This has been posted many times before, but, since its important I wiil repeat what I've said. Unless you are preparing for a zombie invasion, don't waste money on MREs and the like. I live in Hurricane country. From June through November I keep 30 days of food and and water. My best advice is to join SAMs or COSTCO. Water, the rule is one gallon, per man, per day. I supplement this with gatoraide. I buy bottled water, backed up with 2.5 gallon jugs. I'll drink it anyway. Like wise, I keep 3x what I would normally buy for canned corn, black beans, rice, diced tomatoes etc. Again, stuff I will eat anyway. I add instant mashed potatos, just add water panke mix, no refrig bacon and no refrig milk, summer sauage, kippers etc. I will either eat it or donate it to a food bank. My one extravagence is that I have 13 propane tanks (safer than gas to store) to power my Honda generator or if push comes to shove my Weber grill and Coleman camp stove. I have 5 Coleman 5 day coolers (and yes they mean it if you pack them with newspaper and don't open them). I also keep a lot of D cells to power 4 Coleman battery lanterns and enough 2AAs for a gaggle of flashlights. Going through Francis and Jean within weeks of each other taught me that paranoid was just another word for unprepared. It also taught me that I don't have to spend big bucks to go two weeks without power, water and food in relative comfort. Forget the 3 grand for the generator, which I could, and did live without (it was bought post Jean) and you're good to go for a few hundred, most of which you will eat as part off your normal weekly meals if no zombies show up. All you're out is the batteries
FQ13.