im really not expert on this
but i hear dlot of good comment about mountain house and thrive and augason farm
personaly wen i go hiking or hunting i always bring something like this http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Deluxe-Sampler-30-ZIP-Pouches_p_1853.html
and i am very satisfy but its not really for long term

Thrive and MH aren't improved enough in flavor, texture, calorie content, or nutrient base and content to be worth paying the expense over Augason Farms (AF) or the Emergency Essentials generic (used to be Provident Pantry), or the pouched versions like Food 4 Health International and the like, for me. Was really, really not impressed with the Patriot Depot version of pouched food.

NDN,
I've bought some excellent name brands for much less at Wal-Mart (AF one of them, Coleman another, $15 less for my fav Rayovac big light) and when I have the opportunity to lay hands on items, I've come away with some great generic steals (6 y/o yoga pants, hoodies from ~2005-2007, a pair of barn coats from ~1998-2000 that are going strong despite a life with a clutz).

Yeah, there's a lot I don't even glance at at the dollar store, but ours is a fab source for 5 6-hour emergency candles at a dollar, 15-25-50 tea lights, dish detergent that can be used for surfaces or laundry, and others. I also just landed 12oz tins of corned beef that have actual beef-beef texture and excellent flavor, fab for 2 servings with taters (and eggs, because hash should have eggs); they're WAAAYYYYY better than the cans of Hormel, Libby's, Chef Mate or Armour, for 1/2-1/3 what I pay for cans.

Goodwill and Salvation Army (or your equiv) can be excellent resources for good items that will cost pennies to the dollar (clothing, cookware, even candles or puzzles or games, sometimes bedding), and regularly have "discards" like translucent shower curtains and sheets to be used for cold frames, row covers, or hankies (bleach &/or pine sol make everything new) that you can get pointed to for free.

Everybody here has the sucky gas cans now, so you have to order mil or get lucky and find trusted used.

What is it you're looking for?
There are lots of ways to save money on items, but a list would help (and in some cases, what you're aiming to accomplish the item).

Cheers,
P

im really not expert on this
but i hear dlot of good comment about mountain house and thrive and augason farm
personaly wen i go hiking or hunting i always bring something like this http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Deluxe-Sampler-30-ZIP-Pouches_p_1853.html
and i am very satisfy but its not really for long term

thay are good and i am happy that thay have a long self life i got a few in my truck nbug out bag and some at work just in cace.

Thrive and MH aren't improved enough in flavor, texture, calorie content, or nutrient base and content to be worth paying the expense over Augason Farms (AF) or the Emergency Essentials generic (used to be Provident Pantry), or the pouched versions like Food 4 Health International and the like, for me. Was really, really not impressed with the Patriot Depot version of pouched food.

NDN,
I've bought some excellent name brands for much less at Wal-Mart (AF one of them, Coleman another, $15 less for my fav Rayovac big light) and when I have the opportunity to lay hands on items, I've come away with some great generic steals (6 y/o yoga pants, hoodies from ~2005-2007, a pair of barn coats from ~1998-2000 that are going strong despite a life with a clutz).

Yeah, there's a lot I don't even glance at at the dollar store, but ours is a fab source for 5 6-hour emergency candles at a dollar, 15-25-50 tea lights, dish detergent that can be used for surfaces or laundry, and others. I also just landed 12oz tins of corned beef that have actual beef-beef texture and excellent flavor, fab for 2 servings with taters (and eggs, because hash should have eggs); they're WAAAYYYYY better than the cans of Hormel, Libby's, Chef Mate or Armour, for 1/2-1/3 what I pay for cans.

Goodwill and Salvation Army (or your equiv) can be excellent resources for good items that will cost pennies to the dollar (clothing, cookware, even candles or puzzles or games, sometimes bedding), and regularly have "discards" like translucent shower curtains and sheets to be used for cold frames, row covers, or hankies (bleach &/or pine sol make everything new) that you can get pointed to for free.

Everybody here has the sucky gas cans now, so you have to order mil or get lucky and find trusted used.

What is it you're looking for?
There are lots of ways to save money on items, but a list would help (and in some cases, what you're aiming to accomplish the item).

Cheers,
P

i dont know what im looking for ive been mostly buying anything i see(not goood for the budget) but resently i ve been organizing my stuff and see what i have bilk and extra,and i sale my excess to local store in used good ,works good for me i get some of the mony back,

$$$ stores is were i get my candles and sone canned goods lunchon meat and other stuff thay dont expier for several years ,

i dont know what im looking for ive been mostly buying anything i see(not goood for the budget) but resently i ve been organizing my stuff and see what i have bilk and extra,and i sale my excess to local store in used good ,works good for me i get some of the mony back,

$$$ stores is were i get my candles and sone canned goods lunchon meat and other stuff thay dont expier for several years ,

OK, well the first thing you need is absolutely free, or at most the cost of some pencils and a notepad: A plan.
It's not just about the budget, but making sure you're set.

Put together a house-loss binder or important files folder. Firearm serial numbers, insurance contact number and policy numbers, , anything saved on a phone or computer (that might be left or dropped and lost during a house fire or when a tree crashes through the wall/roof), important work and family and friends contacts, recent pictures of family and pets, usb with pictures and the serial numbers of expensive stuff in our house, copy of ID and coded account numbers and card numbers (if desired; I have them in a safety deposit box and others stashed in a box of tampons in my truck to make it less likely somebody sits down to decode my numbers).

