..to say Homestead Prepping Lite is not Doomsday Survival Prepping. So here's some non-panicky ideas

[bellinisurge]

I'm a general prepper so I know about this stuff. It's my "hobby", if you like. Best case scenario is it all goes away and is nothing. We all want that but it might not be like that. Next best case scenario is two weeks boring self isolation. Yes, you can ask your pals to bring you food but this pal has their own stuff to deal with. I'll help you up to a point as long as I'm not required to self isolate too. Next best case scenario is a general lockdown in your area when nobody can bring anyone anything. No one in your house is poorly but there's only so much TV you can binge watch before you get hungry or need a wee or do other hygiene stuff. This is where homestead prepping lite comes in.
You don't need to worry about utilities going off etc but you do need to eat. You probably have stuff in your freezer and cupboards but enough for two weeks. Frozen sweetcorn and spaghetti for breakfast, anyone?
And bog roll? Yes, there are general prepper approaches but who's got time for that shit if you aren't a prepper? You need to get extra but where to store it? Get a hold-all. Take the bog roll out of its packaging, squash each roll down and pack it in there. Yes, you might lose some on the outside of the roll, they'll look a bit bumpy but it's better than a bog roll wall in your bedroom. Or rejig your drawers to make space.
I'm not a medic, I am over 50 with an underlying health problem so my situation is different to you regarding getting poorly. Follow general advice about good hand hygiene and eating well to boost your immune system.
I hope the worst that happens is you get bored. Don't beat yourself up about being concerned. And stop willy waving about how it's all nothing to you and everyone else is being silly. Take back control of this situation and don't give in to hype either way. There's loads of great advice on here.

Yes I bought porridge. I don’t make it with milk so that’s just normal for me. I came to a halt after porridge So lunches are usually buns with cheese and salad bits. I didn’t know you could freeze cheese so there’s something ‘normal’ I can have. There’s not enough space in my freezer for bread, but I do have quite a bit of meat so I guess the dinner bases are there. We mainly eat dinners like a roast, or a one pot rice dish. Or sausages, mash and veg.
Thinking about it now when I’m not panicking in the supermarket aisle it’s basically lunches, and substitutes for potatoes and veg I’m struggling with as I don’t have the freezer space for a months frozen veg!

Oh super noodles! I forgot about those thanks

@TwoleftUggs , I won't get into general prepper mode for preserving veg because it tends to result in hilarious memes talking about Eddie from Friends . So what about tinned veg?

@Twoleftuggs

What do you normally eat in a day? What does your normal weekly shop look like? Do you cook from scratch or is it more ready meals etc?

For us, I batch cook a lot of stuff like pasta, or vegetarian chilli, or chickpea curries and we also make our own bread and chapatis so have a lot of bread flour in regular use.

And this is all mostly stuff that keeps, barring the fresh veg, so I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to keep meals fairly 'normal'.

DH eats a lot of instant noodles, so we have those in. Our 'treat' food is homemade pancakes, but I'm vegan so I make them with soya milk and non dairy spread, both of which keep forever along with flour/baking powder/sugar /vanilla extract etc.

The freezer has stuff like meat and pizza (DH and DD aren't vegan) and frozen veg. We also also have porridge and cereal bars, which I eat a lot of anyway.

I think the key thing here is that we've just bought extra of stuff that we normally eat, as long as it can be frozen or has a long expiry date and won't be wasted. The best thing to do I think is look at your weekly shop and work it out from there.

You definitely don't have to go overboard, for us it's literally just having a well stocked freezer and some cupboard space set aside for extra tinned things, pasta and rice for basic meals that we will eat and enjoy anyway, as well as a few extra packs of paracetamol, calpol and nappies and loo roll, all stuff that we'd use over the longer term anyway.

And that's really it, we're not kitting out a nuclear bunker but just feel a bit better knowing that if we suddenly couldn't get out for whatever reason or if supermarkets became a nightmare then I would still be able to feed my family things that they're used to and enjoy.

Because I'm such a know it all kick arse prepper 😂😂, I bashed my finger and it hurts a bit. Luckily, I have some basic first aid stuff so I can do that RICE thing. Annoyingly, stuff like that unrelated to pandemics and zombies still happens - make sure you have some first aid bits and know how to use them. No unnecessary trips to A&E.

Any ideas for diabetics that don't eat bread/rice/pasta/potatoes?

