# Lowest cost year of Food



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Here is the challenge...

put together the lowest cost 12 months of food you can that would allow you to survive, not get scurvy, and have "some" variety in taste without relying on any hunted or gathered food. Based on 1 person.

water is available.

I am going to work on this over the next week also

I think I will base mine off of
kidney beans
pinto beans
oatmeal
rice
flour
sugar
canned fruit
canned veggies
spices


----------



## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Enough multi vitamins for one per day for each person.

Solves your scurvy and other health concerns


----------



## Swedishsocialist (Jan 16, 2015)

Maine-Marine said:


> Here is the challenge...
> 
> put together the lowest cost 12 months of food you can that would allow you to survive, not get scurvy, and have "some" variety in taste without relying on any hunted or gathered food. Based on 1 person.
> 
> ...


lenses, (or are they called lentils?) anyhow, they are quite ok for storing and rather cheap.


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

alterego said:


> Enough multi vitamins for one per day for each person.
> 
> Solves your scurvy and other health concerns


I am guess that would be the most expensive way...


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Swedishsocialist said:


> lenses, (or are they called lentils?) anyhow, they are quite ok for storing and rather cheap.


you will die of scurvy after your teeth fall out


----------



## Swedishsocialist (Jan 16, 2015)

Maine-Marine said:


> you will die of scurvy after your teeth fall out


I was not advocating eating just lenses, just that they should be on the list.

and potatos / unions. The last a while.


----------



## Real Old Man (Aug 17, 2015)

When was the last time (any where any place ) where a famine took place that indeed killed off a substantial portion of a population (10 - 20%). My Guess is it's as far back as the 1920's during the russian civil war.

So when was the last time a substantial portion of the US was cut off from food supplies and for how long?


----------



## AquaHull (Jun 10, 2012)

Real Old Man said:


> When was the last time (any where any place ) where a famine took place that indeed killed off a substantial portion of a population (10 - 20%). My Guess is it's as far back as the 1920's during the russian civil war.
> 
> So when was the last time a substantial portion of the US was cut off from food supplies and for how long?


I get it. So do you.

Then why are you even here? You don't see the need to prep, so why argue?


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Excellent challenge and post MM


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Real Old Man said:


> When was the last time (any where any place ) where a famine took place that indeed killed off a substantial portion of a population (10 - 20%). My Guess is it's as far back as the 1920's during the russian civil war.
> 
> So when was the last time a substantial portion of the US was cut off from food supplies and for how long?


Then I would say we are about due then, considering&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;

Man has not become more civilized in regards to "world peace".

Anybody with even one eye open can see the walls of an agenda being completed completely surrounding them with identification and isolation in mind.


----------



## Real Old Man (Aug 17, 2015)

AquaHull said:


> I get it. So do you.
> 
> Then why are you even here? You don't see the need to prep, so why argue?


Funny guy. Prepping should be based n a reality event not something you think may happen sometime in the next million years.

You have one kid asking for a bit of reason on how much to prepare for and every body jumps down his throat like he's the stupidist person on the planet.

Back many many years ago, I had the good fortune to be in a foreign country that underwent a revolution. Did most of us ******'s prep? Sure we did and most of us went armed on a daily basis. But our preparations were reality based - would the folks from the north take advantage and invade, how do we get all our dependents safely out of country. Not this cackamamie nonsense that the dollar is going to crash become worthless and we're all going to be back to the age of barter. Or that we're going to see the prophisies of the bible and going to experience the rapture.

if you live in a


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

Many who have been watching and preparing will make a stand to endure because they have prepared…….. and many will see that they have not prepared to make a stand.


----------



## AquaHull (Jun 10, 2012)

Real Old Man said:


> Funny guy. Prepping should be based n a reality event not something you think may happen sometime in the next million years.
> 
> You have one kid asking for a bit of reason on how much to prepare for and every body jumps down his throat like he's the stupidist person on the planet.
> 
> ...


Quoted For Truth


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

My OP was about putting together the lowest cost 12 months of survival food...

do not want to play...move along

but do not think it will never happen

the great depression lasted around 10 years

dad not working and kids hungry








dust bowl








no work, no money, no food








free food








in my humble opinion... we are a different people today then in the 20's and 30's and it will be much worse... also in my humble opinion, if all you prep for is a winter storm, hurricane, or other natural event... you are crazy... historically it seems all currency fails, all countries under go collapse or revolt, pandemics happen, war happens, emp happen. ..

