I'm 5 years ahead of you and have about a year's worth of food stocked already. I bought a freeze dryer 3 years ago and have been using it quite a bit. Just got another wire shelving unit for food stocking.
What's happening is a pandemic driven contraction and correction. All that money going to peoples' pockets from the government isn't helping because when everyone has money, no one does. We're correcting, the market is (in perspective) holding steady, and the massive rise in cryptocurrency prices is really the free-fall of the dollar.
The US is almost primed and ready to be ruined with just one nuclear strike and it doesn't even have to be on US soil or airspace.
A freeze dryer looks like a good idea, but they aren't cheap. I just dehydrated a lot last year and will continue doing that this summer.
Yeah, about $2000. But in the end, I've been able to make the expense a worthwhile investment. I can make all kinds of things and have instant foods or things I'd normally have to buy.
For example:
- Freeze dried mini marshmallows. Just like in Lucky Charms.
- Freeze dried spaghetti sauce, drinks, refried beans. It's just me so opening any of those means I have a good chance of it going bad before I use it all. Just freeze dry it and use only enough for my meal.
- Long term food prep. 25 years.
- Freeze dry a whole holiday meal and have it ready in like 10 minutes.
There are a lot more benefits. You can also use it to vacuum seal jars but you have to get clever about it.
Rumblings I'm hearing around social media is that it's going to be a whole lot worse than expected. There are still 20+ container ships docked outside of LA's harbors daily that are unable to be unloaded. Container cost has generally doubled with prices being 3-4x in many places in Asia due to so much demand to export. A year ago a container was like $2500, now $4000-6500 is pretty common. I saw an article the other day talking about how someone offered $15,000 for a container and couldn't even secure one. I saw some Italian food importer in the US saying prices were going to rise 40-60% soon.
Stock up on shelf-stable food now if you have not yet.