[JIC]

<div>My choice for Long Term Food Storage is the Mylar system. For rice I use 5 gallon Mylars with 2500 cc oxygen absorbers. (Amazon) More cc’s is better than less. 40 pounds of rice (2-20# bags) fits perfectly into a 5 gallon Mylar bag. I then store them in shallow stackable totes that I get from Lowe’s. (Most that do this use 5 gallon buckets but I find the shallow bins stack neater and can hold more food too. With what I’m paying for the Mylar I want to get as much out of them as I can. There’s OPSEC reasons too. Stacked totes just makes you look like an organized pack rat. Slap “Christmas” or “Easter” on the sides and they might even get over looked all together. 😁)</div>

I plan my LT Food Storages for a larger family then I have as I’m sure they’d be coming if “S” ever does Hit, but if that’s too much you can downsize to 1 gallon instead, less cc’s of course. Same with flour, elbow mac, oatmeal, beans, etc., sized depending on what you feel would be wasted after so much time of being opened up. Only thing I’ve “lost” so far is about 8 pounds of bread flour (30# / 5gl) that finally went flat before I could use it all and even that went to the chickens over time as dumplings.

I’m sure my method is a bit more on the pricey side for most budgets but I see LT storage of anything as an investment so I don’t mind spending the extra when I have too. Less than $200 from Amazon and Lowe’s gives me A LOT of supplies considering what I’m spending on the food that’s going into them. As an example, for plain ‘ol white rice right now, I can get 40 pounds of rice for about $25, Mylar and o2 for another $5 (already bulk bought), and a tote for $10. All said and done maybe around 50 bucks for something that’ll outlast me. Only thing not reusable in this is the rice and the o2 packet. (Mylars are reusable but you’d want to stock up on extra o2’s, JIC. 😉) I calculated that 1 bag is about 20 meals for us, 30 if rationing. All said and done with THAT part, calculated down to maybe less than $2 per meal for a family of 10, likely with leftovers to boot too. And that’s just plain ‘ol white rice, though given that’s probably the cheapest I’ve put up.

Macaroni (I don’t bother with spaghetti for LT) cost me about $30, but the meals would break down different too. (30#/5 gl) of macaroni would probably only be about 15 meals for a family of 10, but even that’s pushing the ration idea to a limit. 10 meals would be more realistic. So between $2-$3 per meal.

Anywho, that’s my reasoning. Initial cost for buying things in bulk but it’s worth it in the end.

In the least I’d vac seal if nothing else.

My opinion (and I’m sure it’s only mine), I wouldn’t freeze anything, rice or grain. Probably causing more problems than you’re trying to avoid. As stated from a comment above, most things need oxygen to live. Take that away and you eliminated the bug problem at least. Only problem I ever had with weevils was from a box of barley I opened that was fresh from the store. Several boxes, same batch number. Only 1 box of bugs though. Wasn’t much sense in getting mad over a $3 box of barley. I mixed that one in my chicken feed, then cleaned out their feeding can when the birds finished off that batch of food. I’m sure the bugs didn’t mind the extra nibbles for the time being. The chickens didn’t mind either. Waste not, want not. 😉