For other people, sacks of potatoes, and onions keep.

That's not an area I know much about but can you eat spiralised veg as an alternative to pasta? Or cauliflower rice?

Apologies if I'm wrong on that, obviously.

Not all of us have the space even if we do squash the bog rolls! Seriously, I have a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, a normal size fridge freezer and no spare room. I could probably manage for a couple of weeks but any longer would be a problem.

Just checked and, as far as I can tell, cauliflower is ok. It keeps for ages in the fridge too.

That's not an area I know much about but can you eat spiralised veg as an alternative to pasta? Or cauliflower rice?

Yes! I assume courgetti freezes ok, and cauliflower rice does because you can buy it already frozen. Good thinking op 😁

@PinkSparklyPussyCat , you can get camping toilet paper alternatives which are basically like those compressed towels and the size of pound coins. But that's expense vs a couple of weeks tripping over a hold-all stuffed with squashed bog roll paper.

@Rosehip10 , identify anything in my op which counts as hyping up.

Unless having a grown up practical conversation based on realistic scenarios counts as hyping up.

As you are only allowed to buy 2 packets of painkillers at a time, I'd suggest stocking up on those. If I get flu, I would get through about 2/3 packs maybe, so that makes 15 needed for my family. If it's calpol, about 5 million (an adult size dose for ridiculous teens who like it is about half a bottle)

It's not just having delivery drivers available though is it, it's the whole supply chain and logistics of food being produced or picked/packaged, transported, delivered to stores, and shops having sufficient staffing. I always keep a weeks worth in just in case myself or DC become ill and it's tricky to leave the house. With the extra potential for shops to be running short (not due to preppers either, just in time is working fine at the moment) it seems silly if you can afford a few extra tins not to.

As always, store medicines sensibly.

I have a nice quiche in the freezer. I'm sorted, though slightly worried it might get looted by marauders (it's one of the Sainsburys brie and cranberry Christmas ones).

@TwoleftUggs Have you considered part baked bread? The packets of that last longer than fresh bread does.
Or the bread mixes that are usually in the baking aisle in supermarkets?

Forget marauders.

Good reminder about storing meds safely. The restrictions on buying are about preventing suicide attempts (god knows how many bottles for death by calpol) but it's always wise to store them in a cool dry place as well.

If the area is in lockdown, there will be no marauders. That's what lockdown is.

One of my jobs this weekend is to review my Brexit No Deal stash (started for October, updated for January) and see where we are. DD has OCD so some things need to be certain brands or very specific for her to eat / use them.

There's mainly pasta, pesto, curry paste, chickpeas, rice, tinned tomatoes / carrots / sweetcorn / mushrooms in the food cupboard box. Need a new spare bottle of washing liquid and think the dishwasher tablet stash is pretty much gone. Got lots of frozen veg in the freezer anyway, plus frozen pasta sauces and soups, chicken nuggets, Quorn pieces.

The toiletries stash will need restocking I suspect on sanpro and paracetamol as we've been dipping into it. I have a lot of toilet roll 😂 If you have a tween, get some Lilets teen sanpro, just in case. It'd be horrible to start your periods without supplies.

Amazon is good for things like a box of 6 bags of dishwasher tablets, 6 x 9 rolls of loo roll, box of 8 packs of face wipes etc. I have subscribe and save set up so a couple of different multipack arrives each month to spread the cost.

'' having to make a soup out of bog roll '' 😂😂😂😂😂

Re on line shopping. My ocado order wouldn't go through last night and no anti bac wipes or hand gel were available (I need them for work). Then nationwide couldn't process it.

What if supply chains get hit? Many products need things in them from China even if the entire product doesn't come from China!

I also have bog rolls down the side of my wardrobe and also in ikea storage cases. I buy them anyway when on offer.

I've welcomed bells tips on this and previous threads and it's helped to generally stream line my food cupboards and freezer.

Someone mentioned to take out meat from packaging to get more meat into the freezer. A genius moment of revelation for me .

Otter tips like that mean my freezer will be better utilised even without any self isolation issues.

Myself and dc all have heavy colds, I wouldn't want corona on top of this. I want the peace of mind that I have nourishing soups in the freezer, plenty of medication to hand.
I've been doing some light prepping and I feel calm and nealry ready and if nothing happens, I'll have Marie kondo style freezer and cupboards!!