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Spinoff: How much food do you keep on hand?

not2hye

not2hye

Knucklehead
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
49
Messages
458
Loc
Hellifornia
The Run on TP thread got me thinking.

How much food and supplies do you keep on hand?

After covid, I cannot stand going to the store anymore, and limit my trips. Buying larger quantities less often. Been purchasing beef and produce from local wholesalers and direct from packing sheds.

I have 2 side by side refrigerators and a good sized deep freezer. Kept fairly well stocked up, shop for deals and buy bulk when I can.

Bought a fair pig and a lamb last year, about done with them this year. Buying another lamb this year, maybe a pig. Would like to buy a side or whole steer.

Keep several cases of canned tomato goods, green beans, corn, chicken broth, etc.

About 10lbs of flour, 25ish lbs of rice, 20 lbs of Uncle bens rice, a bunch of different beans, 5 lbs of all different sugars, and a bunch of salt.

Buy spices by the lb.

We keep a well stocked liquor cabinet, gf has about 500 bottles of wine under her house. Her and the folks had to stop making it, weren't drinking it fast enough :laughing:

GF and I can alot of stuff, doing a big run this weekend, I got her a nice sized canner last year. I have a good sized dehydrator that I do a bunch of citrus in, going to do some herbs and stone fruit soon.

If I had to guess, I have about a 4-6month supply of most stuff on hand as long as refrigeration holds up. Before we get into the emergency food-in-a-bucket.

Am I crazy or understocked?
 
I think having over a year of food is a bit excessive. Boss is a prepper, Solar powered basement with multiple freezers/fridges. He took off March 2020, waved goodbye and was ready to ride it out. He didn't run out of food, he ran out of the will to work from home around that big family. :laughing:

I have around a year of food if I ration correctly. Having a garden and the ability to can has more priority to me than a bunch of store bought stuff.

Captain Call said:
Hunt, fish, garden. Endless supply.
Click to expand...
Yes, In theory, until all the crack head neighbors start the same practice of shooting deer on sight.
 
I always bought non perishable stuff on sale and stocked up when I could, when the woman moved in she didn't understand why I had so much food. Hell I had 2-3 months worth of pasta at any given moment. Explained what I i got hurt at work, either wasn't making enough money, or couldn't get to a store without help? She got that and has been big on bulk ordering since. When covid hit we already had 3 cases of shit tickets because she'd go to Sams club and forget if we needed any, "ah fuck it" and buy another case.
 
Managing the preps is my challenge.. my house wastes too much food IMO.

Until I get better solutions for storage, I’m maxed out.

Currently working on better water preps. Have probably 300 gallons of water put up and live near a man made lake that won’t fill itself well in a grid down situation. Looking at filtration setups.
 
I always find it funny most off grid livers/homesteaders require the grocery store or water trips. Isn’t the point to not need any commercial services?

Very very few actually have their shit together and it almost requires independent wealth to achieve that.
 
G
urjb said:
Managing the preps is my challenge.. my house wastes too much food IMO.

Until I get better solutions for storage, I’m maxed out.

Currently working on better water preps. Have probably 300 gallons of water put up and live near a man made lake that won’t fill itself well in a grid down situation. Looking at filtration setups.
Click to expand...
get the big life straw funnel made to handle an entire town
 
Asked and answered (by those that care to answer).

Sirch. Noob. :flipoff2:
 
Poke said:
I always find it funny most off grid livers/homesteaders require the grocery store or water trips. Isn’t the point to not need any commercial services?

Very very few actually have their shit together and it almost requires independent wealth to achieve that.
Click to expand...
Reminds me I should order a couple seal kits for the hand well pump :flipoff2: We have an amazing shallow well thats mostly unused. crystal clear water, low reserve capacity but excellent recharge. Mostly use it for filling the pool. The artesian well 10 feet away is what is hooked to the house, and its a rusty bitch, but you can't run it dry.
 
Half a beef in the freezer, few cases of stew, soup & veggies. Mac & cheese. Half dozen cases of mre's. Need to get some water storage figured out.
 
I think I have enough for supper tonight, and probably a box of freezer burned Taquitos in the icebox.


Damn... what kinda processed shit are y'all eating?

I don't eat a lot of canned foods, and all the shit I routinely eat is perishable. Outside of a bag of beans, and a small sack bag of rice, I don't keep a lot of emergency rations.

( I do have a case of MRE's somewhere, but I ain't in any hurry to eat those. )
 
Fresh food, couple weeks
Frozen food, several months
Freeze dried food, 6 months if rationed

If needed, power out, I have enough propane on hand to run the 20kw for 3 months full load, likely 6 - 9 months rationed
Well water that is potable
14kw 3 phase genset has enough diesel for 3 months.

When isolated in the past, like not evacuating for fires we have run short of
Milk, we keep several gallons frozen. UHT type milk would be a good idea if prepping properly
Beer, poor planning, and we ran dry, even rationed after a few weeks. I now usually have a month or two supplies on hand, but I don't drink nearly as much as in the past. Plenty of liquor
Gas. Amazing how much gas I was going through when the fire evacs were in place. Between the gas generator, chainsaws, weed wacker, mower, and the farm 125cc bike, I burned through all the gas I had in cans, and had to syphon from a couple vehicles
Fresh bread, solved with supplies and a bread maker
 
I started buying these Ready Hour buckets during covid. I tried to buy a one month supply every paycheck for a while, but I ran out of storage space at my last house and quit buying them. I also have a bunch of the Ready Hour #10 coffee cans full of dehydrated milk, butter, eggs, etc but they aren't visible in this picture. I probably have enough of this stuff to last the family about 6 months if it is rationed corrrectly.

20241003_105703.jpg
 
A year of freeze dried foods, large medical kit, gravity water filtration with 300 gal (optimal use) of filters. Then my travel trailer has good 0.2 micron absolute filter I can use as well and has enough solar and battery to live off of. I try to keep 80-100lb of LP around (60 on trailer, 40 at home), dual fuel generator.

My regular delivery of another case of TP is arriving tomorrow. No notice if it being unavailable. I forget to take my meds enough that I have a bunch of old pills in their bottles that are only 5 years old so still have efficacy, I refill when refills are allowed, so by default that is 7 days of leftover pills each month). So I can keep taking them for probably a year if I can't get refills.
 
We've got lots of dry foods that wont go bad stored in a special trunk in our garage. It's not end of the world ready, but it's enough for a few days of natural disaster to help us either get out to somewhere better or to hunker down for a week or so at home.

That said, we live right in the salad bowl of the united states, so if everything really hits the fan, we're probably better off sticking around here surrounded by ag lands and a running river nearby.
 
A year of freeze dried, one fridge an freezer full, 400ish gal. of water, 18ish handles of vodka.... I've never counted the ammo stash...
 
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