Perhaps part of your problem is that you're not thinking about how you'd prepare your meals if you lost power. The easiest way, really (really) is have a propane BBQ with a stove burner on it for a pot or pan. Then have three 5 gallon propane tanks, one in use and two as back up. You can last a very long time rationing that set up.

It's all about incremental food storage. I generally stock at least 3 of everything in my pantry. Some items like tomato sauce and beans, 5 or 6. When we use it I restock with the weekly shopping.

Each week I pick up something necessary but different. A bag of flour, or sugar, bag of rice, case of ramen, some dried beans, extra cans of fruit, freeze dried meal,batteries etc. Maybe $5-8 total. It's more expensive in the long run but I buy smaller packages cause I am not going to use 20 pounds of rice quickly and don't want to store opened packages. I have ziplock bags bought at the dollar store to hold open packages.

The dry goods go into the cheapest 5 gallon buckets I can get from the hardware store.

Of course by the end of the year I have way more food than I need for my house so every December I go through my stored food and if anything is near expiration or I think we really won't use it, I donate it to a holiday food drive.

Back to the matter. Store some canned fruit, buy a case of ramen, get a large tin of nuts, buy some tuna. Start from there.