Hey folks, let’s keep this discussion civil and a-political. Whatever your reasons for purchasing or not purchasing this product, this forum should be a place for information, questions, and reviews related to this product- not a place to attack other people’s ideology.
If you’d like to discuss politics feel free to head over to the “Everything But Woot” tab in our forums and join some fun word-games while you’re there!
Apparently Woot thinks the people who use it are all Doomsday PREPPERS. Every week something like this is on here.
You could. But you’d need to figure out a shelf-stable way to store it. I use heavy-duty vacuum seal bags, and buy bulk dehydrated meat and veggies for making my own backpacking meals. The same thing could be done for a “prepping” situation, but you wouldn’t achieve the 25-year shelf life of this stuff.
But I’d rather eat something wholesome and nutritious (and tasty) and have to replace it (by eating it!) every two years… The classic american food problem - convenience vs. nutrition/flavor.
That is probably an advantage. Survival food does no good if it gets eaten before it is truly necessary. As long as it provides calories and enough macro and micro nutrients to keep you and yours alive it will serve it’s purpose. Clearly there are many other ways to do this but this is a easy and cheap way to be done for the next 25 years. Rice and beans etc need to be rotated, they won’t last quite so long. All possible for well organized families but many are not.
I have a box of MRE’s and potabable water in the basement along with plenty of assorted long shelf life foods. I keep canned foods beyond the expiration date for when things go truly sideways. I have bleach and water filters on hand to purify water from a nearby stream and pond. Plenty of wood for after the natural gas tank runs out. If civilization does not recover after a few months it’ll be time for alternate plans.
You can’t plan for every eventuality but have plans for a few days or a few weeks is probably a good idea. I work with the town in emergency management and we’ve had week long power outages. Nothing too serious but it made us think differently about self sufficiency.
Re: your tag line…it’s never been proven that Patton ever said that. It’s telling…
Taste fine. The best out there is mountain house. More expensive but still, I’ve sampled the stroganoff and one of the rice dishes. As long as you don’t add too much water, it’s pretty tasty. I’ve never been one to worry about zombies, etc… but I do laugh at people who poke fun at those who “prepare”. I bet you will find many people who live in New Orleans before Katrina would think you were a wackjob for storing “emergency” food, water, etc… a waste of money. But I bet you will find many of them now do store some type of substance and water after the fact. You can’t put a couple of these in your basement and thing you are done. How will you boil water? How will you purify it? I’m not a prepper but being prepared is in my system. I spent 20 years going out and rescuing people who were not prepared and some who where. I keep 90 days worth of food and that includes everything from freeze dried to MRE’s, 45 days of water for 3 people but can acquire another 200 gals with a bathtub bladder. I have 2 water purifying systems and everything except the 55gal water barrels when they are full and the water bladder. I do keep 6 of those 6gals water jugs you get from Homedepot that are portable if I need to leave the house. If you do get some of this stuff (food that is), do yourself a flavor… simulate an emergency and prepare your food, eat it. Do this for a 24 hr period. You will be glad you did.
Well said and put. One more thing, dont’ just buy it and stick it in the basement. Simulate an emergency and make (sample)this stuff that means prepare it and eat it. Find what works and doesn’t. You can by individual pouches at your local sports store or walmart.
For the dude who has lived through disasters and survived to tell about it. With no power, refrigeration, etc… how did you make it? Did you have to provide for 3 or 6 people? Was it 90+ degree’s during the week you were without power? How did you take care of your sanitation if your toilets didn’t work?
Ummm. Did anyone else add up the calories and analyze the carbohydrates to fat and protein percentages? I came up with an incredibly low number of calories per day. Their website did provide the info on a serving basis but you have to work to get the totals. OTOH - it is intended as a last resort emergency supply. Hopefully you have a moderate amount of food stores at home to supplement this cache.
Noob question…So all of these systems still require you to have reliable access to somewhat clean water and a way to boil it right?
Assuming the average adult needs about 0.5-1 gal per day (in survival situations), I would need to store 45-90 gallons of water to make it 3 months? Does that sound about right?
What’s the best way to store that? Right now, I get the Costco 6x1 gal waters and rotate it out every 3 years. It says good for 2 years on the box but I’m sure it’s fine going an extra year, even if stored in an outdoor shed. I live in SoCal so in an earthquake scenario, there likely won’t be reliable water delivery for months!
I’ve been trying to decide between the Mountain House sales for about a week. Those sales on sports woot looks a lot better than these. The serving side is more numerous here but a lot of the serving are beverages and deserts.
FYI, this water straw filter is also on sale on sports woot.
Still I suppose it’s a matter of preference: you can buy an essential MH (33 servings) and a breakfast MH (30 servings) with the filter straw for the same $150 the the smaller kit (4 week+ 2 week here costs.
Per serving this is cheaper but like I said–a lot of beverages and snacks.
Maybe Woot knows something we don’t! 
For quick meals you would be better off with grocery store supplies. The shelf life isn’t as good but it is a lot cheaper and arguably healthier. If you want quick and don’t care about shelf life, then fresh is best. For ease either frozen dinners or shelf stable meals like homel completes. Oatmeal --with savory add ins–is also good for lunch or supper. Again none of that stuff is going to have a 25 year shelf life.
As long as you keep it dry, pasta, dried beans and rice really don’t expire. Of course you will need longer cook times for those and more water. The benefit of dehydrated or freeze dried food is long shelf life and the ability to rehydrate with only a small amount of hot water.
Water lasts forever! The only issue you will have is the taste might change due to the plastic bottle.
Two things:
These are going to taste like crap.
You probably won’t even need them.
I hunkered down in Pensacola, Florida when hurricane Ivan came through. We were out water and power for nearly 3 weeks. The National Guard was there within 24 hours with more MREs than you could count. And, every radio frequency (every. single. one.) was broadcasting details on where to pick up MREs. Every household could show up and get an entire box (12 MREs) per 3 people per day. That’s 4 meals per person per day if you were willing to go hang out in the line. If you lived alone, you could still pick up 1 box per day.
What I’m trying to say is, if you’re in any sort of actual civilized city and something catastrophic happens, there’s a good chance you’ll be covered.
If you still think you need a bunch of freeze-dried/ready-to-eat meals, go get something that’s more palatable. Head to an army surplus store and buy a couple boxes of MREs. Sure, they’ll cost you more, but if you really do NEED the food, you’ll be happy it tastes good. And since you probably won’t actually use it, you’ll need to eat it before it goes bad in a decade. Again, you’ll be happy you have something that actually tastes like food.
You’re can’t say stuff like that. It doesn’t say “gub’ment is bad.” 
Food insurance is for more than natural disasters.
Knowing that you have a few months of food stashed away can make sudden unemployment a lot less scary.
Any Vegan options?
Been there. Your best bet for “quick meals for a working person” are those meals you make in advance and freeze. Only have time to cook on Saturday? Make extra portions; it doesn’t take any longer to, for example, barbecue two chickens or make an extra-big lasagna and freeze the leftovers. And if you want to plan for disaster, just get extra canned and/or dried goods and rotate your stock; get the things you’d ordinarily eat. Or buy this stuff if you’re solely in it for the convenience. (I do want to see Woot make a buck, after all…)
I think Vegans are too stringy to eat, to tell you the truth…
I literally just got done watching 10 Cloverfield Lane and then I see this woot…