Mason Jars vs. Emergency Buckets: Prepping Storage Solutions Examined

I'm evaluating my pantry and food storage approach, reflecting on what's worked and what hasn't in my prepping journey over the years.

• Mason jars look great but have practical limitations including fragility and storage concerns
• Important to avoid stacking jars to prevent seal failures
• Loosening ring bands slightly helps identify compromised seals more easily
• Emergency food buckets offer unmatched convenience though at higher cost
• 72-hour emergency meal kits provide complete, quick-prep meals requiring only boiling water
• Emergency foods contain preservatives but serve their purpose in crisis situations
• Consider supplementing any emergency food with vitamins and minerals
• Finding balance between mason jars and buckets may be the ideal approach
• Prepping is a journey that involves continuous learning and adaptation

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Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Introduction
• 0:56 Evaluating My Pantry Approach
• 1:21 Mason Jar Storage Lessons
• 3:57 Emergency Food Bucket Benefits
• 6:01 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit Review
• 8:33 Finding Balance in Prepper Storage
• 10:44 Closing Thoughts and Community Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Welcome to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended, off-grid compound high in the mountains, coming to you from his florida room in richmond, virginia neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, keith hey y'all, this is keith, and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper podcast, august 22nd 2025, where we talk about all things preparedness, self-sufficiency and building a resilient lifestyle.

Speaker 2: 0:56

So what we're going to talk about today is my pantry. I've decided to kind of deep dive into my pantry and see what potential mistakes that I've made over the last several years and some of the things that I've done right. And that's the whole reason for this podcast to tell you what I've done right, what I've done wrong, offer up an opinion and see if it's something that you want to pursue. So when I first started several years ago, I was all about the mason jar. I grew up with my grandmother and great-grandmother with a root cellar going down and getting mason jars the larger ones, the small ones out of the basement and then out of the root cellar and then bringing it up for them to cook the meals. So I'm thinking all right, mason jars, I'll take the bulk pasta, the bulk rice, the bulk beans and I'll break them down into individual mason jars. Now they look all great sitting on a pantry shelf and they certainly have their place, don't get me wrong. But they're bulky, they're fragile because they're glass and anything that I do put into a mason jar. It's a sterile, a very clean mason jar that I then throw in an oxygen absorber and then vacuum seal it, just to be on the safe side. Be very careful about stacking one mason jar on top of the other.

Speaker 2: 2:21

I read that potentially the weight of the one mason jar could cause the mason jar on top of the other. I read that potentially the weight of the one mason jar could cause the mason jar on the bottom to pop its seal. So I just went ahead out of the abundance of caution and went ahead and stacked them single, didn't stack them double, because the last thing I want to do is come into my pantry and find that seven or eight jars of beans or pasta have popped and they're basically useless at that point. I also read that you tighten down the ring to make sure you've got a seal, but don't keep it very tight, loosen it up. And I didn't understand initially why. But it made sense, because if the seal pops, basically telling you it's lost its seal and you probably need to toss the contents sometimes, that keeps the seal much tighter. And I'm thinking well, it's kind of counterintuitive, don't? I want the seal nice and tight. But if it's a situation where the seal is compromised and it's slowly leaking, go ahead and loosen the seal a little bit so when it does pop it's very easy to see, very visible and you can take care of, you can dispose of it or do whatever you want to do with those particular items in the mason jar. Now, as far as the ring six, one half dozen again, I went ahead and did that just to be on the safe side. I don't quite understand the science behind it, but I read it on several different websites so I will defer to the professional mason jar keeper people and I went ahead and stuck with that. So they certainly have their place. Now.

Speaker 2: 3:57

I've also spoken about the bucket meals, the shameless commercial plug I'll get out of the way. I'm on the affiliate program with Augustin Farms. The affiliate link will be in the show description. You use that affiliate link. There is a chance I will get a small commission from that purchase. Use podcast prep, all one word at checkout and you get an additional 10% off your order. All right, there's my shameless commercial plug. So look at, into these buckets.

Speaker 2: 4:26

The big draw, the big plus for me is convenience. The biggest drawback is the price. But, like anything else, go ahead and shop around, go to different websites different time of the year. You've got Augustine Farms, readywise, hourwise, patriot, supply, 4patriots there's probably half a dozen at least out there and odds are there's a parent company that probably fills all the orders for all the companies and they slap a different sticker on it. But regardless, augustin Farms is the company that I prefer because I've tasted most of the food from most of the companies. Augustin Farms was just the one that I landed on who I contacted about being a part of the affiliate program. So convenience is huge.

