No, more . ^^^^^^^^

 

To me that doesn't sound like a years supply.

That's close to 1000 cups of rice in that kit. That's almost 250 cups per person.
That's approximately 100 cups of cooked beans per person.

That might feed me for a year if I was doing light work and as little of it as necessary.

 

Add up the calories, divide by 365 and again by 4. What do you get? Hopefully at least 1500 calories per person, per day.

However it does sound like a good base line of staple food that you can add other stuff like meats and fats too. You have to have fats.

 

You'll probably need a lot more salt, too.

One good thing to do is to track how much you and your family are eating now. You can get a pretty good estimate by looking at your grocery bills on a month to month basis, for a year. Obviously there are things like ice cream or chips on there that wouldn't count.

OTOH, if you track pasta, rice, potatoes and other carbs, those should be fairly consistent from month to month. Worth considering.

YMMV.

 

I do plan on supplementing with canned tuna, spam, chicken, etc but the amounts looked light to me. I'm just getting started so I wanted to ask people who have more knowledge than I do. Thank you for the help.

 

No Spam...yummy but too salty.

 

I recently saw this posted online, the article said this will feed a family of 4 for a year:

8 5-gallon buckets - Free with some local searching
8 large Mylar bags $2
8 2,000 cc oxygen absorbers $2
8 gamma lids $50-75
A handful of bay leaves $0.25
90 lbs. of white rice $40
22 lbs. of kidney beans $10
22 lbs. of barley $9
22 lbs. of yellow lentils $10
5.5 lbs. of split green peas $3
5.5 lbs. of garbanzo beans $3
1 lb. of salt $1
A big box of beef and chicken bouillon. $10??big
A measuring cup $.50

I am wondering if this amount of food is sufficient. I plan on adding to this but I want to make sure I have a good baseline.

These are estimates (in the quoted OP in red) of just supermarket sale/clearance prices if buying in bulk you can get staples even cheaper. Be careful buying premade food kits they are usually very over priced and under deliver. With some time you shouold be able to get that for under $200

 

I don't get the need for eight buckets, since the food only partially fills six. I also wouldn't waste space, I'd buy enough food to fill the buckets. The food amount seems very light for four people but don't have anything but a kindle with me right how to calculate it.

I also can't afford gamma lids, I just use regular lids. When I open a bucket I transfer the contents to Tupperware or glass jars, easy and cheap since I get Tupperware for pennies at yard sales.

 

You could get one or two Gamma lids and only use them on the buckets as you open them (depending on how you have them filled... all one thing, or a variety in each).

 

That looks like about 170 pounds of grains and legumes? That works out to @ 42 pounds per year per person. That means 1 pound would have to last a person for 10 days.

That is more side dishes than meals

 

The article was entitled "how to feed a family of 4 for $300". The extra buckets are for anything that you want to add (spices, meats, etc). Why the big price for gamma lids? Are they worth the additional price over standard lids? I'm also leaning towards using 1-2 gallon Mylar bags instead of 5 gallon so that we only open what we can eat in a few days. I'm not really looking for foods to rotate but more store it and forget it until it is needed.

 

Gamma lids are in invention the inventor is still cashing in on. They are nice, but you have to give the inventor his due.

You don't have to use buckets and gamma lids. They aren't the best use of space. I personally use tote bins for a lot of my mylar storage. Being rectangular there is less wasted space in storage. Buckets can be nice too for more immediate use storage. I have some of those and have a few gamma lids too, simply for the projected convenience of them. Buckets with wire handles are fast to grab and go with in a vehicle bugout. But if finances were tight I'd be fine with tote bins alone. Home depot has an excellent black tote with yellow lid for $10.

That list might feed one grown man about 9 months on a calorie restricted diet. It might last a preteen or small woman a whole year. For your basic nuclear family that doesn't include a teen boy I'd say it is a 3 month restricted emergency diet. If you have a teen boy or one about to become one then that list won't go very far at all. Your average 16 year old active male burns through 3K calories a day easy.

 

This is a repeat of a thread from over two years ago about the same dumb article. Went to over 130 posts. I suggest the original poster goes and reads it.

I can't link from my device but it was called:

Feed a family of four for a year for $300.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I did a search before posting but nothing showed up. I'll have to search around and find. I thought this sounded too good to be true.

 

Fortunately for you, I love math. I did the math for you. What I see here is a tremendous scenario for malnutrition, even if there were enough calories to sustain you. There are not. Let me break it down:

Food...........................................Calories
90 lbs. of white rice...................144,000
22 lbs. of kidney beans...............18,480
22 lbs. of barley...........................36,205
22 lbs. of yellow lentils................22,880
5.5 lbs. of split green peas............6,050
5.5 lbs. of garbanzo beans............7,865
Total calories:.............................235,480
Divide by 365 days............................645
Divide by 4 people.............................161

Total cal. divided by 4 people......58,870
Divided by 30 days.........................1,962

So basically, what you have here is enough food for 30 days at a functional caloric level. If you stretch the food to 60 days, each person will receive 981 calories per day which is below the recommended amount for a weight loss diet. If you try to stretch this amount of food to a year, you will soon die of starvation.

