I love Chili Macaroni MRE, maybe becoming MRE-aholic

[BackwoodsPundit]

Howdy..

I am a relative neophyte MRE afficionado; My wife and I used to keep a stockpile of food but over the years it has either gone out of date, been given to charity; or just used and then not replaced. Now that we have a child (2 year old son) we figured it was time to get more serious about having some disaster supplies.

So to start with, I started with some MRE entrees, and then some full Military MREs. A couple of cases to start with, along with about 40 entrees , some exta hash browns with bacon (good when fried) and a few dozen extra desserts. I figured I could rotate them every few years, eat them for lunch and such.

I haven't tried many of the entreees yet because then I would have to restock, and my wife is not especially happy with my new "hobby". I am espeially dreading the CCC, since I don't really like curry, nor is chicken breast my favorite thing either.

But the Chili mac ROCKS! Much better than hamburger helper, for sure - not that I have had that since I was a kid. A little paprika in there and it would be even better, even my wife dubbed it "acceptbile"

I am thinking about buying a bunch more entrees from Long Life Food - they don't have the best prices I have seen, but they have consistant stock; and the free shipping probably makes up for it. Start taking some for lunch - 2.50 is not a bad price for lunch!


OK so bottom line - any advice on where to buy the stuff, not outrageously expensive? I have seen CIVILAIN MRE type cases going for $115 a case PLUS shipping, and more.. and called a "sale" - so paying 42 + 20 shipping on ebay for the real military ones hasn't seemed too bad in comparison - but still, this could get real expensive real fast! I ordered some of the pot roast entrees, hopefully they will be good because I bought a bunch of them.


Anyone got any advice on buying dehydrated stuff too? I see such high variations in price and such, which is bettere, Mountain House, Alpine Aire, other brands? Any good site to buy that stuff inexpensively? How about canned butter and cheese? I almost bought at internet-grocer but the shipping was so high to Virginia I said forget it, and used the money for MREs instead

Also, from what I have read, apparently my wife is not the only one who is not exactly thrilled with stocking up on MRE's? I would love to hear some of the stories

[kman]

Hi BackwoodsPundit - welcome to the forums!

It's good to see you getting more into the MRE world. I know where you're coming from in regarding to your wife. My wife was pretty much the same way. For the first couple of years once I got into MREs, a new case of them would arrive on the doorstep and she'd say, "More MREs! How many of these do you need?" and she'd give me hard time. But after a while, I eventually wore her down and now it's more like, "Hey, you got some more MREs today." I'm sure I pay for it on the other end via all the chick-stuff she gets on Ebay but that's what balance in a marriage is all about, isn't it?

But back to MREs...I know what you mean about Longlife Foods being kind of expensive. We've have that discussion a time or two on these forums and some members like buying from LLF and some don't. LLF is convenient because like you said, they have almost everything you could want. But yes, it's expensive at $2.50 per entree (even if shipping is included). There are other places that sell MRE parts and pieces - here are two of them:

http://www.theepicenter.com
and
http://www.beprepared.com

Personally, I kind of like The Epicenter even though I've never ordered from them. They seem to have decent prices at $1.66 per entree. Unfortunately, the last time I looked, hurricane panic had wiped out their stock so they might not have much available right now - but keep checking.

You also mentioned dehydrated foods like Mountain House. You just missed (by three days) a nice group sale going on at ar15.com. You can check out my thread about it here:

viewtopic.php?t=187

They had some pretty good prices. But give them a few more months and they'll probably have another group buy. For the group buy that just closed, they pulled in $65,000 worth of orders.

I'm not aware of any other places online where you can get good deals on the dehydrated foods - those seem to stay pretty steady (around retail) on most sites.

As for MREs, I think you're right to stick with the military versions off of Ebay. Prices are pretty high right now but I'm thinking they're going to drop eventually once ebay gets flooded with enough. I'm still saving my pennies for a $20/case MRE sale...anyone want to help a brother out?

[truzoom]

Chili Macaroni is one of my life loves

Add some tobasco sauce and it's like heaven in your mouth.

[MRE_FAN_GERMANY]

I had this meal today ... and i must say you are right! Definatly one of the best MRE meals i had yet ...

- Wheat Snack Bread with Cheese Spread .... always a good start
- Chili and Macaroni with Cheese Spread, Salt and Red Pepper .... very hot and very good!
- Pound Cake with hot Cocoa ... also very good

and later some coffee with Tootsie Rolls ... what do you want more?

Ron