Government advice to keep in some supplies and order of importance

[FindingMeno]

I realise that there have been two or three threads on the recent advice to have some supplies in order to be more resilient.
However, it's easy to go down a rabbit hole. For example, with food and water, do you go as far as alternative methods of cooking, suitable cookwear for this, vessels for water, means to purify water etc.
What do you focus on first given many have limited money and space?
Cash? Batteries? Lanterns/ torches/ head torches? Ways to keep warm?
What would you list be, in order of priority, to build up a "stockpile" to see your family through a short period of disruption?

Keeping red pesto for an emergency seems very MN for some reason 😬

Given that nobody seems sure what we are being told to prep for (including the Govt I assume) then isn’t it a bit pointless? Should we have enough supplies for a week? A month? Ten years?

You have made a key point there.
Threads keep coming up that the government have advised about preparing for emergencies, but the threads don’t refer to the government advice, and any posters have their own thoughts on what the emergency could be - often going the whole hog to war.

But the campaign website refers to emergencies such as your house is on fire, a power cut or flooding
For a fire check your risks, smoke alarms and make
sure the family knows how to evacuate
Allow for a few days without power (they also point out that you may not be able to cook or heat water)
And they refer to looking up local risks such as flooding

prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

I thought we were told to prep for bad weather.

Oh see that makes sense - so prep in general instead of ‘stockpile everything chaps, we’re all doomed’ 😬

Well you can't mix the green one with the Tesco 48p pasta sauce for a start. I made 1.5kg of pasta with one jar of pesto, jar of 48p sauce and some tins of chopped Tom's when ds uni mates stayed over.

Now that WAS a emergency! But I was prepared. Never buy four teen boys Dominoes. You live and learn.

This has prompted me to buy more USB mobile plug lights. £7 for 20 on Ebay. Stick them.in a power bank.

My adult kids have 'borrowed' my power banks for thier holidays...
We have some tins, not many as we are moving and running down supplies.
No water, but plenty of wine and gin, l guess l will just drink.
We however have a good supply of toilet roll, not sure what good that is if toilet flush.

Exactly. My kids and dh don't put things back. Hence more bulbs. Buy cheap power banks. Hide the decent one for you. Survival of ge finest.

Get a bucket and pour from.hright yo flush loo with less water. My kids don't flush half the time. Do it would be business as usual

I don't have much store cupboard food essentials because I'm never sure what to buy - I've got some tinned fruit and beans and always have rice & pasta in the house and a little tinned fish. I make my own bread. I could get by for a couple of days I think, although I wouldn't be feasting.

I have an electric heater now anyway (thanks cost of living) and plenty of warm bedding and clothes.

In the last year I've stocked up on some bottled water, purification tablets, spare batteries, a torch and small lantern. I have a couple of power banks and a wind up radio - I've written down the bandwidths for key bbc & local radio stations too.

Have a tiny garden so no room for even one water butt. Try to keep petrol tank in car full so I can manage if there is a petrol rush. I also have a camping stove & gas canister.

I'd run out of loo paper and toothpaste pretty quickly I think but otherwise I could probably manage 3 days without power or water. What I don't have is a grab bag which I've started to think is a good idea given the number of wildfires this year!

It's pretty common where we live in Northern Scotland, we don't call it prepping just Winter ready!
Longest we have been without power is 8 days (it's why we have a wood burner and double stacked logs)

We have solar chargeable power banks, keep 20 litres of water (the 5 litre bottles don't take up too much space). Food wise anything we can cook on the wood burner quickly but also have a single camping gas ring. Tinned meals, packets of cooked rice, quick cook noodles, macaroni pasta (takes 5 mins) tinned soup, baked beans etc. Also have uht milk and bread flour/yeast (that's more for snow cutting off deliveries).
Anything we don't use over Winter we use up the following summer when we go away self catering or camping.

All depends on where you live, and what are local risks.

