I agree ! 1 wise bucket for multiple people will run you 100+ dollars i just put together 2 -5gal. food grade buckets filled to the rim myself for only 80 dollars with a variety of foods , ranging from pasta's-rice-beans of different sorts -dried fruits- condaments and drinks . have 4 more buckets i will be filling soon. got the buckets at tractor supply for around 3.99 each and lids for around 1 dollar.
Check for free buckets with lids at your local restaurants. They tend to get mayo, eggs and pickles, etc in five gallon bucket that are food grade. They go through these on a regular basis and may just give them to you. Just a thought, but yes filling it yourself is a great idea and cost less. I don't use wise food or any other for my food storage. It is something you can do on your own with a little work and the savings are worth it.
I couldn't agree more, and let me tell you, learning to grow things takes practice. I read a little and stuck some seeds in the ground thinking this would be easy. Well, it takes a lot of practice to actually get some vegetables. I strongly suggest learning now while you can still go to the grocery store. I think the most important thing I've learned in the last 4or 5 years is the soil conditioning. You need to add mulch and compost to the soil, and not just once. It gets better year after year, and is definitely not done overnight.
I only have some mre's for the ghb. In the car, so am far from an expert. But everything I've heard about mountain house gourmet cans have been positive, except the price. I like that the container size isn't huge as who wants to eat the same meal for a week straight. I'm glad you brought this up as I have been wanting to try one of the mre meals. I'll let you know what I think. The only thing I've had so far was the old c rations in cans, and they positively sucked! We carried hot sauce for just about everything just to get it down.
I have been using old pickle and icing buckets from grocery stores. Normally you can go in and ask for them or get on a list to have them saved for you. I put flours, sugars, pastas, rice, beans. etc.. It just depends on what your family eats really and I rotate often and have never had any problems with them.
I would just buy what you allready eat. Just be sure to rotate as you buy more. Canned goods last a lot longer than their expiration date, but some things last better than others. I had some tuna cans that were still edible after two years, but started getting mushy. Yet the canned chicken was still fine. I can grow and home can veggies pretty well now, so with that knowledge I feel it's better than stockpiling food. I do have an emergency stockpile of food, probably better than 6 months, but it is for a natural disaster or job layoff. Long term I feel your better learning to make your own, hunt and forage.
I just did some quart jars of rice and some of beans. I washed the jars and lids, then dried them in the oven at 170 deg. For several minutes. Then I filled them with the dry product, and they went back into the oven for about thirty minutes. You don't want to cook them, just removing any extra moisture. Then I took a 300 cc oxy absorber and put it on top of the food and put the lids on the jars. They pop when the jar cools and the oxygeon absorber begins working, sealing the jar tight. You do have the initial expense of buying the jars, but since they can be used over and over it averages out much cheaper than buying pre made goods. I have some rice in jars that's over three years old and you can't tell the difference from fresh bought.
