Are there affiliate links on this page?

No. This is a free field note with a calculator. The product review in this chapter is a separate page and says so.

// chapter 03 · water & home · part 4 of 9 · field note · 11 September 2026

A 30-day pantry, priced with this month's numbers

Q: Where do the prices come from?

From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, U.S. city average, for July 2026, read through the BLS public API on 11 September 2026. Each item on this page shows its price and how it changed over twelve months. July is the newest month BLS had published when this page was written.

Q: Is this enough food to live on?

It covers the calories you ask it for. The calculator scales the list until it delivers your target, using USDA FoodData Central figures for every item. Calories are not nutrition: the list is heavy on starch and light on vegetables, and it is a ration for a month rather than a diet to live on. Anyone with a medical dietary need should ask a doctor.

Q: What got cheaper and what got dearer this year?

Over the twelve months to July 2026, eggs fell 39.2 percent and butter fell 18.2 percent, while coffee rose 10.7 percent and pasta rose 5.7 percent. Canned corn fell 9.3 percent. Those are BLS average prices for the U.S. city average.

Everyone tells you to keep a month of food. Almost nobody tells you what it costs, and the lists that circulate rarely add up to a day's calories. So we priced every staple at the federal average and counted its calories from the federal food database: about $52 a person for thirty days of shelf-stable food that really covers 2,000 calories a day, about $71 if you keep eating fresh. The calculator does it for your household, and the table underneath shows what each item costs today against a year ago.

No affiliate links on this page. It is a free tool and a field note. The product review in this chapter is a separate page and says so at the top.

// the count

What your household's pantry costs

The list is ours: the cheapest calories that keep for a year, plus the fresh food most people actually eat in the first week. Every price is the U.S. city average for July 2026 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and every calorie comes from the USDA's own food database. Set the calories you want covered and the list scales to hit them; set what your store charges against the national average and every price moves with it.

People eating Everyone at the table, adults and children alike. Children eat less; this list does not adjust for age.

Days of food Thirty is the usual target. Two weeks is the honest first step.

What you are buying Shelf-stable keeps for a year in a cupboard. Fresh food is the first week, and it is where most of the money goes.

Coffee Not food, but the first thing people miss. It is also the item that rose most this year.

Calories per person, per day 2,000 is the figure the FDA uses on the Nutrition Facts label for general advice. The list scales to whatever you type.

Your store against the national average, in % 0 means your prices match the U.S. average. Type 15 if your store runs 15% dearer, or -10 if it runs cheaper.

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for the whole household

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per person

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per person, per day

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calories a day it delivers

Shelf-stable

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Fresh food

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Coffee

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Item	How much	Price used	Calories	Cost

Prices: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, U.S. city average, July 2026, read through the BLS public API on 11 September 2026 (July was the newest month published). Calories: USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, read from the published data files on 11 September 2026, converted at 453.6 g to the pound, 50 g to a large egg and 3,904 g to a gallon of milk. The 2,000-calorie target is the figure the FDA uses on the Nutrition Facts label for general advice (page dated 5 Mar 2024); it is a label reference, not medical advice for you. Which items go on the list, and in what proportion, is our judgement.

// what a year did to the price

Every item, this month against last July

The same federal series the calculator uses. The right-hand column is the honest part: a pantry built last summer cost a different amount, and the items that moved are not the ones people expect.

Item	Price, July 2026	Change in 12 months

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted, July 2026 against July 2025; read 11 Sept 2026. A national average hides your store: a warehouse club and a corner shop in the same town can differ by more than any of the changes above.

What that means for a pantry. Eggs and butter fell hard this year, so the fresh half of the list is cheaper than it was last summer. Coffee went the other way, up 10.7 percent, and it is already the most expensive thing on the list per pound by a distance. Of the shelf-stable staples, only pasta moved more than five percent. That is the quiet argument for buying the dry goods first: their price barely moves, so there is no month that is clearly the wrong month.

