How long could you survive with what is in your house right now?

[3bluellamas]

It seems every day that goes by the world seems more unstable. Its made me think about being better stocked in case of disruption of any kind (whether created by humans or just natural events like severe weather). How long could your family survive if you suddenly had no access to shops (either in person or online)?

I think Im going to eat down the freezer which is full of random things like one stick of rhubarb or a lone pork chop and then try to use the space more effectively to ensure we have a better store.

Since I kept forgetting that I had bought rice and bought more rice about three times in a row we would probably be able to survive off just rice for quite a while anyway. The fridge is almost empty as I need to do a fresh food shop but we always have a good stash of tinned and dried stuff, especially grains and pasta.

I work in a supermarket. So I'd either be fine, or out of a job and then affording food would be more of an issue.But I reckon I've currently got about three weeks' worth of food in various combinations, because of my perpetual habit of buying stuff whenever I'm on shift at work regardless of what I've currently got in the cupboard.

To be honest though, if I run out of teabags I won't want to carry on anyway....

A long long time 😅we’ve got 3 big chest freezers full and lots of cupboard stuff too.

We’re due a food shop delivery tomorrow so the freezer and fridge are both lower than usual. Loads of cupboard/tinned stuff, eggs, stuff like burgers and chicken breasts in the freezer, but not much in the way of fresh veg in right now. So we could manage a couple of weeks based on what is currently in but it wouldn’t be very tasty or particularly nutritious after a few days.

Couple of months

I actually did a freezer and cupboard inventory this morning and said to DH " If there's a zombie apocalypse, we're OK for food for 6 months!"

Not long at all. I only have a small freezer. If I ate pasta and sauce with zero meat and soup with no bread .... i could perhaps last a fortnight.

I'd move into my mums. She has 3 freezers full of food. Could last 5yrs there 😁

I have been through the chest freezer and there really is a load of stuff in there which probably won't ever get eaten without a conscious effort to do so since there will always be something nicer and easier at the top. From tomorrow we are definitely eating it down! I have enough rhubarb to make about ten crumbles!

Then I'm stocking up on protein I think

About three weeks.

We have plenty of rice, pasta and couscous. A decent amount of frozen veg and tinned & frozen fruit.

For protein. we have frozen broad beans, dried lentls, frozen fish and meat. A dozen eggs, half a kilo of cheese,

I make my own bread and I have a sack of wholemeal flour that will provide bread for about 5 months. I have plenty of dried yeast and know how to grow my own.

I also have a veg patch that is full of tomatoes, courgettes, french beans, runner beans, cucumbers, spring onions and figs.

I have a freezer full of raw cat food. Should last me a month at least.

Adequate meals, maybe two weeks. Enough to keep us alive, possibly a month.

hmm. Going through the freezer & fresh food first before moving to tinned / dried I reckon we have about two months, maybe a little more. I have health issues so I like to make sure we have enough in just in case I can't
get to the shops and hubs / DD are away.

Which reminds me I need to get some more dried yeast, pasta and rice in.

Weeks. Could do a couple of months. I've got big stores of flour, oil, pasta, rice, oats, sugar, dried beans and fruit, dried veg that I do in the dehydrator, home made jam, chutney, pickle, fruit syrups and wine, uht milk, dried milk, herbs, spices, garlic and ginger paste, vinegar, tinned fish, tinned tomatoes.

That's not counting the allotment where I've got green beans, tomatoes, squash, onions, potatoes, plums and what's left of the blackcurrants (2 bushes full).
When they're all ripe they'll be dried or cooked and stored, or frozen. And some eaten fresh obviously!

Have about a week of water for everyone (for drinking/cooking only) - after that have chlorine tablets and water drop filters.

Food wise about a month of food for everyone, but after two weeks I think people would have lost their appetite.

If it was a proper apocalypse I could probably stretch it to two months but the second month would be a thoroughly miserable experience.

Probably about a week, porridge for breakfast, tuna sandwiches for lunch and some sort of pasta or rice for dinner. I don’t tend to buy in bulk and most of what we buy is fresh - we order a food shop on a weekly basis to last a week.
Slightly regretting this now and might start chucking some extra store cupboard foods in the shop each week!

Probably 4-6 weeks.

We have a big chest freezer and a second fridge in the garage. Our kitchen has a floor to ceiling double door pantry unit.

I don't know exactly without looking, but I know there's a couple whole chickens, a leg of lamb, two small gammon joints, 3 or 4 x 1kg bags of chicken fillets, 2 or 3 bags of meatballs and a couple packs of mince in my freezer- and that's just the meat!

Probably 3 or 4 weeks.

We’d be ok for at least a month as I always have plenty of tins, packets, bottled water and frozen stuff in the house. I realise we’re very privileged to be able to afford to have extra food stored at all times.

About a week without the kids moaning. Another week with them moaning about the rationing.

I do work in a supermarket though, so if it was safe for me to go in and do a raid we'd be sorted for sometime!

A month or two easily, possibly longer, but would need to buy powdered milk. I have a well-stocked pantry and a freezer full of meat, fish and vegetables.

It took one week into Covid for my DH to decide he didn't want to eat any of the Brexit/lockdown cupboard food supply we had and go to the shop for pre-made roast potatoes, so one week......then the zombies/plague etc will get in.

Indefinitely probably, if push came to shove - I live very, very rurally, keep chickens and bees, so no shortage of eggs and honey, grow plenty of vegetables, forage anyway, have copious amounts of preserved fruits, veggies etc. Have a woodburner which is used anyway for some cooking and boiling a kettle, and an original, working, Victorian cast iron range with oven for more complex cooking and a limitless supply of firewood. Have a well under the downstairs bathroom floor for water. Plus I shoot and fish, so protein would not be an issue and, living near the coast, there is also the option to forage for crabs, shellfish and seaweed for alternative food sources.

What goes first? The ridgeback, the lab, or the beans?