Sensible food buffer

[Foodstore1]

What is the best way to build up a food store to have a buffer in case of shortages/to avoid the chaos around panic buying.

We live rurally so have the luxury of more space than when we lived in the city and a big garden (plenty of things I do miss about the city too).

Very aware that is there is a food shock from fertiliser disruption related to the war on Iran the risk is mainly for developing countries.

What I am doing:

1. Adding extra basics we use anyway with a long date each time I shop.
2. Plastic storage boxes in the garage so the extra stuff doesn’t get spoilt and I can see what we have. I guess we have two medium boxes, which equates to a few months of basics.
3. Growing as much as possible. Organic, bee friendly, etc. cuts food miles. Highly recommend berries as they are a great garden addition and kids love them.

4 We have had chickens for a while. They eat appropriate leftovers (alongside their proper food). Really think hard if you can cope with the garden destruction and work to keep them happy.

How much are people stocking up?

What are your priorities?

Wondering whether it is going to get to the point where more than the basics is a good idea?

i’m not stocking up much at all.

i live in a big city and Covid taught me i have hundreds of shops within a short distance and there wasn’t anything i couldn’t get hold hold of.

i do bulk buy loo roll (oh yes) washing up liquid, laundry detergent, rice and pasta from Costco, but that’s a regular thing i do anyway.

I always have about 2 weeks worth of food in the house, if I need more of a buffer than that were in more trouble than a few chickens would help.

There's a Preppers board. Might be worth looking in there to see what others are doing.

Not stocking up at all. What you gonna do once your supplies run out anyway?

Sowing a lot of vegetable seeds, much more than normal, good time of the year to do it right now. We have lots of space, and I tend to be a bit lazy about it, but not this year!

Not really doing much else, except keeping cash in the house in case of cyber attacks and banking systems going down.

oh yes, am keeping medicines in good supply, and first aid stuff in case of supply chain problems.

This is my thinking too

(though it's a bit more than two weeks tbh... H likes to buy the next packet as soon as the spare one is opened and has stuffed the freezer full of yellow stickers)

I grew up in a household with a pantry and a large garden, so the idea that there would be nothing to eat if I haven't gone shopping for 7 days has always been really weird to me

I always have a good stock of food, but this is mainly because when my children were young there was frequently just not enough food so I always have enough now.

I have also planted apple trees, and I have just started growing some veg - but that isn't because I don't think there will be any in the shops in the short term.

There's nearly 30 million households in the UK. Can you imagine what would happen if all those households bought a few extra items a week, which then sat in a cupboard unused for months?

How do you think food shortages start?

Ive got 10 bottles of gin, 2 bottles of rum, bottle of some Spanish honey rum and a bottle of meade if that counts? 🤣

Yeah I reckon if we could get absolutely nothing from the shops we’d be good for at least two weeks of normal meals, and another week or two of odd combinations of not particularly balanced meals.

I tend to buy frozen fruit and veg, so we’d be fine for scurvy, I can bake various breads/flat breads and have a well stocked baking cupboard. The main issue would be milk, but we always have loads of oats, so oat milk would be the default. Lots of rice and pasta based meals. If that doesn’t get us through whatever apocalypse people are foreboding then we’re fucked anyway.

I also grew up very rurally so having a stock of basic food items as well as things like batteries, torches, candles and matches, blankets etc has always been normal to me.

Government advice is to keep enough food and water to last you three days to allow contingency plans to kick in. I aim for a bit more than that but only a week or two's worth of food with a priority on shelf stable items like tinned beans etc rather than lots of frozen items (in case of power cuts.)

What I am doing differently at the moment is making sure the car doesn't get too low on fuel and having some spare cash in the house. Things feel uncertain at the moment and it makes me feel better.

Well as long as they didn't do it all at the same time, absolutely nothing. I didn't realise until the start of COVID how many people shopped week to week buying small quantities, such that it all falls apart if you can't get what you need in any particular weekly shop.

It's really expensive to shop that way so I've always avoided it, eg why (leaving aside the minority who live in bedsits or have absolutely no money at all) would you buy one tin of tomatoes a week when you can buy a 4 pack once a month and the price per can is much lower. Repeat for everything else non perishable that you buy and you've probably reduced your grocery bill by about 20-30% on average. Then you just rotate around your stocks, buy on offer where possible and look to replace your stocks when they're nearly, but not completely run down.