I see America at a tipping point and I think hard times are coming..this year, next year, in 5 years...??? i am preparing for it... I want to put food on the table and take care of my family...

If you are not concerned about that WONDERFUL... if you are happy with 30 cans of spam and 20 lbs of rice wonderful...

call me what you want and say what you want.. but I will always advocate for longer term preps... if done right, once you get them you can rotate them and always have a lot...

I would rather have and not need then need and not have. I would rather be called a crazy fool and have extra food then to be a starving wise man

I will not go gentle into that goodnight
-----------------------------------
Do not go gentle into that good night
Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

The best way to put together a low cost 12 mo food supply is to find the lowest price on what you want to store. 

It's really that simple.


----------



## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

neonoah said:


> Tennesee. The last depression. I was raised by people still haunted of it. They described things I didn't get as a kid, in med school you learn they are the progressive signs of starvation and the point where it gets irreversible even if the person does somehow survive. You can take their damaged goods descendents 3 generations later and count it like tree rings.
> The idea that you can starve easy and yuck, even uglier, you can reduce your own blood line to scrawnyness and vulnerability is not at all strange or distant to me. The idea that people have come to a condition where they are so flippant about things that took the labors and dedication of generations is diatant, alien and insulting to me. The idea of how many flippant day dreamers we have doesn't really make one think "that's why grasshoppers all die every winter except these dumb vain ones won't hatch back" so much as it alarms you to the number of future savages there will be who's concept of food, nutrition, blood line and life is even dumber and more desperate than the cave people before them. The human catastrophe in this one could be at least 4-5x the last one.
> 
> Anyway, I consider ignoble and sand castle crustaceans to be part of the great burden that has to slough off so the swimmers that are can swim, so I don't get much into it.
> ...


I listened to my grandparent and my mother talk about the great depression as a child and this has always spurned me into preparing as well as possible under all aspects of my life. I do not understand why it is that people forget that these things happen and that they don't just happen once never to be repeated. through out human history there have been many times that the human population has been threatened. Some of these times have lasted years, not a few months of "suffering" 
My mother did not live through it, but still suffered because of it. she had parent that were raised through one of the darkest times of our country. my mother lived poor her whole childhood. there was never an extra penny. every thing was shared and used until the item could not be used again. flour sacks made of cloth were an example of how this country survived. women used the cloth sacks as fabric for many things. dish towels many of us are familiar with, but they also turned them into clothing which was used until it was unusable and then turned into something else like the rag rugs that covered floors and quilts for their beds that were piled several deep to keep the family warm since there was no central heating. flour mills caught onto this and started printing the flour sacks with different patterns and colors, some even had cut out patterns printed on them for stuffed toys. 
Gardens were not an experiment. if you didn't have one you went hungry. if crops failed, you had nothing. my family for generations have lived by the idea that if you have it today, save it for tomorrow because you may not have the chance later. sometimes our best plans fail and there is nothing we can do about it. we canned every scrap of food coming out of the garden even if we felt there was enough already. you never know what will happen tomorrow. 
Rabbits are another food source popular in the depression. the younger children plucked weeds from the road side daily to feed them. they live on this and garden scraps not commercial food and were basically a free source of protein.


----------



## Targetshooter (Dec 4, 2015)

Ok salt ,,,,, it has lots of uses ,


----------



## Oddcaliber (Feb 17, 2014)

During WW2 folks planted victory gardens. It keep them fed and the government encourage it!


----------



## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

Operator6 said:


> The best way to put together a low cost 12 mo food supply is to find the lowest price on what you want to store.
> 
> It's really that simple.


as always, what you WANT and what you need are 2 different things

and frankly, it is not simply it requires some thinking..


----------



## Prepper News (Jan 17, 2016)

Real Old Man said:


> Funny guy. Prepping should be based n a reality event not something you think may happen sometime in the next million years.
> 
> You have one kid asking for a bit of reason on how much to prepare for and every body jumps down his throat like he's the stupidist person on the planet.
> 
> ...


