Preppers Paradise: Pickled Turnips and Sovereignty Spam

[RedToothBrush]

Despite all the accusations of hysteria for those saying they intend to prep, today Theresa May said households were going to be given guidelines in August and September on how to prepare in the event of No Deal.

Robert Peston@Peston
@theresa_may says 70 "technical notices" for businesses and households will be published in Aug and Sept setting out how we can all prepare for a no-deal Brexit (should that be what happens). Yikes

Arla are already warning that milk product may be scare and baby formula will be 'an occasional luxury' even if we do get a deal
Dairy products 'may become luxuries' after UK leaves EU

Whilst we wait for the government to advise us on what action we all need to consider taking, this is a thread dedicated for those people who wish to share tips, advice and what they plan to do rather than clogging up other threads.

My food and water hoarding is limited by the fact that anything I buy, I have to carry home, uphill! So a little and often it is. I'd rather not order foodstuffs online, since you can't check the expiry dates.

I've been doing a lot of googling today, and ordered a sturdy shelf and plastic storage boxes for my space under the stairs area. It'll feel better to get a bit organised, rather than my current arrangement of everything randomly thrown in there.

In clearing the back of the area where the shelves will go, I unearthed my old wine making kit (which I know how to make something alcoholic with, but I wouldn't call it wine!) with its big plastic containers (handy for water, surely), some wind up torches I didn't know I had, and other handy stuff!

@NorafromNorway
Good for you. British journos, where are you?

Good for you. British journos, where are you?

I assume they're only here for funny MIL or CF stories.

I've been having a sobering look at our finances in general, and where to cut back if/when price rices hit even more. Sky might have to go. Two more years of paying back student loans, which can't be helped. In general we're already pretty frugal, so it's hard to think where else to cut back, except a few small luxuries.

If I had disposable money, I'd have our flute re-opened and buy a woodburner and a good supply of firewood.

@NorafromNorway We're a family with two young children, but I don't really think of what I'm doing as stockpiling or prepping, just ensuring we have a buffer (and I'm the sort of person who has always kept a buffer of supplies (just a bigger buffer now). Plus also I'm not in London and in fact I live in the North - despite what Brexiteers would have you believe, Remainers aren't all posh Londoners who are only concerned with the supply of cheap au pairs and cleaners.

What did Nora say?

She said she was from Norway's Verdens Gang (VG) newspaper and wanted a stockpiling family to contact her for a piece.

Curious as to why anyone would display their stash to the world. I suppose we are a bit of a freak show.

Thanks LikesAnimalPark

Found this for people looking to leave the UK

facebook.com/Escaping-Brexit-672525716434445/

Stashed today:

Food and drink
2 x passata
1 x milk powder
1 x almond butter
1 packet of egg white sachets

House and Hygiene
1 x white vinegar
1 x large roll of tin foil

To try:
Idahon Perfect Mash
Oat milk

The mash gets decent reviews and was on offer, so I thought it worth trying out. The oat milk seemed to have a long date on it compared to other long life milk, so I thought I’d see who does and doesn’t like it in my house.

I also looked at the dates on some of the bread mixes and one pot ready meals that come on the shelf. The longest date I could see on any of those was Nov 2018 for the bread mixes and the meals in a pot were set to expire in April 2019.
So whilst they might be useful to stash, there doesn’t seem much point going it for quite a few months yet.

uglycathkidstonbag Don’t know what sort of oat milk you’ve bought but tried several brands and find most Provitamil the nicest. It’s quite different to others we’ve tried -much thicker and creamier. A bit weird in tea but makes lovely milky coffee and we both like it on cereal. Worth a try if you don’t like the one you’ve bought.

SingingBabooshkaBadly

Thank you, I’m going to have a look at that when I’m in the supermarket.

Do those posters who have mentioned setting up a Euro account mind my asking whether this is intended for transferring savings you would otherwise hold in Sterling to protect against the pound tanking or is it because you or DP has EU citizenship and you may need to access an account from outside the EU? Are your accounts U.K. based?

