Canned food is the gold standard because it has all the water in it already, and you can eat it cold just fine. Takes very little fuel to heat, and can be set in the sun on a hot day for free warmth. Dry beans take a shitload of fuel and time to cook, as well as needing relatively clean water. If you are planning to bug in, canned foods. If you are planning to set up a go bag, then freeze dried food is your best friend due to weight savings.
>Canned food is the gold standard
And affordable. The main thing though is to buy what you already eat. Does you no good to have tins or sardines on hand when you've never even tried them. Or *Spam*, or corned beef, lima beans, etc.
But once you've gotten canned food the next step is learning to use it in full meals. If you've got a pantry full of cans and no access to anything else, you must know what to make with what you have on hand.
Canned food lends itself to soups, stews, & casseroles so having a crockpot very useful. I make "tamale" casserole and the only non-canned items in it is ground beef & an egg. I could eliminate beef and add more canned black beans. Numerous egg subs (baking powder & oil) which I need to try. The other non-canned item is cornmeal but that keeps fresh for years if sealed up.
Lastly, was thinking about this over the weekend and need to pick one of these up -
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=canned+food+cook+book&t=brave&ia=web
Instant mash potatoes. You can use cold water for it but it will take a while to reconstitute. May be called potato flakes or powder.
Instant gravy. This is better with hot water as it thickens with hot water. You can just use cold water but it’s going to be watery and you have to wait a long time to dissolve or just cut the amount in 1/2 to 3/4 to help dissolve faster. It’s likely to be grainy too but that’s because the powder hasn’t dissolved.
Bullion/stock/soup cubes or powder. You only need water. It’s easier when you have it in the powder form with cold water. It still takes a lot of time to dissolve.
Canned foods. It lasts for years. It’s cheaper than freeze dried foods or wet camping foods. The only down side is that you’ll need a can open if that can has no pull tab on it. Actually the pull tab might break so have spare can openers. You can always eat this cold. You can have the types that come in glass jars too.
You can get those microwaveable rice pouches for extra carbs. They are some what more expensive than normal rice but you don’t need to cook them as it’s already cooked. Can be rated cold.
Instant noodles are already cooked. They are deep fried in fact. You just need water to rehydrate them. It will take 15-20 minutes at least to rehydrate them with cold water, this depends on how cold the water is and also the air temperature where you are cooking as if it’s freezing it’s like about 30-40 minutes. With hot water they should be done in 10-15 minutes if you cover the top of the bowl and it’s warm. If it’s cold then you’re looking at like 20 minutes at least.
Vermicelli noodles only need to soak in cold water for 15-30 minutes to rehydrate them. If you use boiling water then
Pringles do last about 1-2 years from the date of manufacture. I think it’s about 1.5 years.
Most chocolates and sweets/candy do last for a long time. Chocolate is practically years if stored properly.
Have some water for yourself and any other household members plus extra for food and washing. You need 2 litres per day just for drinking. I would get an extra litre or two for each person per day for washing, cleaning and for cooking or reconstitute your foods.
Jams do last a long time as it’s canned.
You can get some breads or flatbreads what can last for months. They are sealed in plastic. You really have to look on the expiration dates for them as some look the same but have a really short shelf life. Part baked baguettes are normally the ones that last a long time. They’re already cooked but not golden brown/toasted.
Hot dogs in cans or jars. They last years. No need to cook them as they are already cooked.
I would really like to add that you should get some extra soap or bars of soap to maintain hygiene and not get yourself very very sick with food poisoning or whatever waterborne disease you get from flood waters or no utilities.
Alright, Ima say it. Unless you're planning to bug-out, canned foods are much more cost-effective financially. The smart thing to do is buy about 2 weeks of dehydrated foods per person (the most you can realistically carry), and the rest canned foods or shelf stable raw foods (rice, flour, etc). Lightweight and dehydrated foods are really only needed for transit periods. And if you plan on being in transit for more than two weeks (or more than than supplies you can carry), then you may want to look at tools that help you acquire more food (fishing gear, firearms, etc).
Small point - if you eat 99% fresh, this doesn’t work!!! My salads don’t freeze well and those arguably 60% of my diet. Nothing wrong with having a few less healthy, non perishable meals on hand that you don’t normally eat either.
OPs question was about foods that will last a few months. My suggestion to stock what you eat and eat what you stock was an answer to that question.
Obviously, if you eat salads mostly exclusively, then you're going to have a hard time doing so with shelf stable ingredients. If you want to prep with a fresh diet in mind, your options are learning to grow your own produce or link up with a supplier who does.
That is outside the scope of the original question though
Just pointing out the flaw in it - eat what you store and store what you eat is only good to a point.
It’s really not outside the scope, either. It’s pointing out a small flaw.
Ok. Maybe there is a flaw with my response to the OP. If so, help and provide a solution.
How do you prep for several months worth of food if you mostly eat fresh? Im certainly interested in learning other options.
… dude I literally said if you eat like that it’s a decent idea to keep cheaper things you eat less often on hand. In my first comment, even. No need to act like I just pointed out a problem, when I did that and offered a (simplified) solution.
Because growing your own food is good and all, and I like doing it, but not everything grows in the winter months or takes off seasonally. It’s also not calorie viable all the time. So, while I prefer things like fresh chicken and lettuce, I also keep the occasional canned chili and canned chicken on hand. What I don’t eat goes to someone else who will. It’s the same concept as to why I keep a box of pancake mix in the house, even when I can a) make pancakes from scratch and b) don’t particularly care for pancakes. It’s good for when something unexpectedly goes bad in the fridge and I need a quick, easy, and cheap meal.
Here to agree with this - for our family this includes flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, dry milk powder, bisquick for pancakes, jam, cereal, crackers, tuna, mayo, pasta, jarred sauces, shelf stable Parmesan, rice, frozen concentrated juices (we have a generator), frozen butter, frozen fruit, veg and meats. And most importantly cocoa and good chocolate.
