# Where Do I Begin in my food prep?



## imcoco (Jan 8, 2015)

Hi y'all,
In one of the books I bought it gave a list of things to buy week by week so it's not so overwhelming. Well, to be honest it still kinda is. Is it more beneficial to buy a few cans of canned goods at a time or should we go all in and buy bulk? Do I really need to start small like just water and a few items and work my way up? I just need ideas and advice on what you did at the very beginning. Thanks in advance!


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

Welcome to the forum. If you can afford to buy in bulk and have room to store, then go for it. But as you will soon find out that bulk food expires and you'll feel bad throwing it away unless you can do a good rotation and actually eat your preps that you store.

I began with each trip to the grocery store to buy mixed beans, spaghetti, or rice. Back then it was $1 per bag and I usually bought 5-10 bags per trip to the store. At one point I purchased a 20gallon barrel and started putting them into this barrel in a dark place. Don't trip out with oxygen absorbers, seal a meals and other food saver things right off or you will get overwhelmed. 

For water, if you or know someone that drinks 2 liter sodas, those are great for storing water. Some preppers will add a few drops of unscented bleach to the bottles and others will not. That's up to you. 

Don't get overwhelmed with prepping. At one point I was so paranoid that all I could do was think about preps 24/7. Now its only 23/7. :grin:

Good luck!


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

start here

Self-Reliance - store.lds.org

1 case rice
1 case bean


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Welcome to the forum.
Obviously your budget will determine the amount of food stores that you are able to accumulate, so you are the only one who can answer that.

For us, we started with a few extra canned goods on our weekly grocery shopping. Then we developed a plan for Stock Rotation. Then moved to dry foods and long term storage using mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. Then we added some pre-packaged long term product (Wise Foods, Mountain House etc).

To this day, we keep bins of canned foods organized by expiration date. For example, we are consuming from the bin dated 2014 and just started rotating out our 2015 bin. We have bins for 2016, 2017 and we have just started finding some cans with a 2018 date. Canned Food Expiration Dates are safe past the date but make sure the can is not dented, and check for mold/discoloration and odor upon opening. We haven't found any bad canned foods in years.

Check out some YouTube videos on Mylar Bag Storage. You will find some on the Forum as well. We keep our long term mylar bagged food in 5 gallon or 1 gallon bags stored in food grade buckets.

Don't forget water, items such as dry beans, pastas, rice etc need water to prepare them. We started with extra 1 gallon water jugs then graduated to a rain collection/catchment system with large 500 gallon tanks. We added a Berkey Water Filter and some other water purification systems along the way. 

Also, look into old fashioned canning. Our garden has grown and with that our canning stores have as well. Plus the recipes are awesome and reminds us of times gone past.

We didn't do this overnight, we took our time, didn't make any purchases that we couldn't afford and learned to rotate our stock. Its worked for us and our food stores grow every month. Good luck.


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## BagLady (Feb 3, 2014)

Hi Coco. Welcome aboard. IMO, everyone's situation is different. Starting with how much room you have to store your preps.
We (Hubby and I) do buy canned goods when we find a bargain, and depending on how much money our house hold can spare.
2 months ago, we bought 2 cases of chili. We figured with the price of beef, we couldnt buy,make it and can it for less than the .89 cents
per can that we bought it for.
We grow lots of veggies, fruit, and our own pigs, BUT, sometimes, you can buy canned for less than the time, work, and expense to grow and can.

To answer your question, start with what you and your family/household can handle. We use 2liter soda bottles for our water storage. But, we have lots of storage, and a pond. You may want to set up a rain cachement system. 
Those same bottles can be used for dried goods, like rice, and beans.

Plan your budget. See how much extra you can afford each week.


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## Salt-N-Pepper (Aug 18, 2014)

I would start with storing what you eat.

Start by making a list of everything you eat, and after a couple of weeks try to break it down into ingredients. See what it is that you eat a lot of that stores well, and then start picking up extra at the store each trip you go in.

Probably the best thing you can do is to get a couple weeks, then three weeks, then a month of the foods that you regularly eat stored up. Concentrate if you can on things that store well and are easy to cook.

Storing what you eat and rotating in fresh is a great and inexpensive way to start, and it's also easy to sell to the family… it's just one more can or one more package of pasta or one more jar of sauce or whatever. 

If you store what you eat, there's very little chance of waste and very little spousal drama involved. As time goes by you can expand. The key is to get started with stuff you know you will use. 

I have about 5 cases of canned ravioli because I often eat that for lunch (I work right near my house and go home for lunch daily). 5 cases is what I would eat over the next 2 years, so by the time the last can is eaten it will still even be in it's best-by date (although those really don't matter). Still, fresher is better.


