Due to the possibility of an emergency only being short-term, I'm planning on starting out with the pouches, like what comes in the 7-day "Just In Case" kit. Then working my way up to 10# cans. I'd hate to open a 10# can to only eat one day worth of food out of it.

Plus a good bit of the stuff in the 10# cans looks like it has to be actually cooked, versus the pouches where you just add boiling water and wait 15 minutes.

My plan is to start small, buy 1 of the 7-day kits right now, then add to that as $ provides. Maybe buy another one every paycheck or so until I have 1 month worth of food and water saved up for 2 people. Then get into the larger bulk-size cans of food.