We managed to pretty much avoid the supermarkets during the first few weeks of COVID apart from bread, milk and fresh veg and fruit, a lot of which we got from the farm shop like we always do, because we just used up the stuff that we had in. So far from keeping a bit in stock causing shortages, quite the opposite. We didn't need toilet roll from about February 2020 to May/June because we luckily bought a big Costco pack not long before the start of the pandemic so wasn't contributing to the madness.

But what are you going to do when you run out angostura bitters, and there isn't a lemon to found anywhere?

Put on my big girl pants and drink it raw 🤪 🤣🤣🤣

I tend to keep a good supply of store cupboards items we use in case of shortages/not up to going out - always keep a focus on the use by dates so nothing is here that we wouldn't use. Guess I learnt the hard way, I couldn't get to the shops when our water was cut off for two weeks and the shops had been ransacked. Then during covid, tinned tomatoes were in short supply (we use a lot) and my boys' cat food - now always have a month's supply.

If you're thinking of stocking up, think about what meals you can make with rice, pulses, tinned tomatoes, pulses etc. If you'd readily use long life milk, then that and cereals are worth stocking up on. Also, biscuits, chocolate or whatever you liken to drink. I think most households keep a supply of batteries/candles for power cuts. Cleaning items last if you have extra.

Hopefully the situation in the Middle East will improve, firstly for those out there, but for everyone else, but as you live rurally, if the situation goes on and there are rumours of fuel shortage, then having some extras in hand, might stop you have to make a journey quite so often for food - I read that worst case scenario, we might be restricted to £15 petrol at a time, so I personally be glad I'd restricted having to make even just a couple of journeys.

I could probably eat out of my cupboards for at least a couple weeks. Not doing anything special. As long as you have some tins and things like pasta you’ll be ok - not much variety but you won’t starve.

I live rurally, and miles away from the nearest shop, so keeping stocked-up is normal here. I buy a lot of things in bulk normally, just to avoid having to go!

That means 5kg bags of sugar, 15kg bags of dog food, big sacks of flour, and a love of the World Foods section. There, I can pick up 5kg sacks of rice, random spices and huge drums of oil that will probably last me for five years. As a result, my next trip to the shops will involve butter, eggs and fish. I buy whole fish, fillet them myself, and freeze it in portions until I need it. Oh, and whenever my mother visits, she brings huge packs of loo roll (on the grounds of, "It's something useful that I know you'll use!"). I have never had to buy loo roll in all of the years that I've lived here!

I try to make a lot of food from scratch, so I have plenty of random ingredients that always come in handy. I grow some of my own things, and intend to keep a few ducks later in the year. Also, powdered milk is a fair substitute if needed, and you can still buy powdered eggs and potatoes.

Power-cuts are normal, so some of the neighbours have an impressive array of camping equipment. Anything for their morning cups of tea and coffee!

Don't forget the appropriate mixers and fruits for garnish. And ice. You'll need ice.

The government advice is to be able to look after yourself for at least three days. We could always do that anyway but I’ve made sure we have extra water in the house, we have a freezer full of meat, a big sack of potatoes, the usual store cupboard supplies and I’ve planted loads of tomatoes, potatoes etc. I think realistically with everything we have in the house we would be ok for a month (assuming power and water are not targeted). If water was affected then we have five water butts and a large pond if necessary and water purification tablets

We also have chickens so that helps a lot.

I've stocked up on pet food so have a two month supply of that.

This is my type of stocking up

I'm a prepper because we are rural. Loose power and water often and cut off in the snow.

I don't prep much food. Just things we normally eat we have in for the month. We have also have four kids so it's not enough to only have one 500g bag of rice in the house.

Things I prep are everything you would need for snow which has never cut us off for more than a week. Water cuts are harder as although it's provided, there's six hour queues for it on the first two days.

Power cuts have been two days max.

You can't prep for ongoing food shortages as it's a piece of string. But what can't you live without? My son has severe Autism I needed instant noodles during covid. Dispite him being disabled we had no support or help or compassion to meet his needs. That won't happen again if I can help it. We always have a few weeks of his favourite noodles he has as soon as he gets I from school as it breaks his day from school to home and is part of his routine.

Ohhh, thats a plan actually, im going to get the strawberry plants and raspberry bush sorted just in case...ice is a given...Just in case I need to bareback the gin 😬

If you have a sunny spot or a conservatory, get a lemon tree!

No chance of that in scotland!! 🤣🤣🤣