So now that you know how MUCH food you need -- where do you get it? Options range from taking up canning yourself to buying single-ingredient commercial producst or massive meal kits from survival companies. How do you even begin to decide?
First, consider what you're planning FOR. Are you staying home? Planning on bugging out? Want to keep both options open and prepare for multiple scenarios? Think of all the possibilities and don't rule anything out. I know a bunch of people in the mountains of North Carolina who were NOT planning on getting hit with a hurricane! No matter how secure your homestead is, there may be circumstances where you're forced to leave it. Portability, in terms of weight and stability, may become a serious consideration when you can no longer plan on your generator keeping your freezer running.
All things being equal, cost per 100 calories is a reasonable way to compare options. Let me do the entirely tedious but absolutely necessary basic arithmatic for you and show you what I mean. Just skip to the table at the bottom if math makes you queasy.
Let's look at some Auguson freeze dried meat products. This is a great company and their products are excellent! But you ARE paying for convenience and portability.
Take the Auguson Beef Steak Dices. A one-pound can is around $74 as I write this. It contains 13 servings, with one serving being 1/2 cup of freeze-dried beef. One serving is 150 calories.
So. Thirteen servings of 1/2 cup means there are 6.5 cups in this one pound can.
The directions say 2.5 cups of product rehydrates to 1 lb of meat. Divide 6.5 cups by 2.5 and you get 2.6, meaning that a one pound can will rehydrate to 2.6 lbs of meat.
Then divide $75, the cost of one can, by the 2.6 pounds of meat it gives you. That's $28.50 per pound of meat or 62.6 cents per ounce.
If 2.5 cups yields 1 lb of meat, and a serving is 1/2 cup of dry product, then 1/2 cup (or .5 cup) will yield 1/5 lb of meat, which will be 150 calories per the label. 1/5 lb of meat is 3.2 oz of dried product. One lb of meat would be 5x150 or 750 calories.
$28.50/(750/100) = $3.80 per 100 calories.
So for planning purposes, one 1-lb can of freeze-dried beef dices will cost you $3.80/100 calories.
Following similar basic math contortions, the freeze-dried chicken white meat dices will cost you around $3.23/100 calories.
Spending three grand on that freeze dryer is starting to look a lot more attractive, isn't it?
So what about other sources of protein? Canned tuna, for instance. The math is a little easier there because there's not all the obfuscation of cups, rehydrating, and servings. Any time you have freeze-dried meat, you can reduce the weight by 50 to 66 percent but that reduction comes at a cost.
One can of tuna as shown below is 30 cents/oz when bought in bulk, i.e. 12 cans/package. One serving is 3 oz and is 100 calories. That's 90 cents per 100 calories. Quite a bit different from the freeze-dried prices, isn't it? But it's also heavier, which means more storage space and harder to carry.
Or Keystone Ground Beef, canned, ordered in bulk, is 56 cents/oz. One serving is 2oz for 70 calories for $1.06, and 100 calories will be $1.60.
If you are planning on bugging out or camping or traveling light, freeze-dried may make sense. If you're ordering a LOT of freeze-dried, getting your own freeze drier might be cost effective.
On the other hand, traditionally canned meats are about a third or less the cost of their freeze-dried counterparts, and store really well.
What about the commercial meal packages you see advertised so often? After running the math on a few of the "meals", I saw some very attractive pricing on 100 calories, like around 50 cents for 100 calories. BUT -- and this is a huge BUT -- those calories are primarily from carbohydrates. Yes, tons of cheap energy if you're working hard, but lots of blood sugar spikes and crashes and very little protein for healing or muscle repair. Sure, they have attractive, homey-sounding names, like Grandma's Special Potato Soup or Aunt Tefa's Four Star Mac 'n Cheese. BUT -- mostly carbs.
And you can rack those up in easy to store packages yourself. E.g., a 16 oz package of Great Value spaghetti noodles from Walmart is 98 cents. That contains 8 servings at 200 calories per serving, or 1600 calories for the package, for a 100 calories cost of $0.06 (rounded).
Again, if weight is a major consideration and you're okay with a ton of carbs, they may be a good option. But for your stay-at-home supplies, the actual raw ingredients are a wiser choice and just as easy to store.
How many calories do you need? Take a look at the calculator again -- or for the first time, if you haven't seen in. Then make your decisions about whether you need easily-portable or cost effective.