I have a friend who has finally decided to work on the basics. Food and water. He has a family of four, wife and two girls. Lets assume he has the guns and ammo covered. Assume he has zero back up means to heat/cook/ or lights. Also he has a pets, a rescue dog(mut) and a big ass GSD for added security.

I have him researching mountain house and the best pricing as we speak. So if you had a friend that had $1000.00 to spend on the basics what would your list look like. I will be making a list, but others info helps with the things I will miss.

We have a Sam's nearby, and I will help him pick up a vacuum sealer. I will also turn him onto the "barrel guy" that sells food grade barrels locally. He is also a long time member here, so maybe he can read the list here and use your input as well as mine, and take the steps towards preparing his family.

Thanks for the help.

That $1000 budget is just for food?  That's more than enough.  Beans and rice are the best bang for your buck.  You can get 100 lbs each of beans and rice for around $100.  Just store them in sealed 5 gallon buckets and they'll practically last forever.  Besides that just keep a lot of stuff in the pantry that you use, anyway.  Spend $100 on staples like flour, sugar, baking soda, etc and another $100 on canned goods and before you know it you'll have a few months worth of food easily.  With $1000 to play with you can start looking into getting stuff like a good dehydrator, a canning setup and a flour mill to grind your own flour and corn meal and other stuff like that.    

MREs and Mountain House are all well and good but they're really expensive for what you get.  The more I learn about prepping the more I feel like that kind of stuff is only good for when you're going camping or something.  

basic food items, the same things they already eat, plus dry foods such as rice, beans, etc

There's really no need to stock up too much on the MH or MREs.  People don't normally eatthem in their daily diets, so they don't get rotated.  Plus, as has been said many times, you should stock up on the things you are used to eating.  A diet you are used to can be a great comfort in trying times.

How's he planning on cooking if the electric and gas are not flowing?  Might look into a propane stove and fuel for it.  @0 lb cans with extension hose are good to have.  They also work for camping.

How will he heat in the house?  The Mr Buddy systems are great and not expensive.  They also use the small bottles or can hook up to a 20 lb tank.  I got 2 of these heaters during an Amazon sale.

Batteries and solar charger.

Gas lanterns. Either Coleman fuel, or preferably, again, propane types.  If you get all of your emergency heating/cooking/lighting equipment to use the same type of fuel it simplifies things a lot.

You'll need spare mantles, etc.

Don't forget comfort items.