So we've covered first trimester preparation, baby stuff, and non food items. Next comes the tricky part. Pantry items. Again, you'll want to take into consideration your budget, storage space, and your family's needs and habits. This is where your list could vary greatly from mine. The point is that you will want to figure out what non-perishable/staple food items your family uses on a regular basis and how much of a stockpile you want to have on hand.
Now, we like to have some food stockpiled anyway, so it just made sense to add some to it. Like before, I was aiming for an approximate six month stockpile. And like before, on some things I overestimated :) That worked out okay since we like to keep food on hand (our power goes out frequently; three times in the last two weeks, in fact!)
Since I tend to have my babies pretty early (no haters, I did have a 15 day late baby!) I like to have everything done by 38 weeks at the latest. This includes everything previously mentioned, and also my house completely clean and in order. I save the cleaning for last (since with seven kids it's not like it's actually going to stay that way for long.) I also like to take the cleaning kind of slow (seeing as how 9 1/2 babies inside a 5'2" body don't lend themselves to cleaningly quickly, easily, or comfortably) so some of it overlaps with the other stuff, but I'll get to that eventually. Hopefully. (This is taking more work than I anticipated.)
Back to the point. Between 30 and 32 weeks I like to get the non-food items stocked up. Then around 32-34 weeks I like to get the pantry items stocked up. It's not like the timetable is set in stone, it just kind of gets me organized and gives me a general goal to aim for.
First, you will want to go through your cupboards and make a list of all the non-perishable food items you use regularly. Figure out how much you want to have on hand (taking into account that if you prefer tutorrosso crushed tomatos with basil that are typically on the bottom shelf and shoved behind the regular tomatos your husband will probably not have the patience to find them and will come home with regular diced tomatos instead. Not that my husband would ever do anything like that. But still, you should consider it. Ha ha) And make your list accordingly. Do make sure you pay attention to expiration dates if you are aiming long term so that you don't end up with expired pretzels and have an internal dilemma over whether or not it's acceptable to give them to the church pantry since you did eat some and they taste fine. But still. (Don't worry, I didn't give them to the church pantry.)
To give you some ideas, this is what my list with Grace looked like:
*premixed cornbread bags (my husband has celiac and therefore I have to make things with alternative flours. The cornbread we make is a combination of several different things, so I mix all the dry ingredients up and store them in quart ziplocs so when we want cornbread we just grab a bag, add the wet ingredients, and bake. Otherwise, I would never get around to making cornbread. Which he loves. Sorry, that was a long paragraph.)
*premixed chicken pot pie topping bags (re-read above description)
*premixed biscuit mix (same thing. Are you observing a pattern? If you frequently bake things that require multiple dry ingredients, it is super helpful to mix large batches and store them in grab and go bags. I do this regularly, otherwise I would never bake anything. I already said that, sorry.)
*24 jars spaghetti sauce
*48 boxes of gluten free spaghetti (We use two at a time, we eat spaghetti approximately once a week, therefore to have around six months' supply I needed 48.)
*taco shells
*tortilla chips
*taco seasoning mix
*sugar
*salt/pepper
*flour/baking powder/etc.
*baking soda
*6 bottles of ketchup
*24 bags of pretzels
*6 boxes of tea bags
*bacon bits (baked potatos are an easy, quick, and filling meal)
*12 large cans fruit cocktail (its a lot cheaper to buy in #10 cans and I just rinse it really well)
*96 cans of corn (we've since switched to mostly frozen vegetables, so next time I will be stocking up on those instead. We do have an extra freezer which I would highly suggest getting if you are able. We got ours on craigslist. But it's still a good idea to keep canned foods on hand as well in case of power outages.)
*48 cans of peas
*24 cans of carrots
*12 cans petite cut diced tomatos
*12 cans each black, pinto, and kidney beans
*tomato basil soup ingredients
*96 cans baked beans
*chocolate chips
*granola bars
*baking m&ms
*24 containers of peanuts
*icing
*bbq sauce
*various other salad dressings, marinades, etc. that I might use
*popcorn and paper bags (we pop regular popcorn in brown paper bags)
*a ridiculous amount of cereal
*an equally ridiculous amount of oatmeal
*2, 25lb bags of rice
*12 jars peanut butter
*2-3 jars of honey
*we get canned jelly from my grandparents, but you'll want this too if you eat a lot of jelly)
*tamari sauce (gf soy sauce)
*vinegars/cooking wine/etc.
*spices
*garlic
*garlic
*you get the point
This was my basic list. I'm sure I thought of other things while I was at the store. Costco was great for quite a few of these things. I also use Amazon quite a bit for some of this stuff.
Up next, stocking the freezer...
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