Before investing in doomsday buckets, people should make sure they're already rotating shorter-shelf-life food that they normally eat, and have a comfortable buffer of that.
For distinct prepper food stores that are different from your daily, you also need to make sure you know how to prepare it, that it was preserved OK (wrt bacteria, mold, bug eggs, etc.), that you're storing it OK (rats/mice/bugs can't get into it, wasn't stored near gas cans, not going to be flooded nor have gotten too hot, etc.), that you have everything you need to prepare it under different likely scenarios (e.g., outages of water, electricity, natgas), can prepare it safely (e.g., no flames indoors that could start a fire when emergency services might already be overextended, no generator exhaust getting indoors), that everyone in the household can eat it without immediate health problems, etc.
If I had kids, I'd try a fun camping-at-home weekend, when we pretend we can't use the faucets or power grid, and we have to figure out how to do things in practice. And then do a bit of subtle retrospective, so that the next time goes smoother, but as fun/interesting, without stressing the kids or overemphasizing it. Then, when there's a hurricane or whatever, it's just camping-at-home, going smoother due to prior experience and preparedness, and we can learn related practices by example, like checking on neighbors to make sure they're OK and have the essentials.
Economics. You have a week’s worth of food in the pantry. Over the next month buy a little extra each time you go to the grocery store. Now you have two week’s worth of food. Continue shopping weekly or whatever your routine was. Eat the oldest items. Costs a little during the month you bought extra. Or use coupons and buy specials and sale items. But it costs a lot less than freeze dried food in a bucket and is fresher and tastes better.
Also get a ten gallon container for water and rinse, clean, and refill it a couple times a year.
Put the extra long term stuff in your bunker. Use regular food for the annual power outages and extreme weather.
Ok, it’s cheaper, but I’ll be honest, it sounds like a hassle, something I won’t sustain for very long. I already struggle with fresh fruits and vegetables, they barely last a week in the fridge, unless I switch to only apples…
I like to be prepared, but I really don’t like the idea of giving up stuff just in case. I’d like to keep enjoying the moment at least, this sounds too much like extinguishing all fun in life to me. (Yeah, food is important to me)
I think having a large pile of 25 years food in a corner is probably more my style, I can build it slowly.
Doesn't the second paragraph seem more involved, and like a lot more things could go wrong with it (at the worst possible time), compared to the first paragraph?
I feel like this whole topic (having food on hand in case of a disaster) gets overcomplicated. By people who feel helplessly addicted to modern conveniences or something.
I mean I'm not a prepper. But hello, I cook. So at any given time I have several kilos of shelf stable dry goods like rice, beans, flour, pasta. Plus cooking oils and a bit of canned fish, vegetables etc. This stuff pretty much all lasts for years.
I'm sure I have at least two weeks of food on hand, the calories are easy to calculate. If I felt I needed more I would just be buying more of what I already have, except leaning more heavily into canned fruit/veg/meats.
In a pinch a camping stove is all that's needed to make all this stuff edible.
Now water on the other hand, due to the storage space needed, that's a tougher issue.
For distinct prepper food stores that are different from your daily, you also need to make sure you know how to prepare it, that it was preserved OK (wrt bacteria, mold, bug eggs, etc.), that you're storing it OK (rats/mice/bugs can't get into it, wasn't stored near gas cans, not going to be flooded nor have gotten too hot, etc.), that you have everything you need to prepare it under different likely scenarios (e.g., outages of water, electricity, natgas), can prepare it safely (e.g., no flames indoors that could start a fire when emergency services might already be overextended, no generator exhaust getting indoors), that everyone in the household can eat it without immediate health problems, etc.
If I had kids, I'd try a fun camping-at-home weekend, when we pretend we can't use the faucets or power grid, and we have to figure out how to do things in practice. And then do a bit of subtle retrospective, so that the next time goes smoother, but as fun/interesting, without stressing the kids or overemphasizing it. Then, when there's a hurricane or whatever, it's just camping-at-home, going smoother due to prior experience and preparedness, and we can learn related practices by example, like checking on neighbors to make sure they're OK and have the essentials.