Awesome preparedness tool!

As many of you know, I am the preparedness specialist in our ward. I was maybe not all that surprised when I got called to it, because I have felt the inclination to become more self-reliant for a couple of years now. I have tried really hard to successfully grow a garden, to put money away, and to have food storage. I have to say, that I now love food storage! I love the concept of never running out of anything. A while back, we rearranged our budget so that we could beef up our food storage essentials. We created a spreadsheet that allows us to track what we have, how long it lasts, and then how much we need. I am a super low tech person, so this was not a fancy spreadsheet and I was doing a lot of calculations in my head. Then, I discovered in some of the preparedness websites I like to visit, that there is a tool already created that you can just plug in your info and it will tell you many days worth of food you have based on what you're storing! It's the Food Storage Analyzer on the Emergency Essentials website. I'm probably a food storage nerd, because I was so excited about it. I tried it out, and it is so easy. It calculates your totals based on how many people are in your home and what their ages are, so it's based on correct calorie intakes. It is not just a calculator, because not only does it tell you how much is stored per person, per day, but it also gives you nutrition information on what you already have! It is so cool! I now know that I need to include more foods with Vitamin C, something I never would have known before. The other awesome thing about it is that you can input all the different types of storage you have, and it converts that information for you... for example, I am a pro at having a lot of canned goods from the gorcery store. But a lot of food storage comes in 4 or 5 lb increments, making it hard to know how much of those canned goods you need to equal 1 10# can. But this Analyzer tool makes it so easy! I was so excited every time I clicked "calculate" and the number of days of food I had increased. Everyone should go over there and try it out! It is so enlightening. It totally takes the guesswork out of food storage. I love it!

Also, as a bonus, if you do go over there and try it, you have an opportunity to receive a $10 gift card from Emergency Essentials. Just for trying it out!