The preparedness food shopping list: what to buy, how much, and how long it keeps

This is the list I hand people who ask what food to buy first. It is built from the Survival Foods field guide and the sixty-odd food pages on this site, boiled down to one question per item: what to buy, how much for one person for one month, how long it keeps, and why it earned the space. Multiply by your people, then by the months you want covered, and you have a shopping list instead of a vague worry.

The numbers assume about 2,000 calories and one gallon of water per person per day, and 40 to 45 pounds of dry staples per person per month, which is what the field guide plans around. The totals are the guide's; the split across items is mine, from what I keep on the shelf. This list is generous on purpose, about 4,500 calories a day on paper. The staples alone carry the month; the ready-to-eat and freeze-dried layers are reserves. Food only: the bags, buckets, absorbers, and openers to store and use it are in the Survival Foods field guide. Two weeks is the floor. Three months is comfortable. A year is the goal, and it is reachable one grocery run at a time.

Per person, per month, the list below comes to roughly 48 pounds of dry goods, 45 cans, a quart of oil, 30 servings of freeze-dried food, and 30 gallons of water. A family of four for three months is that times twelve. It sounds like a lot until you see it stacked: about six 5-gallon buckets of grain and beans, four cases of cans, and a corner of the garage for water.

Balance the plate the way the field guide does: carbohydrates for the energy base (rice, pasta, oats, beans), protein for repair and satiety (canned meat and fish, beans, milk powder, peanut butter), fats for calories (oil, tallow, nut butter), and canned or dried fruit and vegetables plus a multivitamin so nobody develops a deficiency in month two.

Cheap calories that keep for decades when sealed right. This is the bulk of the weight.

Protein repairs the body and keeps you full. Dried beans are the cheapest; canned meat needs no cooking.

Fat is where the calories are, and it is what a stockpile of rice and beans is missing. It is also what goes rancid first, so buy the stable ones.

Vitamins, fiber, and the reason a month of rice does not wear you down.

Salt and sugar never spoil, flavor is what keeps people eating when the menu repeats, and a few baking basics turn flour into bread.

The first days of an outage or evacuation are eaten cold, in the dark, with no time, and the long haul is easiest with meals that need only hot water. Neither layer needs a real kitchen.

A stored diet is heavy on starch and light on everything else. Three small containers cover the gaps, and two of them earn their place under hard physical work.

Nobody buys a year of food in one trip, and nobody should. The field guide's phased plan is the order that keeps you covered at every step.

1. Phase 1: the first three daysEat cold or heat quickly. Canned soups and chili, canned fruit and vegetables, peanut butter and crackers, trail mix and jerky, a few pouch meals, three gallons of bottled water per person, and comfort snacks. This is also the evacuation box.
2. Phase 2: weeks two to fourPantry staples you cook. Rice, pasta, and oats; dried and canned beans; canned vegetables, fruit, and tomatoes; canned meat and fish; cooking oil; powdered milk; cereal and crackers; salt, sugar, spices, and bouillon. Buy double of what you already eat and rotate.
3. Phase 3: months to a yearLong-term bulk storage. Rice, wheat, and oats sealed in Mylar with oxygen absorbers; freeze-dried meals; canned meat and sardines by the case; beef tallow in the freezer; dried legumes; honey and sugar; powdered eggs and milk; electrolytes; creatine; multivitamins; and the bags, absorbers, and buckets to seal it all.

Each phase is a shopping trip or three, not a project. Finish one before starting the next, and the household is never sitting on half a plan.

Shelf life on the list assumes the four conditions from the field guide: cool (50 to 70°F), dark, dry, and sealed. Every ten degrees of heat roughly halves the life of canned and packaged food, which is why a hot garage is the worst pantry in the house and a basement or interior closet is the best.

• Mylar with oxygen absorbers turns two years into twenty for rice, wheat, oats, pasta, beans, and lentils. Seal in 1 to 5 gallon bags, then bucket them against rodents and punctures. The Mylar ranking shows which foods gain the most.
• Never an absorber with sugar, salt, or brown sugar. They set into a brick. Seal those without one, or vacuum-seal them.
• Fats do not keep like grains. Oil, nuts, peanut butter, and brown rice go rancid on the shelf no matter how well they are sealed. Buy them in quantities you rotate, and keep tallow and nuts in the freezer.
• Cans want dry air. Rust is the enemy, not time. Wipe them, keep them off concrete, and pull any can that swells, leaks, or has a deep dent on a seam.
• Write the date on everything. Purchase date on the lid with a marker, oldest to the front. A rotation log is on the last page of the field guide.

The storage conditions page covers containers and moisture control, and the shelf life table has every staple on this site in one place.

The stockpile that works is the one that is part of the kitchen. Buy the foods you already cook, buy more of them, and cook from the shelf once a week so the oldest cans and bags move through before they die of old age. A pantry that is only for emergencies is where food goes to expire.

Two habits do most of the work. Shop from the back: when you buy rice, the new bag goes behind the old one. And keep a running list on the pantry door of what you used, so the next grocery run replaces it. That is the entire system, and it costs nothing.

When something is past its date, it is usually still fine. Printed dates are conservative. Spotting spoilage is the look, smell, and package check that tells you what to keep, and the spoilage cheat sheet is the fast throw-it-out list.

This page is the shopping list. The Survival Foods field guide is the full 35-page manual behind it: how much to store, how to store it, preserving your own, checking every staple item by item, eating well in a crisis, and the rotation log. Members get the PDF with membership; everyone can start with this list.

Around it: the what-to-stock master list covers everything that is not food, the water page covers the 30 gallons a month, when the power goes out covers the fridge and freezer, and the start here page puts food in the order of everything else.

Sources: the Survival Foods field guide (how much to store, building your stockpile, shelf life by the numbers) and the supply pages linked in each table. Quantities are per person for one month at about 2,000 calories a day; adjust for children, heavy work, and cold weather.