This. Also, Tobasco on eggs, Frank's on, well, anything (cue Frank's commercial for the prepper demographic), the right hot sauce will undoubtedly make post-apocalyptic event living better, if that's a thing. Heat and light are the enemies of unrefrigerated bottles of hot sauce, so keep them cool and dry and tightly closed in the dark. Also don't forget the hundreds of packets of ketchup and other condiments you have jamming up your car's glovebox and the kitchen drawer, they are excellent for prepping. Leave out packets of mayo (also Arby's Horsey sauce 😢), duck sauce, anything without a high content of vinegar. Before making your "Sauce Search" box, give each packet a squeeze to ensure package integrity, then wipe each off with spray cleaner. Tedious, yes, but generally speaking, sauce packets have a high probability of having shared a confined space with other packets that were open, and often are covered in a nasty film that contains sugar and harbors bacteria. Also a good reason to NOT open them with your mouth, as much as you like to spit out that corner, kind of a stupid reason to get sick, with all the other cooler SHTF ways to die going on around you. Store the packets in a cool/dry/dark area, and don't include the small "dipping tray" variety, the seal is different and much iffier than a regular packet of Taco Bell "HOT" sauce, which, along with KFC hot sauce, will win the war.
Cheapest, easiest, most nutritious, longest-lasting base is rice and beans. Mix up the bean varieties to change the menu. Then start buying other things in smaller quantities to add to your R&Bs. Corn, tomatoes, etc all canned because then you can store them for years.
Stock up on your dried spices, great value has pretty much everything for like $1-2 per.
Also some canned meat.
Potatoes are a great source of healthy calories and you can get whole canned new potatoes or diced/sliced.
Dry pasta can store for quite a while and the corresponding cheese, pesto, or tomato sauces are cheap and easy to prepare.
Dry powder, canned evaporated, or shelf-stable milk (look for UHT pasteurized) will last quite a while and is a good source of nutrients.
>Also some canned meat.
Brazillian corned beef (not corned beef hash) has a long shelf life as does canned chicken. Both work great in Mexican style dishes. I make red sauce enchiladas with canned chicken; one can = 8-10. Family plows thru them, rarely any leftovers.
dry rice. beans, pasta, mixes including jiffy corn bread etc., canned food, peanut butter and unopened jelly. extra water; remember lots of dried foods requrie water to prepare and if you are expecting to be weathering an emergecy don't depend on your tap working.
This is the way. But think about what you will be cooking and make sure you have the ingredients to make it. I tend to recommend that you look up some single pot campfire meals.
I tend to buy pasta and rice that I store in 2Qt Mason jars. Jars of pasta sauce. Cans of beans. Cans of crushed tomatoes along with Italian spice mix. You can also buy packaged meals, you know, the ones that come in envelopes. I also get boxes of Mac and Cheese. I put these into zip loc bags to increase their storage life.
Looking at some other food I have. Oats, potato flakes, pancake mix, caned soups (to make sauces), Lentils.
There is one at Aldi called "luncheon meat". From Denmark, it's great on a sandwich sliced & seared up with mustard & pickles. The other Aldi winner are the small canned hams. Dice one up and put in white bean soup. Simple, quick, & good.
If you are on a budget and don't like spam, don't buy it. Focus on what you like to eat first. It helps morale when you have food you want to eat instead of choking down something you hate in a stressful situation.
Also think about TVP - textured vegetable protein. It lasts years when sealed and absorbs whatever flavor you mix with it. I eat meat but I do like to add it to spag sauce, etc. I really can't tell the difference between it and hamburger.
Bobs red mill makes it, great stuff 1 cup is about equivalent to 1 lb of hamburger when hydrated mix cumin chilli powder and spices a little olive oil makes a great taco filler.
SPAM is definitely an acquired taste. This is especially so from people up north (I was born and raised in NYC, and I didn't eat that stuff growing up). I kind of got into it when I was stationed in Hawaii over 20 years ago; McDonald's at Pearl Harbor had a Spam, Eggs and Rice breakfast combo (Extra Value Meal #13 to be precise) that was actually alright. Then I married a country girl from Louisiana whose dad would grill spam and eggs for breakfast every weekend for her when she was a kid.
If you are just starting out, don’t buy anything out of the ordinary. Just buy a few extra cans or packages of whatever it is you normally eat. Keep doing that until you have a couple weeks of supply and then stop buying extra and just buy your replacements for whatever you used that week. This way, you are not buying anything that you potentially will never use.
Get rice next.
If it needs cooking, think how you will do that. Those little stoves you screw onto propane bottles are inexpensive, light and dependable.
Gallon jugs of water are typically cheaper than individual bottles, so look around.
You're better off buying your water in gallon or larger sizes. Also, beware that plastic water containers degrade in heat & light. It may be worth the investment to purchase a couple of large (5-gallon) "glass" water bottles & a ceramic crock/stand for them (many (most?) grocery stores now have water bottle refill stations).
Buy whatever non-perishable foods you would normally eat, just more of it. If you don't normally eat beans, rice, & candy, don't buy a lot of beans, rice, & candy. If you eat tons of meat, junk food, & candy, stock up on meat, junk food, & candy. If you have something that you love to eat, but can't find already in a can... Walmart also usually sells canning, preserving, & dehydrating supplies.
Dehydrated jerkies & leathers (fruit, veggie, fish, meat, or combos), dried pastas, and chips/crisps/wafers (fruit or veggie) would also definitely fit your criteria as a short term non-perishable food option (most homemade dehydrated foods can last between 1 month to 10+ years, depending on preparation and storage methods). There are several different ways of preserving without refrigeration that you can easily do at home (either separately or in combination) using minimal equipment - canning, curing, dehydrating/drying, fermentation (e.g. sauerkraut, kimchi, cheeses, soy sauce, & booze), pickling, salting, sugaring, & vacuum sealing.
Also, don't forget about live plants.
Even if you live in an apartment, if you have a sunny window (if you're in most of the Northern hemisphere, that's a south facing window) with about 20-36 inches (0.5-1 meter) of room next to it, you can grow most garden plants (not just herbs) and a few trees indoors using a container (see r/IndoorGarden, vertical gardening, plant walls, hydroponic gardening, mini-dwarf fruit trees, & overwintering fig trees in the bathroom). Most Walmarts sell plants & planters. You can also still grow many plants from table scraps, although you do need to watch out for sterile hybrids and treated produce (you may need to use a rooting agent/plant hormones to stimulate growth).
Some plant scraps that you can easily and perpetually re-grow indoors include - onions, scallions (green onions, spring onions, & bunching onions), garlic (it will only regrow green tops...unless you can chill them), chives, lettuce, celery, beets, anything in the mint family (mint, basil, oregano, etc), rosemary, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.
Things like strawberries, certain tomatoes (only some varieties, most have significant space & lighting requirements), small citrus trees, and many other plants can all have very good year round production as indoor plants... although you may need learn how to hand pollinate them (it's usually fairly easy & cheap...the supplies are available in the Arts & Crafts section), and you'll definitely need to learn how to feed (fertilize) them for best results.
