I'm about to go to the grocery store and I'd like to start grabbing a little bit extra stuff to really kick off SHTF preps. Any suggestions on stuff to get? Long shelf life, simple preparation, and to some degree, transportability(bob) are some of the criteria I'm looking for. Care to share your wisdom?

Rice and beans to start with.

There are 5 long term easily obtainable staples, 4 of which you can easily find at the grocery store.

1. Rice
2. Beans
3. Popcorn ––> for cornmeal
4. Sugar
5. Wheat ––> usually not at the grocery store

Start with these.  All of these are easily useable, and can serve as the basis of other meals.

As far as fitting stuff for a BOB, I'd go with high calorie, individually wrapped stuff.  When I hike, I eat trailmix with M&Ms in it, it is good for energy.  Or protein type bars, just make sure you swap them out every so often.

Rice, beans, peanut butter, all that stuff works.  But you can also just grab extras of the stuff you normally buy to get started.  Instead of four cans of corn, buy eight.  Usually pick up a couple boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese?  Buy four.  Drink coffee? Pick up an extra can this time.

You'll be surprised at how quickly you can build up a stockpile this way, and you KNOW it's stuff you'll use (and therefore rotate).

Look for stuff that's on sale, and use coupons if you have any.  Even better if you can combine coupon + sale.

Welcome to the disease.

ETA:  coupla' cases of bottled water wouldn't hurt either.

Buy/Store what you normally eat. Buy a lil extra and put a date on the top of the can. As you start filling up your pantry get into some kind of rotation schedule, always eat the older stuff first, this way youll always have fresher stuff on hand.

Mac and Cheese is a good long storer in a dry area

A case of the familys favorite pasta with a coresponding number of hunts canned pasta sauce

Tubs of margerin if you have freezer space and butter if you can afford it or

Some sort of cooking oil and and some sort of reconstitute milk

These are right now short cook quick meal items.

If your fam has different tastes then try to stock those items as break the same ole routine

cause when it really hits it gets pretty plain fast.

Hey thanks for all the advice guys.
I ended up getting a 20lb bag of white rice, 4 boxes of rice-aroni, spam :d and 4 cans vienna sausages to stow.
I also got some trail mix, tuna in foil package, and some cereal bars to add to my BOB. I know its not nearly large enough to last me for any amount of time but I'm planning on going on a hump Sunday to see where I'm at with my gear and will take the chow along to see how well it works for me.
Just for perspective, I'm a single(legally) Marine so I have only myself to prep for at the moment. <= Also means I'm working on a tight(E-3) budget

MotherDearest, welcome to the SF



Your question has already been answered by some of the best folks to answer we have here.



Do not despair about a tight budget.  Steady effort wins the day in this.

Sounds like you got some good stuff, and you are doing the most important thing  ––> seeing how well it works out for you.    Good going!

Buy what you normally buy.

two is one, one is none.

Water,

powdered drinks

Of all things be sure you set up a rotation system, therefore nothing is just sitting on the shelf. then you are throwing away money. Be sure to get a good rotation started.

What others said, pasta & pasta sauce also goes a long way, but understand that you are using water to make that food.

toilet paper
toothpaste
soap
q-tips
deodorant
shampoo
socks
underwear

You can honestly never have to much water. Also some comfort items, soap, coffee, small bottles of shampoo. Things like that will disappear quickly if things ever go truly south and those items will literally be with their weight in gold.

Peanut butter and canned food are good for noobs.  They store easily, have a long shelf life, and are caloric dense and easy to prepare.  Average PB jar is 3,000+ calories.  Average can of spaghetti-o's has more than a few nutrients and is 500+ calories.  Figure you want 1200 calories a day for rationed intake, go from there.

Don't buy anything you don't know how to store or prepare.

And a water filter is worth hundreds of gallons of stored water, depending on what kinds of natural water sources are in your area.

Are you in a barracks on post? Or off post private housing?

This will have bearing on how and where to store whatever it is that you decide to store.  Being .mil, you may not have a choice as to whether you "bug out" or "bug in". You can only plan ahead, and store what will keep you comfortable when deployed.

I will ignorantly assume that by your rank, you are "younger" then the avg. prep-minded individual, and for that, I commend you. The perspective you develop as one who consider's the what-if's of the future, go a long way to securing a VERY stable and prosperous future for you and your family.  

Welcome to the wry grin that comes with knowing "You Will", when most simply can't or won't.

Paddy

That is what I was going to say nearly word for word. When something happens that is NOT the time to try out new menu items and foods you normally do not eat. The stress of situation could be high already, throw in strange / different food on top of that and your body won't react well. Try different menu items now to see if you like them but purchase and store what you usually eat.

Hope that helps

+1  Do this first.  Do NOT run out and start buying rice and dry beans unless you already eat and know how to prepare that stuff.

 

Legally, I live in the barracks but I got a house off base so I could have a place where people wouldn't look at me like when they see my collection. I also believe I'm significantly younger than most of the other preppers. I just hit 20 last April.

Canned beans of all kinds, including refries, are good because they can be eaten right out of the can, cold, or heated up with added ingredients. I keep a lot of tuna, Spam, chicken, Ramen noodles, and so on.

The dry beans, rice, pasta are very good but require a lot of fuel and time to prepare.

Get some Tabasco, Pop Tarts, etc. for sanity.

well, when i was single and young, i started prepping. I didnt know it was called that, but i shopped at Sams club and always had bulk purchases in my basement, because it was cheaper that way.



when i started getting serious a few years ago and wifey was on board, i had her make a regular shopping list, except I doubled it and left out the fresh food. we did that once a month for a few months till i had a months supply.  I suggest you do it that way as long as you can afford it.  if not, scale back and only get a few things extra and take your time.  dont go broke or buy on credit to get a few extra cans of beans.  BTW, beans!! green beans are low in calories and take up space, where as baked beans are high in calories and fiber and take up the same amount of space.  we love green beans, but only store a few cases and grow a ton in our garden.  I have a metric shit ton of condensed soup and raviollis, PB+j, high fiber a caloric content beans of many types etc etc etc..... bottled water for quick access to water. i have other sources for water and a filter too.



I dont just store food. I have extra clothes, boots, underwear, duct tape, tools, window plastic, tarps, work gloves, fuel, etc.  I have whole pile of books that im not real interested in reading, but if there was no TV or Inet, im sure they would be fun.



once you get ahead and you have more than one item and you use it, replace it right away.

add in some gravy, and spices for the rice beans and noodles to liven things up...

Dinty Moore, corned beef hash, join  a warehouse store....I buy a six pack of beans, 4 pack of dinty moore, and what ever. and welcome aboard

Buy common food that you will eat.  Figure a way to prepare it next.  Don't forget a can opener.

Lentils ... more nutrition than beans and honestly I think they are easier to use. I also by rice and beans along with dried pasta on sale and canned tomato products. As core items. I like chicken of the sea tuna and they usually have that on sale also.