The file should be kept somewhere NOT in the house - a work drawer, storage unit, trusted friend or family, hidden in a vehicle, small buried cache - because you're more likely to have a house fire, flood or some kind of major damage due to a storm of one kind or another than any other disaster.

Don't plan on having your info where you can grab it - when a fire alarm goes off the priority is getting OUT with the living beings with and around you. Have the info where it can be accessed later. A lot of people don't realize how fast fire spreads once it gets going. A fire extinguisher can buy you time, but doing so eats up seconds that would be spent grabbing a binder and your "go" plan

If you're so inclined, you might look up the 50 and 100 year floods and plot a map route that avoids them for evac; same for knowing the evac routes and shelters for other acts of nature, and include those, as well.

Then:
First, at least 1 fire extinguisher between where you sleep and your exit + most likely source (or both).

Start small, but make sure you have everything you need to get through that small period - fire extinguisher(s), water, sanitation, waste disposal, food, cooking/heating fuel, extra water, vehicle or evac plan, fire extinguisher(s) backup(s).
Start with the 3, 7, 10 and 14 days the Red Cross and FEMA recommend.
My kits were originally designed as hurricane and wildfire evac kits, then major outage kits, so were always somewhat condensed and somewhat portable, but there are a lot of things that can happen that keep you at home so it's not necessary to invest in a bag even if you're BO minded. Free or low-cost buckets work just as well for organization and you can even keep them on, under and in freebie-site side tables, desks, and shelves.

When you have two weeks, start increasing by a week in all categories until you hit 30 days. Then 60.

There are major advantages to buying in bulk-bulk, even for singles.
Being diabetic you might not be heading for white rice or wheat, but oats and apples have a lot of applications and you can find some of the lower-index grains in big, big bags. It's a lot cheaper to buy Glucerna in the great big tub than in smaller ones, although it represents a larger initial outlay, so budget for those. In the long run, it saves money.

If at some point you decide to buy in bulk, if you're by yourself you might want to package the items in either canning jars using oxygen absorbers or break them down into gallon-sized Mylar. That will keep you from eating 5 double servings of the same thing, or alternating two things, until a number 10 can goes bad.

Try to picture your supplies as a wheel. You want it to roll smoothly. The spokes are all the categories - food, water, sanitation and hygiene, hardware.

Once you have your "outage/natural disaster - normal" wheel filled in, you may want to do an evac wheel or might not. Fuel would be included with that, a portable/non-fueled vehicle.
Then you maybe have your 30-90 day "job loss - normal" wheel, where you're basing out of your house.
It might getting a bike, planning to limit power/diesel consumption, and putting aside a hard commodity or cash for paying rent and power bills and your insurance premiums (again; you should already have enough to pay your premiums; if not, that becomes a priority).

Then a fourth wheel becomes your "holy cow, baaaaadddddd" wheel.
It has a lot more wedges to account for longer-term needs:
- transportation (if it wasn't dealt with previously) & repair capabilities
-security,
-growing and foraging, and supplies for them (to include drying, canning and other methods, tools, gloves)
- lack of new boots or raincoat waiting on a store shelf so an extra is needed,
- extended heat/light fuel plan,
- larger stores of food (which should stay balanced with water purification and catchment capabilities, sanitation plans and supplies, and cooking/heating fuels or capabilities)

What you DON'T need early:
- A major trauma or dental surgical kit or medic kit (most sits are shorter term than you need to do surgery; concentrate on duct tape, normal first aid, Dentemp, clove oil/thieves oil, blister and burn care, and extra cold, allergy, stomach and personal-needs meds; if you know how to use them, maybe different but I lay low odds on happening into a doc who does fast enough for it to matter in an emergency if things are "that" bad)

- HAM (It can be pricey and if things are that bad, HAMs are going to start jumping lines to the AM channels you can pick up on a normal hand-cranked radio, and there are pretty good non-license talkies out there)

- The world's coolest do-everything rifle (a great deal can be accomplished with a shotgun and .22 or air gun) (I'm counting full-on combat gear here, too)

- The $50-200 super-sealed seed kits (depending on where you are and what you have, a great many won't finish in your climate; also, many require starting ahead of time in cool climates and that's not as easy as many assume, even the ones that say 4-10 or 20 years have lowering germination rates and fewer seeds will be viable that long; if you want, find out from gardeners what they have success with and concentrate on fast, cool-weather, bang-for-your-buck items like turnips and beets that you can select harvest greens and then a root, and that store well and cultivated weeds like chickweed, dandelion and others)

- 3-8 saws, axes and hatchets for dropping trees for firewood (unless you already know how to use them and are out somewhere with endless trees; otherwise, pruners work just as well for limbs that go in a can-sized or cinder-block rocket stove, and trash and recycling abound for making your own arctic stove bricks)

- The stupid buckets of pouch meals from expensive suppliers (they don't taste much if any better than Lipton and Knorr and have similar nutrient equivalents; if the weight and life are that important, go with the ones I mentioned in my reply, but the pouched and boxed Lipton/Knorr sides can be had pretty cheaply and in similar varieties and packaged to extend life)

Cheers and good luck,
P

Calories aren't everything, but this website: http://codegreenprep.com/2012/12/how-to-get-ten-times-more-value-from-your-stored-food/ has a big chart halfway down the page that breaks down calories per dollar for some Mountain House products. Some comparison between MH and others with similar products (must check nutrition labels and crunch numbers to make sure you're comparing apples to apples instead of apples to oranges) might be beneficial when you get to the long-term storage stage.

There's also a calculator or two in the article that can be used to more accurately estimate the needed calories by activity level.

Cheers,
P