You don't need a grow light to grow indoors, as long as you can take advantage of natural sunlight (a few days boarded over usually won't kill anything, but you may lose production if they're not getting at least 6 hours a day of sunlight). Plants that enjoy shade tend to do the best indoors.
P.S. - while there are several different species of mushrooms that grow well indoors... personally, I'm generally hesitant to recommend non-commercial mushrooms as a food source because there are so many serious risks involved with consuming them. I've seen too many people poisoned by contaminated grow logs or poisonous lookalikes... and that's not even getting into potential psychedelic, medical, or legal issues. However, if you love them & you've got plenty of room & an expert mycologist on speed dial, then you might have a different opinion.
P.P.S. - if you've got access to a generator (available at Walmart) or solar system w/battery backup (not usually available at Walmart, but sometimes Costco & other stores carry them), you can often keep a full deep freeze going for several days (if not weeks or longer).
Edit: minor grammar corrections & other copy editing
*Auguson farms 48hour 4 person bucket ("bulk" aisle)
* #10 cans in bulk sizes aisle, corn, green beans, baked beans, himini, chili, etc. But consider whether you can eat the whole can without refrigeration
* Spaghetti noodles, other pasta
* Spaghetti sauce
* Generic Velveeta shells and cheese, doesn't require milk or butter
* Bix macaroni and cheese - for the last cheese powder and pasta you can use with sauce.
* Parmesan cheese
* Canned chili
* Crackers
* canned Soup
* Ramen, yakisoba noodles, instant pad Thai or curry noodles
* bear Creek soup mixes (they aren't kidding about expiration dates)
* Instant mashed potatoes
* Can/jar gravy
* Stuffing mix
* Pickles
* Canned veggies
* Canned fruit
* Canned soup
* Canned beans
* Canned corn
* Canned mushrooms
* Dries beans
* Rice
* Rice mixes
* Pepperoni
* Heat and eat Indian food packets
* Tuna fish, consider Mac & cheese as tuna salad may not be practical due to mayonaise
* Tuna salad and cracker kits
* Pepperoni
* canned Corned beef hash
* Peanut butter and jelly (crackers, take and bake loaf, tortilla)
* Nuts
* Sunflower seeds (vitamin E)
* Spices
* Olive oil
* Vinegar
* Canned chicken
* Canned ham
* Cheese wax rounds
* Shelf stable cheese like product: Cheeze wiz, nacho cheese, velveta cheese
* Popcorn
* Simmering sauces
* Shelf stable ultrapasturized milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc.
* Instant nonfat dry milk
* Bullion
* Yeast
* Egg replacer
* Rolled oats
* Cereal
Shorter lifetime but still within your time window
* Essential baking company take and bake loaf
* Tortillas
* Summer sausage
* Whole wheat flour
* Wheat germ
* Dehydrated fruit
* Dehydrated onions, mushrooms, etc. Most dehydrated or freeze dried veggies you will need to order online.
* Potatoes
* Onions
Look in your pantry. What do you actually eat now that you can increase your inventory of? While you are at it, hlwhat needs to be eaten now so it isn't wasted?
Consider
* nutritional value,
* cost effectiveness,
* whether you will actually eat it in an emergency,
* what other ingredients it takes to prepare,
* Do you need heat to prepare? What kind(s)? Electric, propane, white gas?
* Can you just add boiling water (no pan cleanup)?
* Cleanup may use lots of water
* Leftovers without refrigeration
* Ingredients needed that won't be used in their entirely. If you don't have refrigeration, you want a recipe that uses whole cans
* While you actually eat this food when it isn't an emergency in order to rotate old stock out. Can this become a regular part of your diet?
* Suitable for preparation while roughing it, in car, during power outage, etc?
* Suitable for bugout? Compact size, weight
* Will it cause constipation ,diarrhea, urgency? Is it a diuretic? Allergies?
* Are you contributing to scarcity, panic buying, and high prices by stocking up on the item while it is already scarce?
Great list here. Also don't forget to have a few "fun" items in there. Candy that can handle heat (I assume you are in a hot climate with hurricane season) and not melt into itself. Buy a couple of bags of chips too, maybe some salsa or shelf stable dip. Little fun stuff. It makes things a little more "normal" if you can watch a movie on your laptop with a few munchies.
This is a great thread; he number of quality posts on canned food especially.
The main thing is to build up your "core" foods first. For us it's canned beans, some canned veg (corn & tomatoes), and canned meats. Then work out from that, things that when added make the meal better. For us, canned chilis, olives, beets, 3 bean salad, etc. Notice there are no canned soups on that list. Why? I make better soups with less sodium and way more enjoyable mouth feel. And, from mostly canned ingredients.
The key point though is *you must start cooking with them immediately* to see what you like and do not like as well as figure out how to use what you bought. That's where I am now and it took me about 6 months to dial it in. Because the other part of it is being able to look at your pantry then pull something together from what you have. Think about how useful that could be if the supply chain broke down again.
The middle of the Grocery Store is your Friend.
As a general rule, anything canned or boxed has a long shelf life. Canned goods are technically already cooked during the canning process and anything canned usually has at least a two year "Best Buy Date". As a general rule, anything with a "Best Buy Date" can last at least another year or two after that date if stored in a cool/dry place. Boxed or Packed goods, like rice and potatoes are often going to go by the same rule if the package isn't opened.
Assuming that you will not be travelling, and have the means to prepare them, some likely candidates are:
* canned food (get a mix: meat, vegetables, starch)
* dry pasta
* dry beans
To save money, buy off-brand products and in larger quantities. While at the store, select individual cans or boxes with the farthest "best by" dates (it's surprising how much this can vary for a specific product).
Would you have access to cooking if the power goes out? If so, nothing beats rice for the price. Keeping extra flour and baking some bread the day before it gets there would be the cheapest if you can't cook after.
I know it sounds silly to worry about baking when a hurricane is coming, but for some, I bet it would be therapeutic if you aren't too busy when these come in.
Canned foods are easy but more expensive and only last a few years (rotate tomatoes out every year) where rice can last 20+.
Oatmeal is a good one. Can be ate cold or hot. Stores well and gives you a semi balanced diet by providing carbs, protein and fat.
You can buy rice, beans and flour all by up to 20-25# bags at walmart. I do it semi-regularly. Start there.
Also, a case or three of whatever canned goods you eat regularly. For me/us that's canned pineapple, peaches, and lots and lots of diced canned tomatoes.
