Adult couple and a toddler - what would you be sure to stash?

[BiscuitsMcSnugglepuff]

Hey all! With things looking like they are more than a little rocky when it comes to Brexit, I am very much in the camp that I would rather be safe than sorry and having some essentials stashed to me is just a wise thing to do... but knowing me I am probably missing a few things!

So my question is this, if your household consisted of two adults and a toddler what would you make sure you had stashed and how much would you get (presuming space isn’t an issue)?

I would say my main concern is for my toddler as worse case senario me and the hubby can live off pasta for a little while, but he’s obviously got a lot of growing to do and I don’t want his health to be effected if it all goes badly and there are food shortages (hopefully we will all be pleasantly surprised....!)

Thanks all!

Calpol and other meds your family take.
Bottle some water unlikely to need it, but pretty crucial if you do.

Following as I'm going to get a little stash sorted in the next fortnight

I'm planning on tinned food so in a worst case scenario I don't need to worry if the freezer goes on the blink etc. Also already cooked food in case of fuel shortages. If I'm putting on my tin hat I'm going all out. Plus I have a big garage for storing so that makes most sense for me.

Tinned peas, green beans, sweetcorn.
Tinned bakes beans
Tinned chicken curry etc
Tinned Irish stew, chicken stew
Tinned ratatouille

Basically tinned veg for vitamins and tinned meat stew type things for protein / kids

As well as this i normally have a sack of (admittedly raw) potatoes, plus good stocks of rice, pasta, lentils

What gaping homes do I have?!

I asked in the pharmacy yesterday if I could get a few prescriptions of thyroid meds in advance in case of shortages in march and they basically laughed at me and said no, but my dose is fairly small and I ran out a month ago and haven't seen any ill effects so I'm hoping that won't matter much. DH's asthma meds on the other hand, might need to get ahead of the game on them as he needs it

I’ve got to get all the tinned stuff yet, but I had a look in Aldi/Asda and the dates on them aren’t that amazing 😔 I will also make sure I get nuts and lots of dried fruit but again I think I will have to do those in the new year to ensure they last a bit...

I’ve slowly started stocking pasta, rice, lentils, dried chickpeas, oats, tea, coffee, sugar, honey (good for colds as well as flapjacks! Yum!), calpol, ibuprofen and some beauty supplies...!

Tinned soups are a good plan, but I worry if all is okay I will have no use for them (we don’t tend to eat them and I can’t eat onions which is in evvvery soup!) is pose could get a few just in case and food bank after if not required?!

Despite the prep I’m holding out hope supply won’t be too disrupted but I don’t know how much I’m kidding myself 😂

I'd suggest you pop over the the Prepper topic or ask MN HQ to move it there. Loads of practical advice and no politics.
FWIW, I'd suggest you focus on stuff you actually eat plus hygiene products like toothpaste. Also first aid including Calpol.
You don't have to Become A Prepper but just get some extras in in case you are, for whatever reason, stuck at home for a few days or the shops aren't as full as you'd like.
Also include little food treats to cheer everyone up. Tea/coffee.
Nido powdered milk is full fat.
My mantra for people new to it is, imagine three days snowed in. Think of breakfast dinner and tea (lunch and supper if you are a southerner 😀). Think of keeping clean and freshening up. Think of treats and morale boosters.

Thank you for the response! The milk powder might be handy, the other all seem to be skimmed but full fat to make up porridge for LO’a brekky would be good!

I will definitely have a look at the other topic as well! And see if I can work out how to get it moved - just wanted some advice with the toddler in mind mostly 😊

Is the toddler potty trained? If that's still a work in progress, have you thought of reusables instead of trying to find room for piles of disposables or in case your favourite brand isn't always there?

He’s not potty trained yet, only 14 months currently but we’re already using reusables and reusable wipes 😊

You are sorted on that front. Brilliant!

I dont think we'l have a full on dystopian no food situation but i do think that we could have some shortages of food and goods that are impprted, which could lead to stockpiling making the situation worse and I also think costs could go up.

Things I've started stash ing are:

Next size up clothes
Pull ups
Pasta and sauces, rice/cous cous/risotto packs, cereals, oats, nuts, packets of mixed dried veg for stews/soups, stock pots, gravy mix
Cured shelf store meats like chorizo, tinned fish
Tinned food savoury and sweet that we enjoy and will eat
Baking ingredients - bread mixes, flour, sugar, yeast,dried fruit, dried milk, cake mix including some lovely looking Dr Oetker loaf cake sets that just need milk, the american pancake add milk and shake mixes.

Everything is dated from April 2019 onwards.

I think we'll be able to get basics but if anything it will be the luxuries that are harder to obtain/afford for a short while so we have ensured we have some treats to make meals more enjoyable.chorizo

If Brexit passes unnoticed then we have food we can use to make the weekly shop cheaper for a while. If it goes to hell then we'll eat basic but with the odd treat for about a month without having to go near a shop.

Lwmommy - in fairness you sound very much in the same mind as me, I don’t think it’s going to become a rationing situation but I imagine food prices will go up and at least in the short term there will be shortages with supply routes slowed down and such. You’ve also given some good examples of things to get, I didn’t even think of chorizo and that’s the best thing to jazz up pasta and tomato based sauces! Also I think baking ingredients are a good plan, but again might wait another month or so for that one to hopefully extend the use by dates a little more!

