Another stock piling one

[Coldcafeeveryday]

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/oct/22/britain-prepare-infrastructure-attacks-hostile-states-wes-streeting

I have a few extra tins in the cupboard, battery powered lights and I could get some cash out but tbh where are people supposed to keep all this stuff? All the bottled water? What about the micropastics fgs! (Light hearted post btw)

I've always got a well stocked store cupboard so I've been able to avoid the panic buying 😆 I have a small house and things are just stuffed in out of sight wherever I can get them. I do keep a note of where I've put them though.

Just keep it all in your bomb shelter.

Lol

I live in a tiny house. I lifted my bed 4 inches on elephant feet and now I can store whatever I want underneath it. I’ve got 25 litres of drinking water under there but my Rotty has decided it’s her favourite sleeping spot 😂. The camping stuff lives in a giant black storage box where it’s always lived. I’ve got a super market stacking bread tray type thing with plenty of canned goods/rice pouches/bacon grill/pancake mix etc. that’s stored under my DGS bunk beds. I already buy my loo roll, toiletries and laundry stuff in bulk so we are good. Water but in the garden to flush the loo if needed and I have a gas stove with plenty of canisters and a ton of tea lights. Plenty of book to read ages a dh and dd that both play guitar and a merge that plays drums so we (lucky me) we would also have plenty of entertainment

We have always kept the cupboards well stocked so we are not doing any additional buying.
When COVID hit, there was no need for us to rush out to buy anything and we were self-sufficient for ages.

The only thing we've bought extra is getting a few crates of 500ml bottles of water over the past few weeks shopping trips.

We're lucky to have a big, fairly empty garage, so it's all gone out there. We deliberately bought "normal size" waters, so that we can keep them over the winter for any seasonal emergency, and then we'll drink through them from about March/April onwards.
We're always well-stocked for tinned stuff anyway, so I haven't bought anything extra for that. I'll just replace what we use and keep it ticking over.

The storing water bugs me. We can't store that much water we need for days.

Better to buy a bath bladder instead. Fill it up in the event of some sort of failure like a power cut. It just sits in the bath and tap the water when you need it. Means no big bottles of water everywhere.

We’ve been advised to store enough drinking water for the household for 2-3 days. We’re a family of five

5 x 5l bottles would be sufficient for us.

Cooking, washing, flushing toilets?

I live in Spain and we had a major pier outage last year so I am now very prepped. Water goes under the bed. :)
Batteries , battery packs and battery lights are in what my kids call the "war cupboard"
No-one is allowed to take anything from it. It's got no prepare food in. Meatballs , long life quinoa salads etc. I have a camping stove

I’ve bought a water butt for the garden.

need to restock my in case cupboard. Plenty of wine in there but not much else

we recently had a 24 hour water outage which was problematic.

I keep a loaf of sliced bread in the freezer (use and replace). It'd keep me in bread for a week if the electricity goes off. I also like the idea of rice pouches, and sultanas etc that I heard today. I've got an aversion to tinned veg for some reason so don't want to buy things I won't use. I want everything to be fine for use when it nears its sell by date (assuming no emergency has occurred). The issue is buying things that I really like,
e.g. biscuits with 18 months before sell by date, as I'll just eat them now(maybe they could go in the loft to help avoid that!).

I think people are finally starting to take this seriously. We are topping up this weekend. We already have enough to last a few weeks. I'm going further since even if one of the major crises we seem to have in the world was resolved tomorrow there would still be dozens of others ongoing. I have the ability to store it and so there is no downside since I am only storing things we will eat anyway.

This afternoon I am buying two trays of tinned tomatoes, two trays of pesto, and two trays of sweetcorn. It's all long life anyway so will get used even if we don't face any shortages. In any event prices are only ever going to increase so buying it now saves money.

I have bought water but with regards to food, it is only non heatable food, ready to eat that is any use really. Unless you are a camping stove kind of family.

So I will probably stash some biscuits and crisps and try to forget they’re there.

Yes! The wine! What about the bloody wine!

Where does the bath bladder go when you use the bath?

(Our shower is in the bath and is used multiple times a day)

I've not got much in the food department stored, but do have a portable power bank big enough to run the house for a few days (Anker), a wind up radio and will soon buy a water butt. Also have a bit of diesel in the van. A couple of chickens are on the list and wood for the woodburner. Have a 12yr old campervan so should survive-unless it's a nuclear attack then there's no point in storing anything-just whisky and a few hundred pills... life is so depressing these days.

Ys but it won't be used multiple times a day in the case of water/ power failure. If there power is out then the water will be affected since the treatment centres can't operate.

If the entire water supply had been cut off we’ve got problems so big, flushing toilets will be the least of our worries.

It’s DRINKING water we need to stock up on, not washing water or flushing water. That water can be used for cooking if we have to. It’s about getting by not having enough supplies that you don’t notice the disruption.

How do you fill it up in power cut though. Water usually dies with the electricity?

Don't you have to have the bladder full up in advance? So the water is already in it?

I'm obviously not understanding the whole concept 😂

Yes you do. The water will go out with the power but not immediately. So immediately the power goes out you would be able to fill it.

The reality is that most of us would probably not do much for a good few hours thinking it will be back on at any moment.. We had a long power cut a few weeks ago and it was only because I'm on top of this sort of stuff and know that the water would be affected that I filled a few jugs (but only then after about an hour).

Before everyone rushes out and buys camping stoves etc, here are a few alternative/ space saving suggestions: buy some extra bags of charcoal and use your existing bbq to cook. If you put a baking tray on top of the bars you can heat soups /tea etc up in a pan and put the lid on to use as an oven to cook flat bread (made from flour and water). Use a cool box to put your frozen produce in if the electricity goes off, that way it will stay frozen/cool for longer. Buy packs of rice/pasta as they’re fairly quick/easy to cook and store. If buying lots of tinned goods make sure you have a tin opener. Rather than storing loads of bottled water, get a water butt and then buy a lifestraw water filter. Grow your own veg and potatoes - you don’t need a huge garden you can grow lots in pots/bags or mix into flower beds.

So that can only be used for flushing or cleaning, as surely bacteria would grow in it?

You don't use the bath or shower. Top and tail washes until things come back on.