And have an alternate way of generating electricity and heating your home if it gets cold where you live. I'd suggest just abandoning the cities and suburbs entirely and moving full rural with:
Your own well, ideally with some storage
A generator and some fuel storage (propane is nice here because it doesn't go bad and can also provide heat)
A solar setup with battery storage that has enough capacity to at least run your well pump and a furnace fan (or pump if you have hydronic heat) and you fridge/freezer and ideally also your Internet connection and a laptop.
At least 6 months of food storage. I just hit two years, but in the event things get really bad that becomes six months because I can't let my little niece or her mom and dad starve.
I have cooked fourteen year old rice a roni and it tasted just the same as if it were fourteen day old. Seasoning packet needed extra water but that was it.
It's all canned, except the bacon which I chuck into the freezer in its original package. The canned meat all came from Aldi, Costco, or Walmart. I try to eat a can or two of that a week just to make sure I never have anything more than about 6 years old. Due to cost reasons I only increased my storage of that to a year. I can't determine any taste degradation at 6 years. The oldest frozen bacon I ever ate was 4 years, but the taste and texture was still good.
I did can the wheat and rice myself, because I only eat basmati rice due to the lower glycemic index and the wheat I get an organic variety from Oregon due to pesticide and GMO concerns. Yes, the manual canner is not cheap. I also use oxygen absorbers. Mylar bags are quite cost and labor effective, but I enjoy not having to worry about mice or rats, and I think long term the cans are a better oxygen barrier, so cans it is.
Due to the added cost of cans and oxygen absorbers I don't regularly eat the food I can except once a year to verify my process works and is keeping things fresh and bug free. Canned in that way I have zero doubts it will last 25 years or more. My oldest self-canned items are 6 years old now.
So lock n load and stay away from malls.
And have an alternate way of generating electricity and heating your home if it gets cold where you live. I'd suggest just abandoning the cities and suburbs entirely and moving full rural with:
I have cooked fourteen year old rice a roni and it tasted just the same as if it were fourteen day old. Seasoning packet needed extra water but that was it.
It's all canned, except the bacon which I chuck into the freezer in its original package. The canned meat all came from Aldi, Costco, or Walmart. I try to eat a can or two of that a week just to make sure I never have anything more than about 6 years old. Due to cost reasons I only increased my storage of that to a year. I can't determine any taste degradation at 6 years. The oldest frozen bacon I ever ate was 4 years, but the taste and texture was still good.
I did can the wheat and rice myself, because I only eat basmati rice due to the lower glycemic index and the wheat I get an organic variety from Oregon due to pesticide and GMO concerns. Yes, the manual canner is not cheap. I also use oxygen absorbers. Mylar bags are quite cost and labor effective, but I enjoy not having to worry about mice or rats, and I think long term the cans are a better oxygen barrier, so cans it is.
Due to the added cost of cans and oxygen absorbers I don't regularly eat the food I can except once a year to verify my process works and is keeping things fresh and bug free. Canned in that way I have zero doubts it will last 25 years or more. My oldest self-canned items are 6 years old now.