Just remembered, other big flavour low.space things we have:

• Some dried mushrooms, the ones you get in the chinese/japanese section of the supermarket and just rehydrate with water.
• Good selection of spices and seasoning including salt, pepper, worstershire sauce, tabasco, ginger and garlic mush in tubes, pickled:beetroot, ginger, onions...
• Tesco do freeze dried strawberries, pineapple and apricot in the baking section in little pouches. Often reduced to 75p a pack. DD loves them as a snack and they're great in cupcakes.

Ooh I love freezedried strawberries... any strawberries for that matter 😜 dried mushrooms sound like they cold be good for flavouring soups and sauces 🤔

Can I also suggest you have a look at growing your own. Nothing major but you can grow spuds from shop bought spuds in a big bucket (I did as an experiment this year). You can grow perpetual spinach starting now to have some lettuce. Better than nought and the kids enjoy getting muddy planting stuff.
You can either buy seeds or collect seeds from stuff you have bought. Or a mix. I grew some tomatoes from seeds I collected from an Aldi bought tomato this year. Yes, it's a bit of a patchy result but, again, kids enjoy it and you can have a play with the idea until you fancy buying seeds (recommend The Real Seed Co if you want to get into it)

Ahh way ahead of you 😁 I love growing things - you should have seen the beastly tomato plants I had going earlier in the year (though sadly they did end up struggling in the shocking heat towards the end, but they muscles through enough!)

Our back garden is too small for potato’s and is rented so don’t want to put much in the ground but was thinking tomato’s, corgettes, beans and maybe a pepper plant or two in pots this year 😊

Reusable nappies and reusable wipes. I have used cheeky wipes in the past and bought second hand reusable nappies. This depends if your little on is already potty trained or if you're planning to have another one.

UHT milk- if possible full fat. I'm also considering powdered milk. This is to provide calcium for your little one

Multivitamins - get the cheapo ones from Lidl or Aldi.

Water, water, water

Always remember be the grey man

@BiscuitsMcSnugglepuff - you sound like you are doing a grand job.

We have a good stash of reusables so that’s not a problem, also my sanpro is reusables from cheeky wipes funnily enough (and in honesty I find them much more comfortable than disposables!)

Upthread someone mentioned full fat milk powder, I’m definitely going to get some of that as LO often has porridge for brekky so would be nice and easy to substitute milk for milk powder

I don’t know if it will help anyone else but I’m also going to get 5 litre bottles of washing up liquid/multi purpose cleaners/detergent from a website called ‘big green smile’ - if you look at Ecover or Bio D they are environmentally friendly and reasonably priced. I figure they are also easy to store and if all is fine after Brexit, at least you’ll be stocked up on cleaning products for a while!

Thing is, I bet every actual Prepper (myself included) has forgotten something or missed something which, if things get tricky for any reason, it turns out they need.
You are already doing a great job by the sounds of it. Make the best of what you have. If something strikes you as you go about your day, weigh up cost versus necessity.
I had totally ignored sanpro because I don't need it anymore but my dd is about to start so I gently introduced reusable option to her.

I'd also have a more than full first aid kit. Pain killers, plasters, bandages, burn cream, allergy tablets, savlon, anti mosquito stuff whatever.

If things do get rocky it's worth being able to do first aid at home and not bother medical centres which might be very busy.

Simple things like toilet roll, washing powder, dishcloths, soap, tin opener, juice etc are all useful and easy to store.

Definitely in regards to the medical stuff! Was thinking of picking up plasters, Sudocrem and another calpol today and have been adding to my stash of adult painkillers and cold meds etc.

Juice is a good one 🤔 we don’t drink much at the moment but in case things do get harder to access it’s a good source of vitamins in an easy to store container! I would like to have a good stash of loo roll, but not sure I would have the space!

Hi
I might be being thick, but.....

Why are people saying bottled water??!
Will our taps suddenly not work?
I don’t understand?

@LookingThroughTheLookingGlass - no reason to think the taps won't work after a No Deal Brexit.
It is a prepper thing to give water some thought. If you have no concerns about it, you don't need to think about it.
On prepper topic, we will talk about it - I have personal and recent uk experience of it. However, it is not seen as a Brexit thing so unless you live somewhere that currently has undrinkable tap water, you have no need to think about it for Brexit unless you want to

Looking:
SOME bottled water could be useful as if there really is no deal, there could be power outages which would affect water pumping.
Stopping and restarting water distribution would be a very last resort as it allows a possibility for dirt to get into the system so every effort will be made to prevent that from happening. Water being cut off in small areas (burst pipe whatever) often causes some dirt to get in so you should run it until it is clear. Having a stash of bottled especially for babies or elderly is a wise precaution. If money is tight, filling screw top containers on March 28th from your tap will be fine as it will last for weeks if kept cool and in a dark place.

I agree @1tisILeClerc as a possibility for the reasons you said but am keen not to panic folk. People can make their own decisions and they are not failing at preparing for Brexit if they decide not to.
People can either pop over to the Prepper topic for some (I hope) non-judgy ideas on water collection/stashing or not.

But since you mention it 😃 I suggest everyone does some mega laundry a few days before so laundry is one less thing to think about.

Ok thanks... I’m all for being prepared -in life in general- but it sounded like it was verging on the ridiculous. And a waste of plastic (and money) if buying new.

Bottled tap water in some old bottles will do just fine then.