// how to actually buy it

Four weeks, four trips, no special trip

Week one: the base. Rice, dried beans, flour. At July prices that is under fifteen dollars a person and it is more than half the calories of the whole list. Buy the biggest bag you can store, and store it off the floor in something a mouse cannot chew.

Week two: the middle. Pasta and canned vegetables. This is the week the pantry starts to look like meals instead of ingredients, which matters more than it sounds: a pantry nobody wants to cook from gets eaten last and thrown out first.

Week three: fat, salt and sugar. Cooking oil or butter, sugar, salt, and whatever seasoning your family actually uses. Plain calories with nothing to make them taste like anything is how a month of food turns into a week of food and three weeks of takeaway.

Week four: the rotation. Put the newest at the back, write the date on the bag with a marker, and cook one pantry meal a week from now on. A pantry that nobody rotates is a pantry that expires quietly and costs full price twice.

The four-week order is ours. The prices are not; every number above carries its date and its source.

// somebody who did the math out loud

Building a stockpile on a weekly budget, with the arithmetic shown

We have not filmed our own shop. The clearest attempt we found at doing this with real numbers rather than vibes is by Zach Of All Trades, who builds a year of food on a fixed weekly budget and shows the working. It is their work, shown here with their embed enabled; the credit and the link go to them.

Video by a creator we don't own

"Building a 1-Year Food Stockpile on $20/Week (Real Math)" by Zach Of All Trades on YouTube. Their budget, their shops and their choices, not ours; the prices in the video are from when it was filmed, not from this month. Watch it on YouTube for the rest of their stockpile series.

// chapter 03 · water at homenine parts, read in any order

i.How much water your house needs, and the Water Freedom System review
ii.Rain barrel calculator, by state
iii.48 hours without power: a small apartment's quiet plan
iv.A 30-day pantry, priced with this month's numbers
v.Generator vs. battery: what your state's outages say
vi.Water from air, explained by the humidity where you live
vii.This week's drought map, and your plan on top of it
viii.Filter, treat, test: making stored water drinkable
ix.The blackout kit you already own

Next: part v, a generator against a battery, decided by your state's outage hours.Read part iii →

// straight answers

Questions people ask

What does a 30-day pantry cost per person?

At July 2026 federal average prices, covering 2,000 calories a day for thirty days costs about $52 a person from shelf-stable staples alone, roughly $1.72 a day. Eating fresh food as well brings it to about $71 a person, about $2.38 a day, because fresh food buys fewer calories per dollar. Your store will differ; one field in the calculator shifts every price at once.

Where do the prices come from?

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Average Price Data, U.S. city average, July 2026, read through the BLS public API on 11 September 2026. July was the newest month published when this page was written. Each item shows its twelve-month change too.

Is this enough food to live on?

It covers the calories you ask it for, and nothing else. The calculator scales the list until it delivers your target, using the USDA's own figures for every item. Calories are not nutrition: this list is heavy on starch and light on vegetables, and it is a ration to get through a month, not a diet to live on. Anyone with a medical dietary need should ask a doctor, not a website.

What got cheaper and what got dearer this year?

To July 2026: eggs down 39.2 percent, butter down 18.2 percent, canned corn down 9.3 percent. Up: coffee 10.7 percent, pasta 5.7 percent, rice 3.0 percent, milk 3.6 percent. Dry staples moved least, which is the argument for buying them first and not waiting for a good month.

Should I buy freeze-dried buckets instead?

We have not tested any, so we have no verdict to sell you. What this page can tell you is the number to compare against: whatever a bucket costs, divide by the days it claims to feed one person and hold it next to the figures above. If a bucket beats supermarket rice and beans on price, that is worth knowing; most do not, and they buy you shelf life and convenience instead.

Last updated: 11 September 2026. Prices are federal averages with the dates shown; your store and your family will differ.

How we stay honest: this page has no affiliate links and no sponsor. Prices and calories are public federal data, each with its source and the date we read it. What goes on the list, in what proportion, and the four-week buying order are our own judgement and say so. Calories are not nutrition, and nothing on this site is medical or financial advice. The video belongs to the creator credited above.