Cheap Foods to Include In Your Stockpile

Whether your trying to save money on groceries or you’re building up a stockpile for emergencies here are some cheap foods to stock up on. 

At our house, we always try to have at least a couple of week’s worth of “extra” food just in case.

Whether you call it a stockpile, food storage or emergency preparedness it’s a good idea to have at least a couple weeks if not a couple of months worth of non-perishable food in case of an emergency, job loss or other unexpected situations.

Before You Start Stockpiling

Ok, so what foods should you have in your storage/stockpile? There are a lot of different options of foods to include in your storage. A couple of things to think about while building up your stockpile. 

Buy foods you and your family will actually eat. Don’t buy foods your family doesn’t like or won’t eat. In an extreme emergency, you might eat just about anything but while you’re stocking up and have options pick foods you’ll eat.

Buy foods that are shelf-stable and have a long shelf life. 

Cheap Foods to Stock Up On

Like I mentioned above there are tons of different foods you could include in your stockpile. Today I’m going to share with you some cheap foods to help you quickly build a storage of foods for a couple of weeks without having to spend a lot of money. 

Rice

Rice is a cheap food that can help stretch other foods you have and be filling. Brown rice has more nutrients than white rice so that’s what I would recommend when stocking up.

White rice is the cheapest option, but brown rice doesn’t cost much more.

Pasta

Pasta is something we always have on hand, my kids love it and it’s really fast to make. We always have 10+ boxes of regular/whole wheat pasta as well as sauce. We can usually find pasta and pasta sauce for around $1 each.

Along with regular pasta, we also try to have a stash of Mac and Cheese as well as Raman Noodles. They cheap meals that last a long time in the pantry.

Beans

We use beans all the time, they are a healthy option and perfect for so many different meals. We like to keep both canned and dried beans in our stockpile. Dried beans are cheaper than canned beans, but it does take some practice to learn how to cook dried beans.

I love cooking the dried beans in my Instapot with spices, it’s my favorite way to make beans. I usually cook up about a pound of beans and then freeze some of it and have some in the fridge for the week.

Some of our favorite ways to use beans are for tacos, burritos, soups, and salads.

Vegetables

We love having fresh vegetables and fruit as much as possible but you can’t really store fresh foods in a stockpile. There are several vegetables and fruits that last longer than a week that we like to keep on hand. But in our stockpile, we keep dehydrated, frozen and canned vegetables.

Dehydrated onions and potatoes are some of my favorite dehydrated vegetables to have on hand.

There are a lot of frozen and canned vegetable options, so pick the vegetables your family will actually eat.

Oats

Oats are an awesome cheap food to stockpile they can be used for a simple oatmeal breakfast, to make energy bites and use in numerous other recipes.

Fruit

Like I said above we love eating fresh fruit and while apples and citrus fruits can last for a few weeks if stored correctly, they aren’t the best for longterm stockpiles.

In a time of emergency to be able to still enjoy fruits for cheap, there are a few things we can stock up on.

Some cheaper fruits to include in your stockpile are dehydrated apples, applesauce, fruit cups, and fruit leather.

Tuna

Tuna and other canned meats are a great item to include in your stockpile. These items can last years and are a great way to get protein into your diet during hard times. Tuna is typically one of the cheapest canned meat options.

Popcorn

Popcorn is a cheap stockpile food that works great for a snack. Save even more by purchasing popcorn kernels in bulk and poping at home with an air pop popcorn maker.

Flour, Salt and Baking Supplies

Flour and other baking essentials are always a good thing to have on hand. Having basic baking supplies at home will allow you to be able to make bread, cookies and more.

With flour, yeast, and water you can start some sourdough that can be used to make bread, pancakes and several other things.

Peanut Butter

Peanut butter is such a great thing to stockpile it can last at least a couple of years when unopened.

Here are a couple of different ways that you can use peanut butter. Peanut butter and jam/honey make a simple lunch, snack or even dinner. Peanut butter and honey mixed with oats make a simple energy ball snack.

These are just some of the options of what you can include in your emergency preparedness stockpile. While it’s important to have at least a week or two of food in your storage it’s also a good idea to stock up on water and other household supplies.

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