Ok I am getting ready to purchase our food storage in a few weeks and need opinions on brands and places to purchase.

Who else to ask, but my friendly neighborhood, ETS members!

Ok, here are somethings I have learned by reading here and other places, asking questions, etc.

I need to get food storage for 2 adults, and 4 kids.

I don't want to get food storage that is all sodium and then some flavor. Some food that relatively healthy and tastes decent.

I would prefer to get food that only needs water to get eatable.

Having #10 cans makes sense from the purchasing of quantity vs, but I don't want to have cans opened everywhere. Even if they are good for a few months. Also having to worry about moving the unused portions to different containers is not something that is appealing, especially during a emergency situation.

Money is always an issue, but I understand it is not going to be cheap.

How about a help with forming a plan of both 'normal' food storage supply and also purchasing regular cans in cases at Sam's Club or Costco.

I formed a plan, but then when someone else in a thread replied about getting food that the children will eat, I had to rethink my 10 cases of MRE supply :P

Thanks.

With tongue slightly (but only slightly) in cheek, I will relate some valuable info I received years ago from a UC Bezerkly nutrition "expert" who was teaching a class at the LEO academy I was attending. She stated (for us single guys), that one can consume nothing but peanut butter and remain fairly healthy. Add to that some saltine crackers, Raman noodles (lotsa sodium there), Lipton pouch meals, a can or two of spam, some Bushes baked beans, chili, and you are good to go. Maybe a few cans of Noodle O's, or whatever the kids like too...

HMMM good thoughts....

Mountain House Pouches are not TOO expensive. But canned chili is good. Spam, corned beef hash, ramen, peanut butter all last long and are pretty cheap.

We have a TON of canned soup just because it's easy to rotate and stores a couple years alone.

I just bought a dehydrated food kit from HarmonyHouseFoods and I love it. I backpack and camp a lot and I pre-package my meals so all I have to do is add water. Actually, I've been using it at home for my regular meals too. Yes, you can dehydrate food yourself, but when its all said and done $50 for a variety of beans, vegetables, peppers, potato, etc, all wrapped in their own little baggies is a pretty good deal.

http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/mainhome.html

So if it is not too expensive, where are you purchasing it. I don't have a reference point to tell if stuff is expensive or not. Just comparing completely different packages.

Thanks

If you go here you will see the MSRP, that will give you a pretty good idea of what you should pay...

Lots of information. www.beprepared.com

Quite a few years ago when I was an impoverished college student, I used to rely heavily on peanut butter, canned tomato soup, and packaged macaroni & cheese. The budget didn't run to more than that (except for 2 beers every other Friday at the local pub, which was essential nourishment for the soul). As a diet it kept me healthy, but a 20-year-old is a pretty resilient beast. I'm not sure what it would do for/to me now.

Frank 2135

What is your goal?
72 hours?
SHTF?
TEOTWAWKI?

For the basic 72 hour scenario why not just stock up on canned items you already eat that only need heating?

For the longer term scenarios you probably need to go with freeze dried, dehydrated and MRE's.