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11K views 31 replies 26 participants last post by  bunkerbuster 
#1 ·
Amazingly enough I've searched the forum a dozen times for long term food storage and came up empty. Lot's of convo's about how important it is but no real guides. If I'm missing it please point me in the right direction....

I'm trying to build a "poor mans food stores" and build a foundation for better food at a later date. I have six people to prep for and money is tight. My only goal at this point is to buy enough food to live on for one year as cheaply as possibly while still having some variety. These are things my family of six eat on a regular basis. This is what I have planned so far. Please tell me what you think.

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NOTE: Servings are per person, per day.
ramen noodles - 2 whole pack, going lightly on the seasoning. 730 packs/yr/person
white rice - 1/2 cup. 75 lbs/yr/person
beans (what kinds??) - 1/2 cup. 61 lbs/yr/person
canned pasta with meat (chef boyardee type stuff) - 1/2 can. 183 cans/yr/person
mac and cheese. 1 serving, 1/2 cup. 92 boxes/yr/person

This totals out at 1,450 calories per day and covers nearly everything on the nutrition chart, including calcium.
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My worries are...

1. you're still going to be hungry.
2. 1,450 calories will not be enough for an active lifestyle (gardening, working etc).
3. I'm spending money on less nutritious "junk food" instead of "buckets of wheat".
4. the canned pasta and mac & cheese will only keep for about 1-1.5 years.

What are your thoughts on this? What's your favorite thread on food storage? In case you're wondering a garden will be going in soon and will relieve some of my food stores, but I still believe that having at least a 1yr backup supply on hand will be critical if my garden fails or I have to pack up and head to one of my many BOL and start the garden all over.
 
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#2 ·
I go with a variety of foods. They allow you to build a deep pantry over time that is flexible and adaptable to different situations. Most everything consists of food we eat on a regular basis - although some of it is in bulk packs.

These include:
* Canned goods (tin cans): e.g. Campbells soup, tuna, peaches, baked beans, etc.;
* Frozen foods: primarily vegetables, some meats, home-made chili, etc.;
* Canned goods (mason jars): fresh vegetables, tomato sauce, jams, pickles, etc.;
* Freeze-dried Mountain House-type entre's: lasagna, shrimp & rice, etc. etc.;
* Bulk dried items: rice, pasta, corn meal, etc.;

Some is more portable than others - for example, I can't see leaving home with a lot of the food preserved in mason jars - but tin cans and freeze-dried backpacking foods travel well.

I don't do a lot of MREs because for many years in my life I did a lot of MREs and that was plenty. The commercial stuff works fine for that. But if you like them, go for it.

There are lots of different ideas and others feel differently I'm sure, but the basic idea is to only store what you enjoy eating and put it all together a little at a time.

Best with it.
 
#4 ·
If I needed to start over with LONG TERM prep foods and had a limited budget, I'd go with beginning with cheap calories such as carbos, and hope to supplement it with vitamins and additional food times with shorter shelf life or that can be forraged your areas.

Going for carbos: For example, the pails of hard white wheat, rolled oats, and rice are cheap at Walmart and they're definitely long term storage. Honey in most forms are long term storage capable. #10 cans of dehydrated potatoes are cheap.

Next you'd need proteins and lipids. TVP is a desperation option, which I don't like, but it's better than starving. Freeze dried and dehydrated meats are very expensive in #10 cans, but there's less than long term storage items that can be rotated, like Spam, potted meats, canned chicken hunks, etc. They also come in units that are about what is needed for consumption within a day or meal and correspondingly inexpensive. Something like corned beef in a tin provides lots of proteins and fats.

Read the nutrition labels on canned fruits and veggies. They're not all that valuable based on cost. You're better off getting vitamins and fresh stuff but they also come in #10 cans dehydrated and freeze dried.
 
#11 ·
Actually ramen noddles are not filler. They are quite healthy and I've even read a thread here where one guy lived on them for 3 months just fine. If you check the nutritional info they are pretty good for you....assuming you lay off the seasoning packets. :D: I use about 1/4 of a packet and put about 1/4 more on my rice and beans. That's less than 15% of your daily salt intake.

Good idea on the coupons, I'll have to keep my eye out.
 
#6 ·
The first thing you need is not food... it's education. You did the right thing by starting out asking questions rather than simply starting out buying food. By asking questions, gaining knowledge about how to make your own food preps, how to do it on a tight dime, etc... you are giving yourself exactly what you need... a foundation of knowledge about what you need, what to get, and where to get it at the best prices.

One of the first steps in researching preps is to assess your environment. If TSHTF are you staying home. If not... where are you going to go... and can you get there if travel is difficult.

