Canned goods.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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I recommend making strong local connections with mutual aid groups and food pantries. They will be doing exactly these sorts of things at scale. You can even give them money to help you do it and you will come out on top.
But for personal individual recommendations:
- Dry stable pantry good that you store securely. Beans, rice.
- Securely means against pests, so a hard container with no entry point when closed that seals well enough so that hey don't spoil for a few years. Dry goods last a very long time but can go rancid if you don't store them properly. Food grade buckets, mylar in metal trash containers, etc. If your system seals, then you can put in packets that eat up the oxygen, preventing pests and food going rancid, but that is for long-term storage, since once you open it up then you have oxygen again.
- Flour goes rancid faster than rice and beans, you have to store it properly.
- A decent multivitamin and common deficiency vitamins (D, B12, iron). You can store these the same way so if you have a huge amount you can put them in a sealed container with an oxygen-eating packet.
- Spices and salt. Spices can be stored the same way as everything else and are very, very I expensive in bulk.
- High-calorie shelf-stable fats like peanut butter, coconut oil, and cooking oil. You can buy restaurant-size 4-gallon jugs of it (in cardboard boxes) for maybe $30-60.
One of those oil containers, 50 pounds of beans and rice, and vitamins and salt will last a single person over 100 days if that is the only thing they eat. The limiting ingredient is actually the beans and rice so you can get even double that and still not run out of the oil.
Realistically you would probably just use these ingredients for half of your meals, maybe, and still eat diverse foods in general. These foods are so inexpensive in bulk that your average food cost goes way down and you can eat more of it to decrease food costs during any crises.
Rice should be stored as cool as possible if you're keeping it long term. All rice has insect eggs in it, which will hatch if you leave it long enough. The rice is still generally usable, but it's better to keep it in a cool shed or something if you can. You can also bake it at a pretty low temperature for 45 minutes before you store it, if you have the ability to do that.
Oh yes I forgot to add rice notes. This is all true. Brown rice goes rancid fast and has the other issues you mention. Long term storage should be cooll, dark, and ideally in an container from which oxygen has been removed.
Also you can cook rice at a low temperature in the oven to prevent insect issues. The downside of this is that you have to use the rice sooner as this process destabilizes some of the aromatics. You can also freeze + thaw the rice but you have to be careful to not allow moisture to remain in it.
Not quite what you're asking, but this was a comment I copied on long term food storage for just such an occasion. Don't remember the original author, I'm afraid.
If you have the space + money:
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Flour is much cheaper in bulk. 25 lbs is ~30-50% cheaper bought all at once rather then 5 lbs at a time.
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Storage is very important. I recommend a 5 gallon food grade bucket with a gamma lid. https://www.amazon.com/Gamma2-Seal-Lid-Combo-3pk/dp/B0CZW3QB79
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Pest control is important with bulk food storage. Things that help include putting bay leaves in the flour, using an oxygen-killing pack in with the flour before sealing it for the first time, and using a secondary container for ~3-5 libs at a time so that the storage container is opened infrequently.
For non-flour items, I recommend using the same strategy but for rice and beans. Rice can be kept free of pets by baking it at 150 for 30 minutes before storage. You can do the same for beans though the quality degrades a tiny bit (beans have fewer pests anyways).
1 bucket of each is enough food for 2 people for a couple months all by itself (plus a vitamin to avoid malnutrition). Not a bad way to buffer yourself from food price swings. If you get some bulk fat like a gallon of refined coconut oil or peanut butter, you'll have a ton more calories for cheap. I'd say the total cost for everything I just described is around $150-250 and would be enough calories for 2 people for 3ish months. Add some bulk spices and canned tomatoes and it could even taste good.
Also all of these tips work for mutual aid buys and storage if you have access to a kitchen.
Rice can be kept free of pets by baking it at 150
We might have cute weevilposting here but I don't relish the time I had to deal with them. LFMF, the regular deli meat tubs are not insect-proof containers.
I had some weevils once, they got in on some rice. They were so cute but also got into so many things! I put everything in glass or hard plastic now.
If you eat meat, canned chicken lasts a very long time
Neutral oil. Very calorie-dense, you need it for lots of culinary purposes, and if you use it judiciously it can last a good while.
Salt probably won't get expensive but it's an important thing to have plenty of.
As has been said, storage and processing are going to be more of a financial hurdle than the food itself. I like to buy big glass jars (quart-size or bigger) to put stuff in.
If you haven't already, buy seeds of things you want to grow. Find a balcony or south-facing porch to put pots or buckets on, or locate a nearby abandoned lot to grow things on. Veggies will have much more substantial price shocks.
Rice and beans are pretty much the things
rice and beans keep as dry for a long time and there a lot of diversity in beans. black beans, red kidney beans, the world of peeled/unpeeled lentils. so many beans. dried beans are so cheap, but preparing them takes a lot of time without a pressure cooker, like an instant pot (strong recommend!)
if you want to take things a step further, unground wheat, rye (aka "berries") are also insanely shelf stable and can be soaked to become edible... but really you would want a stone mill to enjoy, which grinds all kinds of stuff at room temp (heat from other griders accelerates breakdown and you lose nutritional value quicker).
if you get a stone mill (i love my mockmill 100, it wasn't cheap. its the cadillac of home scale mills) you can grind all kinds of shit, including your beans and rice to make all kinds of flours to side step sensitivities or just try wack shit. and you unlock a whole world of dry goods that can be bought in bulk in their most shelf stable configuration.
with a stone mill, you can start getting really weird in the kitchen. being calorie resilient in the face of supply chain shocks is about linking up with some local grain/pulse grower to buy a super cheap sack of whatever in bulk instead of scouring your grocery store for whatever bullshit they have at retail markup. you would probably be able to double or triple whatever they get at the grain elevator and not even bat an eye. they won't give a fuck, especially if you have your own container like a 22 qt food grade Cambro. you're basically handing them $20 for an unnoticed amount of their giant grain pile (40 lbs?).