 

Thank you so much for doing this. Lesson learned today: don't rely on anything you read. Imagine how many people blindly followed this advice thinking they were covered that will starve if they ever need to use it. It appears if I just stick to stocking all of the above (except maybe kidney beans because of the lower calorie amounts) but purchase 12 times the amounts listed we would be covered for a year with basics. After supplementing with canned meat we "should" be fine. I'm just looking for a goal to work towards and even though it will get boring, I'm looking to simplify my purchases to only a few ingredients and using spices for different flavors. Like I said before, I'm planning on using these stores as emergency foods should they ever need to be used and not including them in our daily pantry.

 

...quick way for me to determine if I have "enough" for 4 adults for a year {{as if :}} And this would be the absolute bare-bones minimum.

Pasta = once weekly = 1 pkg (usually a pound) x 52 weeks = 52 lbs of pasta
Sauces for that pasta = 52 jars/cans, etc
Beans = once weekly = (2) 16oz cans...well, 15.2oz cans = 104 cans (104lbs)
Rice = once weekly = 2cups (about 14oz) = 52 lbs
Canned ham = once weekly = 52 cans
Ground Beef (home canned) = once weekly = 52 pints (1 lb), quarts = 2lbs

You get the idea. Your list seems adequate on the rice but that's only if it's served once a week.

 

Here is the other thread

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=292174

 

Sounds like a good start, but as others have pointed out, far from a year's supply for four, and a very boring diet. Like you seem to have concluded, it would be best to start stocking up on your own and augmenting with canned meats and other items. Don't forget a good variety of spices and as someone else pointed out, more salt is cheap.

 

My rough rule of thumb is 1lb of dry food per day per person.
Dry food is
Rice
Beans
Lentils
Oats
Wheat
Etc.
You pick the mix depending on what you like.
That's roughly 1500 lbs dry food for 4 adults for a year.

 

I posted this thread back in 09, http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=39019 It has alot of good information on storing food, there are also a few links to some good food storage calculators. I'd suggest reading that thread and using the calculators to get a good idea of how much food & what types you'll need.

 

I'd be curious just how the original author planned to package this stuff. I'm not at all sure his quantities are adequate, but to make this collection even somewhat workable, you would need to divide everything up approximately equally among the 8 containers. Otherwise your family would be eating just garbanzo beans for a few weeks, then just split green peas for the next few weeks, etc, etc, until you finish out the year eating just rice -- or perhaps the other way around; the point being that the buckets, mylar bags and O2 absorbers are essentially useless once you open them so you would want to have each bucket contain a mix of foods so that your 8 bucket one-year-supply would involve opening just one new bucket about every seven weeks.

And, I'm not sure any family would really want to spend a year eating rather bland meatless-beef stew or meatless-chicken stew over rice three meals a day for a year.

 

The author did say to evenly divide the ingredients among the buckets and just make a bean soup with it.

 

Zier The main thing is not to go into panic buying. Your above list is a good baseline. A lot of good meals use rice as a base. But you will get sick and tired of rice every day very quickly. Same with beans. So, you have a good idea by thinking about supplementing with canned meat.

I am real strong on canned ham, tuna, chicken and turkey - except for the ham which comes in a 1 lb can, you can buy these others in a small can like tuna and as long as you don't see any of the cans bulging (indicating they are spoiling) or getting rusty, they will store for years.

If your wife is on board, sit down with her and ask her to help you make a list of the foods you guys eat. If she is not on board, take a look at the meals she prepares for you and the family and make a mental note to be written down later. Then go on from there.

A lot of people hate WalMart - but not me as I can buy a lot of good long term storage foods there at a fairly good price. I also buy from some of the low price food chains like Alde's, Sav-A-Lot, Big Lots, etc. At one time I knew a manager at the local Sav-A-Lot and she helped me acquire a lot of stuff by the bag/box full but she got promoted a couple years back so I lost that contact. (One time she helped me buy 400 lbs of salt.)

But from your post it sounds like you got it together. So not much more I can do from here except wish you luck.

 

To the OP: I guess I am a little amazed at the thread to this point that it has not recognized a very basic flaw in your planning. So, hear this: "BLAM!" Now you have no useful water, nor do you have any other utility (end of the world as we know it, remember?) Now, please go back to your list and line out everything that takes water and heat in "goodly" amounts to prepare. If you are prepared to boil water on a protracted basis, you're good. In this case, I am thinking perhaps 30-45 days to get some utility restored, or develop an alternate water supply. I would encourage that you provide 4-6 weeks of "low water" provisions, like MRE's or Datrex meal replacement bars. Additionally, your food supply is based on the guarantee you can remain in place. I believe you should have something you can throw in your truck, or car, and take with you.] in fact, we should all be carrying a couple of days supply in our vehicles right now.] My wife and I are in our 70's, and we are reasonably certain that should the need arise, we can split an MRE. The calorie content is sufficient for two, if augmented by a meal replacement bar a couple of times a day. [ and I do not mean the kind at your grocery store - I mean USCG approved bars]. So, there's another angle for you to consider

 

I have water covered and I'm shopping solar cookers right now, living in Phoenix a solar oven will work 95% of the time. I am planning on bugging in however I am going to give some thought to what you said about MREs. Thanks for the advice.

