So I have been putting off storing long term for for some time now. Mostly due to financial restraints. I just got a decent raise at work, and paid off some bills
so I have a little disposable income to play with. As far as moderate prepping goes I have the weapons ammo, and gear covered. I have communications, and
a water source. What I don't have is the long term storable food. I know everyone says store what you or your family will eat. That being said I plan on storing
a few 5 gallon buckets of wheat, corn, rice, sugar, and salt. What I need is stuff like #10 cans of freeze dried food. Here is what I plan. I am going to set aside $100
a month for food stores. What would you spend it on? I am storing for a family of 2 adults and one 8 y/o.

ETA: before anyone says I need to spend more than $100.00 a month. It's not an option. Thats what my budget allows, and I live within my means and budget no questions asked.

ETA: I have a decent garden, and raise my own chickens too. Consider that in your advice.

I'd buy Mountan House

A small amount a freeze dried food to get things started is not a bad idea, to last your family long enough to get your low tech kitchen started.
I am generally against buying big prepared kits with already mixed meals, there is almost always some item(s) bundled in that I don't want to eat.
Add several sorts of legumes to the grains, sugar, and salt you have already listed--and a whole lot of herbs, spices, condiments, and cooking oils.
Also, a couple of cast iron Dutch ovens suitable for use over charcoal or a campfire, along with the fuel to cook.
Also, a grinder for the grains.

I have plenty of cast iron cookware to include a couple dutch ovens. I had a thought that it would be wiser to buy freeze dried meats, and fruits
versus all just prepared meals. Add to that powdered dairy products as well.

watch this video... it is long... Wendy DeWitt is the LDS food storage guru...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOLuIApyNPc

I saw your thread on the one you bought I would love to have one. Unfortunately I won't finance anything I don't have to right now.
If I had the money I'd buy one for sure though.

I would not worry about LTS stuff unless you are sitting on a 6 month normal pantry.

Take that $100 a month, save up and buy a chest freezer and get in line for half a beef from a farmer. Fresh local grown beef makes the grocery store stuff taste/smell akin to roadkill.

I have done that before only I had to process the meat myself. That my friend is a workout and a half with a knife and a tractor
I'm only interested in long term foods though that don't require refrigeration. I've basically made the decision to focus on freeze dried foods for the time being until I have stocked up enough to
feel like I could feed my family for at least 2 months without anything but that. After that I will focus on other things. I just can't decide what to buy, and from what company.
I have been researching them all, but only have experience with mountainhouse. I know there has to be some more out there that are cheaper and taste just as good.

If you are at the point where you have a solid 6 months put aside already go ahead with your plan.
Everyone has differing views on what they will need/eat in an emergency situation.

Have you looked into stove top or pressure canning to make your produce store longer?

There's a lot to be said about storing what you eat. In our case were pretty happy with rice and lentils combo. it's pretty healthy and with good nutritional value.  not expensive and stores very well.
FerFAL

decent garden? do you can/store anything because if you don't, then that garden wont mean dick in the winter-something to think about.


Most people get caught up in storing the "basics" because it makes them feel good when they see big old buckets of food. If you don't currently mill/bake/cook with raw goods you're not going to magically do it in a crisis. If you never run a mill w/o power you might find it a PITA.  

In your situation I would pack my pantry with current use items.  Take a look at where/how YOU get your food. Note YOUR shopping habits. Do you go weekly/daily/monthly. Once you see what food YOU eat and how often, YOU will know what YOU need to store because no one else is in YOUR situation.

Once you understand how your family eats, then determine what timeline you want to prepare for. If you want a week of stores but go to the grocery store daily, then you will need to store for a week, but if you shop weekly, you nearly have met your goal. without doing anything.

Our budget is $60 to $100 a month, too. Sometimes we save a couple months to get the bigger ticket items as needed.