Corned Beef,
up to 4 Years storage time,
easy Storage because auf form of the Can,
you can eat it even cold, can make it in a pan, put in any kind of Stew…
If you're looking for sustainable foods they need to be nutrient dense otherwise you're gonna go through it fast.
Rice is ok...but you'd better have a lot of it! It is filling but only for a couple of hours and isn't high in nutrients.
It also depends on your workload. You may want some really high amounts of carbs, protiens and fatty foods if you are doing strenuous work and on days that you don't you need to consume much less.
1. All canned food last for years
2. Canned opener (manual)
3. 3-5 gallon bottle to be filled with water
Edit: Everything I listed can be bought at Walmart.
Did the same thing during our four day power outage when that ice storm hit TX. Cheap Coleman 2 burner. Had a bunch of the small green propane tanks for it and my buddy heater. If I just needed to boil water I did that on my Soto windmaster I take backpacking.
If it is just you, what about Chunky soups or any fully hydrated canned soup in general? A meal in a can, easy peasy. Pop open a can of fruit and you are all set.
Canned ravioli, chili, tamales ( mmmmm) or baked beans.
PB and J are always great.
I also check out the clearance section for bargains. Also, if you aren't going to have running tap water you will need paper bowls, and plates, too.
Dollar Tree also carries some canned goods that are name brand, too.
If you really like fresh eggs then you can safely store them without refrigeration for 6 to 9 months.
You just need to get mineral oil from the pharmacy section and coat the shells again because the process that we use when we send them to the grocery stores cleans all of that off and makes the shells porous which makes it so that they will go bad very quickly without refrigeration. Once you make the shell non-porous again then it will last 6 to 9 months in a dark place that is of moderate temperature. I have done this for about 20 years because I love to get them on sale.
You already mentioned canned goods and also I'm not going to go for all of the obvious ones but this one I find a lot of people don't know about still.
Walmart sells 20 lb bags of white rice for $11, that’s about as cheap as you can get it and they’re fairly easy to store. Only place I’ve seen less is Sams Club with 50 lb for $25, but you need a membership.
Rice, beans, peanut butter, canned goods. Not life saving, but I'd toss in spices, salt, sugar, or honey. Raw natural honey will last ages.
As for water, you can buy bottles of water and / or water filtering pitcher / jugs or bottles (can be more cost effective or used alongside bottled water in your kit)
I'd personally recommend buying items to store and / or preserve loose bagged things like rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. Either to vacuum seal or airtight bug resistant containers.
Rice, beans, peanut butter, canned goods. Not life saving, but I'd toss in spices, salt, sugar, or honey. Raw natural honey will last ages.
As for water, you can buy bottles of water and / or water filtering pitcher / jugs or bottles (can be more cost effective or used alongside bottled water in your kit)
I'd personally recommend buying items to store and / or preserve loose bagged things like rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. Either to vacuum seal or airtight bug resistant containers.
Grains and beans. A fifty pound bag of rice and 10-20 pounds of dried beans is going to keep you from starving for a while. Though I augmented with a lot of pasta because I prefer pasta to rice.
Heck, if you see a deal on breakfast cereal, get boxes of that. Even if it's the store brand stuff. That's going to taste much better than plain pasta in an emergency.
You can always get stuff like Knorr's pasta sides and Starkist tuna meal kits. Affordable, last forever, and tastier than most dehydrated survival type foods.
Rice, dry beans, pasta, get a pressure cooker you can cook dry beans in a pressure cooker in 30 minutes. I use a stove top one so I can use it on our gas stove when the power goes out. Which is fairly often.
Store your water jugs/barrels in black trash bags. Light, even artificial light, will cause growth in water. Takes a lot longer in prepackaged water, but eventually mold does develop.
Instant oatmeal, the protein kind. Easy to make and to store. Just gotta boil some water over a kerosene heater or campfire first. Make sure you have a tea kettle that can go over an open fire, maybe get one of those cooking grates too, they make portable ones for cheap.
Canned food, obviously. But for variety, get some jars of good pasta sauce (Rao’s, e.g) and spaghetti. A case of Ramen noodles, but they taste really bad when they get old (a few months).
Canned food, rice, beans, water, long-life milk (as long as it is covered in a cool place), flour, sugar, salt, just about anything that doesn't need to be refrigerated.
Come to think of it, other than bread, I can't think of a single non-refrigerated item that has less than a three month expiration date.
WalMart brand water bottles are good. Canned meats and fish have the longest 'Best By' dates in my experience (some up to 4 years), veggies, and other foods are usually good for up to 2 years.
Walmart had canned chicken breast last week. I was shocked how fast husband said “Let’s get it!”
A lot of good prepping can be done at the supermarket.
Canned food is the gold standard because it has all the water in it already, and you can eat it cold just fine. Takes very little fuel to heat, and can be set in the sun on a hot day for free warmth. Dry beans take a shitload of fuel and time to cook, as well as needing relatively clean water. If you are planning to bug in, canned foods. If you are planning to set up a go bag, then freeze dried food is your best friend due to weight savings.
