Cheapest place online to buy Emergency Food???

I want to stock a 6-month supply of emergency food for 6 people, but everything is ridiculously expensive online!

If you wanted to purchase emergency food online, which website has the best prices?

Thanks!

reply to post by BattleStarGal

I find survivalist food is to high priced. I watched lots of videos on
survival. I have bought MRE's, Did gardening and canning foods. I
really wish I would have dehydrated food first. Look at the videos on
you tube on dehydrate foods. I started doing this and think it is the cheapest
and best way. My next-ed adventure is dehydrating hamburger.

I guess if you were willing to invest some money on equipment, a vacuum sealer (for meat and things) might be a good way to add further shelf life to dehydrated foods... makes the packaging waterproof too. You could pick up a dehydrator and a vacuum sealer plus the bags, it'd be an expensive outlay but it'd be a good way to preserve alot of meat plus fruits and vegetables for many people. You could make plenty of jerky and fruit leathers, etc very cheaply if you were able to hunt the meat yourself or pick up fruit and vegetables on sale or grow your own. it'd be fairly light and easy to transport in a backpack, etc.
Just an idea anyway. It's probably not totally realistic or even worthwhile for most people, but to buy food for 6 people for 6 months, that's going to be very expensive, shipping costs alone will be quite large. For example, MREs seem to be atleast $5 a pop... $5 x 6 people = $30, x 180 days... something like $5000... very expensive. And that's if you're rationing one meal a day per person.

I have MRE's, gardening supplies and lastly bought some dehydrated food. Out of all of them, I say invest in Dehydrated foods. Dehydrated foods last much longer than most MRE's, they taste better, and you can eat them at anytime because of it. MRE's last 5 years or so and have little taste, and I would probably throw them away before eating them if they expired. Gardening? I figure why garden if I have enough food to last 2 years on. I'll trade some for seeds if it got that bad.

I looked at "survival" foods several years ago. I found out real fast if I don't eat it now, I'm not really going to enjoy it given a harder time. This is why I stocked up with food I eat regularly. An MRE is great for a day or two, then reality sets in.

If your serious about a survival pack. I'd start at the local grocery store. Compare what you can buy online and then locally. Beans are beans, it's just packaging now. Buy Granola Bars at Cosco or Sam's in the vending machine area.

SerialLurker had a great idea about the vacuum sealer. Do it yourself saves a lot of money.

There are many places that offer better pricing on "survival" foods. This is one of them here. Good things to have on hand as well as foods is a way to maintain any food you might come across such as canning supplies and like others suggested a food dehydrator. You can also cure meats in a smoker for longer term storage if you cure the meats properly. Vacuum sealing is also a good option.

reply to post by 19rn50

The hamberger dehydration sounds dangerous because the fat content...search the forum for pemmican making instead.
makepemmican.com...

As others have indicated, the primary allure of "survival foods/emergency foods" is the long shelf life. With a little research, you can probably emulate those storage ideas and put away foods you use, or at least some of them.

For example, I store flour, beans, dried pasta, and other goods in ziplock bags, using a straw in the corner to remove most of the air, and those bags in 5-gallon plastic pails. I mark each bag with the date I brought it home, and same for the storage of the pails. I group like things together, and use the FIFO method (first in, first out) to be always using the oldest goods.

If you life in a warm climate, I've found it useful to freeze flour and other grain materials for 24-hours before storing them; This kills the weevil eggs that are often shipping with the foods as a part of processing.

Canning is a good method, as well as pickling, although a relatively short shelf life (

Originally posted by argentus
As others have indicated, the primary allure of "survival foods/emergency foods" is the long shelf life. With a little research, you can probably emulate those storage ideas and put away foods you use, or at least some of them.

Shelf life is the key IMHO.

We have a mixed variety.

