If you are amongst the millions of people who have existed in a bubble, refusing to admit that “it could happen here”, and have not put away a little food for a rainy day/month/year – I have a quick, cheap, easy way for you to get prepared and give yourself some peace-of-mind.
Close approximations are used here, to offer guidance. If you’re in a very active situation where you’re burning through tons of calories a day, you will need to make adjustments. A normal adult needs 1200 calories a day as an absolute minimum. For my baseline, I am assuming that you are one person, attempting to eat for survival, for one year… and you’re shopping at Sam’s.
- Rice:
250lbs – Enriched Long Grain Rice – $84 @ Sam’s
419 servings (1.5 cups dry / 3 cups cooked – a lot of rice)
960 calories / 18 grams protein / 210g carbs
- Pancake Mix (bread source)
40lbs (4ea 10lbs resealable bags – Krusteaz) – $7ea / $28
420 servings (1/3 cup dry / 3 pancakes)
150 calories / 4g protein / 31g carbs
- Lard (creamy liquid shortening)
35lbs – emulsifier / pan lubricant – $28
3tbsp servings – 404 calories/day
Seasonings ($30 worth) be sure to get dehydrated onions/mixes/bouillon to change up flavors. Don’t forget salt. Your body needs it. Look at the Sam’s website for ideas. I’m not holding your hand here. 
- Syrup
10ea jugs – 64 oz Mrs Butterworth’s Syrup – $3.50ea / $35
1/4 cup serving – 220 calories / 56g carbs
All totaled you’re looking at 1760 calories/day for MORE THAN one year, at a total cost of a whopping $205.
There is no reason that any of you can’t be prepared for a full year in the next month. If money is too tight, mow some lawns.
I promise you’d rather have it & not need it – than need it & not have it!
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Oh, you’ll need a place to get water. Duh. Right?
When you find that source, use this to stay alive… and dysentery free! If it’s 7 miles away, don’t be a pussy. Somali kids walk twice that for creek water with sewage in it.
I would also add a general multi-vitamin. It doesn’t need to be taken every day (You’re looking to survive, not thrive), but the effects of a limited diet are well-known. ($13 for 300 at Costco)
That’s a pretty spartan diet but it will keep you alive. For a little variety consider trading some of the rice for dry beans, lentils, and/or split peas. Try flavoring the rice with onions, bouillon, squirrel, or something else.
Good post, Nota.
At the risk of repeating myself. My brother Nota has given you one more plan for survival. My other brothers KW and Jim have given the benefit of their expertise.
So, what are you doing rotating on your thumb? Do SOMETHING, NOW! The luxury of time and f**k around is going away. Please. Don’t put you and your family’s future in the hands of others. Please.
Thanks, guys. I remembered the vitamins on the comment that got this ball rolling, but forgot em here. AFB asked ‘what if you don’t have eggs or basket?’ and that got to me thinking.
“How can someone who’s waited til the last minutes, and has limited funds, get enough to survive?”
I was surprised to find out how many calories you can get – and the quantity of food (daily) for such a low price. You can survive and not be hungry all day, every day.
Asians have been eating a diet similar to the above for a thousand years. I remember Japan in the fifties. Workmen came to work with a small metal box packed with cooked rice that they’d eat for lunch. Once in a while you’d see a small piece of fish – about an ounce – on top of the rice. That’s all.
I’m sure it’s different there now.
A friend works on cargo ships. He tells of delivering food aid – mostly rice – to African ports. The rice is packed in 100# bags and men unloaded them one by one from the hold.
Inevitably one of the bags would spring a leak. The men would mix the raw rice with cold water in a discarded soda can. That was lunch.
I’d never heard of this/didn’t know if it existed on the retail market, so I googled it. This is an extremely handy thing to have if you’re gonna have a bunch of rice in your diet:
$22.95 Tomato Powder – 68 oz
Yeah, Jim – the miracle of rice is that you can make flour with it, wine, eat it raw (no fire required – soak in cold water for about 45 minutes). You don’t want it expanding in your stomach.
If zoning and space aren’t an issue, might i suggest chickens?
they eat pretty much everything – scrap wise, except citrus. I got away from commercial feeds after Purina started killing dogs. They like grass clippings, spoiled stuff (they only have 23 taste buds so they are not fussy) and they need protein once in a while. Have nothing to do on a saturday nite? tie a sausage to a string and watch them jump for it.
you get the added bonus of hens laying for up to 4-5 yrs then (lean) chicken for the stewpot. Although after you see what they eat (baby birds that fall in, rotten food ) you might not want to eat them.
oh. and I live on the outskirts of a borough and i know for a fact that some people in town, keep pigs in their dirt floor basements. Pigs are clean and don’t smell (they poop in one place, easy cleanup) also eat just about everything, if you not too proud to dumpster dive outside of grocery stores, bakeries.
another resource for free items is to use the flavor packets from fast food places. when friends get meals from restaurants, ask them to pick up some salt, pepper, soysauce, or any other flavoring packets for the rice.
Don’t need to dumpster dive for animal food. We’ve gone to our local grocery store and have, on more than 1 occasion, walked out with 50lbs of “expired” produce. Stuff that’s wilting, browning, torn, partial bundles, etc that they were simply throwing away.
We hit them up every now and again and haven’t been turned away yet..
Cost.. Gas money to get there.