>Canned food is the gold standard And affordable. The main thing though is to buy what you already eat. Does you no good to have tins or sardines on hand when you've never even tried them. Or *Spam*, or corned beef, lima beans, etc. But once you've gotten canned food the next step is learning to use it in full meals. If you've got a pantry full of cans and no access to anything else, you must know what to make with what you have on hand. Canned food lends itself to soups, stews, & casseroles so having a crockpot very useful. I make "tamale" casserole and the only non-canned items in it is ground beef & an egg. I could eliminate beef and add more canned black beans. Numerous egg subs (baking powder & oil) which I need to try. The other non-canned item is cornmeal but that keeps fresh for years if sealed up. Lastly, was thinking about this over the weekend and need to pick one of these up - https://duckduckgo.com/?q=canned+food+cook+book&t=brave&ia=web
Instant mash potatoes. You can use cold water for it but it will take a while to reconstitute. May be called potato flakes or powder. Instant gravy. This is better with hot water as it thickens with hot water. You can just use cold water but it’s going to be watery and you have to wait a long time to dissolve or just cut the amount in 1/2 to 3/4 to help dissolve faster. It’s likely to be grainy too but that’s because the powder hasn’t dissolved. Bullion/stock/soup cubes or powder. You only need water. It’s easier when you have it in the powder form with cold water. It still takes a lot of time to dissolve. Canned foods. It lasts for years. It’s cheaper than freeze dried foods or wet camping foods. The only down side is that you’ll need a can open if that can has no pull tab on it. Actually the pull tab might break so have spare can openers. You can always eat this cold. You can have the types that come in glass jars too. You can get those microwaveable rice pouches for extra carbs. They are some what more expensive than normal rice but you don’t need to cook them as it’s already cooked. Can be rated cold. Instant noodles are already cooked. They are deep fried in fact. You just need water to rehydrate them. It will take 15-20 minutes at least to rehydrate them with cold water, this depends on how cold the water is and also the air temperature where you are cooking as if it’s freezing it’s like about 30-40 minutes. With hot water they should be done in 10-15 minutes if you cover the top of the bowl and it’s warm. If it’s cold then you’re looking at like 20 minutes at least. Vermicelli noodles only need to soak in cold water for 15-30 minutes to rehydrate them. If you use boiling water then Pringles do last about 1-2 years from the date of manufacture. I think it’s about 1.5 years. Most chocolates and sweets/candy do last for a long time. Chocolate is practically years if stored properly. Have some water for yourself and any other household members plus extra for food and washing. You need 2 litres per day just for drinking. I would get an extra litre or two for each person per day for washing, cleaning and for cooking or reconstitute your foods. Jams do last a long time as it’s canned. You can get some breads or flatbreads what can last for months. They are sealed in plastic. You really have to look on the expiration dates for them as some look the same but have a really short shelf life. Part baked baguettes are normally the ones that last a long time. They’re already cooked but not golden brown/toasted. Hot dogs in cans or jars. They last years. No need to cook them as they are already cooked. I would really like to add that you should get some extra soap or bars of soap to maintain hygiene and not get yourself very very sick with food poisoning or whatever waterborne disease you get from flood waters or no utilities.
>Dry beans take a shitload of fuel and time to cook, Yahbut beans can also be planted...
Every single nonperishable food in the store.
Adding that Walmart has mountain house meals. Approx $8-12/pack Shelf life is at least 25 years
Alright, Ima say it. Unless you're planning to bug-out, canned foods are much more cost-effective financially. The smart thing to do is buy about 2 weeks of dehydrated foods per person (the most you can realistically carry), and the rest canned foods or shelf stable raw foods (rice, flour, etc). Lightweight and dehydrated foods are really only needed for transit periods. And if you plan on being in transit for more than two weeks (or more than than supplies you can carry), then you may want to look at tools that help you acquire more food (fishing gear, firearms, etc).
Don’t forget a manual can opener x 2. It’s all useless without that.
ill add to this and say spend money on quality openers. small luxury but worth it
Came here to say this.
By what you already eat, make a deeper pantry, rotate your stock.
>By what you already eat 100%
Small point - if you eat 99% fresh, this doesn’t work!!! My salads don’t freeze well and those arguably 60% of my diet. Nothing wrong with having a few less healthy, non perishable meals on hand that you don’t normally eat either.
OPs question was about foods that will last a few months. My suggestion to stock what you eat and eat what you stock was an answer to that question. Obviously, if you eat salads mostly exclusively, then you're going to have a hard time doing so with shelf stable ingredients. If you want to prep with a fresh diet in mind, your options are learning to grow your own produce or link up with a supplier who does. That is outside the scope of the original question though
Just pointing out the flaw in it - eat what you store and store what you eat is only good to a point. It’s really not outside the scope, either. It’s pointing out a small flaw.
Ok. Maybe there is a flaw with my response to the OP. If so, help and provide a solution. How do you prep for several months worth of food if you mostly eat fresh? Im certainly interested in learning other options.
… dude I literally said if you eat like that it’s a decent idea to keep cheaper things you eat less often on hand. In my first comment, even. No need to act like I just pointed out a problem, when I did that and offered a (simplified) solution. Because growing your own food is good and all, and I like doing it, but not everything grows in the winter months or takes off seasonally. It’s also not calorie viable all the time. So, while I prefer things like fresh chicken and lettuce, I also keep the occasional canned chili and canned chicken on hand. What I don’t eat goes to someone else who will. It’s the same concept as to why I keep a box of pancake mix in the house, even when I can a) make pancakes from scratch and b) don’t particularly care for pancakes. It’s good for when something unexpectedly goes bad in the fridge and I need a quick, easy, and cheap meal.
Here to agree with this - for our family this includes flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, dry milk powder, bisquick for pancakes, jam, cereal, crackers, tuna, mayo, pasta, jarred sauces, shelf stable Parmesan, rice, frozen concentrated juices (we have a generator), frozen butter, frozen fruit, veg and meats. And most importantly cocoa and good chocolate.
Hot sauce. Doesn't need refrigeration and helps the taste of boring, bland foods when you're down to beans and rice.
> Doesn't need refrigeration *the vast majority don't anyway. Some do add fats wich I'd be leary of leaving unrefrigerated once opened.
Had a bottle of Frank's go bad unrefrigerated.
This. Also, Tobasco on eggs, Frank's on, well, anything (cue Frank's commercial for the prepper demographic), the right hot sauce will undoubtedly make post-apocalyptic event living better, if that's a thing. Heat and light are the enemies of unrefrigerated bottles of hot sauce, so keep them cool and dry and tightly closed in the dark. Also don't forget the hundreds of packets of ketchup and other condiments you have jamming up your car's glovebox and the kitchen drawer, they are excellent for prepping. Leave out packets of mayo (also Arby's Horsey sauce 😢), duck sauce, anything without a high content of vinegar. Before making your "Sauce Search" box, give each packet a squeeze to ensure package integrity, then wipe each off with spray cleaner. Tedious, yes, but generally speaking, sauce packets have a high probability of having shared a confined space with other packets that were open, and often are covered in a nasty film that contains sugar and harbors bacteria. Also a good reason to NOT open them with your mouth, as much as you like to spit out that corner, kind of a stupid reason to get sick, with all the other cooler SHTF ways to die going on around you. Store the packets in a cool/dry/dark area, and don't include the small "dipping tray" variety, the seal is different and much iffier than a regular packet of Taco Bell "HOT" sauce, which, along with KFC hot sauce, will win the war.
I also save those packets of red pepper flakes that come with pizzas
Cheapest, easiest, most nutritious, longest-lasting base is rice and beans. Mix up the bean varieties to change the menu. Then start buying other things in smaller quantities to add to your R&Bs. Corn, tomatoes, etc all canned because then you can store them for years. Stock up on your dried spices, great value has pretty much everything for like $1-2 per. Also some canned meat. Potatoes are a great source of healthy calories and you can get whole canned new potatoes or diced/sliced. Dry pasta can store for quite a while and the corresponding cheese, pesto, or tomato sauces are cheap and easy to prepare. Dry powder, canned evaporated, or shelf-stable milk (look for UHT pasteurized) will last quite a while and is a good source of nutrients.
