1 month

I got a lot of this information over at Casaubon's Book (Thanks Sharon!)

Now You might not want these exact things but this will give you an idea of where to start.

Non-electric can openner
Multi-Vitimin (get the one per day type, bottle of 30 at least)
Water 1 gal. per person per day
Oatmeal 8oz per person per day (not the instant stuff that is basicly a powder, old fashioned rolled oats)
1 can fruit or apple sauce per person per day (drink the "juice" that it is packed in too)
1 can beans per person per day
a few cans of tomatoes to give the beans a little bit of a different taste.

All of these things can be eaten as they are without any cooking at all. The apple sauce will make the oatmeal taste a little better but you can eat it as is. Vary these things don't get 30 cans of peaches. If you actually had to eat those EVERY day you would be pretty sick of peaches. Pretty quick. Now I am not saying rush right out and buy all of this at one time although if you could you would just have it done sooner. I've already been over the water storage so I won't repeat that. The oatmeal comes in 5 lbs. containers for about 3.00 or so (I'm going to quote local prices YMMV) When you are doing your regular shopping pick up one. Speaking of regular shopping eat this stuff as part of your normal diet esp. if you have kids you don't want to spring new things on them in a time of stress. If you and they are used to seeing canned pears on the table then it won't be a big deal if worse comes to worse.

The canned beans and fruit can often be had for 1.00 a can or less, look at places you might not normally buy food like "Big Lots" or "Pick and Save" that type of store. Also, if kidney beans are on sale this week then pick those up. Don't buy anything that you don't like. If black beans are on sale and you don't lke them it isn't going to help you much. I hate lima beans so there aren't any in my food supply, now kidney beans I could eat forever so I have a lot of them.

Use common sense if you can spare 5.00 this week for the storage food then spend that, if it's 25.00 then you can pick up a few more things. This list isn't hard and fast but it will give you protien, fiber, and fruits, remember to take the vitimin. (Oh I have seen vitimins on sale buy 1 bottle get one free so be sure to check if you're local drug store is having a sale)

Once you have these basics down you can add stuff like powered milk and tang like drinks. Now I know that tang is full of sugar and isn't exactly a health food but if it can get you or your kids to drink your water then it is worth it.

These types of food aren't easily portable, like the backpack supplies but if you could shelter in place even with out power you could survive. Also, These things would fit into a normal sedan type car without too much hassle if you had to leave and were able to take your car with you.

My next post will be about a more long term approach that will involve growing and cooking so be warned!