the cwt (hundred pounds) prices of commodity grains and pulses make a years' supply a rounding error. like cents per pound, so its like free $ to them.
so, im talking about significant investments in gadgetry for home processing of bulk grains, but the cost savings are incredible. and it really is a whole other level of quality when you're cooking/baking with freshly ground grains. you weigh the berries out to be what you want for each recipe and only grind as much as you need, so the waste is negligible.
anyway, im still regarded as eccentric even among food cranks for getting into this years ago, but i can make sick bread/doughs and gfree cookies that will fuck u up. and all i think about is how cheap and extensive my dry good collection is. lots of beans, rice, spelt, wheat, rye. i can throw down like a bronze age baker.
This is the most exciting comment I've read in a long time. I think I love you a bit.
Just one question: I've heard of stone mills grinding stone into your flour and grinding down your teeth eventually. Is this a thing or a myth?
I've heard that as well from an archeologist but I'm kinda doubtful that it would make a significant difference compared to teeth grinding on each other as you chew.
Maybe if it's a mill stone that chips a lot or sandstone.
i think that's a myth, though i admit i hadn't heard of it. i mean, once something is as small as flour, we're not really chewing it anymore. it's more like clay, particle size wise, since i'm not perceiving any grit like sand or even silt size. at that size, it's smooth and we just swallow and either convert it into energy through chemical/biological processes or pass it.
the "stone milling as superior" is something i picked up from a friend of mine i went to school with. we both did undergrad in ecological food/nutrition systems at a bigass agriculture college at the same time. i did my MSc in soil carbon and water use while he did his on wheat genetics and bread making, but he had already gone to culinary school and worked as a chef for years. we were both the old guys in class. he had this whole spiel (which started with "aw, dude") about stone grinding breaking open the berry, but keeping it cool / slowing the breakdown of this crazy list of micronutrients and enzymatic processes so you get the best stuff in the baking process, before ambient microbes can get it. like store bought flour is basically devoid of all this other stuff so it can stay on the shelf and not go rancid. so it's not a big deal if you use a processor like a vitamix that generates heat from friction, because you're still getting all the stuff that store bought won't give you, but why not just do it perfect to get the maximum value if you're going to get into this shit? also, stone grinding is pretty quiet compared to a blender/processor.
if you're really wanting to go low budget and bronze age tech, you can buy handcrank mills, but i understand they are a coarser grind, can require multiple passes, and are no joke about muscle power. my mockmill is fucking ludicrous. i can adjust the fineness of the grind to a degree i can barely perceive to the touch, and do enough for a big loaf of bread or cookies in like... 45 seconds? accurate baking goes by weight instead of volume, so i already had a little scale. i put a little bowl on there, tare it to 0, and then add my 200g of berries. grind it, and i have 200g of flour. so, making something with "fresh ground grains" adds maybe an entire minute to a prep/baking process, but when you tell people you "ground the grains just before baking" they look at you like you've done something inconceivably bespoke and artisanal.
peeled/unpeeled lentils
Imagine being me when your Indian boss keeps talking at you about how the lentil in your lentils isn't the right lentil. because it isn't split. I don't buy the food!
split, that's the right term. i forgot.
when i was getting into this is when i learned red lentils are brown lentils that have been split (dal). i think.
i used to live near an indian grocery. and not like a tiny one little place, but a serious one the size of like a real suburban grocery store. there was an aisle of just different types of lentils, in more colors than i could count. their spice aisle was unreal too.
that was when i learned that I don't know what i am doing and people from real cultures have forgotten more than ill ever know about the basics of food.
Haven't seen anyone say anything about if you have space to grow anything there are certain things like say green onions that you can poke the white ends into soil and if you get a dozen + growing you pretty much have those on hand. Herbs you find yourself using a lot of are great too, basil is generally super easy to grow once you get it going but it's so expensive at the store I can't be bothered with it.
Your local warehouse store might have a policy where you don't have to have a membership if you pay cash. Get yourself some bulk basics like you and others have mentioned. Also, know where your local food banks are.
Other things to consider stocking
- bullion (soup stock base) dried cubes or wet.
- powdered milk
- coffee (doubles as currency in very tough times)
- sugar
- Salt (have some iodized salt on hand)
- Yeast
- Chicken, tofu, or your other fave proteins that come in vacuum packed bulk portions. Cut them apart and flatten them so they'll stack neatly and throw them in the freezer.
- When you see meats on sale and you can do so, buy and freeze them. The cheaper cuts take more time to cook and sometimes prep. Get familiar with how to remove bones etc, and how to use them to create more stock or fats for cooking. I usually buy skin on chicken, remove the skin and render the fat down to use for cooking various things. It keeps indefinitely in the fridge. Bacon fat can also be saved to add flavors to your cooking too.
Go to your local SE Asian type grocer and stock up on staple spices - you will save a shit ton. My local white people supermarket will sell be a jar of cumin for $10 while the Indian grocer further away will sell me a 2 pound bag for $6.50.
Rice, lots and lots of rice. Cornflower is also pretty great for tortillas
Dried pasta, canned tomatoes
Cubans basically lived off rice and beans during the special period.
Flour for bread. If you haven't made bread from scratch it is much easier to make than most fussy youtube videos, with all the professional accoutrement, make it seem.
Canned foods last for years. Tomatos, green beans, corn or other veggies are good to have.
Some other source of fat for eating or cooking in. Peanut butter, coconut oil, etc. Olive oil, although the good stuff gets nasty after a year or so.
Yes buy me. I'm all yours.