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If you are a store what you eat and eat what you store type.

What types of food are you eating/storing?

What is the average price per calorie you are paying these days to replenish the supply as you consume it?

What percentages of macros (fat, protein & carbs) do you eat/store?

What is the shortest pull date of product you will buy?

How much cubic feet of space does each per person months worth of food take to store?

How do you calculate how much nutrient (vitamins/minerals) values to store?
 
I am going to work on getting an extra months worth of food on hand that I can rotate into my diet every month. I would like to have this done before 2023 begins. The $3 a day challenge should help me figure out what foods I will enjoy on a regular basis what foods will work best for this system of food storage. Space will be a problem and most of the food will have to be shelf stable and easy to prepare on a stove top.
 
We have a closet in the back bedroom with shelves full of home canned stuff, a hall closet full of dry and canned goods as well as household stuff like lightbulbs and batteries. The pantry in the kitchen is the ready service area. We also have 2 chest freezers one full of meat and the other full of homemade meals like soups and casseroles.
 
We have a closet in the back bedroom with shelves full of home canned stuff, a hall closet full of dry and canned goods as well as household stuff like lightbulbs and batteries. The pantry in the kitchen is the ready service area. We also have 2 chest freezers one full of meat and the other full of homemade meals like soups and casseroles.
I live in an already stuffed condo, so space for extra food will be very limited. I don't have a way to replace electricity so I will be focusing on shelf stable foods for a majority of my diet. I also want foods that can be easily prepared on camp stove if the power goes out for any length of time. Chest freezers full of meat are not in my future.
 
So far at least all of our more than a couple hour power outages have been cold weather related so no worries about frozen goods going bad. The soups and casaroles are handy then to heat and eat with the camp or wood stove.
 
I live in an already stuffed condo, so space for extra food will be very limited. I don't have a way to replace electricity so I will be focusing on shelf stable foods for a majority of my diet. I also want foods that can be easily prepared on camp stove if the power goes out for any length of time. Chest freezers full of meat are not in my future.
One thing you might look at with limited storage space is quality vs. quantity. A closet full of beans and rice wouldn't do me any good if after the first week or so I won't eat it. On the other hand opening up a jar of my wifes homemade Strawberry Jam in January is quite the treat.
 
One thing you might look at with limited storage space is quality vs. quantity. A closet full of beans and rice wouldn't do me any good if after the first week or so I won't eat it. On the other hand opening up a jar of my wifes homemade Strawberry Jam in January is quite the treat.
That is a problem I want to avoid. My goal is to figure out what I will enjoy eating on a regular basis and only store those items. Calorie density will be a priority due to limited space.
 
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I think we have different perspectives about this. I'm not preping for TEOTWAWKI. I/we like to have a month or so of everything on hand so that we don't run out of anything. Also home canned is so much better than store bought that we can't not do that. One might even say that the abilitiy to preserve food long term is a good survival tool, but honestly we do it for the better quality.
 
I think we have different perspectives about this. I'm not preping for TEOTWAWKI. I/we like to have a month or so of everything on hand so that we don't run out of anything. Also home canned is so much better than store bought that we can't not do that. One might even say that the abilitiy to preserve food long term is a good survival tool, but honestly we do it for the better quality.
Yep different aims. I am wanting to be prepared for emergency situation. I am not a picky eater so store bought serves me well. I am also wanting to simplify my diet and food prep habits.
 
Not a prepper, but I have a years supply on hand, give or take a month. Pasta, beans and rice are easy, but you have to have something to cook with them, otherwise a pretty bland diet. We can everything out of the garden, should have enough to last til next harvest. Planning a bigger garden next year. Biggest reason to can is you can't compare the quality of home canned to the slop the stores sell, just my humble opinion. As far as nutritional value, since we've be canning, my weight varies about five pounds, heavier in the winter due to all the good soups and stews and winter food. My blood work comes back good every year, the doctor says whatever your doing, keep on doing it. I probably wouldn't have a problem eating on three dollars a day, except I don't know how you would value my canned goods, other than the price of the seeds, it's, figures you would call it sweat equity, just our labor. But I find it enjoyable, working in the garden and canning. And one advantage of being well stocked, I only buy when I find a good sale on whatever we use, and stock up. There's still bargains out there, just have to be tuned in.
 
I'm not prepping for the End of the World, I've got a 9mm bullet saved for that. My emergency supplies are for a shorter duration. A survivable period of time where some return to "normal" in the near future is envisioned and anticipated. We have a regular stash in the kitchen pantry that would last quite some little while. Then I have the true E-supplies downstairs, the longer storage stuff. Some is just normal yet longer life ordinary gro. items. Others, I have #10 cans of freeze dried stuff. Like potatoes. I rotate the E-supplies in and out as they get near, at or past their dates. I don't throw much away due to age spoilage. The normal gro. items, I try to focus on things that are packed in glass, which last longer even after their best by date. I've got many cases of bottled water, I don't pay all that much attention to the dates on that because in my experience it doesn't change much even long after the best by date. Maybe the water people know something I don't.

The freeze dried stuff is good for years and years. One time, I was at a surplus store that was going out of business. They had #10 cans of powdered milk for ridiculous cheap prices, so I bought many. It was way past best by date, yet to my taste there wasn't a thing wrong with it. Wet canned vegetables past date start to get soft / mushy but are still edible. So long as the cans aren't bulged and botulism is suspected. Canned products that contain sugar change color and lose their flavor, you wind up with a sweet tasting unidentifiable. But it still has nutritional value. Canned salmon, I've eated some that was a few years past date, I couldn't tell the difference.