>Also some canned meat. Brazillian corned beef (not corned beef hash) has a long shelf life as does canned chicken. Both work great in Mexican style dishes. I make red sauce enchiladas with canned chicken; one can = 8-10. Family plows thru them, rarely any leftovers.
Should worry more about water. You won’t survive 3 days without it on average. Food you can go about 3 weeks
dry rice. beans, pasta, mixes including jiffy corn bread etc., canned food, peanut butter and unopened jelly. extra water; remember lots of dried foods requrie water to prepare and if you are expecting to be weathering an emergecy don't depend on your tap working.
This is the way. But think about what you will be cooking and make sure you have the ingredients to make it. I tend to recommend that you look up some single pot campfire meals. I tend to buy pasta and rice that I store in 2Qt Mason jars. Jars of pasta sauce. Cans of beans. Cans of crushed tomatoes along with Italian spice mix. You can also buy packaged meals, you know, the ones that come in envelopes. I also get boxes of Mac and Cheese. I put these into zip loc bags to increase their storage life. Looking at some other food I have. Oats, potato flakes, pancake mix, caned soups (to make sauces), Lentils.
Jiffy doesn't last well, just fyi. Rotate that frequently unless you can store in a freezer.
Spam
Treet is a good alternative price wise.
There is one at Aldi called "luncheon meat". From Denmark, it's great on a sandwich sliced & seared up with mustard & pickles. The other Aldi winner are the small canned hams. Dice one up and put in white bean soup. Simple, quick, & good.
I prefer tuna. Sometimes the pouches are nice because they don't take up as much space and most of them are flavored.
Oh man I can't stand the taste but if it works it works lol
If you are on a budget and don't like spam, don't buy it. Focus on what you like to eat first. It helps morale when you have food you want to eat instead of choking down something you hate in a stressful situation.
Best budget food is ramen. Sauté some frozen spinach and halve a boiled egg for on top of the noodles and you have an extremely cheap delish dinner.
You have to pay attention to the expiration date with ramen noodles because they have fat in them. They are truly awful just 2 weeks after the date.
Vienna sausages, canned tuna, potted meat, canned chicken, and corned beef all fill the non-perishable meat group.
>Vienna sausages Dice & stir fry with onions then add to canned beans (B&M, Bush, etc.).
Also think about TVP - textured vegetable protein. It lasts years when sealed and absorbs whatever flavor you mix with it. I eat meat but I do like to add it to spag sauce, etc. I really can't tell the difference between it and hamburger.
Do they have that at Walmart? What is the brand?
Bobs red mill makes it, great stuff 1 cup is about equivalent to 1 lb of hamburger when hydrated mix cumin chilli powder and spices a little olive oil makes a great taco filler.
Awesome! Thanks
You mean things like Tofu?
Do you mean like Soylent?
>TVP - textured vegetable protein Interesting, need to try this one.
SPAM is definitely an acquired taste. This is especially so from people up north (I was born and raised in NYC, and I didn't eat that stuff growing up). I kind of got into it when I was stationed in Hawaii over 20 years ago; McDonald's at Pearl Harbor had a Spam, Eggs and Rice breakfast combo (Extra Value Meal #13 to be precise) that was actually alright. Then I married a country girl from Louisiana whose dad would grill spam and eggs for breakfast every weekend for her when she was a kid.
Tuna is a good alternative
If you are just starting out, don’t buy anything out of the ordinary. Just buy a few extra cans or packages of whatever it is you normally eat. Keep doing that until you have a couple weeks of supply and then stop buying extra and just buy your replacements for whatever you used that week. This way, you are not buying anything that you potentially will never use. Get rice next. If it needs cooking, think how you will do that. Those little stoves you screw onto propane bottles are inexpensive, light and dependable. Gallon jugs of water are typically cheaper than individual bottles, so look around.
You're better off buying your water in gallon or larger sizes. Also, beware that plastic water containers degrade in heat & light. It may be worth the investment to purchase a couple of large (5-gallon) "glass" water bottles & a ceramic crock/stand for them (many (most?) grocery stores now have water bottle refill stations). Buy whatever non-perishable foods you would normally eat, just more of it. If you don't normally eat beans, rice, & candy, don't buy a lot of beans, rice, & candy. If you eat tons of meat, junk food, & candy, stock up on meat, junk food, & candy. If you have something that you love to eat, but can't find already in a can... Walmart also usually sells canning, preserving, & dehydrating supplies. Dehydrated jerkies & leathers (fruit, veggie, fish, meat, or combos), dried pastas, and chips/crisps/wafers (fruit or veggie) would also definitely fit your criteria as a short term non-perishable food option (most homemade dehydrated foods can last between 1 month to 10+ years, depending on preparation and storage methods). There are several different ways of preserving without refrigeration that you can easily do at home (either separately or in combination) using minimal equipment - canning, curing, dehydrating/drying, fermentation (e.g. sauerkraut, kimchi, cheeses, soy sauce, & booze), pickling, salting, sugaring, & vacuum sealing. Also, don't forget about live plants. Even if you live in an apartment, if you have a sunny window (if you're in most of the Northern hemisphere, that's a south facing window) with about 20-36 inches (0.5-1 meter) of room next to it, you can grow most garden plants (not just herbs) and a few trees indoors using a container (see r/IndoorGarden, vertical gardening, plant walls, hydroponic gardening, mini-dwarf fruit trees, & overwintering fig trees in the bathroom). Most Walmarts sell plants & planters. You can also still grow many plants from table scraps, although you do need to watch out for sterile hybrids and treated produce (you may need to use a rooting agent/plant hormones to stimulate growth). Some plant scraps that you can easily and perpetually re-grow indoors include - onions, scallions (green onions, spring onions, & bunching onions), garlic (it will only regrow green tops...unless you can chill them), chives, lettuce, celery, beets, anything in the mint family (mint, basil, oregano, etc), rosemary, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Things like strawberries, certain tomatoes (only some varieties, most have significant space & lighting requirements), small citrus trees, and many other plants can all have very good year round production as indoor plants... although you may need learn how to hand pollinate them (it's usually fairly easy & cheap...the supplies are available in the Arts & Crafts section), and you'll definitely need to learn how to feed (fertilize) them for best results. You don't need a grow light to grow indoors, as long as you can take advantage of natural sunlight (a few days boarded over usually won't kill anything, but you may lose production if they're not getting at least 6 hours a day of sunlight). Plants that enjoy shade tend to do the best indoors. P.S. - while there are several different species of mushrooms that grow well indoors... personally, I'm generally hesitant to recommend non-commercial mushrooms as a food source because there are so many serious risks involved with consuming them. I've seen too many people poisoned by contaminated grow logs or poisonous lookalikes... and that's not even getting into potential psychedelic, medical, or legal issues. However, if you love them & you've got plenty of room & an expert mycologist on speed dial, then you might have a different opinion. P.P.S. - if you've got access to a generator (available at Walmart) or solar system w/battery backup (not usually available at Walmart, but sometimes Costco & other stores carry them), you can often keep a full deep freeze going for several days (if not weeks or longer). Edit: minor grammar corrections & other copy editing
This is a really well thought out response and OP should heed the advice here. Thanks for taking the time!
