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18K views 77 replies 53 participants last post by  moreair 
#1 ·
Costco has a deal on 30 day's of food, (or 4 people for a week) in a pail ready to go or store neatly.
330 Servings, Up to 15 Year Shelf Life. under 100 Federal Reserve Fiat Notes INCLUDING SHIPPING to the 1st 48 states. Please, compare prices AND serving servings... This is 11 servings a day... IF your not a Costco member, there is a 5% surcharge, BUT you can still order and get this.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11649759


When it comes to Food Storage, Chef's Banquet has set a new standard for quality and taste. You won't believe food storage can taste this good. All of the meals have been developed with the finest quality ingredients possible. The ARK (All-purpose Readiness Kit) is great for long term storage or for daily meals. With a full 2100 calories per day for one adult for 30 days, the ARK can be your stand alone food storage solution. Each of the meals takes less than 20 minutes to prepare (just add water).

Delicious just-add-water meals
Easy to Open zip-seal mylar foil pouches
Oxygen absorber in every pouch
Easily Transportable
6 gallon weather proof bucket
Shelf Life - Up to 15 years - if stored in a dry, cool environment
No High Fructose Corn-Syrup
No MSG

Each ARK contains the following:

330 Total Servings
2,100 calories/day for 30 days
Oatmeal - 60 Servings
Hearty Potato Soup - 60 Servings
Chicken Vegetable Stew - 30 Servings
Mixed Vegetables - 30 Servings
Instant Potatoes - 60 Servings
Macaroni & Cheese - 30 Servings
Beef Flavored Vegetable Stew - 30 Servings
Cheddar Broccoli Rice - 30 Servings

Mod's, sorry if this is ion the wrong section. I have no interest in upsetting anyone and make nothing on this.
 
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#2 ·
If you want to eat the same thing day after day, this is probably not a bad deal. But if you want variety....

Price, for those wondering, is $99.99, as that wasn't noted in the original post.
 
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#8 ·
last time i was at aldi's a box of mc & cheese $.39 which is at least 2 serveings (15 x.39 =$5.85),each of the stews they got for $1.50 per can and that has 2 serveing in each can (90 cans x$1.50 = $135 ), i dont think 60 serveings of oatmeal and the 60 serveings of instant potatoes is going to come close to costing $20. $100 isnt bad IF you will eat everything thats in it. and you got enough water stored


if you keep canned food dry and cool (below 60 but not freezeing) it will keep good for just as long.

side note: most times you will eat more than what they say is a serveing so they may say its a 30 day supply most times its actually more like a 15-20 day supply of food.i wouldnt expect it to last 30 days
 
#11 ·
last time i was at aldi's a box of mc & cheese $.39 which is at least 2 serveings (15 x.39 =$5.85),each of the stews they got for $1.50 per can and that has 2 serveing in each can (90 cans x$1.50 = $135 ), i dont think 60 serveings of oatmeal and the 60 serveings of instant potatoes isnt going to come close to costing $20. $100 isnt bad IF you will eat everything thats in it. and you got enough water stored


if you keep canned food dry and cool (below 60 but not freezeing) it will keep good for just as long.

side note: most times you will eat more than what they say is a serveing so they may say its a 30 day supply most times its actually more like a 15-20 day supply of food.i wouldnt expect it to last 30 days
For $100 bucks you could also buy 50lb of rice (~$15), 20lb of oats (~$15), 20lb of beans (~$15), 10lb of pasta (~$15), 6lb of honey (~$13), 3lb of salt(~$3) and use the rest for 5-6 five gallon buckets along and mylar bags/o2 absorbers.

You'd have a lot more than 30 days of food there.

Supplement that with canned soups, veggies, chili, etc over time and you'd be better prepared than with the pre-packed stuff from costco, imho.
 
#13 ·
I don't care for foods like that, but I have taken my time to research and learn. Plus I have a lot of space; to those who are just getting started or want to put something at a bug out location or who don't have time, money or the urge to learn...it's better than them showing up at your house hungry and it might start someone on the path to prepping.
 
#14 ·
I've been looking at these types of options for long term storage at our BOL (meaning, not in rotation, etc). I've seen lots of people saying that you can keep oats, honey, sugar, flour, rice, etc in vacuum sealed buckets or bags that will last the same amount of time. Now, I'm new to this, and please don't think I'm stupid...I'm learning. But...how does the honey not get hard and turn into a rock like substence, how does the sugar not get hard, etc?
 
#15 ·
OK kids, lets not fight. After all, we are all here to learn and to share our "positive" thoughts. For some, taking the time to buy bags of oats, corn, grains, rice and the such might just work. They might like the taste of all those items. Then there are those that would prefer going the packaged route. As for me, I actually go both ways (NO, not that way you perv's) and purchase some per-packaged meals, canned goods, and dry goods.

Just as long as we are willing to listen, share, and prepare, it's all good.

Praise the Lord and pass the ammo!
 
#16 ·
That's so freaking cool.

Ok Time for pantry porn, Take some pictures damn it.