I balance canned goods in container size. I don't want too many #10 cans, wet or freeze dried, once opened you are committed to using them within a fairly short time. A multitude of smaller cans gives you the flexibility of not committing to one "thing" for too long. It would take me a while to gag down my single #10 can of hominy. I don't have 50# sacks of dried beans. In an emergency, I want to spend the least amount of time on food prep.

About a week ago, I checked the date on some vegetable oil I had in the E-supplies. Cooking oil has a fairly short storage date. I pulled it with a short date, and Mrs. Merkt made me a large batch of raised dough donuts. I've been gorging on those. They were wonderful, better than store bought. Raised donut dough doesn't absorb nearly as much cooking oil as cake donuts do.

We have two refrigerators, each with a lesser freezer compartment. Both of which are full of protein products. I have a couple of generators and supplies of emergency gasoline, I could keep the fridges going in periodic rotation long enough to use this food up first.
 
We stock both white and brown rice as well as lentils and mayacopa beans (yellow Peruvian beans). The lentils and beans are great sources of non-animal protein. Canned meats, tuna, chicken breast and some spam. As well as whole rolled oats.

The beans are versatile as they can be prepared old world style or add some molasses and brown sugar and turn them more into baked type beans.

There's other goodies like dehydrated potatoes, Rice-a-Roni and the obligatory supply of pastas to help create variety. Chipped dried beef can also be found in the shelf. Have to think creatively for cooking in a crisis, cause steaks on the grill may not be on the menu.
 
We stock both white and brown rice as well as lentils and mayacopa beans (yellow Peruvian beans). The lentils and beans are great sources of non-animal protein. Canned meats, tuna, chicken breast and some spam. As well as whole rolled oats.

The beans are versatile as they can be prepared old world style or add some molasses and brown sugar and turn them more into baked type beans.

There's other goodies like dehydrated potatoes, Rice-a-Roni and the obligatory supply of pastas to help create variety. Chipped dried beef can also be found in the shelf. Have to think creatively for cooking in a crisis, cause steaks on the grill may not be on the menu.
I was looking up depression era recipes and chipped beef came up a lot. Also Mulligan Stew, you'd have to be hungry to eat a big bowl of the stew.
 
I was looking up depression era recipes and chipped beef came up a lot. Also Mulligan Stew, you'd have to be hungry to eat a big bowl of the stew.
My parents grew up during the depression, creamed chipped beef was something that was in the normal rotation of meals. And I've kept that tradition alive with my own family. Nothing wrong in having a humble meal, it's good to stay connected with one's roots :D
 
Not perfect, but I have about 6 cases of of Datrex survival food bars. Lots of calories in a very small package. An important note is that my 4 and 2 year old both like them as well. Basically like eating pie crust. I always take a pack when out in the woods as a backup. They last a long time too. Vaccume sealed, and individually plastic wrapped inside the vaccume pack. I have a pack that expired in 2011, has been exposed to air, and I have been eating them with no issues. I always keep a few containers of peanut butter, a few cases of korean dehydrated noodles, a few water filters, a pack or two of Bic lighters, and alot of 22lr ammo for critters if it came that. "Crowshishkabobs" and squirrel noodle soup here I come!
 
My parents grew up during the depression, creamed chipped beef was something that was in the normal rotation of meals. And I've kept that tradition alive with my own family. Nothing wrong in having a humble meal, it's good to stay connected with one's roots :D
Energy is energy. I think we are spoiled these days, both with selection and quality. I don't care how prime a piece of meat is compared to a .99 pack of hotdogs. It all looks similar when it comes out the other end.
 
Energy is energy. I think we are spoiled these days, both with selection and quality. I don't care how prime a piece of meat is compared to a .99 pack of hotdogs. It all looks similar when it comes out the other end.
Its true, you might feel a little worse sloggin back "bad" calories, but you will have energy. I did the STP bike ride a few years back. 206 miles in 2 days, Seattle to Portland. On day two I passed a few thousand riders, and saw lots of folks energy crashing. Everybody was eating those hi-tec gel packs. I instead zip tied a large pizza on my bike rack, and had about 12 meat sticks in my back pockets. I felt like crap, but had a ton of energy.

Another item that should be considered is some sort of substance to keep you awake/alert if need be. Aka, if I have to get out of Dodge, or walk all night, etc. Coffee alone is great, but there is better stuff out there. A great product is C4-preworkout. Probably not terribly healthy, but it works way better than caffine alone. Fruity powder you mix with water. Hard to describe, but it seems to kick your metabolism into high gear, and generally gets you "amped up." Hence why folks use it before weight lifting.
 
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Its true, you might feel a little worse sloggin back "bad" calories, but you will have energy. I did the STP bike ride a few years back. 206 miles in 2 days, Seattle to Portland. On day two I passed a few thousand riders, and saw lots of folks energy crashing. Everybody was eating those hi-tec gel packs. I instead zip tied a large pizza on my bike rack, and had about 12 meat sticks in my back pockets. I felt like crap, but had a ton of energy.

Another item that should be considered is some sort of substance to keep you awake/alert if need be. Aka, if I have to get out of Dodge, or walk all night, etc. Coffee alone is great, but there is better stuff put there. A great product is C4-preworkout. Probably not terribly healthy, but it works way better than caffine alone. Fruity powder you mix with water. Hard to describe, but it seems to kick your metabolism into high gear, and generally gets you "amped up." Hence why folks use it before weight lifting.
I am a big fan of jet alert tablets. 200mg of caffeine and a bottle is under $4.
 

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