By assessing your environment you get to decide where you can store food... how much room do you have to store it without it going bad (like attics suck but a large pantry works.) Do you have land where you can grow food? (since you have one garden going in you are already on your way!) If so get seeds. Can you have chikens and rabbits... if so... build the coop now or watch Craigslist for a freebie. Do you have an LDS pantry near you. Can your kids keep opsec and not blab to the neighbors you are storing a year's food? Do you have neighbors in your environment who would be allies... threats... etc

Food planning starts with learning and assessing your home.

When it comes to buying on a budget OldWarrior's link is a priceless lead.

And I commend you for starting with food as your first prep... too many people make it their last.

BTW... for water watch Craigslist... 55 gal food quality containers are listed fot $15 each all the time. Next after that... the LDS canneries have the best prices in my area. They probably will in your area too.
 
#12 ·
One of the first steps in researching preps is to assess your environment. If TSHTF are you staying home. If not... where are you going to go... and can you get there if travel is difficult.

By assessing your environment you get to decide where you can store food... how much room do you have to store it without it going bad (like attics suck but a large pantry works.) Do you have land where you can grow food? (since you have one garden going in you are already on your way!) If so get seeds. Can you have chikens and rabbits... if so... build the coop now or watch Craigslist for a freebie. Do you have an LDS pantry near you. Can your kids keep opsec and not blab to the neighbors you are storing a year's food? Do you have neighbors in your environment who would be allies... threats... etc

BTW... for water watch Craigslist... 55 gal food quality containers are listed fot $15 each all the time. Next after that... the LDS canneries have the best prices in my area. They probably will in your area too.
I've been doing alot of assesing lately. Our land here is small, 3/4 of an acre with less than 1/8 of an acre of plantable land. We live in the country but it's a subdivision so hungry neighbors are still an issue. There is no water, but we get over 53" of rainfall a year on average. No woods, just a few dozen trees in the back yard and no wildlife outside of 2 pigeons and 3 squirrels.

If I have at least 8-12 months of prep finished before things go sour we will bug in. By then I will have a 5,000 gallon water catchment system in place (or a well dug at least), a fairly large heirloom garden going that I can save the seeds out of (and the experience to do it), a nice rabbit cage/worm bed system in place with over 15 rabbits, and part of my lawn converted to pasture for a medium sized chicken tractor.

If TSHTF before then, then we will be bugging out about 5 miles from our house where about 30 other survivor/prepper friends of ours will gather for a new post-teotw type community till things calm down. If that BOL is compromised we have another location about 10 miles from home. I'm also working on locating a third BOL.

Thanks for the ideas, I'm going to keep my eye on craigslist. I need some 55 gallon plastic drums.
 
#7 ·
My worries are...

1. you're still going to be hungry.
2. 1,450 calories will not be enough for an active lifestyle (gardening, working etc).
3. I'm spending money on less nutritious "junk food" instead of "buckets of wheat".
4. the canned pasta and mac & cheese will only keep for about 1-1.5 years
I agree, 1.450 calories are not enough! (2200-3000) is more like it!

Do you have a place to produce food?

If you do, great because you can stretch a food supply a great deal if you can produce and store food as you go.

In your start I would focus on "Dry" goods. They store 100x that wet-food in cans. Then add from there.

Areas to get your base food storage:

-Wheat
-White Rice
-Pasta's, 4-5 varieties
-Sugar
-Salt
-beans 4-5 varities
-lentils

You can store the above for pennies per meal. As example, you can store 50lbs of white rice for $15. That will give you near 400 servings at a 1/3 cup per meal.

Cooking:



Many people stock lot's of food but forget they must cook it. It's a good idea to have as many options as possible to heat and cook meals. Examples of that would be grill's, camp stoves, firepits (wood), solar ovens, thermos cooking etc.
The more options the better. LP cooking (indoors) will become very important especially when you want a very low signature. You don't want to be ringing the dinner bell in your back yard.

Options, options, options...the more the better

Water:


If you do the math on your water usage, you will soon realize you can't store enough to meet your needs unless you have a 100,000 gallon swimming pool with a built in solar filtration system or something like that. You must be able to gather water and purify it. One good option is to buy a large berkey water filter system. There are number of threads about storing "pool shock" in the dry form that is excellent to purify water with. You can store enough (cheaply) that can clean 1000X's of gallons. If there is any skill that you must learn it's this one!

Personal Protection:

If you don't have a gun, then get one. If you can't protect what you have...then you really don't own it! You don't don't to face a group of people wanting to help themselves to what you have, if you have a gun and ammo most will move on to lower hanging fruit. Most won't be interested in a gun fight for a meal...again, this increases your odds.
 