Buy it slow and test as you go.
Test powdered milk to see if anybody in your family will drink it.
Test beans and rice the same way.
Cook some beans and cornbread, see if the family likes that.  
Find a way to cook your food like you cook now.
Learn to cook what you normally eat on a camp stove and a camp fire.
Water storage
Water filter
Consider canning your own food, or buy canned meat from the grocery.  

I recently bucketed 350 lbs of food. This time I stored rice, beans, unpopped popcorn (for cornmeal, and popcorn) sugar, salt, flour, brown sugar for $268.00.  

Your budget is plenty. Stay on course and go slow. You will a few years worth of food before you know it.

While I don't want to start a mountain house panic, run some searches.



I get emails from various prepper companies and what not and more than a couple are saying mountain house is sold out and what is in stock at various companies is what is for sale right now.



Mountain house will keep making stuff of course, but normally they would have a nice bit of supply on hand to send to those suppliers to keep shelves and warehouses filled.



Plus a search on mountain house or freeze dried food should turn up some folks who did not get an acceptable lifespan out of their stuff.  I don't know how it was dealt with, just caught the headlines somewhere and never followed up on it.



I guess since you want freeze dried and you want it now I would find some hiker sized packs to buy and try out so you know you are ordering in what you want and will eat.



I like storing what I eat, several months worth.



I store a lot of basics that I don't use a ton of right now but would use more of if the store was out of food for a month or two, I might use a tiny bit of flour each month or week but store a fair bit because its use goes up if I cook at home more.



I am back to looking at the mre threads, I sometimes get busy or car camping or just goofing off and use these when near my opinion of their expiration.  they are fine for several years the way I keep em, I don't like keeping em around much more than that.  Or I should store more.  Probably both this winter, gonna work some overtime and roll it back into some odds and ends.



At the end comes freeze dried stuff for me.  I like the concept and I like it fine when I buy it but it also goes camping or car camping or gets used cause I have people over and want to amuse myself using it and telling them what it was after they say it sure was good.  Can be dang salty but that is more the stuff I buy.  The people who opened something up and were not happy with it, and it was only a few years old, really bothered me.  



Since I have seen it getting bought out like I started this post with I just sat on the sidelines and did not worry about it.  



I might get tired of rice and beans and lentils and other easy to store stuff but it is easy to store and I am comfy with knowing I bought it and put it up so I know what I got.



I do better with things messing up if I touched it.  I don't do well spending money for something and it messed up and all I was doing was getting a finished product.



I have never had an issue with mountain house.  I will buy more when I catch a sale I like.  Right now, have none in stock and don't care.

Yet another big vote for store what you eat here.

I spent about half an hour this morning cutting labels off of boxes (opsec!) for a year's supply of
food I bought in 1998. Probably close to a 2K investment at the time. Since that time I've had
a food allergy diagnosis that pretty much means I can eat none of it -- not that I ever did, outside
of a handful of cans. I don't regret the price of the insurance policy this food represented, but
if I had to do it over again (and I am, of course, doing it over again), I'd just buy more of what
I actually eat.

There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of freeze-dried or MREs -- if you actually eat them
for camping, quick meals, or actual emergency use -- but you'll hear over and over from people
in this forum to store and rotate. If you don't, you wind up throwing away or donating (as I am)
long term stores. I cringe when I look at the remaining pile of mountain house I have that I can
no longer eat, knowing what I spent.

My other bit of advice: focus on protein. Carbs are cheap, plentiful, and relatively easy to get
even in short-notice emergencies. Protein, epecially animal protein, usually isn't. My local market
doesn't even carry canned chicken! (Though there is a small stack of spam there.) Inflation tends
to hit animal proteins harder as well.

Good advice above.  Store what you eat.  That can mean adjusting what you store, or start working some storage food into your diet.

Rice and dried beans are going to be the easiest to long term store.  They don't need to be processed (like grinding wheat or corn), they just need to be cooked.   They can take significant amounts of energy (fuel) to cook, so soaking in water first help this be less.