We survivalists get turned on by this stuff. ;) :D:
 
#17 ·
not a good deal

Doesnt sound like a good deal to me, the only reason Im posting this is you can get 76 servings of food from my site for the same price. If your interested you can pm me , I would post the website but I dont want everyone screaming troll. I do a lot of self storage buckets on my own with beans, rice pasta and lots of other stuff. Salt, sugar etc etc. Its always cheaper to do things on your own for certain things.It doesnt matter no company doesnt sell any complete one purchase and your done deal. There are to many things you need. But like said before anything is better then nothing, and maybe it will get them started storing more stuff.
 
#30 ·
Doesnt sound like a good deal to me, the only reason Im posting this is you can get 76 servings of food from my site for the same price. If your interested you can pm me , I would post the website but I dont want everyone screaming troll. I do a lot of self storage buckets on my own with beans, rice pasta and lots of other stuff. Salt, sugar etc etc. Its always cheaper to do things on your own for certain things.It doesnt matter no company doesnt sell any complete one purchase and your done deal. There are to many things you need. But like said before anything is better then nothing, and maybe it will get them started storing more stuff.
Not that I don't appreciate spam as much as next girl, but the bucket in the OP is 330 servings. A far better price per serving than your 76 servings.

I don't typically do buckets like this for all the reasons people have cited. But it certainly looks like a better deal than most for what you get. Obviously you wouldn't want to get 12 of these buckets for your year supply or you'd get food fatigue fast. But as a supplement to your other preps? Looks like a decent addition.
 
#21 ·
I think it would make a good addition to any stock pile of food preps. One good thing is it’s already and sealed-up so it would be an easy “to-go” supply of food if you had to suddenly leave grab it and go. My plans are to bug in where I currently live. We are pretty far out I the country, but you never no what type of emergency might come up causing you to leave for a while. Just a thought. I think options are good to have and it dosent sound like a bad deal for the money. I am going to grab one this week just for kicks.
 
#24 ·
It's loaded with soy products, nonorganic oats and jsut about everything we've learned to get away from in terms of food stuffs that induce inflammatory reactions.

I'm not opposed to emergency foods, and if hungry, I'll eat... but when PLANNING your food stores, even if for a month, the only way I'd get this stuff is if I had no more than $100 to invest, and I HAD to invest....
 
#25 ·
I have tried them both the older style and this new one, Both are good and well worth the price, specially not having to rotate them. They are in resealable mylar packages in the pail. They had some issues with the old style ones, some of the dried goods pierced the mylar, so they redid them.

Please compare the servings and info to Wise foods, MT House and others... We mix these with other buys and homemade stuff for variety... Costco had a Vegetarian one for the same price... for those that are or have family that is...

There is also a video on youtube that goes into there, making and taste, done by a prepper and his family, tho it is the old style ones.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SafeArmsReview#p/search/5/w4-QootEiz4
 
#53 ·
Please compare the servings and info to Wise foods, MT House and others... We mix these with other buys and homemade stuff for variety... Costco had a Vegetarian one for the same price... for those that are or have family that is...
Compare the calories, not the "servings." They love to cheat on the "servings" and "meals" part. All of the kits do, so the only way to compare them is calorie wise.

But it's always good to have variety and backups. It's part of why I have a few MREs even though they're just about the worst food value on the market and too bulky also.
 
#26 ·
These may not be optimally priced for best bang for your buck... and they may be redundant in eating the same meal over and over, but how many people have split hairs about how they could get a better price doing it themselves or something better elsewhere... and ended up doing NOTHING and getting NOTHING because they could get a better deal somewhere else.
 
#33 ·
I just discovered that walmart in yuma, az has freeze dried food in cans that last like 30 years. They have freeze dried strawberries, onion soup, they even have a family pack that has like a bunch of cans that have 300 servings for $63. A pretty good deal i want to buy at least 2 family packs and a couple others cans. They have quite a variety of different foods each can is $15 to $20. Kinda a cool discovery.
 
#41 ·
Whats the name on these products ? Want to see if I can get my local store to order.
tks
 
#34 ·
Thanks for the OP.

Agreed on the sodium content, food fatigue and other things stated as "cons" for this product.

Also, agreed for price and convenience ('grab-n-go') as a "pro".

I have been looking for something to get my son and dil for Christmas as a "starter prep." This may just be the ticket.
 
#37 ·
I have some similar buckets, 84 servings, bought at costco. The serving sizes are way overrated, the sodium is high, the caloric count low. That said, they are cheap and store well, thinking you won't starve to death eating them. If you fortify it with beans & rice, you could make it go a long ways.
I purchased 8 of these to "pepper" into all my freeze dried and dehydrated stuff, just to prevent appetite fatigue of the other stuff.
 
#39 ·
Captain, I thought it was a good grab and go bucket too. I don't have massive food storage yet. I know that good nutrition is important and that time, work and research can result in some very low-cost food storage.

Costco had this bucket on sale for $85 last month. That included shipping. I ordered one. Maybe not the ideal food, but something easy to grab with our backpacks if we have to dart out in a split second. It would give my family SOMETHING to eat for a few days.

I don't plan on buying lots of these, but I'm pleased that I purchased the one. I have a lot to learn about food storage. Meanwhile, I think that some starter packs/buckets at costo are a good start. Thanks for the post. I'm sure others may find it helpful.
 
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