To stockpile 72 hours of supplies

I have candles because I like them. A few batteries but very few things tha5 are battery powered. You can only get as many meds as your doctor will prescribe, though I always have painkillers in.
I also grew up in the 70s but I’ve moved on. Power cuts are infrequent.

I did a mushroom course, then discovered that it’s extremely difficult because so many edible mushrooms look identical to poisonous ones.

I usually have three or four jars of sauces, a pack of pasta (like 500 grams) plus what's in the pasta box in the larder. Always have another packet of rice as I've run out on more than one occasion in the past so as I open one, I buy another (you soon learn when you're in the middle of making a curry and...no rice!) I keep at least 5 days worth of soup and tuna too. So I can rustle up pasta and a sauce if I run out of freezer food. I also keep a 6 pack of UHT milk on standby (useful at Christmas as I can never estimate how much more milk I need!)

Which came in handy when we were hit by a storm one February a couple of years ago. We have a gas hob and electric oven - I won't go all electric as we've had a fair few power cuts in our area over the years and I've at least been able to feed us.

We've got an open fire in the living room, hot water bottles and I bought some of these sort of lights a couple of years ago. 8 Pack LED Pull Cord Light Bulb, Colorful LED Bulb Light Hanging Pull Cord Lamp Battery Operated, Portable Night Light for Party, Weddings, Festivals Lighting, Camping, Child Room Decoration : Amazon.co.uk: Lighting Work on batteries and I hung one in the loo, a couple from kitchen cupboard handles including one over the hob to cook by during the storm, one each to read by and get around in the dark. We were cosy enough for three days - add in a few board games and we did OK really.

They taste gastly.

Make sure you have tonnes of hot sauce or other condiments handy to make them taste better.

Not if you make the first strike.

Self defence and all that.

Just make sure your axe is well maintained.

I'd love to do foraging course - free food why not?

You can get expedition food pouches that are ready to eat and can be eaten cold with long shelf lives. If I put together an emergency pack I think I’d add this kind of thing as you don’t need a fridge or a source of heat to consume the food safely.

I don’t - as a black woman I'm going to die first anyway, like in all good horror films…

There's a basic edibility test you can do on lots of suspect foraged good, I've tried it before when I got really hungry in a jungle and found a plant I thought looked maybe edible.

It wasn't, but I found that out from the edibility test rather than likely painful death of eating it.

You get some of what you're intending to eat and you rub it on the inside of your arm where the skin is sensitive, if it doesn't develop a reaction you move onto the next stage, which is cooking and putting it on your lips, no reaction try a bit in your cheek, no reaction carefully go for it. It applies more to legumes and veg than mushrooms and will actually exclude stuff you can eat (like ginger and chilli isn't passing that test)

A while ago my fuse board packed in so no electricity and believe you me, it is awful without power, watching the battery on my phone diminish as I was phoning around for an electrician, carting all my frozen food round to a neighbour, no kettle, no microwave, no hot water. I have a gas cooker so could boil water on the hob, but it really brought it home to me how much we rely on electricity It was horrible and that was just for a day or so. AND it cost me a lot of money for a new fuse board so all in all a stressful time

Freezer might not be much use if there's no electricity...

When Covid lockdown struck, we did an audit of our cupboards, fridge and freezer and discovered we had enough to eat and drink for 6 weeks comfortably! (I suspect we still have)

I have a cupboard with plenty of tins, crackers, dried foods etc but no water except a 5l bottle I bought in COVID lockdown 1!

How long does bottled water last?!

I did actually do a foraging course last year. It was really interesting. We were recommended plant identification books to help. It was a very basic course and probably wouldn't help a great deal. The guy running it did a full on survival course but it's really expensive and I'm not THAT nuts.

Sending thanks to @OneTC and @RedToothBrush 😄 Foraging course and Amazon it is

I could feed 6 people for probably six weeks out of my two freezers and bulging larder cupboards. I have lots of Pepsi max too (hate the stuff, DH drinks it) and no water, so I just need a tenners worth of Tesco Ashbeck 5lt water @ £1.40 and I’m all good?

Thank you PP you are right, Camping stoves need to be used in a well ventilated space.

We're lucky though in that we have an oil-fired Aga that fuels the heating as well.

As a youngster (aged about 14) we were snowed into our rural home for about 10 days. The oil-fuelled aga was running out of fuel & to save what we had my father shut off the heating & set up a calor gas stove in one of the outhouses (we had a smallholding so several options) in order to boil a kettle for tea & breakfast. We also ate very well as our small community of about 7 houses all clubbed together - all the neighbours shared the contents of their freezers - we had whole salmon, pheasant etc sharing aga fuel by eating in each others houses. My brother & parents & dogs all slept in the living room in front of the log fire in the huge inglenook fireplace. We had the best time ever playing board games, playing in snow etc!

A couple of years later this was repeated.

It also depends on how hungry your raiders are.

Two days of co op being closed and all bets are off. The super soakers won't do shit.

Got lots of porridge and bottles of water stored - not much other food as costs enough just for a week’s worth of food!

I'm told squirrel is reasonably tasty.

Now how do you catch the squirrel?

Got a trap handy? They are suckers for peanut butter.

In terms of clean water, know how to brew is a useful tool as this was the traditional method to take on liquid and reduce the risk that water poses.

(My zombie apocalypse plan may be more advanced than other peoples).

We’ve been trying to reduce the stuff in the freezer, we were lucky a few times when shopping, caught a few bargains each time we went over a few weeks. There’s definitely more than 3 days’ worth in there. I can’t imagine having to shop daily or every two days.

You can refill bottles with tap water and add a date in Sharpi - refresh from time to time.

Yes the smell of roasting squirrel drifting on the air could tempt in raiders that did not heed the 72 hour preparation tips.

I think I'd go for a supersoaker with shampoo mixed in the water then go for the eyes.
Don't want to hurt - just hinder.

I am happy to drink wine and beer for a few days...

And how do you intend to survive once the gas runs out?!

Those little gas canisters don't last long...