Is it floods, snow, ice, power cuts, water outages, wind, illnesses, redundancy, wildfire, out of control bonfires, riots, disability, bereavement, fire, unexploded bombs, (there's been a few here and there, in some cities ) evacuation due the local industrial estate catching fire, petrol shortages, strikes, terrorism,

Do you have outdoor space, garden, live in a tiny flat, have baby, children, elderly, chronically ill, disabled, access to a car, garage etc?

Definitely read through threads on the peppers boards. There are most of your answers on there.

This will have the selfish arseholes buying up all the essentials

Minimum: 2 lanterns with spare batteries. (So one of you can use the loo and not leave the others in the dark)

Entertainment. Books, cards, travel games, colouring, games you can play with no equipment.

Birth control if your adult entertainment requires it!

Drinks (fruit juice, pop, water)

No heat food such as crackers, dried fruit, nuts, cereal, dried or uht milk, wraps, tinned fish, fruit, rice pudding, oats. Go noodles. Olives, jarred veg. Precooked sweetcorn, beetroot)

Just add hot water foods: noodles, cup soup, mugshots,, couscous instant custard.

Heat through foods : baked beans, soups, microwave rice, custard, rice pudding, tinned curries and veg, tinned meals. (If you have somewhere to cook safely)

Power bank. (One per person if you can afford it)

Phone numbers. Documents emailed/cloud.

Over the counter meds and first aid kit and know how to use them.

Warm blankets, base layers, gloves hats, slippers, socks, scarf, snood or polo neck jumpers.

Keep blanket, snacks, drink, lantern phone numbers in your car. Plus power bank if you can afford it. (Or take one with you)

Spare cash (small denominations) and change. If you need the bus or banking goes down. Enough for milk , bread, bus fare, taxi to hospital etc.

Baby supplies, nappies, food, ready made milk, etc. Carrier or pushchair in the car.

Hygiene supplies. Hand gel, soap and flannels. Bog roll.

Pet food, supplies,

Helpful neighbours or community.

It would depend on circumstances OP.

For example I have a log burner & log pile so I know I can keep warm and I have the means to cook basic meals. Since I live rurally, this is no accident, power cuts here aren't rare and we're used to coping for a day or two without power in the winter.

So for me, I need basic foods, water, some cash and candles & matches. And a solar charger for phones.

We were without power for five days, January a few years ago. I didn't go insane, I sort of changed gear and adapted.

I spent hours curled up in front of the log burner reading, playing scrabble with ds etc. And essential chores take longer so you spend time on those. Cooking or heating water on a log burner takes time.

I got paint cards out and planned the spring redecorating. DS was revising for GCSEs so he had plenty to read. It was surprisingly ok. I didn't miss tv or the internet, I missed music, the radio. I need background music to stay cheerful so I bought a windup radio which I haven't used yet..

I used to live somewhere where we lost power for ten days most winters so I don’t need HM Gov to tell me how to prepare for a few days of power loss.

I now live semi rurally, less remote than before but still keep tins, pasta, rice, long life milk, loo rolls, batteries, long wave radio, torches, candle and an oil lantern, a trangia and a meths boat heater, meths, lamp oil, water. I’ve also got a dry camping toilet that I could use if necessary.

I buy things like loo rolls on subscription so always have plenty.

Anyone who hasn’t got anything to cook on - something like this and a couple of bottles of meths would see you through 5 days of cups of tea and reheating tinned food.

Do we have a date for this?

Winter 26

Here is the thing, in urban areas and even a fair few suburban, forget it. IF something happened that really hits the supply hard it wouldnt be not having those items that would be the problem, it would be stopping people from breaking in and getting them.

Say you have a months supply and the supply is down for a month of everything, what do you think will happen?

Lawlessness would break out quick, much quicker than people expect. So i would say have one week worth of supplies that would cover in event of an incident that meant we are stuck, any longer than that you will be more concerned about home defence than anything else believe me and the country would be in chaos.

Whatever the government is up to advising this, it wont be for our benefit!

