Anyone planning on buying a wind up FM radio?

I'm the UK, rural, always have water, food for at least a week, medication, a generator, of course wind up FM radio etc, and phone chargers.

Plus wood for wood burner, borehole, private Solar.

Although if the network is down, What's the point of chargers?

Also am an Archer, so can defend us!

yes youcan use some of them indoors for short periods in a well ventilated space, go and have a look on Amazon. If I was you, I'd buy a suitable sized fire blanket at the same time just in case

we often get powercuts that don't affect the network.

🤣🤣🤣

Lucky you!
We don't.

I used to camp and go to festivals so I have a little solar radio that also functions as a torch. It works well. And a ‘wind up’ torch that you pump a button on (rather than actually wind) to charge it. We also have a solar charger for phones. We have sleeping bags in the attic but plenty of blankets in the house if needed anyway. We do have a toddler so obviously if the power went out, his monitor wouldn’t work, but we’d probably bring him in with us anyway for warmth.

We have had central heating, but also have one electric radiator at the awkward end of the living room. And our hob is gas but the oven is electric. So if one or the other goes out, we should still have a heat and cooking source (with matches or a lighter to light the hob, as obviously the ignition switch is electric).

We always keep our cupboards well stocked anyway. We could manage a few days no problem.

For people worrying about cooking food but not wanting to spend money on a camping stove or similar that they’ll likely never use outside of an emergency, what about a BBQ? It’s something most people have. Even getting a few disposable ones, so you could eat one hot meal a day, would be useful.

Otherwise, cupboard food that stores well and doesn’t need to be heated to eat is fine. Crackers and crisp breads can be used instead of sandwiches, with something like peanut butter. You can get jars of pickled beetroot, peppers in oil, tins of fish/meat etc. Even beans can be eaten cold. Many soups etc can be too; just check the labels.

Don’t forget that a lot of things need to be refrigerated once opened, like UHT milk. So if there’s no power, and you use a bit of milk for cereal and a cuppa, you’d have no way to store the rest of the carton safely. Better to buy small cartons than big ones, or even buy cereal bars instead that don’t require milk to eat, and powdered milk for drinks.

You don’t really need to buy anything special to be prepared. Just try not to let your cupboards run low, and make sure you have some painkillers and basic first aid supplies to hand.

So the only things you might need to buy specially are a torch or lantern, a small radio, and maybe something to cook with (even if it’s a cheap BBQ, like the little ones you can take to the beach etc). And don’t forget batteries!

Water butts for the loo 🤣🤣aptly named 🤣🤣

Do you live in the UK?

Shower in the garden any time between now and May at the earliest is not going to be something you'd really want to do.

If you had some way of heating the water and you bought a camp shower, you could hang in the indoor shower then yes you could use the water butt water.

Same here. I have loads of bits iny Amazon basket, but I am terrible for wanting to find the best option of everything, which means I usually end up with something really good, but in situations like this, something would be better than the perfect something that I don't have yet!! 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

So I must get some bits ordered today, even if they are not the most perfect option!

I bought one, and a wind up torch, about 15 years ago when we had a power cut that lasted almost 24 hours.

As long as you have good ventilation - windows wide open, which in winter if the power is off, might lose you a lot of heat. Camping gas stoves can give off carbon monoxide fumes, so make sure you have a working detector, too. Absolutely essential if you're considering getting a gas camping stove.

Ideally you'd be cooking outdoors if power was down, but the nature of the emergency might make that impossible or impractical. A couple of years ago, we had what we thought was a gas leak (it wasn't - we're on LPG as semi rural, and what we were smelling was the sludgy end of the gas tank as we'd run out!). We were told to turn our electricity off and air the house out. It was the beginning of January... One of my sons is severely autistic and only eats a very limited range of food, and I found myself squatting outside on the patio, frying him the one vegetable he eats, over my wood fueled 'rocket stove' in my cast iron camping pan! Obviously I can't use that indoors, though we've got a wood burner, and the top of it gets hot enough to roast chestnuts. I've often wondered what I could cook on top of it, but there's only about six inches clearance.