#15 ·
You can store the above for pennies per meal. As example, you can store 50lbs of white rice for $15. That will give you near 400 servings at a 1/3 cup per meal.

Cooking:



Many people stock lot's of food but forget they must cook it. It's a good idea to have as many options as possible to heat and cook meals. Examples of that would be grill's, camp stoves, firepits (wood), solar ovens, thermos cooking etc.
The more options the better. LP cooking (indoors) will become very important especially when you want a very low signature. You don't want to be ringing the dinner bell in your back yard.

Options, options, options...the more the better

Water:


If you do the math on your water usage, you will soon realize you can't store enough to meet your needs unless you have a 100,000 gallon swimming pool with a built in solar filtration system or something like that. You must be able to gather water and purify it. One good option is to buy a large berkey water filter system. There are number of threads about storing "pool shock" in the dry form that is excellent to purify water with. You can store enough (cheaply) that can clean 1000X's of gallons. If there is any skill that you must learn it's this one!
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I wish I could get 50lbs for $15. It's $7 for 10lbs here at the local grocery store and wal-mart. I'm not a sams club member, maybe I should look more into them.

As far as cooking goes my thoughts are a good ole campfire/grill until I can convince my family a wood burning stove in the ktchen will be worth it. Wood is scarce here. I plan to stock up on charcoal and plant a fast growing bamboo. If I want to stay it's nearly my only choice outside of raiding my very unfriendly neighbors woods for fell trees. A shortage of burnable material may be one of my biggest reason for leaving.

For water my only choice if I bug in will be either a well or a rainwater catchment system. At bare minimum we need 10,000 gallons of water a yr, and 18,000 to live comfortably. According to the math I can collect over 60,000 gallons/yr from my roof based on local average rainfall amounts. We have several months where it rains HARD every day, and then several months where it does not rain at all so I need a large tank. Probably the largest I could afford would be 5,000 gallons (about $2,500) but that will put me very close to minimums if I had to go more than three months without a hard rain(it's already been two months this year) so I'm leaning more towards digging a well but that's very costly.

If push comes to shove we will go to our BOL which has a full out river with waterfalls some 5 miles from our house. Hnaging on to our home will be much easier physically and mentally however, so I think it's worth the effort to try to stay. My wife and children would be very upset, it would be the end of the world for them and I think the reality of the situation would sink in at that point.
 
#9 ·
Might sound weird but I'd start with getting a cookbook that deals with cooking with foodstorage. Start making the recipes till you find at least 14 different ones your family likes for breakfast lunch and dinner. After that you know now what your family will eat and you can build a foodstorage program around that.

After you get about 3 months of long term storage going using that menu break out that cookbook again and make a new menu this way you'll have plenty of variety. rinse repeat till your comfortable with your supplies.
 
#13 ·
Just make sure you don't only consider calories, though important if you are not getting nutrients and vitamins you will run into serious health problems as time goes on. Look at third world countries, the number one problem is not enough calories, second is zero nutritional foods. Ramen is great for short term. Rice and beans same thing but much better shelf life. If dehydrated or freeze dried food is not in the budget, then stock up on bulk multivitamins and vitamin C etc. and supplement that way. Even with the Crap we all eat we still get some vitamins and have access to fruit and many veggies our bodies need, you can survive on about anything and you can get calories many places. Surviving is not enough for my family I want to thrive. I may be extreme but I think of the long term 1-3 years of food stores. In that time without vitamins and some basic nutrition me and my family could become afflicted with numerous health problems that could prevent us from doing the day to day work needed to sustain the life of our family. First and foremost my most precious children need to be able to thrive. Sorry to ramble I am in the Preparedness industry so I do this every day. I commend you on your efforts it looks like you are doing great.
 
#16 ·
I'd skip the ramen. It doesn't last long in storage. The fats in the noodles goes rancid. I'd also skip the canned pasta. It's mostly water and starch and not a good value for the money.

I would recommend starting off with the basics. Beans, pastas and grains. Also, dried foods like powdered mashed potatoes. They actually retain most of their nutrition through the processing. Add in canned meats. You get a lot more protein and fats for the money with canned meats. Powdered milk broadens the nutritional profile.

You'll need veggies and fruits to round out the diet nutritionally. I prefer dehydrated because it tends to cost less per serving and is generally better tasting, more nutritious than canned and takes up less space. But if you have a local source of discount canned goods, that's a great way to start also.

Now start to consider what all you can make with those staples. There are cultures around the world that have built entire cuisines around those staples. Start looking through recipes and figuring what add ons such as spices that you will need to turn them into your favorite foods.