Those who can sustain off grid and out in rural will already be prep’d, thats true prepping. This is temporary hoarding that creates unnecessary shortages, for other people to walk in and take if SHTF anyway.

I live rurally but in recent years we’ve had a few days power cut, not major but requires the power packs and emergency lighting and heating. Local floods. A few villages flooded badly and all the help rightly went to them but no one considered the outlying houses who weren’t flooded but couldn’t get anywhere due to flooded roads. The cyber attack on the co op caused about a month of local food disruption. The supermarkets also seem to cancel the rural online orders very easily so cannot be relied on.
Im assuming it’s more of this sort of event rather than a breakdown of society.

Lots of areas had water problems this summer.

power cuts in winter are quite common.

i don’t think it’s about prepping for nuclear war more power cuts, water failure, and area dependent floods etc.

having a few days worth of stuff is helpful

I was reading this thread last night (insomnia, which is normal for me) and then got onto the Preppers board. I started worrying about all the possibilities and then did a risk assessment and looked at risk removal/reduction and put it all into perspective. I ended up discounting the idea of prepping for the extremes - war, civil unrest and so on - and went back to sleep.

Basically, I live in a little town and the worst risks for me are

• snow - the gritters don't come down my street, so when the car has been snowed in, it can take days to get it out. But I can still walk to any of 5 supermarkets for essentials like bread, milk, wine. I always have 3 - 5 days food stocks anyway, and these will see me through.
• storms and subsequent power cuts - these tend to last hours, rather than days. I have a torch and candles.
• flood - the drain outside my house blocks and overflows. I keep a pair of wellies by the door.
• heatwave - but I'm north east England, so it's more uncomfortable than life threatening. Sunscreen and a hat!
• I keep a shovel and de-icer in the car in winter, and water / snacks for long journeys year round - mostly in case of traffic jams on the motorway.

I think in terms of three to five days. So I have a small stash, and decided to focus on food that I can eat/use if there is no power or other means of heating/cooking.

Now there's only me here, so bear that in mind so I have in a box under the spare bed with-

Long life milk
Weetabix
Crackers
Protein powder
Tinned sardines, tuna, salmon
Tinned fruit
Custard
Tins of Ambrosia creamed rice
Baked beans

There will be cheese and butter in the fridge that will last even after a long power cut. Fresh milk will be ok too for a while. Bread will be ok for a few days too.

Water is in the shed in bottles.

I also have one of those wind up torch radios, and a light sleeping bag to use in bed under the duvet, if I can't use my electric blanket ha ha!

From the horse's mouth.

https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

Put together an emergency kit of items at home
This could include:

• Battery or wind-up torch – torches are safer than candles.
• Portable power bank for charging your mobile phone.
• Battery or wind-up radio to get updates during a power cut – a car radio can be used, however in severe weather it might be safer to stay inside.

(we don't have one of these - I used to in my allotment shed but someone stole that and my kettle and cups)

• Spare batteries for torches and radio and a backup battery for any medical equipment you rely on.
• A first aid kit (or some first aid items) including items such as waterproof plasters, bandages, a thermometer, antiseptic, eyewash solution, sterile dressings and gloves, medical tape for dressings, and tweezers.
• Hand sanitiser and wet wipes for hygiene purposes when the water is off.
• Bottled water – there is no standard figure for this as emergencies can vary in duration and people use different amounts. A minimum of 2.5-3 litres of drinking water per person per day is recommended by the World Health Organisation for survival. 10 litres per person per day will make you more comfortable by also providing for basic cooking and hygiene needs. Additional water might be needed to make up baby formula, for medical devices and for pets.
• Non-perishable food that doesn’t need cooking, such as ready-to-eat tinned meat, fruit or vegetables (and a tin opener). As with water, how much you need will vary based on your own circumstances. Don’t forget food for pets.
• Baby supplies such as nappies and baby formula – ready made or ‘ready-to-feed’ formula is best as you may not be able to boil water or sterilise bottles.