What's with the wind up torches? Just buy batteries? It's stuff that plugs into the grid you need to replicate.

It's exercise innit. Helps keep you warm and if you're not fit enough and keel over from the 10 minute exertion then you won't have to worry about the rest of it. Survival of the fittest and all that.

I have several multi-band portable radios. The batteries last, literally, for weeks, apart from the DAB one. No need for a windup.

I have a wind-up camping lantern that I use in the shed, it has a USB output so I could charge a phone.

If my house is still standing I have enough supplies to last for a while. If my house was demolished, or I was driven away from it, as happens for example in Palestine, it would be much harder.

They are not just issuing the advice, they are banging on about it constantly.
I know certain things are in the news on repeat (it's going to be a worst winter in century, it's going to be wettest spring, hottest summer and so one every year).
But they don't normally go about the war all the time, so I find it a little bit suspicious.
I'm not native to Britain, if from a country that was an epicenter and a victim of the last two wars, and effectively almost obliterated, I was hoping to live out my days without ever knowing war first hand, I feel like the chances are getting slimmer as the years go by.

During the power cuts in the 70s we had moved into a house out of the town and it had its own generator already installed.

We quickly learned to make sure we had black out curtains and blinds that we taped directly to the window because once the generator kicked in we were a beacon for all the neighbours to come round which was my grandfathers worse nightmare.

So if Labour think we are going to war. Why are they cutting defence spending?

I don't think they are ? It's just a conversation ?

I thought defence spending is going up? It will need to!

We’ve ordered one (radio) just waiting for it to arrive. It was about £30 off Amazon. Have been quietly adding a few tins to shopping over last two months. We have enough to cover food for two weeks, and about ten days of water. I will keep adding to that too as I’d feel more comfortable having 3-4 weeks of food.

bought a camping kettle today as we’ve log burner and outdoor fire pit. Mountain warehouse was heaving and there were only three kettles left on the shelves.

This whole thing was making me uncomfortable and then the last few days of news - particularly Wes Streetings announcement, has made me feel very worried indeed.

I’ve asked a few people at work and no one has said they’ve got any extra food in. One laughed and said they have one ton of soup in (they usually eat out most nights). I had a decent time cupboard anyway just added stuff like evaporated milk and doubled up the sardines and tinned veg we usually get.

We have a wind-up radio already, bought the last time there was talk of vague shortages etc (around Brexit) but it's not a very good one. I thought I'd upgrade and identified a decent-looking one after browsing on Saturday night.

Intended to order on Sunday, by which time Amazon and everywhere else was completely and utterly sold out - not only of the model I wanted, but of everything else too. So clearly a lot of people are extremely rattled.

We certainly wouldn’t be short of food and water but we have those anyway, we haven’t bought anything special.

oh come on they have been banging on about Gaza and Kyev since they first kicked off

And now am a bit worried as power has just gone out in south manchester. Thankfully I had some candles on so I’m not totally dark. We’ve not been so battered by the storms so not sure what’s happened….

I’d go and sit in the car if I needed to listen to the radio

Don’t forget that a lot of things need to be refrigerated once opened, like UHT milk. So if there’s no power, and you use a bit of milk for cereal and a cuppa, you’d have no way to store the rest of the carton safely. Better to buy small cartons than big ones, or even buy cereal bars instead that don’t require milk to eat, and powdered milk for drinks.

soya milk keeps in the car once opened and will last a week at summer temperatures of 30 degrees. so I’d suggest using soya milk as an alternative.

someone on another thread suggested pasta as a food, you’ll not have water to boil it even if you have a heat source for cooking, water will be for drinking not cooking. You’ll not want to waste the water. Instead by ready cooked pasta pouches you just open and heat up