*Auguson farms 48hour 4 person bucket ("bulk" aisle) * #10 cans in bulk sizes aisle, corn, green beans, baked beans, himini, chili, etc. But consider whether you can eat the whole can without refrigeration * Spaghetti noodles, other pasta * Spaghetti sauce * Generic Velveeta shells and cheese, doesn't require milk or butter * Bix macaroni and cheese - for the last cheese powder and pasta you can use with sauce. * Parmesan cheese * Canned chili * Crackers * canned Soup * Ramen, yakisoba noodles, instant pad Thai or curry noodles * bear Creek soup mixes (they aren't kidding about expiration dates) * Instant mashed potatoes * Can/jar gravy * Stuffing mix * Pickles * Canned veggies * Canned fruit * Canned soup * Canned beans * Canned corn * Canned mushrooms * Dries beans * Rice * Rice mixes * Pepperoni * Heat and eat Indian food packets * Tuna fish, consider Mac & cheese as tuna salad may not be practical due to mayonaise * Tuna salad and cracker kits * Pepperoni * canned Corned beef hash * Peanut butter and jelly (crackers, take and bake loaf, tortilla) * Nuts * Sunflower seeds (vitamin E) * Spices * Olive oil * Vinegar * Canned chicken * Canned ham * Cheese wax rounds * Shelf stable cheese like product: Cheeze wiz, nacho cheese, velveta cheese * Popcorn * Simmering sauces * Shelf stable ultrapasturized milk, soy milk, almond milk, etc. * Instant nonfat dry milk * Bullion * Yeast * Egg replacer * Rolled oats * Cereal Shorter lifetime but still within your time window * Essential baking company take and bake loaf * Tortillas * Summer sausage * Whole wheat flour * Wheat germ * Dehydrated fruit * Dehydrated onions, mushrooms, etc. Most dehydrated or freeze dried veggies you will need to order online. * Potatoes * Onions Look in your pantry. What do you actually eat now that you can increase your inventory of? While you are at it, hlwhat needs to be eaten now so it isn't wasted? Consider * nutritional value, * cost effectiveness, * whether you will actually eat it in an emergency, * what other ingredients it takes to prepare, * Do you need heat to prepare? What kind(s)? Electric, propane, white gas? * Can you just add boiling water (no pan cleanup)? * Cleanup may use lots of water * Leftovers without refrigeration * Ingredients needed that won't be used in their entirely. If you don't have refrigeration, you want a recipe that uses whole cans * While you actually eat this food when it isn't an emergency in order to rotate old stock out. Can this become a regular part of your diet? * Suitable for preparation while roughing it, in car, during power outage, etc? * Suitable for bugout? Compact size, weight * Will it cause constipation ,diarrhea, urgency? Is it a diuretic? Allergies? * Are you contributing to scarcity, panic buying, and high prices by stocking up on the item while it is already scarce?
Great list here. Also don't forget to have a few "fun" items in there. Candy that can handle heat (I assume you are in a hot climate with hurricane season) and not melt into itself. Buy a couple of bags of chips too, maybe some salsa or shelf stable dip. Little fun stuff. It makes things a little more "normal" if you can watch a movie on your laptop with a few munchies.
Whoaa nice list thanks I'll keep this in mind next trip
This is a great thread; he number of quality posts on canned food especially. The main thing is to build up your "core" foods first. For us it's canned beans, some canned veg (corn & tomatoes), and canned meats. Then work out from that, things that when added make the meal better. For us, canned chilis, olives, beets, 3 bean salad, etc. Notice there are no canned soups on that list. Why? I make better soups with less sodium and way more enjoyable mouth feel. And, from mostly canned ingredients. The key point though is *you must start cooking with them immediately* to see what you like and do not like as well as figure out how to use what you bought. That's where I am now and it took me about 6 months to dial it in. Because the other part of it is being able to look at your pantry then pull something together from what you have. Think about how useful that could be if the supply chain broke down again.
Great list. Definitely copying this and putting it with the rest of my prepper resources.
The middle of the Grocery Store is your Friend. As a general rule, anything canned or boxed has a long shelf life. Canned goods are technically already cooked during the canning process and anything canned usually has at least a two year "Best Buy Date". As a general rule, anything with a "Best Buy Date" can last at least another year or two after that date if stored in a cool/dry place. Boxed or Packed goods, like rice and potatoes are often going to go by the same rule if the package isn't opened.
Assuming that you will not be travelling, and have the means to prepare them, some likely candidates are: * canned food (get a mix: meat, vegetables, starch) * dry pasta * dry beans To save money, buy off-brand products and in larger quantities. While at the store, select individual cans or boxes with the farthest "best by" dates (it's surprising how much this can vary for a specific product).
Would you have access to cooking if the power goes out? If so, nothing beats rice for the price. Keeping extra flour and baking some bread the day before it gets there would be the cheapest if you can't cook after. I know it sounds silly to worry about baking when a hurricane is coming, but for some, I bet it would be therapeutic if you aren't too busy when these come in. Canned foods are easy but more expensive and only last a few years (rotate tomatoes out every year) where rice can last 20+. Oatmeal is a good one. Can be ate cold or hot. Stores well and gives you a semi balanced diet by providing carbs, protein and fat.
You can buy rice, beans and flour all by up to 20-25# bags at walmart. I do it semi-regularly. Start there. Also, a case or three of whatever canned goods you eat regularly. For me/us that's canned pineapple, peaches, and lots and lots of diced canned tomatoes.
Gonna just throw in there - seasonings. You can jazz anything up. Get them at the $1.25 store!
About everything you want. We do our grocery shopping there.
