Where to start?

[AnotherShirtRuined]

I have been thinking a lot about prepping lately but have absolutely no idea where to even begin. So what would be your no. 1 tip to start prepping, and why would that be the best place to begin, please?

Also, what are you prepping for? I'm trying to be realistic so I'm thinking mainly natural disasters such as flooding and hurricanes or other events such as extended power cuts or maybe cyber attack/hacking (no zombies!)

I'm also thinking about a go bag to be kept in the bedroom closet so I could just grab the kids and jump out the window (ground floor) in case of, say, a housefire. But what should I pack? What would be the essentials?

I was on the AIBU Brexit thread today. Peppers pointed here.

I am going to buy a dozen tins of beans and rice pudding in early March, along with a spare box of tea and powdered milk. I have a barbecue and a couple of candles should there be a few days of no power. I have water in the garden and a five litre bottle of water to drink and a bucket to flush the loo should I lose the water supply.

It's just a potential for home camping for a few days if something happens.

That should cover me for a two week blip of Brexit, or if any other problems come about.

I'm currently on page 12 of the Brexit thread. It really underscores the need to prep intelligently. Thanks for pointing me in that direction, OneHour.

I tend to prep for having to leave our house, town, country quickly.

So I have one fully stashed and a smaller emergency escape bag.

As for other scenarios... We have water and a stocked pantry. Which includes quite a few cans and jars (chickpeas, tomatoes, vegetables, fruits, tahini, tuna), couscous, uht milk, muesli bars, oil, nuts, pasta etc and will soon include baby food, formula and essentials as well. But it's not really my main focus, I suppose. I do however keep a somewhat close eye on the water...

I've started buying things in bulk of I can manage. I also have a stockpile of medical supplies (first aid items). I have also started storing water. My prepping is for financial hardship really as we live pay check to pay check.

Look at growing your own . Just a little if it seems over facing. Spuds are a good start - just need a bag and some cheapo compost. Chit a couple of spuds from the next bag you buy. Delicious taste. Look at what else you might do moving forward but focus on what you like to eat.

That's good advice, bellinisurge. We bought a couple of fruit trees last year but they will take a few years to settle in and grow before producing much fruit, I believe. I'm actually not much of a gardener though I would love a proper kitchen garden - as long as someone else would do the actual work

The last month or so what I've focused on is building up the contents of my store cupboard and reading various prepping blogs online to get ideas.

I'm trying to be realistic so I'm thinking mainly natural disasters such as flooding and hurricanes or other events such as extended power cuts or maybe cyber attack/hacking (no zombies!)

Yes, snow, ill health, water cut off and power cuts have hit me personally. I haven't had to react as I was naturally prepped. I would like to do a little more for Brexit preperation and as you say a cyber attack is likely.

Where do you start with canning, dehydration and storing food jars? I have never made jam.

I like the idea of storing food underground, cheese for example, to keep it cool, lived experience would be helpful.

How do you cook in a garden firepit? What lessons can be taught by those that tried this?

I would like a solar panel independent of the grid, I am clueless here also.

What is the best type of stove for the home, in terms of heating and cooking?

Very sensible @PPPPickup . Keep it practical and realistic.
As for canning, dehydration etc. I have invested in a pressure canner but you don't need to go down this route. Dehydrated and vacuum sealers are pretty cheap. Obviously you get what you pay for. Have today vacuum sealed some chicken that I poached, chopped into 1/4 - 1/5 inch cubes and dehydrated yesterday. So we have some chicken to add to e.g. a stew or soup that we cook using e.g. lentils or veg.

As for what would I cook on if power went out, basic camping stove in back garden.
I tried out a cheapo solar cooker in this hot weather- basically a sort of supermarket chiller bag, lined with reflective material that stays open with a zipped clear plastic "lid". Made a lovely (relatively speaking) tomato sauce.
If you have a BBQ that can be used to cook on.

Have today vacuum sealed some chicken that I poached, chopped into 1/4 - 1/5 inch cubes and dehydrated yesterday. So we have some chicken to add to e.g. a stew or soup that we cook using e.g. lentils or veg.

What is the shelf life on the chicken?

I tried out a cheapo solar cooker in this hot weather- basically a sort of supermarket chiller bag, lined with reflective material that stays open with a zipped clear plastic "lid". Made a lovely (relatively speaking) tomato sauce.

