Editor's note: This article was originally published on Live Like You Are Rich. It has been republished here with permission.

Shortly after my husband and I were married, we decided to work on building a food storage supply. We didn't have a lot of extra cash but we did get a Christmas bonus so we used most of the bonus to buy a good supply of staples like wheat, rice, beans, powdered milk, sugar, etc. Then I started buying extra canned and boxed food whenever I saw a great sale at the grocery store. After a while we were able to build up a pretty substantial food storage.

Since we want to rotate our food, I try to buy extra amounts of the things that we normally eat and then use them up in my day-to-day cooking. Every six months, our grocery store does a case lot sale and I stock up on the things I have used again on canned food. I have been doing this for over ten years and I have come to really rely on my food storage.

Here are a few reasons why I believe that having a good food storage is essential, even in non-emergency situations.

1. Some days a trip to the store is not possible

I have three young children and my days are very busy. Often, I am not very good at planning out what I am going to be making for dinner and sometimes I still haven't decided when it comes time to making it. Many late afternoons find me looking in the fridge, trying to figure out what food I have that could make a filling meal for five people. If my fridge looks a little too bare, and my kids are nagging me about when dinner will be ready, it could be a stressful experience.

By this time, amidst helping with homework and piano, I really don't have time to go to the store. So I turn to my food storage. I have a handful of meals that I know I can make from the food I keep in my food storage. This knowledge helps my stress level when there isn't much in the fridge and helps the evening go much more smoothly. We can still get everything done and I don't have to pack up three kids and haul them to the store. It also saves lots of money because if I did have to make that trip with the three kids, I would most likely end up at the pizza place or the sandwich shop instead of the grocery store.

2. Food storage comes in handy when you are missing that one ingredient

As I stated before, I am not great a planning meals beforehand. Sometimes I look online before dinner to find recipes I can use if I have potatoes I need to use up, or broccoli or whatever. I will search for recipes using that ingredient and find something with great reviews I want to try. The only problem is inevitably those recipes will call for something that I normally don't keep on hand.

The other day my newfound recipe called for green chilies. That is not something I would normally have but I was able to go to my food storage room and grab a can of green chilies. Last night I was making pasta salad that called for Italian dressing. I made the whole salad and when I opened the fridge to grab the Italian dressing, it wasn't there! It was there two weeks ago when I made the same recipe, and who knows where it went, but there I was with a whole bowl of pasta salad and no dressing to put on it. My kids were starving and I was so grateful to be able to go to my food storage and grab a package of dry Italian dressing mix. I mixed it up quickly with oil and vinegar - two other things I always keep around - and served up a tasty pasta salad! It was a relief to say the least!

3. Food storage saves you lots of money

Whenever I buy food storage, I always buy it on sale. If you are only paying .49 cents a can for your green beans, you can afford to get a case of it and use it up over the next few months. Then every time you have a need for green beans you can use a can that only cost you .49 cents instead of $1.19. It may seem like a small amount of money but when you multiply that savings by every can or box of food you use, your savings become substantial. Also, whenever you are baking and the recipe calls for milk, you can use powdered milk which costs almost nothing compared to the $4.00 a gallon you pay for regular milk. There are lots of ways having a food storage saves you money.

4. Food storage brings peace of mind

Just as the old saying goes "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark," we never know when disaster may strike. Ten years ago when we started building our food storage, the economy in Las Vegas was one of the best in the country. Housing, tourism, retail sales, and pretty much everything else was booming! Jobs were easy to come by and the pay was good. Then, in 2008, everything changed.

When the recession hit the United Stated, the housing market crashed in Las Vegas and our whole area went into a tailspin. So many people lost their homes to foreclosure, lost their jobs, or were otherwise adversely affected. Although we were not in danger of losing our home, many of our neighbors and even family members lost their homes and all the equity in them. Those were dismal days for the Las Vegas area as well as many other areas of the country.

I remember 2009 as a particularly difficult year for us. My husband is in the construction field and although he didn't lose his job, his work became really slow. He often wouldn't get 40 hours a week when we had been used to getting that plus plenty of overtime. We also happened to have our second baby in the first part of that year which made our expenses higher than usual. It was a real struggle and I am so thankful that we had our food storage to fall back on. It wasn't as if we were starving by any means, but it was the closest I have ever come to feeling like I was living paycheck to paycheck. We really relied on that food storage and used up a ton of it during those difficult days.

Having food storage is very important to me for a lot of reasons, but a big one is just having the peace of mind that if something bad were to happen, my children would not go hungry.

Thankfully we have not needed our food storage for "emergency reasons" but it has been super important for us because it has omitted the need for countless last-minute-trips to the store, it saves us considerable amounts of money, our food storage comes in handy almost daily, and most importantly it gives my husband and I peace of mind.

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