Survival Foods on a Budget for your Bug Out Bag
People can survive quite a while on an empty stomach, but… will you be at your best if you are hungry. Sigh.. OK .. here I go stating the obvious.. NO you will not be at your best if you are starving. Packing food for your B.O.B does not need to be expensive, here are a list of Survival Foods on a Budget for your bug out bag.
The most common symptoms of hunger
1. a general feeling of weakness,
2. loss of concentration,
3. lack of energy,
4. headache,
5. lightheadedness,
and feeling more miserable than you already are, add in the stress of being in a survival situation and you can see how a little bit of food will perk you right up.
Most bugout bags are meant to keep you going for 72 hours… or at least that is what it’s advertised as, but the truth of the matter is, you might have to make do with whatever supplies you have in your bug out bag for longer than that.
While being hungry for 72 hours isn’t a big deal (I have gone for longer without food), it is demoralizing and sucks the energy right out of you. Having just a bit a day to keep the hunger pangs at bay makes a big difference.
Packing some food with you is a wise move, and rationing is a wiser move. Foraging, trapping, fishing, and hunting are options depending on your environment, but not something you want to rely on at the beginning stages of your journey.
13 Best Survival Foods on a Budget For Your Bugout Bag
1. Pemmican
2. Jerky
3. Pasta (orzo pack smaller)
4. Dehydrated meal packs
5. Emergency food rations
6. Trail mix
7. Lentils
8. Rice
9. Bannock mix
10. Food bars
11. Peanut butter
12. Oatmeal
13. Chocolate
What is the best bug-out bag food?
The food you carry in your bugout bag has to have a reasonably long shelf life (so you don’t have to keep rotating your stock), provide you with enough nutrients and energy to keep you going for a short period of time (3 to 7 days at least), has to pack relatively small, be easy to prepare or even better be edible with no preparation at all. For this reason, I pack a mix of a few of the ones listed above.
Recommended Survival Foods and Quantities.
- Meat jerky (500gm worth) protein hit
Pro: packs small, lightweight, no preparation required, long shelf life.
Con: expensive, makes you thirsty, not filling.
- Emergency food rations 3600 calories (1.7 pounds app) calories
Pro: reasonable price, does not make you thirsty (depending on brand), long shelf life, no preparation required.
Con: a little bit bulky, not filling.
- Trail mix (300gm) on the go snack
Pro: tastes great, no preparation, healthy, surprisingly satisfying, reasonable price.
Con: will make you thirsty.
- Rice, oatmeal or lentils, (1 pound) keeps you full
Pro: relatively long shelf life, cheap, easy to prepare (add water and boil), 1 pound goes a long way (relatively speaking).
Con: needs water, a pot and a fire to prepare.
- Peanut butter or chocolate (500gm) quick energy
Pro: delicious, quick energy, filling, cheap.
Con: makes you thirsty.
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I am a big eater, but in a survival scenario, this will keep me going for about 2 weeks, (if rationed well), yes, I will be hungry. But I am 6 foot 3 inches and weigh 98kg, and this is a survival scenario, not a camping trip. So I expect to be a little bit hungry.
On the plus side, I can also forage, trap, fish, and hunt, so I can supplement my diet. Knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness will benefit you more in the long term than a whole bag full of food.
“Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will become a fisherman” (badly misquoted, but you get the idea😁) so go out there and learn to forage, trap, fish, and hunt.
Best budget Survival foods for my bugout bag
Not everyone has a budget to buy expensive long-shelf life foods to pack in their bugout bag, so what is a person on a tight budget supposed to do?
Well, first you have to remember, a bugout bag means that the situation is dire, hence you are bugging out. You just want something to keep you fed until you get where you are bugging out to.
So here are a couple of budget-friendly food ideas:
1. Rice
2. Peanut Butter
3. Tortilla Wraps
4. Bannock
5. Dried Beans
6. Dried Pasta
7. Oats
8. Lentils
9. Assorted Nuts
You can flavor rice, pasta, dried beans, and lentils with bouillon cubes.
Slather peanut butter on tortilla wraps and you got a high-calorie snack,
Put peanut butter in your oats and it’s the breakfast of champions.
Not super healthy over the long term, but that isn’t your aim, it’s to keep you fed enough to be mobile and alert.
How much food should I pack in my bugout bag?
Pack all the essential items you need in your bugout bag and fill the rest up with food. The more the better, don’t get obsessed about the weight, it will get lighter daily as you consume the food you packed.
Make sure it’s an amount you can carry and that your food doesn’t replace an essential item in your kit.
What’s the best survival food for my bugout bag
Pemmican… In the good ole days of yore, people would survive on pemmican for months on end. It is high in protein and carbs. Lightweight, tasty (it’s an acquired taste, I like it), and if made properly the shelf life is amazing. The problem is that I don’t know of anyone who sells authentic pemmican. So this is one of those items you need to make yourself. It is the best survival food, it just isn’t one of the most budget friendly survival foods on our list. But still cheaper than many of the commercial MRE’s / dried / dehydrated foods on the market.
What are the longest shelf life foods?
That depends on handling, packaging, environment, and would require a pretty danged long article to list down. But here is a general list of foods that will last a long danged time.
1. Honey: far as I know, honey doesn’t expire.
2. Rice: properly stored lasts decades.
3. Dried beans: properly stored, also decades.
4. Freeze-dried foods from reputable companies last 25 to 30 years
5. MRE (meals ready to eat) at 60f it will last about 5 years, properly stored maybe a decade (although I wouldn’t risk it)
I know some of you will be wondering why I didn’t talk about packing any MRE’s in my bugout bag…. Well, to be honest, the ones I tried were Terrible, I know when you are hungry, the taste isn’t supposed to be a deciding factor, but … well, if I can pack something of equal size and better flavor at a lower cost, why would I pick something unpalatable?
Also, some of you may be wondering why I didn’t mention the calorie content and nutritional count of each food item… Because as I mentioned before, these are foods that you carry in your Bug Out Bag, the contents of which are supposed to help you survive for about 3 to 7 days. Now unless you are suffering from some underlying medical condition, the chances of you suffering from malnutrition or dying of hunger in 3 to 7 days is very slim.
As for MRE’s I am not saying that they are all terrible, just the ones I have tried so far. If anyone has tried some that taste good. Please leave a comment below.