Speaker 2: 5:18

They're stackable, so you don't have to worry about double stacking. Triple stacking, you're not going to have any issue with that. They're sealed into buckets. The buckets are resealable. A lot of the individual meals are resealable as well. You've got the big upfront cost and again that's the biggest drawback.

Speaker 2: 5:36

So I went into the pantry and I grabbed my 72-hour emergency meal bag from August in Farms that I got several weeks ago. So it comes in a pretty sturdy foil container. It's got a little handle Again. You just grab it and go, set it by the door of your pantry, drop it in your go bag your get-home bag, whatever bag it's going in. It's very convenient.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Now, this is a 72-hour kit for one person. If this is all you have and you have two people, well, you're splitting it. You have three, well, you're splitting it again. So as you go down, it's less and less food per person. But for one person, you can't beat this bag. Now it has the maple brown sugar oatmeal, which is very good, creamy potato soup, which is fantastic, and the creamy chicken flavored rice, which you'll find in a lot of the different buckets, regardless of the company.

Speaker 2: 6:33

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give it an 8. What you're doing is you're taking this food with you boiling water, and it's meant to sustain you until the next day or until things calm down. This is not meant to be a five-course meal at the Chez Paul, where you're getting all the best food that's cooked by a chef, a world-renowned chef. If you flip over and you look at the ingredients, there's going to be plenty of preservatives, polyphosphate and a bunch of other stuff that I can't even pronounce. But again, we're not eating this on a daily basis. This is something that we're eating in case of an emergency. It's going to get us the calories we need. It's going to be a warm meal. It's going to increase morale. We're not eating this as far as to be fit and trim.

Speaker 2: 7:30

I don't think there's anything organic in any of these buckets. But again, when the poop hits the fan, are you really? Well, I'm sorry, keith, that super duper, ultra processed sugar, something or other oatmeal that's not organic I'm going to have to pass. Well then, that's more that sugar, super duper processed oatmeal for me. Again, this is getting us through a couple couple days of some really tough times. We're not eating it necessarily for the nutritional value. Certainly going to need to supplement this, especially in a long SHTF situation with the vitamins, your A, b, c, ds, your Ks, your potassium and magnesium. That should be part of your regular daily routine, shtf situation or not. So you're going to need to supplement your bucket meals.

Speaker 2: 8:19

Now let me grab this Augustin Farm bucket and I'll try not to give myself a hernia. So this one is a 30 day supply for one person, and again it's a 15 to 15 day supply for two person, and so on and so on. So this one has, it has the soup, the oatmeal, pancakes, fettuccine, alfredo. We got the cheesy broccoli rice, spanish rice. We got the soup, we got banana chips, we got all sorts of puddings and desserts. So again, it can be a bit pricey. But check the website, use the affiliate link as I tear my shoulder out of my socket and use the coupon code podcastprep and you get 10% off. So again, just keep an eye on these different sites. You'll always see a buy one, get one, or buy this bucket and get a 72 hour kit on top of it. It's definitely worth looking into. The convenience is fantastic. The price can be a detractor, but when you weigh it all together you know I think it's. I think it might be a good option for a lot of people.

Speaker 2: 9:29

So what I'm going to do, I'm just going to mix and match. I'm going to take my buckets and they're going to be in my pantry alongside my mason jars. I'm not going to start dumping out things from my mason jar, but what I'm going to start doing is like, for dinner tonight, I may grab one of the one of the bow tie pasta filled mason jars and have that for dinner. So I think I'm going to start pulling from the mason jars and then obviously leaving the buckets for those particular situations. So again, just something to think about.

Speaker 2: 10:04

Again, I don't want to say it was a big mistake that I made back in the day when I first started, but it's a learning process. Prepping is a journey, just like anything else, and as you go along you make little tweaks oh, this was great, this is not so bad, this was an absolute disaster. I'll never do that again. So as we learn, it just makes us better preppers in the end. So I'm not sure what everybody else has in their pantry, but again I'm going to go mix and match with the buckets for convenience and then the mason jars for things that I've already had for several years and I'm just going to start eating from them.

Speaker 2: 10:44

Because again, in a bug out situation, if I've got to go, my bug out bag is not full of six mason jars full of pasta and three mason jars full of 15 bean soup. It's just not very practical Price-wise. Much less expensive when you take the bulk bag of pasta and you break it up into your mason jars as opposed to what's in your meal bucket. So again, like anything else not just prepping, but anything else in life there's always a compromise when you break it down convenience for price and vice versa. All right, folks, thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it. Looking at the metrics the other night, and the listenership keeps increasing by a very large percentage. So please leave a like, leave a review, let your friends know what I'm doing and again, as always, be careful out there, take care of one another and until next time.

Speaker 1: 11:40

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