 

My $0.02 worth (that may b over priced @ that 2)

I am wondering if this amount of food is sufficient.

Not ! .. .. By just "wondering"; deep down in side you know its not enough.

I plan on adding to this but I want to make sure I have a good baseline.

See you know the answer. You never really have "enough". If you are saving you are prepping. So what are YOU prepping for?
Reasons to have more:
1) You are in one disaster, what makes you think something else won't happen .. .. Ever heard of "Murphy"? (remember "prepping" + "Murphy" = ??? are you really ready?
2) Family and friends: are you really, really going to tell them to bugger/suck-off?
3) Money/Barter. as long as there are people/folks they are going to need to eat (if they want to stay alive). So things that equal (=) money; are Food, Weapons ({et al] Modern & Primitive & support sys) AND Knowledge

JT

 

Not ! .. .. By just "wondering"; deep down in side you know its not enough.
See you know the answer. You never really have "enough". If you are saving you are prepping. So what are YOU prepping for?
Reasons to have more:
1) You are in one disaster, what makes you think something else won't happen .. .. Ever heard of "Murphy"? (remember "prepping" + "Murphy" = ??? are you really ready?
2) Family and friends: are you really, really going to tell them to bugger/suck-off?
3) Money/Barter. as long as there are people/folks they are going to need to eat (if they want to stay alive). So things that equal (=) money; are Food, Weapons ({et al] Modern & Primitive & support sys) AND Knowledge

JT

I'm still new to the whole prepping thing but I had a pretty good idea this list was very light on the amounts of food. Right now the priority is my family. Once they are covered for a year I'll focus on additional items for barter, neighbors, etc. Since my lts consists of nothing right now I'm looking for a good place to start. It sounds like this list, while not being nearly enough food, is at least a start towards getting prepared.

 

Make sure you account for enough water to soak all beans/legumes prior to cooking, as well as enough water for actual cooking/preparation. We do a combination of freeze-dried non-GMO breakfasts and entrees (4 cups of water total) and bulk items such as black beans, lentils, quinoa, rice etc. Sprouted wheat berries are also a great source of protein. We have bought both hard red and winter wheat berries.

We avoid TVP, because outside of my husband we are a family of 4 females. We avoid soy at all costs due to the fact that it is a phyto-estrogen and messes with your hormones. There are just too many other great protein sources out there to start messing with our thyroid etc.

 

I'm not sure that soy is as bad as some people would have you believe. I first started using TVP back in the 80's when I became involved with the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They used a lot of soy, because they were mostly all vegetarian. It has been shown repeatedly that Adventists have much better overall health and a longer life span then the average American. However, my concerns about soy have increased in recent years as soy has become one of the number one GMO crops in America. By the way, if GMO crops concern you, others you need to be wary of are cotton, canola, corn, zucchini, yellow squash, papaya, sugar beets, and alfalfa. You may think that you do not consume alfalfa, but remember that it is often fed to dairy cattle which then produce milk, cheese, butter, and other dairy products that you eat. Another up and comer in the GMO field is wheat. Personally, I wish we could avoid all GMO foods, but that is unlikely in today's world. All animal products, unless organically grown, contain either GMO foods that they have been fed, or an assortment of various hormones and antibiotics that are used to treat them. Animal products just are not good for the human body. Okay, I vote that we all just stop eating. Surely we would be healthier. :
Seriously though, I applaud your efforts to research what is going into your body and to make the best choices you can regarding your health.

 

Having been properly informed by all of you nice folks I can now see the many flaws in this article. This is how they suggest to cook the soup:
MAKING YOUR BEAN SOUP

Measure out
· 8 oz of rice
· 2 oz of red kidney beans
· 2 oz of pearl barley
· 2 oz of lintels
· 1 oz of split green peas
· 1 oz of chick peas/garbanzo’s


Add 6-7 quarts of water. Add bouillon or salt to taste. Then add any other meats, vegetables, potatoes or seasonings you have on hand. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for two hours. You should have enough to feed 4 people for two days. This is thick and hearty. You will be warm on the inside and full with one large bowl. Kids usually eat half a bowl.

I was mistaken when I said they suggested to put everything together in the bucket, I reread the article and they didn't. They just suggested cooking it all together. Plus, how does 16 oz of food feed 4 people for 2 days? I am truly thankful for all of your help with this, I'm searching for a better plan starting tomorrow.

 

My personal opinion on TVP.

 

That wouldn't feed one person for a couple of months, let alone a family of four. I'm amazed you even have to ask.

 

The only dumb question is the one unasked.