A membership to Sams Club or similar goes along way also.  50 lbs of rice is like $16.   That is around 80,000 calories according the info on the bag.   Very hard to beat that for the price.  Also, rice can be cooked in so many ways, you can add it it your diet as a regular food.  Growing up poor, my mom used rice a lot as a filler.  Basically, a lot of rice with a little meat tastes good, as does rice/beans/meat.

Not going to discourage buying Mountain House, it is great food.  I just opened a foil pack of corn that had a best used by date of 2012.  Added hot water, it tastes like it was taken off the cob today.  It is really great food.  However, calories/dollar is very low.  I also don't eat it regularly because of cost.  Great for hiking and camping though, and would be a super morale booster to mix with other stuff during hard times.

Learn how to can your own soups, stews, BBQ chicken wings, sweet & sour pork and chicken as well as numerous other wholesome meals that are not full of preservatives, sodium and are made to your taste.

I did that via the old Group Buys ten years ago, and don't regret it. I also continued to scour eBay for steaks, bacon more pork chops etc.

If I could do it all over today, now that a home freeze drier is available available I would buy one and make my own. I still plan to, because 'having enough' doesn't always mean "not being hungry".

After protein, fat is very hard to replace in your diet and it's difficult to cook without it. Stored (and rotated) vegetable oil means not having to boil everything.

Oh boy, is it THAT time of year again? Is It the "everyone is out of food storage" or "the gubmint just bought up all our stocks" STORY time again. No offense to you Biere, but this is utter BS that's been going around every so often in the food storage industry in the 23+ years I've been involved in it.

That's effin hype and utter BS. Don't even take the fact that I've heard that 2-3 dozen times over last couple decades as proof- I ordered a couple pallets of Mt. House recently for re-stocking and it went out in just a couple days. This will happen again in a week or so and I guarantee you their won't be a problem then also. So their is no "Mt. House is out" Bravo Sierra.

Again, not kicking YOU in the nutz, but the arseholes that hype this sort of thing up to gin up sales.

Their is enough preparedness products that are in relatively short supply from day to day, to not have to make up shortages that are not there.....

And I've never waited more than a few days for ANY size order from Mt. House/OFD, I don't think I remember but one backordered product either. I see some of their reps twice a year in Vegas and they are straight shooters, call and ask OFD if you are so inclined.

I keep an eye out for sales on FD food and go from there.

The hardest stuff to keep is meat, dairy, and oils.

A lot of my FD stuff is powdered eggs, milk, shortening and FD meats.

Also, powdered tomato products...wtf am I going to do with all this pasta I put up?



I'm actually gonna stop at Lehmans this week and pick up some of there canned meat; at $11 for a 2lb can with a 5 year shelf life, it seems like a decent deal.



Speed

Mountain house has 40% off right now on some family size pouches and a couple #10 cans.


As others have said, make sure you sample what you order.


My wife HATED TVP, so the only flavor I ever order of that now is the bacon bits






Also, if you're a SAMs club member, the Auguson Farms "30 day" buckets are on $99 shipped, though they kinda lack protein.








Speed


 

The old days here on ARF and Broadsword Mountain house deals got me in the freeze dried game.

I do the rice/beans/lentils/pasta/sugar/salt/etc in buckets.
I do the stocked pantry, as in lots of every day stuff
I do a few dozen cases of MRE's
I do freeze dried as last resort/layer
I do heirloom seeds as very last resort.

I am still trying for a powdered milk my picky 7 year old will drink. Going to try Nedo next, with some vanilla flavoring and a dash of sugar. Had cases of Parmalat for a while, it was good cold.

We started with the buckets and storing what we eat thing years ago. I've found that since we've changed our diet to mostly fresh produce and meat/dairy we rarely have much of "what we eat" that is store-able on a daily basis.

