Do we actually need to get two weeks of food in?

I don’t understand why you’re upset. The whole point of this thread is to discuss whether there is a need to stockpile food. People seem to be strangely emotionally attached to the idea but cannot explain how it would actually help anyone at all.

@FoolMeTwice2 Do you also keep medicines etc?

My children have moved out, but are always joking that they will just go shopping in our garage (which they sometimes do..we seem to go through a lot of pesto!)..

You seriously can’t conceive of a situation where your local shop might run low or run out of supplies?

😂

I can imagine that there are some posters on this thread who would heat the beans with the wind power they generate from their flailing around trying to convince us the world is flat, the hot air they generate with their own asininity, or perhaps a combination of photovoltaic power and the sun that shines out of their arse.

Once they've eaten enough cold beans they could then fuel their own gas hob.

I've always kept supplies in. Not really sure why, just how I was brought up, I guess.

When covid happened it meant that we didn't need to go shopping for a couple of months as I've always bought in bulk and already make my own bread, etc.
Even when we started to need to go, it was generally just for basics like fresh milk and eggs, although we still had dried versions of each for cooking, etc.

I have always tended to buy enough toilet paper for 6-12 months at a time (when it's on offer), so we didn't need to shop for that for a long time, same with pasta and rice, cleaning products, etc.

I also have several large freezers and could probably last for a year without shopping with regard to meats, fish, etc.(as long as the power was still on).

This meant that during covid, if we came across someone that was struggling, I was able to help them out by gifting them things from my supplies .

Eg, we got talking to someone at a halfords type place(but independent). who we saw on a twice yearly basis for car related things (so not a friend), and she was being laid off without pay, so money was tight and she was struggling as she didn't drive and all the local shops had no supplies left, and they were down to using hand tissues for toilet paper, and were almost out of that, etc.

She was really upset, and it affected me, we didn't say anything, but we drove the half hour home grabbed a bag for life and filled it with the basics, eg, 6 pack of toilet rolls, 3 tins each baked beans, tomatoes, soup, plus a couple of tins of tuna, 1kg pasta, 1 kg rice, some bread, 40 teabags, small jar of coffee and 2 packs of biscuits.

We then drove back and dropped it off to her. She was so surprised, but appreciative and wanted to repay us, so we just said to pay it forward if she was ever in a position to do so.

We did this a few times for various people during the lockdowns, so prepping/ having supplies to hand is not just about helping yourself (to me, at least), as it also means you're able to leave what's in the shops for those that really can't keep any stocks at home, and help out others when needed.

My biggest tip is to only purchase things that you and your family eat.... there's no point stocking up on baked beans if no one likes them, and to rotate what you do buy so as you use 1 item up, you replace it asap, and put the new one at the back so items are used in the right order.

If possible, I'd suggest keeping at least 3 of each of the things you use, so that when you've used 1 up, you still have a spare in case you can't get to the shop straight away. (If it's something you'd use 2 of, then keep 4, so you have another 2 spare, etc)

We lived rurally so I used to keep 8-16 tins of each item, and then would replace it in the weekly shop whenever it was used.
When covid struck, I had ~200 tins of food, 30kg flour, 2kg dried egg, 1kg dried milk, ~15kg pasta, ~15kg rice, ~10kg sugar(various), 3-4kgs of dried fruits, nuts. 2kg couscous, many various dried pulses, etc.
My pantry is 3m by 2m and has floor to ceiling shelving which was always full.

Friends and family liken it to a shop, which they happily used during covid 😀
It also contains stores of cleaning and self care products, as I bulk buy these kind of things every 6-12 months when they're on offer.

I realise that I'm in a very lucky position to be able to do this, though.

If it's any help to anyone.

My basic list used to include:

4 tins each of chicken, tomato and lentil soups
12 tins of baked beans
6 tins of beans with sausages
16 tins chopped tomatoes
4 tins green lentils
4 tins borlotti beans
4 tins chickpeas
6 tins red kidney beans
6 tins butter beans
6 tins white kidney beans
4 tins carrots
5 tins mushy peas
4 tins peas
8 tins sweetcorn
4 tins mushrooms
16 tins tuna
4 tins salmon
8 tins of mackerel/ pilchards/ sardines
10 tins coconut milk
1kg dried onions
Herbs, spices, stock, condiments, sauces
12 tins of canned meats, eg, bacon grill, corned beef, etc
12 litres bottled water in 2l bottles.
10-15kg various pastas
10-15kg various rice
5-10kg other grains, eg, bulgar,couscous, quinoa, polenta, semolina, etc
6 tubes tomato puree
2-4 jars of passata
5l olive oil
5l veg oil
1kg coconut oil.

There's probably more, but my memory is awful.

There's only 2 of us nowadays, so I don't keep anywhere near as much in. Previously, I was catering for 4.

