Average Joe MREs

[tc556guy]

If you're breaking into your MREs, they'll be both nourishment and morale rats. Plan accordingly. Think what you'd like to be consuming at the end of a long day stuck out in inclement weather, for instance. Or in the dark when you're feeling around in a buttpack by feel for the package contents. Or have to eat cold because you have no way to heat it up. Given that possibility, it might be worth your cost to buy some of the actual MRE heater packs to toss into your homemade version so you can heat up your entrees or your drinks. Whatever you make up, it has to be something you'll actually eat, and enjoy eating. The MREs themselves today use so many commercial products that are simply repackaged that you should be able to find something you can whip up as a home made variant that everyone enjoys eating. Be sure to come up with a decent number of meal variants. There's a reason that the actual MREs have 24 different meals. The same thing day after day can get dull....

 

[ChickenMomma91]

@tc556guy thank you for your input i appreciate it. I sadly don't have a vacuum sealer and know i cant afford to get one any time soon. We had to think ease of assembly when we started this part of our preps. I plan on adding sugar free candy as well as a moral booster that won't give us a sugar crash/craving, my stepson will have enough of an issue in that regard and so will i thanks to my soda addiction (its my one guilty pleasure). The heater packs are a very good idea and ill add it to the list of things to put in the new ones, we're waiting till we can afford to buy all the items at once without killin our grocery budget (this pay period I've got about $150 to play with for two weeks).

 

[tc556guy]

I wasn't thinking of vacuum sealing per se, although that would have a role. Your budget is certainly a determining issue, obviously. I think we are all feeling the pinch at the checkout line these days, regardless of what our salaries are.
I'm not sure that waiting to buy it all at once is a requirement, but if that's your plan than stick to it. I would think that buying items piecemeal, one or two things a week, and giving yourself a chance to play with the components and see which ones you actually like ( and might still like after repetitive eating) would still work towards achieving your final goal. regardless of which path you choose, I will stay tuned to see follow up reports on your progress.

 

[baymule]

Another option is, when you go to the grocery store and buy one of something, buy two. Use one, keep one. Next trip to the store, same thing. Things that you use on a regular basis, just buy an extra here and there and you will gradually build up reserves.

 

[ChickenMomma91]

I'm also limited on space

 

[baymule]

I'm also limited on space

Plastic tubs under the bed?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I've got some shallow plastic tubs, with wheels that makes sliding things under the bed a lot easier!

 

[ChickenMomma91]

My husband won't let me because my dog sheds really bad and the fur collects under the bed. The couch isn't so bad so I might try there

 

[baymule]

Pull the tubs out and sweep/vacuum then put them back. Then he can't complain.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The tubs I use have lids that snap on them. It would be really hard for anything to get in the tubs that you didn't want in there.