I had to give up work to care for DH. We live mainly off his pension, supplemented by a capital amount I inherited from my parents. If our savings suddenly became worthless we would be in serious trouble. I’m considering looking into putting at least some of our money into a Euro account but not sure if it’s the right thing to do (but then, who can be sure of anything these days? )

Do those posters who have mentioned setting up a Euro account mind my asking whether this is intended for transferring savings you would otherwise hold in Sterling to protect against the pound tanking

Yes. I also considered US dollars but (a) it might be harder to open an account and (b) with Trump at the helm, anything could happen.

Presently the euro appears more stable than sterling. If sterling holds its ground or even rises, I won't be complaining as it will mean the UK is doing better than expected, and I live there full time.

Are your accounts U.K. based?

Yes. I am with HSBC for my current account so will try to set up my euro account with them.

Thanks Rosina. From what I can see online HSBC is the only major bank to offer this but only to existing current account holders. Might have to look at transferring from First Direct...

From what I can see online HSBC is the only major bank to offer this but only to existing current account holders. Might have to look at transferring from First Direct...

First Direct is a division of HSBC so it's odd they don't offer euro accounts. But hopefully it wouldn't be too difficult to transfer.

Stashed today:

Food and drink:
Water purification tablets (we use these for camping anyway) x 24
Stock cubes packets of 12 x 2
Tinned green beans x 12

Household and hygiene:
Toothpaste x 2
More shelves for storage area
AA batteries x 12
Toothbrushes pack of 4 x 2

Health and first aid:
Anti-histamine tablets
Nitrile gloves

I've mainly been taking stock. Emptied and cleaned my kitchen cupboards and chucked all the various out of date half-used packs from there, giving me one whole extra shelf free! Now I also know exactly what I have in there, and what I don't.

My shelving for under the stairs arrived yesterday, and is all put up (with a blood offering to the gods of DIY in the process - get some plasters in, you all!). I also found plenty of Ikea's storage bags (I think they're meant for sorting your recycling) that help keep order on shelves. Also clear plastic boxes. Being organised is making me weirdly happy. Now I can gradually add to my little stash in an orderly fashion.

@GoneWishing Being organised makes me very happy too A vast comparison to my teenage years.

What sort of storage do you have in your cupboard under the stairs? I was considering opening mine up to have a nice neat space for a buggy, coats and shoes instead of the dumping ground it is currently.

But it could be useful for prepping if I can get some decent shelving in there.

Someone asked where the UK media was www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/28/brexit-stockpiling-food-fear-government-feed

This thread is just brilliant. I’ve been reading several similar threads at once so apologies if I confuse what I’ve read on which.

I work in the food industry for a household name and I don’t think many people realise how little stock is held at any one time. We aim to have 14 days in our warehouse and never more than 3 weeks, which really isn’t a lot.

The advice on this thread has really helped me organise my thoughts on a basic prep plan.

We are fortunate to have plenty of space to store food, a well in the garden (although it would need serious filtering and a dose of purification tablet before drinking) and a wood burning cooker that we inherited from the previous owners, which has a really handy hob and oven so we can cook easily without electricity.

I’ve come up with a sensible shopping list which will give us several weeks of meals that everyone will eat and nothing will go to waste if the stockpile isn’t needed. The dogs eat raw food but I will get in a few sacks of kibble which I can always donate to a shelter before they go out of date.

I’m really enjoying The Art of the Larder and will be trying several of the recipes next week, it will certainly help me with standby suppers and hopefully mean fewer takeaways.

@torthecatlady It's surprisingly spacey under the stairs, now that I've cleared it out. Space near the lower end would fit quite a few bigger bags, water and storage boxes. The shelving I've put up takes up the higher end of under the stairs space, but still leaves a lot of floor space next to it. Then there's a kind of dead space that's under a part of upstairs landing. We have cleaning stuff and some shelving there for tools/diy stuff, but it could be better organised for more storage.