Stewart’s first-tier food is intended for the initial two weeks of a disaster, and includes all the food in his regular pantry, freezer, and refrigerator.
Herein lies an inconsolable difference between city folks and country folks. TWO WEEKS? If your freezer fridge and pantry can only carry you two weeks, you're flat doing it wrong.
Your normal shelf or freezer stable fare should be around in a quantity suitable for three months as a bare minimum. Northern folks should have much more than that - In the country, you have no idea when the power might fail for a while, or a storm might blow things over for a long while.
Since shelf stable and freezer stable easily make it a year without serious problems, in my mind, that's what to shoot for. A YEAR.
Sure there is some work in it - shifting new things to the back, and older things to the front, so you are always using up the stuff that is reaching its 'use by' date. And there is some work in developing an inventory system, rotating and adding as you go to maintain a stable pantry. And yeah, buying bulk is maybe different for some.
But there really is no downside. Consider it an investment in future. All of it (less some degree of spoilage) is serious usable goods - You WILL eat it eventually - so there is no real loss. No real cost. Al you are doing is removing direct dependence on daily or weekly reliance upon systems that may or may not be available.
That is the beginning of self reliance.
There is convenience in knowing you don't have to plan your meals according to the grocery - Everything you need is already there in your home. Shopping is for replacing carried inventory, and is much more elastic, allowing you to buy into sales and case good sales and take advantage of prices that are often half to a quarter of retail in-the-minute costs (less fresh produce which must always be on a ten day rotation).
If there is ANYTHING you could be doing right now to improve your position (outside of getting the hell out of the city) it would be beefing up your capacity in pantry and freezer and filling it up.
Prices are only going to go higher for the foreseeable future = Buying now is going to save you money.
Start slow - Instead of buying one can, buy four. Buy a case every time you go shopping and put it on the shelf.
Get some food grade buckets and buy basics in bulk - Flour, sugar, beans, rice - I could probably survive months *just* on the beans and rice I have laying around. Cheap, filling, and shelf stable.
Buy bulk in spices you use all the time - You will fall down at how much cheaper they are.
It is a complicated thing for folks who have never managed it - but take it from me: You can do it. I had to learn at fifty. A lot had rubbed off on me just by being around my Mamma's way of doing things, but still, it had always been the womenfolk that jammed the deal - my first go at it without a woman around was daunting. But I did it. You can too.
