consumption and if we HAD to stay home a year... so eating out will be counted as food, but not against a supply at home. Yeah, the experiment is not perfect and is not fully planned out yet but I think the general idea is solid although thats why I made the thread, to get ideas hehe


Thanks for the contribution T_Co!