Thanks for the tips everyone. I will be augmenting it as I go with more short-term stuff like canned Chunky Soup, canned veggies and stuff. Also going to start working on putting aside beans, rice and such.

For the long-term stuff I plan on sticking mostly with the MH cans, these are direct from MH that I ordered and come with high reviews. The can shelf life is 25 years while the pouches is only 7. I will be storing some of the pouches for shorter term use though, just not as much as the cans.

The cans I've seen on the MH site are just a can full of food, no pouches inside. They even open them and cook them in their reviews right off the shelf. I wonder if those were being resold by a third party that had the pouches inside them.

My goal right now is to have a 3 month supply of food and water by the end of the year. We are doing extensive remodeling and I'm seriously throwing the idea around of including a dedicated, temperature-controlled, beefy room just for preps. Nothing fancy, just beefier than a standard drywall over 2x4 room and well-insulated.

In addition to the 55 gallon drums, I plan on several cases of water bottles that will be constantly rotated as well as some 5-gallon or so Jerry cans that can be more easily transported if need be.

Also going to be looking into buying a dehydrator and some canning supplies. He have fairly abundant deer here, so there's deer meat in the freezer and I'm planning a small garden this year too.