Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Hey all,

I was just at Wal-Mart, and noticed they've got a pretty good deal going on Chunky Soup. It's $1.50 a can...almost a dollar cheaper than normal. I bought a few for lunches and what not, but am now thinking about getting the rest of their stock for adding to the surplus.

Chunky's good...got calories, protein, isn't terribly bad for you, carries a good selection and pretty much fills me up. For $1.50 a meal, I think that's a decent price for comfort. Plus 2 year shelf life I think. That just got me to thinking of price per meal for surplus food...any input?

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Don't know what you mean by surplus food price, but I read some figures today that said the average American spends 2.88 FRNs on a meal.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Sorry, I'm referring to whatever food you are 'stockpiling', storing, whatever. Either that or to you that are keeping food pales. My thought is that it would be easy to start stocking up on things without thinking about a cost per meal basis.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Well, of course oatmeal and raisins for breakfast from steel cut oats, or a pot of beans for the dinner entree is the lowest cost kind of meal. But there is a place for chunky soup in the pantry. We particularly like the chicken corn chowder. You only have to heat it up is one advantage, and like cans of stew or chili, it is pretty filling.

I think variety may mean a lot to us if we need to eat from our pantries long. Sure, we'll be grateful to have food, but if times get really tough food that you enjoy can be very cheering.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

I've never given any thought to a cost per meal, it just is what it is......

I am doing some looking at total calories to see how much I have stored in terms of how long it would last at a certain intake per day, but even that hasn't gotten too far down the road yet.

We just REALLY got a decent inventory in the last couple of weeks...( and this is after me just sticking stuff away since 1995 )......so I haven't broken it out yet in terms of a pretty close guess on time, except for my freeze dried stuff.....since they are labeled with the nutritional contents, it's not too hard to project on it...I figure if we ate nothing BUT freeze dried stuff, the two of us could make it 8 months on that, but I wouldn't consider a diet of that alone unless it was an extreme have to case.....

In combination with store bought canned goods, and dehydrated stuff, I'm guessing about 2.5 years. With any supplementation from the garden/farm, we could likely go out to 5-10 years at least, but cooking oil would be a thing of the past....animal fats would have to do.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

We recently went through the latest available government data regarding costs per meal as well as calories, etc. I believe it was for the data from last year when the math came out to $2.88 per meal. This year, I'd wager that we're over $3 per meal by now.

http://safecastle.blogspot.com/2008/...ess-foods.html

To get a fair approximation of what you really have on hand and how long it will last you (not to mention the actual cost per meal), you need to look at the total calories you have on hand. Most Americans today eat upwards of 2800 calories a day. A bare minimum for prep planning purposes is 2000 calories a day.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Yeah....that's where I saw it.....couldn't remember, I read a lot......thanks JC.

My planning is 2500 for me, 2200 for wife per day.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Andy, I'm working on a database calculator to do this. So say you can enter lbs or buckets of wheat, rolled oats or what ever and enter calories per day how many people ect and get days/yrs.

For example: Wheat = ~660cal per cup X 16 (1gal) X 6 (6gal pail) = 63,360 cal divided by 2200 = 28.8 days

We did a complete physical inventory and I'm just setting this up, will let ya know how it goes.

Re: Food preps - what are your cost for meals looking like?
 

Sounds good Randy......I'm the worlds worst at organization. I can see the big picture, but get lost in the details.