I think the MREs vs Rice and Beans shows a difference in mindset. Quick and easy vs a more work but more long term outlook in survival. Neither is wrong. Neither is right. I think there needs to be a balance between the two.
MREs are big, expensive, and really handy to have around. 3 days worth of MREs for your 72 hour kit is a good idea.
I prefer getting some ready-to-eat meals from the grocery store. Canned soup, dinty more & hormel microwave meals, etc. I just found some 'Kitchens of India' brand 'Rice Delicacies'. These are heat and eat vegetable and rice side dishes packed in those pouches like tuna is found in. If you open the box carefully, you can slip in a package of tuna into the box. Glue it back shut. You just made a $2.50 MRE.
A pound of rice and a pound of beans was less then $2 last time I bought them. This is food for 1 person for most of a week. It takes the same amount of space as an MRE. This is a pain to make and really boring unless you know how to cook it.
The first half of this year I bought about 1 year of rice and beans for 2 at a price that works out to be about $0.15 a day. This will fit into a rubbermaid storage tub. You can't do that with MREs.
I don't LIKE rice and beans. Never have. I try to work them into 1 meal each over the course of a week. This is a lifestyle change. I think it's an important one. I actually have a meal of rice and beans for every time I eat out at a fast food restaurant. I go out every Friday for lunch. This limits how often I eat out at a fast food joint. **grin**
One way to look at 'rice and beans' is as a metaphor for food and staples that you will eat that will store well. Figure half the people talking about this stuff are from 'the south' where rice and beans are a staple. It can be noodles and spaghetti sauce ( I have lots of this). Flour and sugar. Some flours don't store very long at all, but the unground wheat stores for a very long time. You just need a tool to grind it. If your a meat and potatoes guy, like I am, it can be canned meats, canned potatoes, and potato flakes.
Another thing to look at is the sustainability of beans. Many dried beans you can stick in the ground, they will sprout, grow, and give you more beans. Same with wheat. Same with shell corn. Rice can't be grown, and the outer part of the seed has been taken off. MREs can't be gown.
For just getting into this new way of life, simply keep food in your pantry. First try to keep a week ahead of your pantry groceries. If you normally keep a can of corn on the shelf, try to keep 2. If you have to run to the store in the middle of making dinner, get 3 cans, your eating one now, you got 1 for the next meal, and 1 for the pantry. When you use that next can, you replace it.
When you have 1 week of food that you normally eat in the pantry, shoot for 2 weeks, then a month. Then 2 months. Don't try to do all of this tomorrow. Ease into it. $5 worth of canned goods every time you go to the store doesn't cost much, and is actually a lot of food. Especially if you keep at it and work at expanding your pantry.
Have a full bag of flour in your pantry at all times. When you open it, get a new bag right away while your using that open bag.
All of a sudden, you can buy much of your groceries on sale, as you don't NEED to pay full price for them. You can wait till that next sale comes around. You have 7 cans of them in the pantry.
Try this. set aside some money for your food storage. Lets use $100. Spend half of that on MREs, and half on rice and beans. When you get the rice and beans, make sure you get a small bag of each as well as the big bags. When you get it all home. Put it all on your kitchen table. Unpack it all. Look at it. Walk around the table. Which makes you FEEL better, more prepared. Now make a meal out of them. Eat the MREs for a day. If your a family of more then 2, let the kids pick out their MREs. A different day, open the small bags of rice and beans, find a recipe online, and make them. (rice pudding is a great way to make the leftover rice go away). Which tasted better. Which would you get sick of sooner. Which HURT less thinking this is for my long term storage, why am I eating it now.
Once you have it all packed away in the back of the closet. How does that make you feel. I am hoping you got the warm and fuzzies from it. Look in your pantry. Does it look bare now? Go ahead and work on increasing your pantry. You have time to do it now. You have LOTS of storage food put up between the MREs and rice and beans. You are now already prepared to take on those little bumps in the night, and the no so little ones too.
