If you're not really prepping, just getting ahead a little...

[NorthEastNancy]

What have you stocked up on this last month?

We've not got a huge amount of storage room and I don't want to stockpile lots of stuff just for the sake of it.

I hate all the scaremongering but I don't want the stress of Covid times.

I got a Costco card recently and have bought the big pack of loo rolls and a huge pack of washing powder

I've ordered a shed load of wood for the log burner

I always batch cook and I'm running the freezer down to do a big re-stock over half term

I bought an extra pack of pasta and some tuna last week

Dh is considering one of the big battery things that you can charge using solar panels (that's more long term cost saving)

My work friend is a serious prepper and thinks I'm being too laid back!

What are you doing if you're not a serious prepper but may be dipping your toe in?

I’m not in the UK but our Northern European government told us to have cash on hand (can’t remember how much), 3 litres of water per person per day for 3 days, and food for 3 days. Plus a wind up radio and (the part that scared me) a household emergency plan for where in the country you would all meet if communications were down and/or there was a natural disaster.

I also bought a cheap camping stove
and some reserve gas canisters. Hopefully stored safely so they won’t become a hazard in themselves.

I always have Krusteez pancake mix, plenty of pasta, tinned veg, long life milk and par-baked bread around. It won’t get us through a nuclear holocaust but it was amazing during covid not to have to worry about rushing to the shops but instead just staying at home knowing dinner (and the next few day of meals) were sorted.

I am going for a 25 kg sack of spuds plus 25 kg of flour. I reckon I could live off spuds and bread until the all clear siren is sounded.

I think the emergency plan meeting place is a good one

Unless no elec/ gas/ fire. Loads of biscuits or protein bars

Which solar lights and stove best please? El Nina is predicted to affect the globe pretty badly so as well to be slightly prepared

We’ve already got a few power banks but I’ve been making sure they’re all charged. Bought extra toilet roll in the weekly shop and DH asked if I was preparing for a zombie apocalypse. Also got some extra bottled water and added more store cupboard foods that we usually have in, just bought extra.

The diesel shortage is likely to hit food supplies sooner rather than later (it’s currently on Sky News)

I’ve built up a small box of ‘stuff’ - plus water and tins - but seem to have lost all my torches. Need to get extra cat food this week.

How will you cook them?

OP go look at camping supplies. It'll give you some ideas.

I'm not specifically preparing for food shortages, but do keep quite high levels of food at home generally. We could probably last a month just on stuff from the cupboards and freezer, though the food might be a bit monotonous.
I keep enough cash in the house to buy emergency supplies for a fortnight, and make sure I have enough medical supplies to deal with the most obvious things. We have a log burner for heating, and our winter logs are arriving next week.
It's mainly to cope with bad weather, power cuts, and problems with banks. I am starting to keep the petrol levels a bit higher in the car, and not wait until it's gasping until I fill it.

As far as stoves go, mine is a cheap camping one from our Poundland equivalent. It uses small canisters (not refillable).

It really depends on whether you want a “this will see us through for a few days” one like I bought, or a “I absolutely cannot cope with a daily hot meal even if there’s no power for a month” type dealie. We won’t use ours other than in an emergency but I do like my hot drinks to keep my spirits up 😉

So far I’ve procured torches, ample batteries, 2 solar/rechargeable lights, charged up power bank,
matches, candles and tea lights. We have a wood burning stove so firewood and kindling, and an enamel tea pot to heat water on it. Tins of tuna and mackerel, jars of peppers and gherkins, sauces, peanut butter, crackers, tinned beans, basic medical supplies such as 6 x packs paracetamol and 6 x ibruprofen, bp monitor, thermometer and oxygen monitor. Tbh I keep most of these in store over the winter as we live rurally in an area that frequently gets cut off due to inadequate infrastructure and flooding. I also have a full freezer so if the power doesn’t go off we have about two weeks of meals.

Just as a matter of interest, what do you think might actually happen.

The meteorologists think there may be a severe El Nino causing lots of storms this winter, plus the threat of hacking/interference from Russia. They're warning people to have a week or two's food available in case of power outages and disruption to supply chain. I've added

50 litres of drinking water
cartons of UHT milk

to my normal stock of pasta, lentils, rice, coffee, a few tins.

I had a glut of tomatoes this summer so I froze tubs of basic tomato/garlic sauce as a base for bolognese, cassoulet etc.

Why sleeping bags? Would you not be using the beds and bedding you have? I have a few sleeping bags but I go camping so I've 3 and 4 season bags plus too much other gear but I couldn't see myself using the bags over my nice cotton sheets and cozy duvet.

