Does it make more sense to buy a food dehydrator or should I look at buying bulk dehydrated food?

Dehydrated or freeze dried?

If you're trying to put back a years worth of freeze dried food for a family of 5 it may be wise to get a freeze drier, but they're expensive.  There's a couple guys on here who have them and I'm kinda jelly.

I'm kind of up in the air on whether or not dehydrated would be worth while for long term storage.  I really haven't messed with it enough to have an educated opinion.  My wife's air fryer has a dehydrator mode & it seems to do well enough for backpacking/camping trips.

If I were buying long term storage I'd aim for freeze dried myself, but that's just me.

I just put 5 lbs of potatoes in our dehydrator. First attempt. I'm building my own 5 gallon preps for us using a seal-a-meal and oxygen absorbers and silica gel packs. Kind of interesting. Lots on u-tube to help you get started.

Ya definitely not a freeze dryer I know how expensive they are I want some dried foods for longer term preps I'm not sure if a machine is efficient vs buying in bulk