We've rotated through much of our canned/boxed crap food that we stocked up on years ago and have shifted to storing Freeze dried ingredients with much of the focus on meat and dairy with some veggies and fruit that we cant grow here (pineapple and mango anyone?).

We don't have much in the way of prepared meals (chicken Alfredo/lasagna, etc.) from MH but I do have lots of FD beef, chicken and pork chops. With what we have stored for rice and pasta that will last 25+ years, I can mix that with the FD meats and veggies to make whatever I want, not just what is in the can that day.

I would suggest waiting for one of the huge MH sales if that's what you're looking at. About twice a year I've noticed that MH has a good sale through their distributors, and about every two or three years they have a GREAT sale. I picked up a lot of MH food a year or so ago at one of those great sales. For example, a can of FD hamburger was $28 compared to 45-50 normally.

I would also suggest checking out the total servings AND calorie count in a #10 can. I have some Provident Pantry FD hamburger that I thought was a good deal but comparing it to a can of MH hamburger, the serving size is smaller and the total can content is less.

We do the same, but there is no reason you can't have at least 6 months in the freezer. Dairy freezes very well, and obviously meat does too.

 

Start growing your own produce, and frozen veggies are cheap!

I bought a freeze dryer at Cabelas during their door buster sale.  Originally $195, on sale for $95.

I bet you can find it for sale at that price again.

Can you help me figure out how to store a Chick-fil-A?  

Just kidding.





Mostly.

Have you tried Provident Pantry yet? I bet I'm pickier than your 7 yr. old.

Apologies, that was a food dehydrator.  

I was 3 seconds away from giong to Cabela's to order a $200 freeze dryer .

 

Sorry about that.

I put this together during the mountain house mega-blowout sale in September 2013.  MH is not very economical, but that sale helped a lot with the cost.  I have a mix of LDS staples, Augason Farms (through Sams Club), and Mountain House.  I only bought the items rated for 25 years shelf life and only in #10 cans.  I inspected all cans for any damage and got them replaced before storing everything in cool, dark spot.  While MH wouldn't be my first stop for freeze dried food (unless there is another historic sale) it is good food.  Here is my chart showing calories per can according to the nutritional labels.

This milk is actually fairly good stuff.  Worth a try.

If you are planning on storing any healthy food, canning is a great option for meats, veggies, and stews. I don’t say that in a smartass way, but all the foods you mentioned except salt are unhealthy; they’ll keep someone alive though.

I spent a little over 3800.00 on my freeze dryer and do about 3-4 pounds a day when I get free. Its worked out rather well as I have paid for it by running food for friends. You could most likely find a local collective of people and follow suit.

Update and clarification-

While I got a shipping notification for this last MH order (when my first reply was posted and I had no reason to assume the order was not complete) , what I received was less than 1/4 of what was ordered. Over 30 CASES were backordered. And I just received an email back from OFD saying "overwhelming demand, blah blah blah 8-10 weeks"

So I stand corrected on this one. I've never known them to get this backed up. It hasn't been since 1999 that anyone was "8 to 10 weeks" out on food storage.

Lowdown, there is a big demand in Christian faith circles right now. Some are interpreting the four blood moons as a possible sign of beginning of end times.  I even heard a podcast where Jim Baker (you remember Jim and "crying Tammy Faye") telling his listeners to get food storage NOW.  This might ease up in a couple of months if tensions do not rise in the middle east.

I can't imagine the level of volume that would cause OFD to be that backlogged would come from just Christians who seriously believe the blood moon thing. There must be year end govt. rotation, hurricane relief, or something similar that is responsible.

It has been pretty busy in preparedness circles for the last couple months just with the economic stuff, now Putin moving into the Mideast, etc.

Their was evidently some conspiracy theories about the economy collapsing in mid September and something sinister regarding a meeting of world leaders a few weeks ago in NY.