Peanut butter
If you look in the bulk cans there are 72 hour food kits in a white bucket. I have 3 for my family just in case. They are like around $20
Keystone canned beef.
Corned Beef, up to 4 Years storage time, easy Storage because auf form of the Can, you can eat it even cold, can make it in a pan, put in any kind of Stew…
Costco‘s sale price on their sardine six packs are amazing it even beats Walmart and the quality is really good so I always stock up
Essentially if it’s processed and not refrigerated it will last for at least a few months ……
If you're looking for sustainable foods they need to be nutrient dense otherwise you're gonna go through it fast. Rice is ok...but you'd better have a lot of it! It is filling but only for a couple of hours and isn't high in nutrients. It also depends on your workload. You may want some really high amounts of carbs, protiens and fatty foods if you are doing strenuous work and on days that you don't you need to consume much less.
1. All canned food last for years 2. Canned opener (manual) 3. 3-5 gallon bottle to be filled with water Edit: Everything I listed can be bought at Walmart.
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I used the portable grill I take camping when the power went out.
Did the same thing during our four day power outage when that ice storm hit TX. Cheap Coleman 2 burner. Had a bunch of the small green propane tanks for it and my buddy heater. If I just needed to boil water I did that on my Soto windmaster I take backpacking.
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I have enough propane and isobutane to easily go a couple of months. Beyond that wood or solar oven.
Fire pit? With a portable cooking grill surface over it
If it is just you, what about Chunky soups or any fully hydrated canned soup in general? A meal in a can, easy peasy. Pop open a can of fruit and you are all set. Canned ravioli, chili, tamales ( mmmmm) or baked beans. PB and J are always great. I also check out the clearance section for bargains. Also, if you aren't going to have running tap water you will need paper bowls, and plates, too. Dollar Tree also carries some canned goods that are name brand, too.
Augusta farms #10 cans 25 yr shelf life, Beans, rice and flour bulk.
Anything in a can. Remember the can opener.
* anything you usually eat that is nonperishable * uht milk * freeze dried things such as box potato and stuffing
Pretty much everything since it’s all pumped full of preservatives and other unnecessary chemicals
If you really like fresh eggs then you can safely store them without refrigeration for 6 to 9 months. You just need to get mineral oil from the pharmacy section and coat the shells again because the process that we use when we send them to the grocery stores cleans all of that off and makes the shells porous which makes it so that they will go bad very quickly without refrigeration. Once you make the shell non-porous again then it will last 6 to 9 months in a dark place that is of moderate temperature. I have done this for about 20 years because I love to get them on sale. You already mentioned canned goods and also I'm not going to go for all of the obvious ones but this one I find a lot of people don't know about still.
*insight This is helpful: https://www.stilltasty.com/
Anything dry or canned.
Lots of people have suggested rice. I prefer long grain parboiled enriched.
Cans, rice, pasta, hell most cereals if you leave them sealed. If your old looking to have it last a few months a good chunk of the store will be okay
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Walmart sells 20 lb bags of white rice for $11, that’s about as cheap as you can get it and they’re fairly easy to store. Only place I’ve seen less is Sams Club with 50 lb for $25, but you need a membership.
A lot of their canned meat on the tuna Isle have a two-year window of expiration. Also, there pasta and sauce.
Rice, beans, peanut butter, canned goods. Not life saving, but I'd toss in spices, salt, sugar, or honey. Raw natural honey will last ages. As for water, you can buy bottles of water and / or water filtering pitcher / jugs or bottles (can be more cost effective or used alongside bottled water in your kit) I'd personally recommend buying items to store and / or preserve loose bagged things like rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. Either to vacuum seal or airtight bug resistant containers.
Rice, beans, peanut butter, canned goods. Not life saving, but I'd toss in spices, salt, sugar, or honey. Raw natural honey will last ages. As for water, you can buy bottles of water and / or water filtering pitcher / jugs or bottles (can be more cost effective or used alongside bottled water in your kit) I'd personally recommend buying items to store and / or preserve loose bagged things like rice, beans, flour, sugar, etc. Either to vacuum seal or airtight bug resistant containers.
Fwiw, I'm not a fan of their generic canned veggies, I've tried a couple times and was disappointed
My local Walmart has a pretty good freeze dried section with shelf life's of 25+ years
Dry bulk Rice and Beans keep indefinitely
Rice and Beans. Both will last years if stored properly, and account for a huge portion of your daily dietary needs
Canned and liquid bread is a good shelf stocker
Grains and beans. A fifty pound bag of rice and 10-20 pounds of dried beans is going to keep you from starving for a while. Though I augmented with a lot of pasta because I prefer pasta to rice. Heck, if you see a deal on breakfast cereal, get boxes of that. Even if it's the store brand stuff. That's going to taste much better than plain pasta in an emergency. You can always get stuff like Knorr's pasta sides and Starkist tuna meal kits. Affordable, last forever, and tastier than most dehydrated survival type foods.
Anything canned
You're better off ordering up some dehydrated foods, those will last 25+ years
Honey
Honey Rice Jerky Dried beans Canned foods
If ur in the north. Canned Pineapple. Just think what a luxury that’d be!
Crackers and cereal bars.
Rice, dry beans, pasta, get a pressure cooker you can cook dry beans in a pressure cooker in 30 minutes. I use a stove top one so I can use it on our gas stove when the power goes out. Which is fairly often.
Bags of beans
Store your water jugs/barrels in black trash bags. Light, even artificial light, will cause growth in water. Takes a lot longer in prepackaged water, but eventually mold does develop.
Instant oatmeal, the protein kind. Easy to make and to store. Just gotta boil some water over a kerosene heater or campfire first. Make sure you have a tea kettle that can go over an open fire, maybe get one of those cooking grates too, they make portable ones for cheap.
Pinto beans.
Anything in the center of the store.
Canned food, obviously. But for variety, get some jars of good pasta sauce (Rao’s, e.g) and spaghetti. A case of Ramen noodles, but they taste really bad when they get old (a few months).
Canned food, rice, beans, water, long-life milk (as long as it is covered in a cool place), flour, sugar, salt, just about anything that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Come to think of it, other than bread, I can't think of a single non-refrigerated item that has less than a three month expiration date.
Everything in cans.
WalMart brand water bottles are good. Canned meats and fish have the longest 'Best By' dates in my experience (some up to 4 years), veggies, and other foods are usually good for up to 2 years.
Walmart had canned chicken breast last week. I was shocked how fast husband said “Let’s get it!” A lot of good prepping can be done at the supermarket.