I have been searching through our tiny food storage auditing its contents. We have been slowly adding to the contents since we moved but it still is enough for only about two weeks. Since we eat what we store it is much more mixed than the econo basic mix of:
Flour or red wheat
Sugar or honey
Salt
Oil or Crisco
Powdered milk
The price tag for my laying in a supply of all of the above was $200-300 when I bought in the USA, years ago. The items on this list are fine if you are going to go buy a year supply today for emergencies while you are building a proper food larder, they are also perfect for helping out neighbors in need. Red wheat properly packed in sealed oxygen free containers lasts longer, retains more nutrition, and is able to be sprouted for part of it’s useful life. A good grinder is among the top items to buy for your family, cheap grinders are on the market but the burrs and parts will not survive the year you are expecting to survive off of your reserves. The highly touted Country Living grain mill [hand powered/convertible to electric] is over $300 that is a months rent for me! I have a Back to Basics mill which seems to be the lowest rated on the market.
The other end of the spectrum of survivalist buys several pallets of MREs to live off of, price tag over ten thousand dollars for just 3 people. The payoff to MREs is that after a day of exhausting work drop a few packets into boiling water or a MRE heater and you have dinner, throw everything away and get some sleep.
We have decided to take the middle road. Prepared canned food that can be eaten with a spoon is cheap storable and can be included into our weekly food rotation. If there is a family in need we can give freely without having the weirdness of handing out military grade goodies. Packing away olives, corn, crackers, Graham crackers [aka digestive biscuits, for those of you in the British Commonwealth], peanut butter, tomato sauce, pasta, you get the idea now–stuff you eat every day but rely on your own just in time delivery system. If you have successfully stored an item for too long [without eating any of it] cross it off the list, you are unlikely to eat it unless starvation sets in and unwelcome food is a good way to destroy morale during hard times. Rotate and consume your food stores, but keep track of popular foods and boost their quantities in your pantry.