I hear from a lot of people about this stuff. They ask me what I think about it. I try not to be rude but I am frank when I tell them I've heard so many "scares" in 30 years that I'm not too concerned.

But it is important to watch the overall world picture. In that regard, I've been ramping up my family's preps all year. Given the state of the world, the economy, etc. I think it's only going to get harder to prepare as we get further down the bowl.

I'm a Christian, and the Bible says no one knows the time of the end, but it is clear things are dicey in the world right now. In the past I have stored food and ended up discarding stuff that went way past date. I hate to waste. My current plan is to stick with some sugar and salt, and supplement that with an abundance of canned foods that we will definitely use, and rotate out. We will use canned chili, tuna, tomatoes, corn. Chili is fairly high calorie for the cost. Might add some refried canned beans into the mix too, no, not Mexican, but we like 'em. I used to backpack and mountain climb, so very familiar with freeze dried, just a lot more costly to purchase than canned food. Mountain House was always what I went with, they do put out a good product, just pricey for me.

And here I was hoping to simply have been given wrong info on the shortages.



Lots and lots of folks in here follow "shortages" of different types and have different interests.



I like some of the threads on ar15 magazines for under 10 bucks or best buys or whatever the key words are for the various threads out there.  I also like the salad day phrase many in general discussion are using for ar15 parts kits, lowers, and complete rifles even.



I am still irked tires have gone up in price over the last 5 or so years, depends on what you want and your supplier but it seems to have a lot more than inflation involved with some of what I prefer.  At the same time I am old enough to be at the point where what worked growing up has been surpassed in many cases, but dang I like knowing what something will do if I own it vs. hoping something surpasses it but I don't have personal experience with it.



Lots of folks have read about the california drought and how much food cali produces, I am concerned on how that will work out at the grocery store.



Locally a lot of folks used to get a calf or three and fatten em up and then slaughter them.  It was worth more money to take them to the auction than to stick em in the freezers, the owner used to unload any extra cow to friends and neighbors but if they can make more money selling at auction then more money it is.



The biggest thing I think everyone needs to carefully consider is having it in hand, and what it takes to keep it in hand.



Freeze dried has a high up front cost but once bought it keeps very easily.



Stuff in cans varies, I hate the pop top cans.  A drop that does not dent the can might hurt the seal of the pop top.  And I can't stack em very high cause I don't want to risk hurting the pop top that way.  I don't try to store a lot of tomatoe based stuff because it does not store all that long before it tries to eat the liner of the can.  Spaghetti sauce in glass jars works for me on this front.



Stuff in the freezer will always have a good extension cord and a generator to handle long term power outages.  A filled freezer is ok for a day or three, depends on time of year and how you do things, but I want to be able to run the freezer with a generator if I am trusting on that food to keep long term.  Some people are prepared to can what is in their freezer, and while I could do so I don't currently do so and therefore the generator would give my learning curve time to catch up.



These are just some random thoughts and with ammo sort of coming back I kind of figure perhaps some folks are putting money into food now instead of chasing those expenisve rimfire bulk packs.

I am not sure what you have tried,
but my wife is picky about her milk and we tested a bunch.

We found two:

Augason Farms 100% Non-Fat Milk
this is the closest thing to real milk taste we found.

Another that is worth considering:
Augason Farms Morning Moos
This is a whey based, low-fat milk substitute.
It is good for those that are lactose intolerant.

Grandkids will drink both.

http://store.lds.org and honeyville.com for the odd stuff in #10 cans.

Honeyville often has sales, about once a quarter or so. Put yourself on their email mailing list and wait, you will save some cash.  Buy some Mountain House meats and entrees, but only when on Sale.

Before you drop a bunch of cash on TVP (Textured Vegetable Protien...aka Soy based), make sure you try it first...sometimes it will make some members of your family shit their pants.


FWIW, these foot lockers hold 16 #10 cans perfectly.....I use them.