I'd suggest a pressure cooker and an insulated pot cozy. Pressure cookers cook beans with a lot less time and fuel. And if you have a highly insulated pot cozy, you can transfer it to that and let the residual heat finish cooking the beans without using any more fuel. That's a handy method for cooking anything that would otherwise need to simmer. Soups, stews, you name it.
 
#17 ·
so many great tips. I hope it helps. I agree; cookbook - definitely. Don't forget about bottled vitamins...yes, they loose some of their potency after a time but rotating stock and keeping at least a six months supply is not a bad idea and that will help when nutient consumption is an issue.

One more thing...don't forget about peanut butter. In long term storage, it does seperate but can be stirred and reconstituted. There is also peanut butter powder sold on several food storage websites. When meat is a luxury, we can still get protein thru legumes and nuts...and these store a great deal easier and cheaper than meat.

Invest in a good book "Dare to Prepare" comes to mind. There are several out there. This one is not that cheap...I think Amazon has it for around $40.00 or so but it's worth it.

Finally, don't go cheap on water filtration. If you have to save money to do it. By this, I mean a portable system. For homestead use, you can build a sand/charcoal filtration thing but if you have to be on the move with your family...water purification will be the most important thing there is.

Don't stress...take little steps....buy mulitples when things are on sale...you'll get there.
 
#19 ·
The best advice I've ever heard? Buy what you like to eat. Choose the dry beans, grains, and canned foods that are your favorites. Include vitamins. Try to eat uncanned items (ramen noodles, mac and cheese, cold cereals, crackers, cookies, chocolate, coffee) before their 'best by' dates; the oils in these foods often go rancid in 6-12 months.
 
#20 ·
I think Jane333 got it. You need to buy what you eat now. When I hear people talking Ramen Noodles I get the chills. When you go shopping buy extra of what you actually eat (that is non perishable foods). Load up on canned goods. If it is just you and your spouse then go for smaller containers/cans. Get small canned hams, chicken, tuna, salmon, corned beef, etc. Get your pasta pouches to supplement the meat. get canned vegetables when they are on sale. Be wary of the discount places where the cans may be out of date or just about out of date. Rotate your stocks.

If you plan to use 5 gallon food grade buckets you need to pack them with a variety of items. Don't just have a bucket full of rice. Make it bag of rice, bag of beans, pasta in packages, Canned or jars of pasta sauce, sugar, salt, powdered milk, canned fruit, and whatever else appeals to you. It has to be something you will actually eat or it is a waste. If you put it on shelves then have the oldest stuff out front to be used first. Rotate food. Eat what you buy. Try something first before you load up on it.
 
#22 ·
Rotate the Mac 'n Cheese They get buggy, fast.

Your serving sizes are small I could not live on that!!

Buckets of rice 'n beans is a good way to go. Augment with other stuff as you go, but get a skeleton first. Buckets are great- they will last forever, wont go bad. You wont eat them, so they are there. Dont need a wheat grinder to make flour. For beans, I like lentils- they cook fast Fuel is important!!
 
#25 ·
I don't like relying any kind of food that has me using my stored water to eat it. e.g. Ramen noodles, mountain house, Kerr rice sides etc. Especially for a BOB.

I try to buy as much canned goods as possible or things that all I need to do is heat and eat.

Sure we have the rice, beans and such, but I don't want to compound my water problem by purchasing top ramen when I could have bought a couple of large cans of Dinty Moore.

That's just my way of doing things.
 
#28 ·
As mentioned by others, Raman is not food. It's flavored cardboard with too much salt!

First, make a list of what meals you plan to eat (research dishes that can be made with shelf stable foods and try them out). Write down the ingredients. Buy that. Do not just go out and buy stuff, you'll end up with nothing that goes together to make an actual meal.

Most of your food storage is going to be medium term storage that you rotate constantly, and only keeps 2- 5 years.

Long term ((5- 30 yrs) is called that because it not only keeps long, but is packaged in a way to help it do that. Medium term isn't packaged as securely so you don't mind breaking into it.
 
#31 ·
At the risk of being repetitive, I second the spreadsheet OldWarrior posted. It's the one I use and is fab. If you know or can teach yourself some excel, you can modify it to add or subtract items. You can change the number of people you are prepping for, and the number of calories per month that they are consuming. It is truly a wonderful tool.
 
#32 ·
A good TEST of your at preparedness is to pretend to lock your front door. Then take stock of what you you have in your home & on your property, to meet your families needs without electricity, natural gas, heating oil, and tap water if you could not go off your property – and/or out in public in winter for 10, 30, 60 or 90 days.

Many folks may THINK they have enough, but when they actually inventory, most often fall far short in any number of critical areas.
 
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