We have MRE's (I know alot of people roll thier eyes but consider the following)

1) They have a long shelf life
2) They are wet packed and pre cooked. Thus need no water and can be eaten cold, saving potable water for drinking
3) easy to carry if you have to go mobile.
4) Cheap if you shop arround ($2-2.50 per entree) (esp if compared to freeze dried foods)

We have MRE for 7 people for 20 days (we figure we will take in the old lady next door plus family) we can go longer if we stretch them out.

I buy the MRE's in batches of 3. and every year rotate one batch out. The local food bank is really happy to have them. Because they are stored outside, I could go longer given our mild climate but stay conservative

We also have bulk supplies that do require water. a 20 lb bag of beans costs $10-15 at Costco and if stored water tight will last for a long time, same with rice. You also want salt etc.

A previous poster brought up pemmican. It does last, but Id rather eat MRE's as its really really nasty and hard to keep down. MRE's are no picnic either but not as bad.

I saw this video the other day and thought
it was hilarious. If you can control urself
from laughter of his redneck ways and
humor, u just might get the message
he's sharing.

321 lbs. of Dry Food for $200.00

I wished I could find one of these
places around here, but my search
proved disheartening.



edit to add this url of dry food order form

pdf document of items available and prices

www.providentliving.org...

reply to post by FredT


Thanks for the additional points on MREs. You bring up a very good one, which is they're portable and lightweight. I don't necessarily roll my eyes at them -- I have a case -- but I think of them as a very short-term solution. I was trying to find the SCNatick press release on MRE nutrition..... no luck at the moment, but what I recall is about 1000-1500 calories per complete meal (entree, snack, beverage) and that is fairly decent for its size.

Since I live on an island and intend to make my stand here -- whatever happens or not -- I tend to forget that others may need to think in terms of a BOB or transporting food. In such a case, MREs might be just the ticket for getting a person out of the SitX area, or maintenance until other food can be secured. Thanks for steering me back on track.

Pemmican....... I did a thread on that. It disgusts most people, I suppose. My Bride thinks it's awful, so you're not alone. I guess I'm more used to it having grown up using it. I think of it as jerkey and berries in a fat matrix, and as long as the surface doesn't get dirty, it's fairly decent (for me).

Everybody has their own strategy... We've been stockpiling and rotating, using the stuff, rather than putting it away for the bad times. Worst case is, we'll save money.

Believe it or not, COSTCOhas some pretty good prices

www.costco.com...|3605|75277&N=4040913&Sp=C&No=0&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=75 277&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Mo=30&hierPath=3605*75277*

It seems I have gathered items from all over. I bought a couple items from www.mredepot.com... and then I got some canned bread on eBay. Then got some honey from a local farmer. Got 25 lb bags of flour, sugar, rice and beans from Walmart, and beef sticks from Cabela's

Then I bought a vacuum sealer and bags, and started vacuum sealing the flour and sugar. Got some empty one gallon water jugs and filled them with rice or beans.

I agree, it's better to buy from your local store because shipping food is costly. Just go to the aisle in your store where they have the bulk food, or the #10 cans.

Make a list first! Here's a start:

salt, pepper, oil, vinegar
flour, sugar, oatmeal
beans, rice
tea, coffee
dried potatoes, hamburger helper mixes
mayonaise, catsup
canned/dried soups
canned meats
dried fruit and raisons
canned tuna
dried milk, water

toothpaste, soap, shampoo
toliet paper, wet wipes
alcohol, peroxide, first aid kit
laundry detergent, bleach

I'll say it again. I've said it before. Store what you eat and eat what you store. Times of high stress are not the moments you want to start drastically changing your diet. That $3,500 could buy a lot of flour, sugar, cornmeal, canned food, rice, beans... These you rotate through normal use. The CostCo package also either gets used in 20 years or you are out $3,500. Dehydrated food almost always tastes processed too. That's a lot of food to have and not like...

This is the cheapest i have found MREs online MRE. They are not military grade as those seem to be over the $100 range but i think they will serve the purpose.