Think of 7 or 8 easy meals that everyone will eat, and base your stores around that,eg,

Jacket potato with beans/cheese or tuna,etc
Pasta bake
Chilli
Curry
Dal
Roast
Pizza
Fish fingers/nuggets
Casserole

And then keep those ingredients in stock, so you have enough to make all those meals if need be.
If you don't have a gas hob, you can buy a camping gas stove ring with a couple of gas bottles fairly cheaply. Also handy to have an old fashioned kettle that you can put on a stove top, although a saucepan would do the same job.

If the electricity is down in the shops how will we cook the food?

It is possible to cook food without electricity.

”We” are lucky, our cooker is LPG and failing that we can cook on a wood fired stove indoors. Plus, we have a public water pump fed from a spring in the road outside. We also have a generator and numerous oil lamps, but sadly not an infinite supply of fuel.

You should start your own AMA post.
As long as anyone doesn’t ask you how to cook food without electricity.

Right. So we are indeed talking about people eating cold beans then.

The vast majority of people are limited to their cooking appliances requiring gas or electricity.

I didn’t know baked beans needed cooking.

But I would have several ways to cook or heat up my food. Or it’s quite possible to eat cold food too, if you have planned what meals that could easily be put together or be cooked with minimal resources.

I reckon they’d open Room A for a crisis of such scale that the whole nation is faced with no food other than their tins and noodles.

It's COBR.

When we get power cuts the phone mast goes down it’s bloody annoying.

No raw noodles here we have a log burner, a bbq and a cartridge gas stove.

How do I cook the food without electricity and gas? Please do tell me?

Why are people buying dried noodles or beans? They will not be able to cook them.

Sounds like everyone could stick a loaf of bread in the freezer and be sorted.

I went to the shops. There were bare shelves for tinned things, pasta, rice etc but the fresh food supply was always fine.

Different water networks have different reservoirs, pumping arrangements, elevations, storage capacities and emergency-generation capabilities. There is no general 24 hour rule. High rise buildings often have water tanks, pumps etc. The vast majority of people will not stop having running water before they can fill a couple of bottles and/or go to a shop.

Similarly, mobile network operators and locations, and operators can deploy additional resilience during incidents. Backup arrangements can vary enormously between sites.

A UPS is very different from a generator, but businesses have different arrangements. A small corner shop may indeed have little or no ability to operate during a prolonged power cut, but many major supermarkets will have substantial backup generators.

Traffic lights and street lights being out would not impact an able bodied person walking to a supermarket during the day.

The country does have resilience methods and if there was anything so serious that it removed all of our water, electricity, gas, mobile networks, and resilience back ups then we are in a major state of emergency which won’t be solved by three days worth of tuna.

Why are you so obsessed with cold beans?
And how have you not yet figured out how to cook your food? It’s not rocket science. This is about paying attention to what’s actually happening, staying informed an being aware that problems can arise. The more people who take REASONABLY steps to prepare, the less overall chaos and pressure there will be IF something does happen.

But how oh how will wheelhouse cook their food. You have to wonder. And wonder. And wonder some more. You might have to eat cold baked beans. 😉

If the electricity is down in the shops how will we cook the food?

My local Co-op regularly puts signs up saying cash only when their card machines go down.

The scenario where there is food in the shops but they are all locked and everyone who stockpiled sits at home in the dark eating their cold beans and everyone else starves is simply not plausible. We have seen major power cuts affecting thousands of people for days at a time in recent years. That is not what happens.

Well me and DH did not have to go near a shop for ages during the lockdowns but plenty of my neighbours and friends said the shops did run out of food.

Surely you saw the news showing bare shelves?

Water: if you live in a high-rise building, an apartment complex, or a hilly area, you will likely lose water almost immediately. Gravity-fed reservoirs generally hold about 24 hours’ worth of water.

Mobile coverage: most towers rely on batteries that last 4 to 8 hours under normal traffic loads. High-traffic areas drain batteries faster, sometimes reducing uptime to 3 to 4 hours, particularly as demand increases in an emergency.

Re electricity, an outage would take out streetlights and traffic lights.
Unless the store which is a five minute walk away from you is a major supermarket from a chain which has prioritised generator installation, you should be aware than most stores use battery-powered Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) to keep essential security lighting running just long enough to execute a safe evacuation of customers and staff.

If you want to understand the actual likelihood and impacts of these and other risks, take a look at the UK government's recently updated National Risk Register assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a50d66b1228eb26a4cab76c/National_Risk_Register_2026.pdf

I don’t think COBRA meets to discuss fantastical situations which have neither happened nor are likely to happen.

Remember to pop out once a week for another tin of beans.

That is an article explaining that at some point the Government will tell us how to plan for an emergency. Can’t be too urgent if they’re still designing the booklets.

I’d have thought it’s sensible to have a stock of food in case you can’t get out for whatever reason , that can be anything really so long as you have power .
There’s always a chance of power outages so an even better idea is to have a supply of food that can be eaten without cooking or heating it up .
eg tinned tuna , sardines , tinned ham , sweetcorn and other veg , jars of pickles and beetroot , jars of roast peppers or other canned and jarred food .
Also crackers , oatcakes and so on .

Why would a large scale supply chain disruption mean that the tills don’t work?