Coming up with that list

I'm considering what to put in my ZA-survival pantry.  Things like cream of tartar are very rarely used in this house, and as I've never been a fan of meringue, I'm not seeing the need to stock it, but cat litter is on the list.  How much cat litter would we go through in a year?

From what I've been reading, taking stock of your own pantry, and your own grocery lists is the first step in this form of preparedness.  I just have to get S.D. to keep track of the things we buy at the store.  I don't think it will be a problem having him put it on an excel spreadsheet, though.  I will have an issue with keeping him from getting us a scanner gun for inventory control.

The biggest goal, outside of stopping eating GMO foods, is to create the means to shop from our pantry and save some money while building our clever foundation.  I think this is doable by simply watching sales and stocking up when they occur, on top of storing the harvest.  

I know that many people with "the pantry" don't have the presence of mind to keep chemicals apart from foodstuffs.  If you are going to keep your pantry stocked, please keep a separate closet for soaps, detergents, cleansers and chemicals.  I include shampoos and conditioners in that mix.  This is a food-service safety thing.  From working in the screen printing business, I would also encourage you to store flammable and explosive things in a room that might be referred to as a "blow off" room.  I'm also hoping you don't have that many explosives and flammable things around, generally, keeping that kind of thing is considered "bad".  I'm betting it would also render an off flavor to stored foods.

Safety first, sanity second.

I'm hoping to learn from my friend, the Queen of Meat, how to really get good bargains on double couponing and working the sales.  Not sure how this might work for foods (as we mostly buy bulk), but would certainly work for toiletries and chemicals.

One thing I will miss when the zombies finally take over is good cheese.  I'm going to have to learn to make good cheese, and figure out how to store it.  Currently though, goats are illegal in the city, so my learning curve (painfully slow) and legislation might just line up right on that one.  We'll see.