Emergency Prep/Food Storage

Krysta's post reminded me of a few things regarding emergency prep. In fact, it reminded me that I had an empty 6 gallon water container I purchased 2 years ago and never filled....so I went and filled it! Now I'm 6 gallons more prepared. Here are my thoughts...and I've thought about this lots.
1. Before thinking about FOOD STORAGE, think WATER STORAGE. All the food in our pantries will do us no good if we are dehydrated or have no water to use for cooking. Here's the link to the church's Providentliving.org page about water storage. http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7534-1-4065-1,00.html
Consider using Juicy Juice or pop bottles, or if you have the space, there are big drums that hold tons of water available.
2. For those overwhelmed with rotating through a year's supply of wheat...I've heard of people buying a supply of wheat (and other things with a really long shelf life), and keeping it as their long term storage without rotating it. If it's sealed, it will last a long time.
3. I had a good friend tackle a one year's storage in an interesting way. She chose 9 meals that her family enjoys that could be made completely from pantry items (ex. spaghetti, green beans). She purchased a months worth of each meal (ex. 30 boxes of noodles, 30 jars spaghetti sauce, 30 cans beans), which equaled 9 months of food. For the other 3 months, she stored the basics like wheat, beans, and dry milk. Think about purchasing even a weeks worth of your favorite pantry meals.
4. Break it up into manageable steps. Buy a few things every trip to the store, like Krysta suggested. Focus on a weeks supply, then a month, then 3 months and so on.
5. Start NOW with SOMETHING, even if it's just a package of bottled water. Good luck!