I ordered a gorgeous, bright red whistling kettle. And a multipack of hand warmers along with more gas canisters for the camp stove.

Should probably get more tinned food in.

Where has anyone said a week or two?!

I have wanted to start doing some decent prepping for years but haven't gotten around to it.

I usually really struggle with my food budget but this month told myself I must start and my partner was on board too.

I only got long life goods that we would actually eat anyway; got a huge bag of pasta, bunch of pasta sauces, tins that the kids like, beans, tuna, tinned fruit, micro rice, porridge oats, a huge jar of nutella, biscuits, crackers, powdered milk and some bottled water.

Am pleasantly surprised that it's not too much extra money per month, I still cook from scratch though we are digging into some prepping supplies as the kids do genuinely like them!

Apart from the bottled water, it's not too much of a hassle to store and we have come up with some extra storage solutions for our tiny kitchen; bottled water can go in our shed.

I am a little anxious about water as it's always been my priority, but with recommendations being up to 10l per person per day from some sources, it's definitely the trickiest goal to meet in terms of storage.

My next goals are UHT milk, some more food bits like preserves and peanut butter, dried fruit, more tinned meal type bits, more ramen noodles (kids love them), more water for the shed, and non food items like power banks, batteries and light sources for if the power is out, and some low/no water hygeine supplies.

Is this for real? I'm blown away that people are genuinely doing this

@PumpkinSeasonIsHere pancake mix is a fabulous idea thank you !!
On my list .

Nothing - the only potential advantage I see to prepping is cost as I imagine many items will only rise in price

10l pp per day is madness - and you'd be even madder to actually use 10l a day if there were rolling power cuts etc.

If issues happen, the best thing to do is tighten your usage at the earliest point. If the event is short, then you just had a couple of lean and slightly smelly days. If it's long, you don't run out of stuff.

And never forget that the 2l recommendation is for adults, and includes fluid in food. You're better off getting some of the fluid in passata and tinned fruit than just water.

I say to DH that I am "prepping-lite". I have those tendencies anyway as I remember plenty of power cuts and being snowed in when I was growing up.

We have a BBQ that uses gas canisters and some camping equipment anyway like torches, sleeping bags, life straw and a wind up radio etc so that's fine. I always have candles and matches because I like and use them anyway.

We have a couple of power banks but I need to charge them.

We usually have a decent stock of food in the house so I don't have to go to the shops last minute if I want to make a meal but I've added one or two items each week for the last couple of months and it's built up quite nicely. I've mainly got tinned beans, tinned tuna, pasta, microwave rice, cereal, tinned fruit, tinned veg, tinned tomatoes, UHT milk, toilet rolls, crackers, peanut butter and biscuits plus things like loaves of bread in the freezer. We are using them and replacing them as needed so nothing will go to waste.

I have some bottled water but definitely not the 3 litres a day per person for 3 days that is being recommended. But we do have UHT milk we could drink plus a water butt for flushing loos etc if we needed it.

Think about bin bags, batteries for torches and having a bit of cash in the house.

@PumpkinSeasonIsHere

interesting about the meeting point, might consider that. I have a wind up / solar radio from amazon that we use in the garage. I could generally feed the street anyway and have a river opposite plus have camping gaz and a gas cooker that doesn’t require electricity so i figure we are fine in most likely scenarios for where we live. Ultimately if my house needed leaving i would head to my parents because they are elderly and an hour away

We’ve got water, rice, loo roll tins of veg, fruit, fish and meat.
We’ve got solar panels, but if the internet is out for an extended period we’re stuffed 😂

I can imagine the internet possibly being down for a few hours but, given that EVERYTHING relies on it I can’t see it being much longer than that. If the electricity supplies are out the solar panels should just about keep the fridge and freezer running and a light or two on, even in December and January.

It's just a case of being sensible and prepared. We were hit by flooding years ago, my friend couldn't get home so I waded to local supermarket to buy food and milk, to be told I needed to buy everything within five mins as they were flooding, and not to enter back half of supermarket. We lost our water supply for 18 days, supermarket was literally cleared within hours of opening (I didn't realise panic buying was a thing in those days) and arrived to do a main shop without much success. We were close to loosing our power supply as well due to water rising at a main electricity station.

This is just an example of something that can happen. I'd now rather know I can have a hot drink, have the right things to eat cold for a few days or to easily hit something. Also, plenty of cleaning supplies that don't too much water!