Mar 07 2009
Food Reserve in a Box
One challenge for having an effective food reserve plan is “up front” cost.
Although freeze dried food in a bulk food reserve package will cost the same per meal as the average cost of a home cooked meal, buying a 3 month or 6 month food reserve is a large “up front” investment.
However there are ways to purchase gradually over time.
Mountain house freeze dried food can be purchased in boxes of six #10 cans.
Mountain House Variety Pak
These boxes contain up to 30 meals and some online suppliers offer free shipping for a single box.
The cost per meal compared to buying a 3 month or 6 month food reserve at one time will rise 25% to 40%. So the best economical choice is still to buy a large reserve at one time.
However if you want a long term food reserve you can build up gradually, Mountain House cases are an option.
You could lower your daily food cost by buying several months supply of bulk rice and grains. As long as you use them regularly and don’t let them go to waste. However it is impossible to know just when you are going to need a food reserve, will it be 5 weeks or 5 months or 5 years? So if you have a food reserve that lasts 25 years you have a better investment as it will be ready when you need it.
Mountain House foods are great for their pre-prepared meals, but a HUGE waste of money for staples.
A more wise use of your money is to buy DEHYDRATED foods. Soak the beans and veggies overnight and they need less energy to prepare.
See http://www.internet-grocer.net/dehydrtd.htm for what’s available (though prices on that page are incorrect. See the shopping cart for correct pricing).
It is aso advisable to use the food on a regular basis so you get used to it. Start with one thing at a time and make sure you are willling to eat it. Our family spent a great deal of money at once and realized after the fact that some of the foods we did not like and weren’t likely to eat again.
I have been so worried about going into another depression! I recently re-stocked my food storage and I’m working on keeping it updated. I did alot of website hunting to find the best deals and the one I have liked the most so far is shelfreliance.com. They always have sales and coupons and their products have high quality.