Someone put out a toilet paper countdown calculator this week; it’s pretty useless because it doesn’t account for brand. But it made me think of a food countdown calculator, and anyone who has a real fear of running out of food or wants to know how long they could last with just the food in the house can actually quantify that.

A lot of moms did a Pantry Challenge in January. Hopefully if you did any sort of pantry challenge, you just made sure to cook with old/surplus stock, and did not actually use up all the food in your house. If you did clear out most of your food stores trying to save money on groceries in Pantry Challenge January or No-Spend February, you might have had to make a panic-induced grocery run a couple weeks ago when the government started shutting down life as we know it.

In normal times I keep a fairly stocked pantry and freezer and I’m a great and creative cook, if I do say so myself. At the moment I estimate I could feed my family of four—two parents and two teens, all very active—for at least four months without going to the store. I decided to quantify a portion of my food storage, and you might consider doing that while you’re stuck at home—as a side project while you’re organizing the pantry, or simply for peace of mind.

How long can I avoid the grocery store?

Step 1: Inventory every food item you have in your pantry, fridge, and freezer.

Step 2: Look up calorie content for each food. You can use the label on the package, or Google it, or enter it into a calorie counter like My Fitness Pal, which will also track macros for protein, fat, and carbs.

Step 3: Figure out Basal Metabolic Rate for each family member and add that list up.

Those are the calories your family needs every day to stay at exactly the weight they are now. If anyone in the family needs to go on a diet, now’s the time—figure Basal Metabolic Rate, then calculate how many fewer calories you need to lose weight. There are 3500 calories per pound of fat, so if you want to lose 5 pounds in a month, reduce your calories by about 600 calories per day.

These are Basal Metabolic Rate calories needed per day for my family. Just Google any BMR calculator; I tried three and they all gave close to the same results. I chose the calorie needs with daily/moderate exercise because we’re using all this extra time at home to work on the yard.

Me: 1997 calories (1480 with weight goal to lose 10 lbs in 2 months)
Husband: 3028 calories (2103 with weight goal to lose 20 lbs in 2 months)
Teen son: 2935
Teen daughter: 2376

So our family’s calorie needs are:
10336 as is, or 8894 if my husband and I want to lose a bit of weight.

I calculated half a shelf in my small pantry:
5 lbs red potatoes = 1700 calories
5 lbs pasta = 8,000 calories
3 lbs lentils = 4,200 calories
2 lbs dry beans = 2,600 calories
1 lb pearl barley = 1,600 calories
3 lbs white rice = 4,800 calories
2 liters olive oil = 16,000 calories
Total: 38,900 calories

The calories on that shelf alone could feed us for four days. Of course that shelf is stocked with items that are calorie-dense—if I measured the shelf that holds Pop-tarts and chips, that shelf might hold more or fewer calories, and if I get bored enough during this lockdown I might add up the calories on more pantry shelves just to amuse myself.

I am an extremely nerdy cook. I know exactly how much meat, fat, vegetables, and spices/condiments I use in each recipe I make because I weigh everything and take extensive notes. I’ve done this for years so I have a good feel for how much food is in my house.

Here are the green (normal), yellow (makeshift), and red (gross) levels I figured out for how long I believe we can last without having to go to the grocery store:

• If we continued to eat as we normally do, that is, if I make family favorites 90% of the time and we don’t waste any food, I estimate we could eat very well for at least two months,
• then I could make some interesting make-do meals for another month,
• and then we could scrounge around eating the stale pretzels without salt I bought by mistake and the candy nobody liked from Halloween and that half bag of weird rice pasta I can’t bear to use yet refuse to throw away, and the four jars of huckleberry jam my in-laws gave us, to last one more month.

Eat what you’ve got. Don’t freak out. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!

 I don’t do sponsored posts so All Day Mom runs on affiliate links. If you’re shopping Amazon today please consider starting your shopping from one of the links below, your price stays the same! Thank you!

Check here to see if toilet paper is in stock on Amazon:

• Scott toilet paper on Amazon (My favorite, because it lasts the longest, is Scott 1000, currently in stock with Amazon Fresh.)
• Fancy toilet paper on Amazon (Charmin, Cottonelle, Quilted Northern)
• If you’re not a Prime member go here to get Prime free for 30 days while you’re stuck at home.

Read all posts in this series: Advice from a frugal mom during coronavirus

Related: When Should Kids Wash Their Hands? 10 Handwashing Tips for Kids in the Kitchen!

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