I don't always agree with the old man, but still like his grit.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

Maine-Marine said:


> as always, what you WANT and what you need are 2 different things
> 
> and frankly, it is not simply it requires some thinking..


What an educated prepper wants is what he needs.

It's very simple unless one wishes to complicate it.

You or anyone else can buy prepackaged meals that will last for years.

I prefer not to parse words. It's done way to often on forums.


----------



## Prepper News (Jan 17, 2016)

Below video is a good start. I'd also want to add in LOTS and LOTS of fruits and veggies from the garden!

I'm not crazy about the Home Depot buckets. Not sure it matters if you're using mylar bags/o2 absorbers inside...but I'd use the Walmart white food grade buckets...or just food grade buckets.


----------



## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

Prepper News said:


> Below video is a good start. I'd also want to add in LOTS and LOTS of fruits and veggies from the garden!
> 
> I'm not crazy about the Home Depot buckets. Not sure it matters if you're using mylar bags/o2 absorbers inside...but I'd use the Walmart white food grade buckets...or just food grade buckets.


that guy is a nut case if he thinks 200 lbs of white rice and 200 lbs of beans is a year supply of food. that works out to be about 1100 calories a day. this may provide carbohydrates and some protein, but is not enough to support a working person trying to survive in post apocalyptic situations, and provides none of the vitamins and minerals necessary for good health. a person would slowly starve to death on this diet unless he was stuck in a box


----------



## Prepper News (Jan 17, 2016)

tirednurse said:


> that guy is a nut case if he thinks 200 lbs of white rice and 200 lbs of beans is a year supply of food. that works out to be about 1100 calories a day. this may provide carbohydrates and some protein, but is not enough to support a working person trying to survive in post apocalyptic situations, and provides none of the vitamins and minerals necessary for good health. a person would slowly starve to death on this diet unless he was stuck in a box


Agree with ya...like I said, it's a start. Need the micronutrients from veggies and fruits. Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds & nuts...G-BOMBS (https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/gbombs.aspx) . I'm a big fan of Dr. Fuhrman and his excellent book 'Eat To Live'. Almost 3,000 5-star reviews on Amazon.


----------



## BuckB (Jan 14, 2016)

Prepper News said:


> Agree with ya...like I said, it's a start. Need the micronutrients from veggies and fruits. Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, seeds & nuts...G-BOMBS (https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/gbombs.aspx) . I'm a big fan of Dr. Fuhrman and his excellent book 'Eat To Live'. Almost 3,000 5-star reviews on Amazon.


I'm a big fan of F-Bombs. Is that similar?


----------



## Prepper News (Jan 17, 2016)

BuckB said:


> I'm a big fan of F-Bombs. Is that similar?


Close, but not quite.


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I'm not sure why, but this challenge feels familiar. Was something similar posted a few months back?

Anyways...
Where I currently fail to meet the challenge would be in keeping up vitamin intake.
Canned fruits and dried banana slices won't last very long to stave off scurvy.
What long term solution is there aside from growing your own?
Even then, to get high vitamin C content fruits requires the right soil. Good luck on that! Most folks don't have highly acidic soil.

We can all come up with solutions to the calorie equation.
I'm more worried about the nutrients.
The multivitamin route is an option, but not really a cheap one.


----------



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

I always get freaked out when i think of how LONG the great depression lasted, i find the subject so fascinating that people went thru that it seems like a movie plot yet it was reality! Furthermore, i always shake my head at all the people i knew when i was younger (starting with my grandmom) who were between 12-16 years old at the start of the great depression...i shake my head because i never asked a single one of them a single question about it, and now they are all gone. Their stories would have been fascinating, they were the perfect age, on average their lives up until the start of high school was the roaring 20s, and then their teens & 20s were the depression (when your memories stick the best because of youth). Boy did i piss away years of opportunities to hear insane stories. I was recently watching Cinderella Man and i was occasionally getting mad thinking of all the stories i passed up on out of ignorance. Did anyone else waste opportunities to ask your elders about the depression, only to become intrigued by the subject after they were gone?


