To jeepgirl and junebug818. I for one don't think you'll are stupid. I think it takes a smart woman to start prepping like you'll are. The mylar bags are the best thing for storing just about any dry food there is. I have rice, beans, cereal, pasta, flour, seasonings, pancake mix, candy,. cookies, ritz crackers, and a whole lot of other stuff in mylar bags. Junebug, to learn about hot to use mylar bags go to youtube and type in storage in mylar bags. There many on there thay will show you just how to use them. Jeepgirl, I use hand warmers as oxygen absorbers. I find they work better and are cheaper. Use them just like the reg. oxygen absorbers. I found a shit load at Wal Mart after the winter for hardly nothing on clearence. And to seal the bags I use a womens hair straightener I got for a garage sale for $2.00. I bought 3. Just in case one went out. I use a vaccum cleaner to get the air out of the big bags and a straw to suck out the air from small bags. You can find alot of info on youtube. The videos shows you step by step how to do anything. Just go to youtube abd type in what you are looikng for and there will be tons of videos. The only thing I haven't tried is butter and shrimp. We have about 250lbs. of shrimp in the freezer(beings we live close to the gulf). Im just affraid to mess up my good shrimp. Anyway I will try. Let you know how it works. Also if you store water for a long period, I would use Pool Shock instead of bleach. It doesn't have all the harmful chemicals that bleach has. I tried water I stored 1 1/2 yrs ago and it was still good(didn't get sick). I will be changing my supply every 2yrs. just to be safe. The whole under of my house is full of 5gal. containers. I keep them there so the sunlight doesn't get to them and they stay cool.