Sounds great.

Is this the type of dehydrator you use?

www.lakeland.co.uk/14210/My-Kitchen-Food-Dehydrator

Yep, that kind of thing. Got mine off Amazon. Took pot luck and it worked. Looked at reviews etc and it seemed ok. I got a couple of second hand dehydrator books off Amazon too - "a complete idiot's guide to dehydrating foods" ( they know me so well ) and " making and using dried foods" by Phyllis Hobson. Check out 1960sHikerDude on YouTube. Genial chap from Maine (I think) who makes dehydrated backpacker meals - good idea, I think.
Buy some citric acid powder on Amazon (also cheap) for dehydrating veg.

Shelf life is about a year. Will just experiment while experimenting is ok. Rotating your stuff is a good idea. That is, using and replacing after a given period.

I like the idea of a dehydrator and a vacuum sealer and will be taking a trip to the charity shop in the near future to see if I can get them second hand in case I don't take to it.

Also, I have decided to ask for some camping gear for Christmas such as a Kelly Kettle for cooking on and sleeping bags for the entire family. That way we can go camping next year as a family and I can do some stealth prepping in terms of both skills and actual survival gear .

Excellent, op.
Currently dehydrating some spuds. I pulled a little load up from the garden today and about three looked like I shouldn't store them. So I finely chopped them (mum's old mandolin slicer) and stuck them in the dehydrator. Also a couple of sticks of celery and a bit of pineapple. I'll vacuum seal it separately and it'll be handy as a base for soup or the spuds will be nice (ish) mash. Pineapple will be a nice snack.

Out of interest, bellinisurge, do you often cook with your dehydrated stuff? One piece of advice I've come across again and again is to rotate your stored food and to make sure you only store what you know you and your family will eat. Seems very sound advice.

Usually shove it in soups and stews. Adds a fresh flavour.
I try and rotate and, as with veg gardening, focus on stuff people actually like.

It's certainly something to think about. Also as an efficient way of making sure not to throw anything away. Any uneaten fresh fruit and veg can be dehydrated and used at a later date in soups, stews and the like. Frugality goes extremely well with prepping, I feel, and a dehydrator would help with both,

It's worth making sure you dehydrate when the fruit/veg is still in good nick. Like with freezing.
Good thinking, op.

The first thing you need to do is think about what you are prepping for.
If it's just general everyday uk type disasters, like leaves on the track/snow etc... bringing the country to it's knees for a couple of days, then you are prepping to stay at home for a few days with perhaps a power cut/water cut/shops empty of food.

If it's SHTF, then you might be looking at prepping to bug out i.e. leave the house for somewhere else.

For the bugging in option, you start with looking at what you would need to get through 3 days.
3 days food, 3 days heat, 3 days drinking/cooking/cleaning water, 3 days lighting, 3 days medication if required by someone in your household, 3 days cash in case the cash machines don't work.

So, you buy enough food to get you through 3 days & store it, store enough bottled water @ approx. 6 litres per person per day + ideally have a water butt in the garden you can use for toilet flushing, make sure you have torches & batteries/candles enough to make it through 3 days, get a £10 camping stove & half a dozen bottles of gas when they are on sale at the end of the summer or a Kelly Kettle (runs on twigs) so you can make hot water/hot food.
A packet of baby wipes or a facecloth (one per person) & small bowl of water along with some hair refresher/dry shampoo will go a long way to helping you feel cleaner in the short term if you can't take a bath or shower.

If you have kids or adults who use the tv or tablets for entertainment, you might want to consider some battery banks & a small solar charger for them so they can recharge/run their tablets to keep them entertained for at least some of the 3 days too.
If it's winter, a couple of hot water bottles should keep you warm if you have blankets, or you can get more fancy with a calor gas heater/wood burning stove set up, budget & ability to have a wood burning stove dependant.

That is your basics covered for 3 days even if you have a power cut, lose your water & your heating at the same time whilst all the shops are empty.

Once you have 3 days, you build it up to 7 days, read a lot then decide how seriously you intend to prep & how long you think you should have supplies for.

