Prepping Made Simple: Rotary Pantry Tutorial with Free Calculator

Lately, I’ve heard a lot of concern about what might happen when EBT and SNAP benefits are paused due to the ongoing government shutdown. When tensions rise in public spaces, one of the safest places you can be is home. Remember the chaos over toilet paper and hand sanitizer during COVID? Or the frenzy of buying bottled water during power outages and storms?

A little preparation now can save you from joining that chaos later — when people are stressed, hungry, and desperate.

A Simple Tool for Smart Preparation

A few years ago, I built a simple tool to track the supplies we keep on hand and estimate how long we could shelter in place. It’s not fancy or perfect — but it works. I’m sharing that tool along with a short video showing how to use it. You can and should modify it for your own needs.

Here's the Tool: Shelter In Place Supplies (PS: please read/watch the tutorial)

And here's a quick video tutorial on how to use it: Video Tutorial

As you set it up, imagine a scenario without electrical power or running water. Cooking options become limited, washing dishes becomes difficult, and refrigerated food spoils quickly. Planning for those conditions helps you think more realistically about what you’d actually use.

Eat What You Store, Store What You Eat

This system works best when you eat the food you stock. I have a few buckets of freeze-dried rations with a 20-year shelf life, but I’m not excited for the day I have to eat decade-old reconstituted beef stroganoff with the nutritional value of a popsicle stick.

It’s far more practical to follow the old adage: stock what you eat, and eat what you stock. This approach—often called the rotary pantry method—means you’re always eating fresh food that you already enjoy. When the lights go out and the tap stops running, there’s comfort in knowing you actually like the meals you’ll be having.

How to Build Your List

If you’re unsure what food to store, try this simple exercise: for the next 2–4 weeks, write down every ingredient you use when cooking at home, along with the amount. If you use the same ingredient again, just add a tally mark next to it.

At the end of this period, you’ll have a list of foods you use regularly. This doesn’t have to be an exhaustive inventory of everything edible in your house — just focus on the core components of meals or items that get used in a variety of dishes. I personally leave off most refrigerated items because they expire quickly and rotate seasonally, so they can’t be depended on for long-term storage.

Keep It Simple, Stay Consistent

I hope you use this tool regularly to check in on your supplies and track your preparedness goals.

Pro Tip: buy your stocked items in the same size every time you restock. It’s far easier to audit your preps when you can simply enter “12 cans” instead of calculating total ounces of beans in your pantry. The easier it is, the more likely you’ll keep up with it—and the more prepared you’ll stay.

With the federal government announcing a pause to EBT/SNAP benefits this week and potential conflicts at grocery stores because of it, I took 15 minutes to type everything into this calculator while my wife called items out from the pantry. That short exercise showed us exactly where our supplies had decreased, and another five minutes gave us a grocery list to bring us back up to 60 days of food and essentials.

"Sometimes, peace of mind is just a spreadsheet away." - Me, lol