Apocalyptic Prepping

Many people are daunted by the idea of starting their food storage. You can get about 1 month of food and some water storage for less than $100. It’s really easy, and the peace of mind it gives you is incredible.

Key staples for getting started with food storage- rice, beans, and water

You can live on Rice and beans. Many people in third world countries do. They’re small and compact and cheap. Make sure you store them some place cool and dry and preferably out of sunlight.

Rice:

White rice and a couple other types have a nearly indefinite shelf life. White rice is generally the cheapest and is extremely versatile. Rice is a staple in most cuisine throughout the world, likely because its so inexpensive and stores so well. The Members Mark rice is generally the cheapest we find. We’ve also found that 25 lbs of rice is enough for 2 adults when paired with other foods like a vegetable or protein. When I first got married my wife and I bought one of these 25 lb bags and it lasted us for longer than our first year of marriage. Of course we weren’t just eating rice, but it illustrates that one of these bags can go a long way for starting your food storage.

Beans

Beans provide protein and other key nutrients. They also have a shelf life of 25-30 years if stored correctly. A person can live on rice and beans for quite a while. I enjoy a good mess of rice and beans, but I’m sure it’ll get old soon. That’s why its important to continue to expand your food storage and add variety. It’s important to start with survival though, and with rice and beans, that’s what you get. Be beans above are currently the cheapest option available on Amazon, but you can get whichever variety you prefer. We prefer black or pinto and think those are some of the more versatile beans.

Water

Water is a major necessity. As part of your water preparedness, buy a crate of water bottles and don’t open it. We keep a crate stored in the back of the closet under the stairs. It’s really hard to store a months worth of water though. For a family of 3 that would be 45 gallons, assuming that each person only drinks a half gallon per day. I can drink about 2 gallons if I’m doing physical activity though.

Because its hard to store that much water, or more depending on your family size, its important to have another means of getting safe water. For this reason we recommend getting a Life Straw for each person in your family. This is essentially an inexpensive water filter in the form of a straw. It’s also from a trusted brand so I don’t worry about quality. It’s not the best water filter on the market, but its hard to beat it for the price and size. It also means you have more water options if your water crisis isn’t resolved quickly.

Reasons you’d need water storage include-

• Water contamination (if your city has a water boil warning).
• Water main break- if one of the city water pipes breaks you might lose all your water pressure and water flow. I worked for a small town of 15000 people and there was a water main break about 3 times every year at different places in the system.
• One of your pipes can break- our neighbor had a pipe break a couple months ago. Their water was turned off for about 24 hours and we gave them one of our gallons of water.
• A larger natural disaster- a big disaster may require you to evacuate, or your city’s water plant may be shutdown. If this is the case, you may be on your own.

Learn more about water filtration here.

And just like that you’ve got one month of food storage for less than $100.

• 25 lbs of rice: $15
• 25 lbs of beans: $40
• One case of water bottles: $5
• 2 Life Straws: $30
• Total: $90

This list is very basic and focusses on the cheapest and quickest way to get you to one month of food storage. We recommend learning how to cook with your rice and beans. It’s better to learn how to use this before you’re hungry and in an emergency. Rice and beans aren’t the most exciting foods, and we also recommend a person has at least a year’s supply of food. For this reason we’ve looked at what your next couple phases of preparation should look like.

Phase 2- Other essentials for your next $100

Salt, oil, flour, sugar, canned vegetables (green beans are our go-to), cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, pasta, tomato sauce. The goal in this phase is to add more variety to your rice and beans.

Phase 3- Your next $100

Canned chicken, ground beef, canned fruit, potato pearls. Increase your proteins, add fruits, and add another starch. After this phase you should be around 2 months of food, all shelf stable.

Phase 4- Your next $100

Increase your quantities. Start using some of your food storage and be sure to replace what you use. By doing this you’ll start to learn what your favorite things are. You’ll want to buy more of these items. We also recommend at this phase that you start to increase how much meat you have in your freezer.

We also recommend that you buy an extra of any shelf stable thing you’re getting anyways. For instance, our daughter likes Kraft mac and cheese and cereal. Sometimes that’s all she’ll eat. Instead of getting what we need for a week when we go to the store, we get an extra box or two of each. They have a decently long shelf life and we know we’ll eat them.

Phase 5 of Developing Your Food Storage

Start to expand into wheat, oats, and corn meal, and other staples.

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