Longer term than that, unless you are going to start buying in stocks from Mountain Supplies (dehydrated 25 year shelf life very expensive option) & have your own well, you can't just buy the solution, you need to learn skills to obtain/grow/store food, water etc...

Bugging out, you need bug out bags for everyone in the family, a secondary location to bug out to & a full on prepping forum where you will find endless bugging out lists of things you need to do/learn up to & including forging your own tools.

Those kind of preppers usually also keep bug out bags in their cars including things like those petrol handwarmers etc.. in case they get snowed in whilst in a car.

@Snugglepumpkin - excellent!

Great advice, @Snugglepumpkin.

I think my main issue is with water. It takes up so much space to store in bottled form and as my DH thinks I'm crazy if I as much as mention any type of preparedness, I have too be pretty stealth about my efforts. I mainly try to disguise my prepping as frugality, which works well for the most part, but as we have excellent quality tap water here large quantities of bottled water are a no go

We do have a water butt in the garden but it is almost empty due to the weather as we have been using it to water the garden (fruit trees and the like). Should I get some water purification tablets in and if so, which ones should I get?

For water purification I've just got cheapies from Amazon (buy 100 tablets for £3 kind of deal) - you drop a tablet in a litre of water and wait a few minutes before drinking. Might be worth getting some simple mechanical filtration methods (ie. coffee filters), and know where your nearest bodies of water are if ever needed (I highly doubt we'd ever get that far but the knowledge is free - Google maps!)

I'm also taking advantage of the hot weather now to stock up on cold weather clothing for the kids - prepping in case of heating issues, but will also get used regardless!
So thermal underwear & socks - merino/polyester/synthetic blends
100% wool jumpers and blankets
I'm not above a charity shop or ebay, and regularly check for good deals.

Water purification tablets are pretty much all the same & dirt cheap (you can get 100 on Amazon or ebay for a two or three pounds) & have a couple of years shelf life, so read the reviews/questions, someone has usually asked what the expiry date is, if they haven't, ask before you buy & don't buy if it has less than 2 years.
I have them just because they are so cheap to be honest, I've tried them & they leave a slight aftertaste in the water I don't like so they would always be my last choice.
Realistically, you are better off getting some of those 17p for 2 litre bottles of still water from Tesco or equivalent anyway & storing them in the garage or sticking a couple at the back of the cupboard 'in case the pipes freeze/water is cut off so we can still make a cup of tea' if anybody asks. Point out how bad it was last winter & that it could be as bad again next one.

Another alternative, if you are concerned about a specific short term issue where you would have notice (e.g. weather warning about freezing temps, concerns about Brexit), get a collapsible water bottles with a tap that will hold 15 litres or so, that way it takes up very little storage space & if it's for something like that you can also fill up the bath.

A lot of more 'dedicated' preppers have multiple water butts (you can buy linking kits so when the first one fills the overflow goes into the second), so if yours is empty right now, you could perhaps get another one justifying it by saying you need more water for the garden than it stores.

Finance dependant & a more extreme step up so probably unnecessary unless you hike/camp a lot, you can also get either something like a life straw (start at about £20 for small personal one which would fit in your pocket it is literally a straw with built in filtration although you can buy a bag to filter water into a jug from it, easiest is probably the approx. £30 650ml bottle) which will filter pond water etc... & are often used by hikers or travellers to 3rd world countries but they rely on you having a source of water other than a tap, e.g. pond/river to draw from & if you live in a city it's not that likely unless it's water from a bucket in the garden.
If you want one which would give you litres of filtered water in one go, then you are talking hundreds.
Worth reading up on if you are interested.
There are other brands, that's just the one I have.
They won't filter out everything, full on filtration systems cost thousands & they won't work on salt water, which requires desalination equipment, but that is very much SHTF sort of equipment.
www.amazon.co.uk/LifeStraw%C2%AE-Unisex-2-Stage-Filter-Bottle/dp/B01G7SQBPQ/ref=lp_3829393031_1_1?srs=3829393031&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1532265247&sr=8-1

ps even if you only have 1 day of stored water, it gives you a day to try to find another solution, even if it is just going to the shop to buy more (have no idea how many people you'd be stocking for, I only have to stock for 2 people)

Another water source (for grey water you can use for washing/toilets) is paddling pools/hot tubs, but you wouldn't want to drink it