Surviving 25 to 30 years off of stored survival food is just not realistic for a lot of us.  Instead, there are 3 prepper food levels that I believe everyone can stockpile quickly.  These levels will also increase your survivability.

Intro:

• a lot of people that get involved with preparedness have the impression that you have some huge emergency food stockpile
• I’ve seen people claim to have 25 to 30 years worth of prepper food stockpiled.
• however, that is not realistic for a lot of us
• many of us don’t have the space to store it or the money to buy it with
• also, I’m not sure if you would want to stay isolated for 25 years eating the same canned and dried food for so long
• I can’t really think of a scenario that would call for 25 years of prepper food stockpiled
• There hasn’t been a time in history that had called for such an event
• even a full-blown nuclear fallout would only call for a few years of recovery time
• so instead of suggesting that you stockpile that much food, I want to recommend a layering system that will increase your survivability

 

1. Store bought food

• when first starting off building your emergency prepper food supply you should begin with for store bought food
• these foods should, of course, have long shelf lives
• the reasons you should start with food bought stores is because they are cheaper and you have easier access
• you could start off with dried food but will pay more and have to wait for shipping
• with store bought survival food you can pick up some now for cheap
• you can find really great deals at dollar stores

 

Use couponing to really save money and build a stockpile fast

• to take it one step further you can really build a supply up quickly by using coupons
• when you are couponing you will want to stack them
• what I do is get the weekend newspapers that has all the ads and coupons
• I typically get about 2 or 3 newspapers so that I can buy multiple items
• then I put those coupons into a folder system
• that folder system has 12 folders, one for every month of the year
• so for all of the coupons that I get for January, I will file them in the January folder
• I don’t just go out and use them as soon as I get them
• instead, I rely on a website called Truecouponing.com
• this website will tell me when to use certain coupons
• this is because foods run on sales cycles
• there are certain times of the year that products are at the lowest prices
• so True Couponing provides a weekly update on what coupons to use
• this is where you get some really good discounts
• if you combine the cheapest time to buy a product, with an ongoing sale with manufacturer and store coupons then savings are outrageous
• there have been times that I have bought $200 worth of groceries but only paid $40

 

Additional tips

• store-bought canned food is one of the most popular types of survival food to buy
• this is because a lot of the canned food is ready to eat
• so if you don’t have time electricity and heat to cook them you can still eat it from the can
• I would recommend having at least 30 days worth of store-bought survival food, to begin with
• once you purchase this amount then you should begin working on the next layer

 

2. Dried survival food

• the great thing about freeze-dried food is that they have a longer shelf life as compared to canned and packaged foods
• so you don’t have to continually rotate your emergency food supply
• it is also lighter than canned food and provides more per container
• freeze-dried food is healthier as it provides a lot more nutrients than canned food
• the downside is that it is more expensive than store-bought survival food
• they will also take more storage space than canned food but get more per container
• the other downside, if you consider it a downside, is that it will take longer to prepare
• like I said with canned food you can eat it straight out of the can
• however, with freeze dried food you will need to add hot water
• it typically takes about 10 to 12 minutes to prepare
• you should have at least another 5 months worth of freeze-dried survival food
• this will give you enough prepper food until you can reap food from the final layer of prepper food

 

3. Survival Garden

• a survival garden is a vegetable garden designed to provide enough crops to permit you and your family to live on the garden produce alone
• to me, it is important to have a survival garden especially for long-term SHTF recovery scenarios
• it is almost impossible to build an emergency prepper food supply that will last you 40 years with just store bought and dried food
• a lot of us don’t have that type of space to store it
• instead, if there is a collapse scenario you will want to begin a survival garden
• that way when you run out of your emergency stockpile you will then have food that you can pick from the garden

 

What to grow

• when determining what to grow in your survival garden you will want to take in 4 factors
• the foods should produce big yields, can be stored easily, they are perennials and can grow or be stored during the cold winter months
• a lot of us don’t have a lot of room to grow a big garden
• that is why it is important that the crops that you grow can produce big yields
• they should be easy to store with long shelf lives
• It would be helpful if those plants are perennials
• a lot of plants die after you pick from them
• however, perennial plants will still produce food after you pick from them for at least 2 years
• finally, having foods that are immune to cold weather helps to ensure that you will have food after the blistering winter

 

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Security concerns

• now having a garden may draw some unwanted attention
• there may be looters that will take food from others
• you may even have the government taking food from people during a collapse scenario
• one recommendation that I have read about is having a secret survival garden
• a secret survival garden is really hidden to the naked eye
• unless your eye is trained on it you wouldn’t realize that someone is growing a garden
• it just looks like plants that grow naturally in the wild
• so that is one recommendation that I would have for those that are worried about their food being taken
• there is a book called The Secret Survival Garden that I would recommend as a good read
• it really breaks it down into how to grow and structure that garden

Also read: Why You Should Be Storing Whey Protein Powder

Via smartpreppergear.com