Your ‘emergency supplies/stockpile’.

[ohyouagainclarence]

Has anyone else started stashing a few things away in the event of some kind of ‘national emergency’ and if so, what sort of things are you storing?

I’m certainly not going to turn into a prepper but as I have plenty of storage space, I’ve got two big plastic boxes filled with dried goods (rice/pasta etc) and then some tinned stuff. I’ve also stocked up on batteries, candles and matches and I bought a solar charger. And oh, got two 5 litre bottles of water.

The temptation to go a bit nuts and plan for Armageddon is high! 😂😂 But I’m being sensible and just having enough for the basics to keep us going for about a week. I’m also cycling through the food so it doesn’t get wasted - use a tin of beans and then replace it etc.

Filtering jugs and tablets, et cetera are going to be absolutely no use if the water supply is cut. Which wouldn't be at all surprising if we get extremely cold weather that cracks a lot of pipes.

I thought the idea of having filtering jugs and tablets are in case the water supply is cut, and we have to use rainwater from a water butt or something?

Me too. I have several water butts which equates to 100s of litres of rainwater. Obviously couldn’t drink it as is but filtered and water purifier tablet I would. Alternatively it could be boiled but that’s a lot of energy especially when relying on alternative fuel sources as power and water is out.

That's why many people are storing water. We are storing drinking water and have 1000l in our water butts that can be used for hygiene purposes etc, and can also be purified effectively if need be. DH is ex military so thats his area.

But this is precisely why you should have them? You can filter rainwater, it takes about 30 minutes.

I know....corned beef has gone absolutely ridiculous. I haven't bought any new, gone with alternatives.

Filtering is fine for standard reasonably fresh tap water. Tap water you may have stored for some time or alternative water eg from water butts or other sources would need boiling and water purification treatment.
Edit to clarify better:boiling and water purification definitely for rain water and other natural sourced water. Boiling for tap water you've stored for a while, if possible, if not obviously, use water purification tablets. Obviously if you can't boil it, and only had the tablets, that's all you can do.

I have one of these, although its not as pretty as the one you've linked. We bought it during house renovations but its very handy for power cuts when the gch won't work. Heats a room really well and helps to dry washing. The large gas bottles are expensive, but they would last well. We buy 15kg bottles of butane for ours.
We make sure the room is ventilated and most of these fires have a safety cut off if the oxygen level drops.

None of these shops will be open if there is a power cut.

Tbf the food will still be there, I can envisage looting

Thanks 😊 I must admit I was surprised at how attractive this one looks! I've checked out the gas prices too, yes about a £45 plus outlay but as you say apparently last quite well. We have an open plan which has excellent ventilation and as well as the mains carbon monoxide detector which has got a battery back up we also already have a battery one too, and the fire would be placed in an area well ventilated around and near no flammables. I think this covers all the safety considerations but would appreciate if you think I've missed anything, as my last experience of such heaters was as a child so I wasn't in charge 😊 We have had to decide to do something like this as, whilst our home is well insulated, my DH has conditions that mean he cannot get too cold

It would be good for your dh then from what you describe. Your room would be toasty warm for him. The last time we used ours as our main source of heating, the big bottle of gas lasted around 3 weeks iirc. There is a local company who collect and replace the gas bottles here. You may have something similar nearby.

Your safety set up sounds fine to me. The fire will have a low oxygen safety cut off for extra peace of mind.

Thanks 😊 yes I've just checked and it has the safety cut off features and best deal seems to be our local B&Q at £104 for the new full bottle then £58 refill contract. I will look around but does that sound about reasonable?

Sounds good. We pay slightly less than that for refills from our local independent supplier, but only by a few pounds. I can't remember how much we paid for the first bottle as it was years ago. 😊

I really want a Kelly Kettle.
It’s a hollow 1.6 litre cylinder that sits on a tiny fire of leaves or twigs and uses all the rising heat to boil your water or heat your saucepan.

I have some coupons for the Co-op next week (€5 off every €15 of own brand products) and I plan to use the discount to create a mini stash.
Looks like we’ll be eating a lot of basics!

I’ve not RTFT but just to flag, as a few people have mentioned it: most solar + battery systems won’t work in a power cut; they need to have been specifically designed and installed to have an EPS (Emergency Power Supply).

Most solar inverters are designed to shut down in a power cut, in order to stop electricity flowing back into the grid when engineers might be working on it.

Worth being aware of for anyone considering a solar installation.

I've been eyeing Kelly Kettles up for the past week and have just bought the exact set shown in your post from sgtprepper's online shop. It was priced at £89.97 and they currently have an extra 10% off sitewide, which brought it down to £80.98 with free delivery.

My Kelly kettle from Vinted arrived today :)

If you have a supply of oats, longlife milk you can soak the oats overnight and in the morning add any fruit you have. I must admit to adding a little sugar and some evaporated milk in the morning as it makes it creamy. Pleasant, filling with no cooking it makes a change from cereal.

If you cook from scratch I put portions of meat in gravy in the deep freeze, if we have no electricity you will be able to defrost them knowing they will be ok to eat as you have cooked them, open a tin of vegetables and potatoes, okay I know it’s not ideal but it’s good food and safe to eat cold. You cannot do this with ready meals as they have to be cooked.

Don’t oats get rancid easily?

You make it in the late evening from dry oats put it in a cool place and eat it in the morning

Oh no!

I meant the oats proper, before being soaked.

I keep my Bircher muesli in the fridge for a few days and it’s ok, but I think the dry oats get stale easily.

I am in and out the thread and got some uht milk yesterday for the apoclypse as well as extra pasta etc but has someone said yet what the main threat is we are facing ?

I keep reading about the "Godzilla" el nino but I'm not seeing anything bar...wetter autumn/stomier and colder winter.

I am assuming next summer could be terrible of course but in terms of el nino has anyone seen it more pinned down yet.
Also won't this badly affect Russia ?