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## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

Maine-Marine said:


> start here
> 
> Self-Reliance - store.lds.org
> 
> ...


Add a gallon of Frank's Red Hot and you are in business.


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## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

If I started from ground zero, I think I'd start with dry foods. rice and beans and such. In the unlikely chance the SHTF in the very near future, you can live a long time off beans and rice, Water of course, should be a start. After the bulk food like others have written I'd start by buying extra cans of whatever I was buying (also look for things that are on sale) Expiration date, or "best used by date" does not mean you have to throw it out when that date comes. Also, get you a marker, and mark the month and year of what you are buying, remember to use the older stuff first and replenish it with the new stuff you are buying.


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## Diver (Nov 22, 2014)

The answer depends on what works for you. Depending on your finances, storage space, how many are in your family, ability to stay disciplined, etc. you could go either way and you'd be right for you. I suggest making a plan, as detailed as you can manage, of what you want to ultimately have on hand, before spending a penny, of both food and non-food items you want to have for a 3 day event, a 7 day event, a 1 month event, and so on. Take care of the supplies for the shorter term events, allow yourself to feel good about your progress, then move on the to the next longer period. You may have different answers at each stage. For a 3 day event just go to the grocery store, but for a 6 month event for a family of 4, you might want some bulk supplies with a 20 year shelf life.

The point is make a plan.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

To me, food storage seems like a short term solution to a long term problem. If your only food prep is to stockpile 2 years of food, you are planning to start starving in 2 years if things get bad long term.

Of course, the odds favor a relatively short term situation, and you should have enough to see you through a few weeks at least. Look for sales on the stuff you eat and stock up as you can. 50 pounds of rice and 50 pounds of dried beans will keep you alive for quite awhile, even though you will probably wish you were dead after the first 2 weeks.

What you should consider is developing a sustainable food source. Plant a few fruit trees, berry bushes, and perennial veggies every year. If you do this, it won't be long before you have a renewable source that can sustain you forever. (Google "permaculture" for more info)

Not only will a plan like this feed you directly, it will also lure in various furry critters which are made out of meat and quite yummy!

You should probably also consider having some seeds on hand, and by all means, have a way to catch and purify drinking water.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

JMO, buy extra of what you normally eat to start with.


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

Water & shelter are priority over food.


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## Prepared One (Nov 5, 2014)

The main thing is that you start. All good advise here. Start with the essentials and then work concentrically outwards as you gain knowledge and perspective. You will learn a lot here so you are pointed in the right direction.


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## tango (Apr 12, 2013)

Good news that you are starting.
Make a plan according to your budget and your wants.
Go slow, but keep going.

Prepping is a voyage, not a destination.


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## Hawaii Volcano Squad (Sep 25, 2013)

My two cents from my 30 day prepping experiment living off what I had at home is that Frozen foods with a decent shelf life are very good because the canned foods like spam and long shelf life foods like pasta get very boring very very fast. After 30 days of that diet you will go stark raving mad without variety of foods. Frozen foods like Wild Alaska Salmon burgers, vegeburgers & frozen Veggies add some variety. If you have any space for it, start a garden. After 30 days on survival foods you will CRAVE anything fresh. Lettuce or any fresh fruit or vegetable will be absolute golden.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

I agree with Hunting Hawk. Water and then shelter would be first on my list if I were re-starting my preps. You can only go about 3 days without water. But that said, most people have a 30 to 50 gallon hot water heater of pure drinking water. But you may need to shut off the valve into your house to protect it. 
Food you can go without for about 30 days. Start with the easy to prepare canned food you buy now. If you have kids, it will help maintain some sense of normalcy in a very trying time. Depending on your economic situation, buy a little extra every time you shop and enlarge your pantry. Once you've been prepping for a while and reading the posts here, you'll have an idea where to go with longer term storage.

I'm glad to see that more and more people are seeing the hand writing on the wall that something bad can happen that the government can't bail us out.


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## TacticalCanuck (Aug 5, 2014)

Welcome this place rocks! I highly recommend preps like rice beans whole grains flour oats sugar tea coffee and ways to.store and clean water. Its good to have soups cans of thimgs but they run down. I recommend lomg term wholesome foods that store well for lomg periods like the ones mentioned. Learn to cook.with them. You will be healthier for it. Long term water purification is a must. Filters bleach a means to boil water. Tools. Start small. 3 days of good ears and water for the whole family. Then expand to a week. Then expand week by week until you have several months to two years. Raw ingredients store for years. Once there expansion is limitless. Chickens rabbits hunting gardening canning jarring ect. But ya. 3 days. Then a week. Then a month. Beans rice sugar tea salt hygene tools ammo guns.


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