Food Storage Items I Wish I Hadn't Bought (And What To Use Instead)

Most of us do not have unlimited resources for building our food storage, and the problem of what to buy is only compounded by the lack of experience and the urge to prepare well.  There are voices everywhere telling you what you need to have, and they also happen to have it available right on their site!  Convenient!

However, what's best for one family isn't necessarily what's best for you.  Even what's best for my family may not work for yours.  I've been at this game a long time, using my long-term storage, feeding my family, wanting to feed them very well and have very good food.  And along the way I've learned a few principles that anyone can apply to their own situation.  The point here is not to tell you what to buy or what not to store.  It's to share some food for thought to consider as you build your food storage.  And hopefully you can learn from our mistakes.

• Don't buy what you don't like or won't use, whatever the reason.
• In 2008 as the specter of an Obama presidency loomed larger, I became a little more stressed, along with many others, and I wanted more food storage.  White wheat was in high demand and sold out in our area.  I settled for red wheat.  We don't like red wheat very much.  In fact, I haven't opened any in years.  White wheat has a milder taste and performs better in baked goods.  We've got several hundred pounds of red wheat, though, and I don't want to throw it out. Ugh.
• We hate canned green beans.  They don't taste good to us now.  They won't taste good to us later.  I'll grow my own and eat fresh, and dream about them the rest of the year.
• Dehydrated refried beans from the Home Storage Center have a short shelf life, like two years.  I tried them a few times.  They never reconstituted well for me.  And I'm picky about my refried beans, so I prefer to use a pressure canner to make my own.
• I hate split peas.  I won't cook with them.  It doesn't matter how healthy they are or that they offer a change of pace.  I will never be grateful for them.  At least I hope not.  So I have a very few, but only because I hate eating them and I hate throwing food away.
• My husband bought several pounds of white chocolate because it was "such a great deal."  I'm not a white chocolate fan, and it didn't get used before going bad, which it did very quickly.  Nasty, nasty stuff.
• I bought mung beans just for sprouting, so we could have bean sprouts for Chinese dishes.  Who am I kidding?  I am never going to get around to sprouting mung beans.  At least I didn't buy a lot.
• Very early on in our food storage adventures, I think we were persuaded to get some fruit drink mix because we were told treated water could taste bad and it would be good to have drink mix to cover the nasty taste.  But after being at this game for many years, we know how to make the water taste just fine.  If you can taste or smell the chlorine or iodine or anything else you probably shouldn't be drinking the water.  If for some reason we want something sweet and fake to drink, I'd rather use the small packets of Kool-Aid and make my own with real sugar.
• I wish I hadn't wasted money on food that is lacking in nutrition.
•  So instead of buying those dried/fried banana chips, I now dry my own banana slices and buy freeze-dried bananas.
• The same goes for those milk alternatives.  Yeah, they may taste better, but that's at the expense of good nutrition.  They just don't have the same vitamin and mineral content of dry milk.  Some aren't even close.
• Along those same lines, I wish I hadn't spent money on food that is too expensive.
• Yes, I truly believed that life would not be worth living without butter, so we bought a couple cases of Red Feather butter from New Zealand.  I've never actually had any of it; I should probably give it a try now that it's been a few years.  
• While I am glad to have dehydrated butter powder, I also wish I hadn't bought so much.  It doesn't make great butter when mixed with water.  It makes pretty darn good butter when mixed with coconut oil.  However, coconut oil alone works very well as a butter substitute, and it's a whole lot cheaper.  
• I wish I hadn't gotten any canned granola.  It was part of a package deal, but it was just filling in the order on the freeze-dried fruits, so I feel like I lost some money there.  I can make my own granola that tastes better (probably) with a longer shelf life for far less money.  
• With the goal of being able to have reconstituted milk that my family would actually drink, I bought a lot of those expensive dry milk powders.  They're about ten years old now, and still taste just fine.  But all it takes is a little sugar and vanilla to make much cheaper milk from the Home Storage Center taste as good as the expensive stuff.  That's a lot of money that can then be spent elsewhere.
• Then there are those things that just don't store well, no matter how we try.
• We really like red licorice here.  Back when I was vacuum sealing all kinds of candy (for research purposes only, of course), I canned some red licorice.  It does not work.  Even for just 2-3 months.  It didn't develop an off taste, but the texture just wasn't right.  Something just goes wonky with them.  Oh, and I'm talking about Red Vines, not Twizzlers.  (The only thing Twizzlers are good for is feeding to chickens, but I suspect that might even be considered animal cruelty.)
• The same goes for marshmallows.  They do not vacuum seal well at all.  Again, the texture just gets all messed up. Fortunately, they aren't too difficult to make.  (Subject of another post, someday.)
• And finally, we come to the stuff that just doesn't have a great shelf life.
• Of all the oils I have ever stored, vegetable oil goes rancid the quickest.  On top of that, the vast majority of soybeans (they're what is used to make vegetable oil) are GMO.  The now-rancid vegetable oil is being saved for oil candles and soap making.  I have never had peanut, olive, or coconut oil become rancid on me, even after a few years of storage.
• I see ramen noodles recommended everywhere for food storage.  They're definitely easy to prepare, but every ramen we've ever stored for more than a year has gone bad on us.  Maybe our problem is that we like upper end ramen, but I would think the cheap noodles would go bad just as quickly.  Since it appears to be the spice packet that has the issues, learning to mix our own spices for ramen noodles may be the better way to go.
• I like to store some cold cereal for breakfast, just as an occasional treat or for a hectic morning.  In our experience, Golden Puffs, Raisin Bran, and Froot Loops just don't work.  And it seems like anything with honey in it doesn't do well, either.  It's best to stick with Rice Krispies, Chex, Corn Flakes, and Frosted Flakes. 

My point here isn't to persuade you to store only what's on my list; it's to spur you to consider your choices carefully.  Most of the voices out there telling you what you need are also benefiting if you purchase from them directly or through their affiliate links.  Don't store what you don't like, even if you might barter it away. (Of course, if it was free and you have the space, then storing food you don't like might work out.)  Don't store food that is too expensive, especially when less expensive and entirely satisfactory options are available. If there are cheaper options you can be happy with, then you have the money you saved to spend on other food. Don't store food that will take too long to prepare or that is lacking in nutrition.  And definitely don't store food that doesn't have a sufficient shelf life.

Learn from the mistakes of others and be better prepared in your own family.

Links to related posts:
Canning Candy
Food Storage for Christmas
Wheat
Oils
Dry Milk
Beans 
TEOTWAWKI Butter Options

 22 june 2019