“Relatively cheap, actually, even for the exaggerated time span.”
True. Dehydrated potatoes (or just about any other starch, actually), has about 1600 Calories/lb. A 2000 Calorie/day diet, would equal about 9125 lbs, for one person for 20 years. The cheapest place I know to buy dehydrated potates is at $33/25lbs., meaning about $600 per year, or about $1.65 per day for a 2000 Calorie diet.
$50 Some odd dollars for a monthly food budget is cheap, although 20 years of dehydrated potatoes would cost around $12,000. You are right though, that is relatively cheap, but all you have to do is add some oil to that for even cheaper calories (though oil doesn’t keep 20 years). 20 Years of food storage is pretty foolish in my opinion, but 5 years, is easily doable, you just have to be committed to spend that $3,000 dollars. It’s not that risky when you think about it as an investment, it’s not like you can’t eat it :-D (But I highly, highly, warn that it’s follish to try and store 5 years of one ingredient, like potatoes, because you’d get appetite fatigue and starve to death rather quickly, FYI).
Preppers tend to be smarter, or at least wiser, than the average population, but new preppers are often inexperienced, which is why I warn against the all _____ approach (rice, wheat, potatoes, etc.).
“all you have to do is add some oil to that for even cheaper calories”
Or maybe a squirrel or two.
;)