There are many websites devoted to sharing this information, but for starters canned goods usually have expiration dates printed on them.

Make sure you have at least one good can opener with it! Not everything is pop-top. If you put together a kit of things, rotate them out every 6 months to a year. Use the older normally and have fresher in "savings".

Each person's needs will be different so one thing you could do is figure packing for a camping trip of however long you wish to be prepared. A weekend? A week? Don't forget painkillers, extra eyeglasses and the like. Sanitizer, paper products, personal needs, are all important items. Even do a dry run if you like. One weekend you live from can goods. See what you eat and get an idea how much.

There were several excellent threads on emergency preparedness but looks like the forum has lost everything. I saved several of them and if you want I could email them to you.

Also, how prepared do you want yourself? Power outage? Tornado/hurricane damage? Terrorist attack? Nuclear explosion? It'll all vary for your needs.

I simply can't understand people who refuse to keep a few essentials on-hand in case of a problem. A few canned goods, some flashlights AND BATTERIES, a battery radio, and the like.

And just to make sure you understand the can opener has to be a hand crank kind because disasters most often mean no electricity. I had a neighbor once who put an electric can opener in her box of emergency can goods. It was so hard not to laugh at that when she asked me to help her make sure she had everything she needed. Luckily she had pretty much everything else and followed all the recommendations for the paper works and emergency contacts to be safe and multiple copies with other family members.

LIL

Try these I've tried for years to get a forum for this there are a lot of good things on the old one and on the link below

old Emergency Preparedness -

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/organ/msg0712381226349.html?11067

Here is a link that might be useful: Emergency Preparedness PAGE 2 - Organizing the Home Forum - GardenWeb

I think the above links are what you might have been looking for

I'm starting to know more and more people who admit to keeping six or more months worth of food in the pantry. It'd be nice to have in an emergency. It's also extra protection in the event that you lose your job or something more drastic comes up.

Like someone else said you can look at the 'use by' date on the cans to know what you keep. You can choose just to have supplies set aside in case of a short emergency and watch the use by dates. Or you can think more long term and just rotate in and out of what you use everyday.

I also think you need to look at the types of emergencies that are more probable for your area and plan from there. Here we have tornadoes and ice storms with days of electrical outages. I worry more about having easy to eat or cook foods, candles, matches, flashlights, lanterns, and ways to stay warm. You may have different needs.

My mom, like many of our parents, lived through the depression. We lived on a farm, and she kept a celler full of canned goods, plus a jar (way on the back of a shelf) with money in it. When my dad passed away, and she moved to town, she retrieved the jar and gave each one of us (5 daughters) about 700$ apiece from it. Money is a good thing to have on hand, at least in a limited amount.

Also, when my daughter and son in law moved half way across the country last year for a new job (his) they moved a lot of canned and dried food items they had accumulated in the old place. She said they sure came in handy before while she was out of work and he was waiting for that first paycheck.

We buy on sale, and keep a full freezer (yes, I know that would be a problem if no electricity) and a pantry full of canned and dried goods. They're always handy, even when there is no disaster.

Also, the date on canned goods is a 'best if used by' date. Canned goods are edible much longer then the date on the can, it's just that the nutritional value goes down as they get older. In an emergency, I'd sure be eating them, even if the date shows expired. At the same time, I agree that rotating them every few months is a good idea. Use the old, store the new.

Rule of thumb-frozen foods keep about six months. Canned goods about a year. Nothing lasts forever. Don't donate expired food to charities-they are required to chuck it.

Apparently not all places, jannie. The food pantry here gives out expired food. Not just canned food either, but refrigerated food. I think that's terrible myself, but I know it's true.

There are entire message boards devoted to this topic. In addition to cash, buy some silver or gold. It's likely to again become the medium of exchange. Our American dollar is now a fiat currency and has been since Nixon disconnected us from the Gold Standard in 1971. If things continue as they are, the dollar's best value may soon be as bathroom wallpaper.

Look up Weimar Republic for more info. In post-WW1 Germany, war reparations left that country bankrupt. The Germans tried to print their way out of debt and caused a hyperinflation that destroyed their economy and the extreme financial turmoil and economic collapse paved the way for a little man to rise to power. His name was Hitler.

There's a saying that the most well-behaved society is five meals away from anarchy. Post-war Germany was in anarchy and people were going hungry. Hitler's siren song was economic stability.

In the last 12 months, the M3 money supply has expanded by 14%. That's a huge number. In other words, that's the dollars the Fed is PRINTING and that will ultimately lead to severe inflation. Think about what inflation really is: Gold (and gas and food) isn't going up in price, but the dollar's value is falling and it takes MORE dollars to buy the same products.

Never in the history of the world has a fiat currency been sustainable. The temptation to print more dollars to pay off debt is too great.

The American dollar was the world's currency. The sun is setting on the American Empire. China is now where we (Americans) were in 1906. And where Britain was in 1806. Hegemony doesn't last forever, and America's turn at bat is about up.

Pre-1965 dimes are a good investment to make. They're cheap and ubiquitous and 90% silver content.

The saddest thing is, most Americans don't know their history. We detoured from the founding father's wise constitutional framework too many times to count (including their prohibition on fiat money [section 10]). Had we listened, we wouldn't be in this economic mess.

The other issue is, the national debt ($12 trillion now). Interest rates are at historic lows but even now, about 1/4th of every dollar the US Government takes in from all sources goes to pay the INTEREST on the debt. When interest rates go up, so will that number. If interest rates triple, or even quadruple (which is very possible), we're going to be in trouble deep.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to realize this is not sustainable.

Be prepared. The times they are a'changing.

An don foget yo twice-barrel shootgun and ammunition!