please share DEALS on shelf stable food

[TurtleNomad]

Some of us recently discussed that it would be nice to have a single thread to post sales and great deals to.

Many of us often notice small but great deals, and are hesitant to start a whole thread for it. Share them here, and problem solved.

Suggested guidelines:

• reputable companies / sellers with whom you've had previous positive buying experience(s)
  (or are universally respected, such as TheEpiCenter and LongLifeFood)
• let's try to avoid "buyers clubs" like Dvor and TheClymb (which give the poster a financial reward... and bad karma)
• please share what the fair market price would be (i.e. why it's a great deal)
• please summarize shipping costs, if the vendor has a simple flat rate or "free" option
• please share any other useful info about the product, particularly personal experiences
• even single cool items are good!
  For example, I'm looking for a good price on pilot bread and just missed a great holiday sale at a major online retailer. They had enough other cool items that it would have been cost effective to buy from them.

[TurtleNomad]

Recently, I mentioned that I've been tracking on Amazon, a great deal on:
AlpineAire Foods 7 Day Gourmet Meal Kit (25 Pouches)
Monday afternoon, the price dropped to $97.74 (includes free shipping), which is only $3.91 per pouch. Typical street price for a freeze-dried pouch is about $6 each.

The only cheaper prices I've seen have been at warehouse stores, for kits which have very little variety.

This AA kit has 25 unique varieties.
It's an awesome sampler, with lots of entrees, breakfast, and dessert items.

I've previously bought and sampled their 5-day and 3-day kits, as well as several 6-packs, and have found them to be excellent value.

Some of their entrees aren't as savory as Mountain House's best, but the equivalent AA meals are as good as their same MH meal.

I particularly like that AA's definition of "day" is 2000 calories, which is the official number for men. There's no trickery here.

If you search Amazon for "AlpineAire kit", you'll see how much cheaper this kit is, per pouch, than the other n-day kits.

Yes, I did order one.
I'm planning to order a case of civilian MREs soon, and will post photos side-by-side, so folks can get a feel for space efficiency.

[Ruleryak]

Costco carries a line of shelf stable food called Chef's Banquet. The price is generally really good compared to other solutions, and they regularly go on sale. A sale that just ended on the 3rd or 4th of this month had the Ark (2100 calories per day for 30 days) at $80 shipped, right now it's back up to $100. I'm planning on picking up a few containers worth the next time they're on sale but if anyone wants to take a look you can find what they have in stock here

[Treesuit]

TurtleNomad,

I mentioned not too long ago that MREDepot had a good special going on. Order anything from their website and get free shipping. Well, I had a big order over Thankgiving, and was really impressed that I did two smaller shipments over the Christmas/ New Years holidays as well. I ordered mostly freeze dried soups, fruit, vaccum packed cereal, and some freeze dried stews. On my last two orders I think the final amount didn't go over $30.00 but since they ship everything UPS, free shipping was a great thing. Especially when UPS is pretty expensive.

IIRC, they had a special on vaccum packed pilot bread as well.

[TurtleNomad]

Guys, thanks for posting the Shiny Deals!

The day after I ordered the AA 7-day kit from Amazon, guess what appeared in my Amazon "GoldBox"?

The Wise foods "60 serving" kit, for about $5 off Amazon's already low price!

I waffled all day, and finally succombed to temptation. I justified it on the grounds y'all would like a thorough review. I will post a calorie count, and pics of it side-by-side with the AA kit and an upcoming order of my very first complete civilian MREs. Then I'll be doing a sampling of all.

Costco carries a line of shelf stable food called Chef's Banquet. The price is generally really good compared to other solutions, and they regularly go on sale. A sale that just ended on the 3rd or 4th of this month had the Ark (2100 calories per day for 30 days) at $80 shipped, right now it's back up to $100.

Ruleryak, thanks, I had noticed that a year or two ago, and had not realized it was back in stock! If you see another sale, please do post it!

For a while, I've wanted to do a one month experiment of eating mostly FD foods, rotating between different manufacturers. The more companies, the better.

IIRC, they had a special on vaccum packed pilot bread as well.

Treesuit, thanks! Yes, that does look interesting, plus they're the smaller cans, so it's more flexible in terms of storing most then gradually using them as desired.

The free shipping must have just ended.
If you notice another free shipping special, please share. I can wait.

[dirtbag]

LDP foods has one day left on their Quarterly Mountain House #10 can sale, 25% off and FREE shipping (USA ).
Ends Jan 14th
http://www.ldpcampingfoods.com/Mountain_House_Cans.htm
Good stuff, great prices, Free shipping!

[Treesuit]

I just went an checked on the TheEpicenter's website and they now have MRE UGR Tray packs. The dates are really recent from 2008-2011 and most are priced from $8.95 to $11.95 per tray. The tray's weight are around 6 lbs. The Epicenter's shipping isn't that bad, they use UPS and it gets here fast (at least for those of us on the west coast).

[Ruleryak]

I just went an checked on the TheEpicenter's website and they now have MRE UGR Tray packs. The dates are really recent from 2008-2011 and most are priced from $8.95 to $11.95 per tray. The tray's weight are around 6 lbs. The Epicenter's shipping isn't that bad, they use UPS and it gets here fast (at least for those of us on the west coast).

Great find!! I've been keeping an eye out for these for years. I've bought about 80 trays so far but only of a handful of varieties. At Burning Man every year I go through quite a few of them serving army chow to campmates and whatnot.

I've never come across variety like this. Even back when longlifefooddepot.com and mredepot.com had them they never had a selection anywhere close to this. Pricing is a bit high here, at a shop in Idaho I stop at every year they carry 3 or 4 varieties at a time and sell them for $6.95 a tray. With shipping it'll be more than double and almost triple that price but for Cuban Garlic Beef and Lemon Pepper Chicken and other un-findable varieties I'm gonna have to shell out the extra bucks I suppose

[Treesuit]

Oh yeah,

I remember MRDepot and LongLifeFood had them and they still do, but your right, they don't carry the variety.

[justalurker]

I've never come across variety like this. Even back when longlifefooddepot.com and mredepot.com had them they never had a selection anywhere close to this. Pricing is a bit high here, at a shop in Idaho I stop at every year they carry 3 or 4 varieties at a time and sell them for $6.95 a tray.

That's a deal! Where in Idaho?