Sterilite 23-Gallon (92-Quart) Footlocker, Set of 2
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-Footlocker-Set-of-2/11014791

It shows no longer available, but they have them at the stores....in many different colors.

In one of our storage areas about a year ago now we went through and removed ALL the cardboard. Cardboard holds moisture and over time can create mold problems and a lower life span on the cans via rust.

Double enameled cans (gold colored outside and inside) seemed to hold up the best under "terrible" storage conditions. Some of our newest #10 cans in storage there were the cheap silver colored cans like the Mormon packing houses use- they suffered the WORST under these conditions. More than a few had rusted through in less than 5 years. Meanwhile on the same shelf double enameled #10s had some light rust on edges but no rust throughs- and some of the double enameled cans had been in that storage environment for 3X the time period the silver cans had.

When we removed all the cardboard #10 can cases and other misc. cardboard for MRE case boxes, etc. we put everything in totes. We used a variety of sizes so as to maximize shelf space and pack this area till it was ready to bust.

A six can case of #10 cans fits nicely in a blue Rubbermaid 10 gallon container. It's small enough for kids to carry as long as the case isn't say 8 lb. cans of wheat or something. Their is usually a little bit of wiggle room inside the tote after the six #10s were put in. We filled these with individual MRE entrees, pouched Mt. House entrees, pairs of Thorlos and misc. items.

A bonus to changing out from cardboard is that it gives the cases a good level of weatherproofing. Should we ever have to bug out these will be better protected in the totes versus the cardboard #10 case boxes.

It was NOT a cheap project however. I probably have the better part of a grand in Rubbermaid and various totes.

L

Dip your #10 cans in hot wax to prevent rust damage.

OP. I started prepping this time (Y2K was the first time),
by going to the Dollar Store & buying $25 to $50 of canned
foods that we eat now. Bulk dry is way more cost effective,
but busting open a can of green bean, ravioli, or pork and
beans, warmed on a sterno or small fire, is so simple, that
it's a hard to pass up. So consider that as a start. The most
important thing is that you start somewhere.

PS, The reason I do that kind of shopping a the Dollar
store is that I don't know many people who shop there,
so I can fill a buggy to the top, and don't have to worry
about having to explain to someone what I am doing,
to whom I don't want to explain it to.

Great thread & comments.

John

Good idea but don't think that would work based on the fact that they are stored in a high heat environment and the quantity we are talking about. Much easier to use the totes.

...

I have been doing some late spring cleaning and organizing and sorting and what not.  Need to clear a room to redo the floor and that means lots of stuff needs moved and room made elsewhere for stuff.



Anyway, I am going through and taking all cardboard out of storage stuff and stacked stuff.  It is good for moving, but just the fact bugs can live in the corugations, spelling, or mice chew it up and make a nest out of what is left it is a problem.



All shelves are losing their particle board original shelves.  I am going to make a plywood trip to make some new shelf bases and going with half inch for a lot of it but will make some 3/4, or whatever is considered 3/4 now, for the shelves I tend to overload.  The middle shelf is easiest to leave tall and put more stuff on it.  Don't have to bend over to load or unload it and don't have heavy stuff up high.



Will also make some extra shelfs probably as well.



Particle board can be bad about moisture and I guess plywood could be as well so I plan to probably seal it.  Not sure with what yet.



I have had some cardboard hold moisture, just from humidity in room, and yeah cans will have issues over the long term.



I am trying to get things to the point where I don't have to care about the shelves for the long term and what I store will be stored in such a fashion it is good for the long term as well.

here's my advice which is worth what you paid for it

Do a mix. $100 a month is a ton. Some months do your own. Buy Mylar bags, O2 absorbers and buckets and put up some beans, pasta and rice, etc. Next month buy some prepackaged stuff from the maker/ sight of your choice.
Maybe a month or two you save up and buy a big batch of Honeyville or Mountain House or whatever. You would be amazed at how quickly you can go from zero to one hundred.