----------



## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I'd_last_a_day said:


> I always get freaked out when i think of how LONG the great depression lasted, i find the subject so fascinating that people went thru that it seems like a movie plot yet it was reality! Furthermore, i always shake my head at all the people i knew when i was younger (starting with my grandmom) who were between 12-16 years old at the start of the great depression...i shake my head because i never asked a single one of them a single question about it, and now they are all gone. Their stories would have been fascinating, they were the perfect age, on average their lives up until the start of high school was the roaring 20s, and then their teens & 20s were the depression (when your memories stick the best because of youth). Boy did i piss away years of opportunities to hear insane stories. I was recently watching Cinderella Man and i was occasionally getting mad thinking of all the stories i passed up on out of ignorance. Did anyone else waste opportunities to ask your elders about the depression, only to become intrigued by the subject after they were gone?


This struck a chord with me.
I lost both of my grandfathers this year, the latest just last week, and I immediately realized all of the potential knowledge I lost with them.
I heard lots of stories from my mom's dad about living in the holler in Tennessee. They were poor. Dirt floors in a log house with only 1 room. They worked tobacco and cut cord wood. I remember all the fun stories, but never had a chance to ask about the rough times.
I still have both grandmothers, though. They're both spry and quick-minded still.
I wonder what the easiest way to bring up this topic would be.


----------



## tango (Apr 12, 2013)

My grandparents lived thru the depression.
We lived with/next door to them for years.
They were farmers/gardeners, had pigs, and beef.
My grandfather dug coal, cut wood, and grew oats, barley and hay.
My grandma, cooked on a wood stove, canned everything, made her own clothes.
I did not have to ask how they survived, as I saw it every day.

Folks, for the most, do not do those things anymore.
It is a different world now, it will be a different depression too!


----------



## A Watchman (Sep 14, 2015)

neonoah said:


> No females (that are supposed to be fertile and have right, healthy young)
> No young to worry about anemia, scurvy, rickettial diseases and plague
> No dog or cat you love who looks to you
> No livestock who idea of life depends on you
> ...


^^^^^^^^ That's exactly what I was thinking.


----------



## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

Kauboy said:


> I'm not sure why, but this challenge feels familiar. Was something similar posted a few months back?
> 
> Anyways...
> Where I currently fail to meet the challenge would be in keeping up vitamin intake.
> ...


Not just for prepping reasons but I bought a pile of emergenC vitamin c tonight. Put a few packs in my BOB, might help some nasty water taste better on top of the C benefit.


----------



## I'd_last_a_day (May 12, 2015)

Kauboy said:


> They were poor. Dirt floors in a log house with only 1 room.


Ouch, a dirt floor Wow and Yuck at the same time. We are so spoiled, i recently complained that i didn't get that incredible sectional to wrap around my living room but instead got the 2 chaise lounges. I also complain that i went with a Pergo kitchen floor instead of tile.



Kauboy said:


> I wonder what the easiest way to bring up this topic would be.


I'm not sure if it would be a sore subject or if it would cause a tsunami of chatter box stories. Of course everyone is different but i remember as a kid that there was a 'General' rule that WW2 vets like to talk about the war, but Vietnam vets hated to talk about it. Not sure what the general rule would be for great depression.

My grandmom was 14 in 1929...we talk in here all the time about how drastically the shift in life style could happen. I think half of the intrigue would have been that she would remember the switch...from roaring 20s to bread lines, man it's crazy!


----------



## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

tango said:


> My grandparents lived thru the depression.
> We lived with/next door to them for years.
> They were farmers/gardeners, had pigs, and beef.
> My grandfather dug coal, cut wood, and grew oats, barley and hay.
> ...


I had the same experience. spent most of my childhood pestering my grandparents. I don't know why but even when I was very little I hung on every word they said. I learned many lessons from them just by being with them. I just wish others in my family would have picked up even half of what I did. sometimes I just can't even imagine that they were raised in the same family. 
I guess I'm lucky that I learned early what was important. I learned to cook, can and dry food, garden and grow animals for food, sew, knit, crocket, soap and candle making, land management, money management and outright common sense just by doing what I saw them do.
my grandparents were not hoarders but they never seemed to throw much away. food never went to waste. in one way or another it fed someone or something then into the compost to be used on the garden the next year. clothing was used until it couldn't be mended again and then turned into something else. they didn't buy what they didn't need and then used what they had.


----------

