Beginner here - does this sound like a reasonable stockpile?

[mmmgoats]

I've always liked to have a fair bit extra in, but thanks to MN I decided to get really organised and ensure I'm covered for (hopefully) every eventuality. It's actually really helped my anxiety as I feel a bit more in control.

Just wondered if anyone could take a look and see if this sounds reasonable prep wise, basically just got extra of what we normally eat in (for three of us) - feel like I'm missing obvious things!

Cupboard Stuff
Red/Green Pesto: 10 jars
Beans/Spaghetti hoops: 10 tins
Pasta Sauce: 10 jars
Curry Paste: 5 jars
Veg - peas/new potatoes/carrots/spinach - 5 tins each
Black Beans - 5 cans
Butter Beans - 5 cans
Broad Beans - 5 cans
Mixed Beans - 5 cans
Kidney Beans - 4 cans
Ravioli - 5 cans
Soups - mixed - 10 cans
Rice - 1kg + a selection of microwavable packs
Couscous - mixed selection of individual packs
Lentils - 1kg
Quinoa - 500g
Pasta - 1kg
Spaghetti - five packs
Passata - 8 cartons
Chopped Tomatoes - 10 cans
Tomato Puree - 3 tubes
Tuna - 10 cans
Peas - 4 cans
Corned beef - 2 cans
Sardines in sauce - 5 packs
Mackerel - 5 packs
Stewing steak - 3 tins
Jumbo Oats
Weetabix
Muesli
2 litre bottles water - 5
2kg coffee beans
Tea bags - mix
Hot Chocolate - big tub of powdered
Long life milk (currently 4 cartons will probably pick up more)
Tortillas - 2 packs
Mix of herbs and marinades/rubs
Slow cooker sauce packs
Mixed nuts
Nut Butters/Nutella/Marmite/Marmalade and Honey

Frozen
Avocado
Onions
Peppers (mixed)
Cabbage
Spinach
Herbs
Peas/sweetcorn
Carrots
Broc + cauli
Meat - assorted
Fish fillets
Fish Fingers [ who doesn't love a fish finger sandwich?!]
ice cream
Bread
Just Rol Pastry - two packs

Household
Candles (two bags tealights plus various)
Solar lamp + charger
three 6 litre collapsable water containers [empty but ready to go]
Torches x 2
Toilet Rolls (50)
Mouthwash & toothpaste [bulk packs of each]
Batteries
Full first aid kit including bandages, plasters, wound wipes, antiseptic cream, cold + flu tablets and sachets, digestion aids and medicines, paracetamol and ibuprofen, migraine tablets, allergy tablets

Plan to get
Camping stove/hob [we have regular power outages - not sure they'd be ideal for inside though?]
Life straws x 3
Couple more torches
Baby wipes
Soap
Laundry Powder
Energy Bars [less about prepping, more about DH loving them for walking holidays but handy none the less]

Now I've written it all down, I probably sound a bit OTT? But the snow last year really made me see I needed more in, especially if we get hit with a power cut around the same time [I know I can't 100% rely on my freezer stores but I like to have it stocked incase we get ill/can't get out for a few days or i'm too lazy to think about what to eat!]
Do you think I've missed anything obvious?

Assuming others will fix all your problems

Never, ever.I assume this country has become more focused on the individual and greed.

@Petrolpump28 see, if that was me, i’d be reflecting on that experience “wow, that was unpleasant, maybe I should bung an old coat and blanket in the car and throw in a couple of packets of crisps and some water”

That’s how my prepping started really - a few unpleasant breakdowns/powercuts got me thinking how I could make things more comfortable for myself next time.

The idea to just write the experience off as people being bellends, and not do anything that could help me next time, is a bit odd, frankly...

I assume this country has become more focused on the individual and greed

How is it greed to use your own stuff to help your own family rather than strangers? I think its completely bizarre that you would go through such a scenario and not be better prepared in the future TBH. As with the pp its also what got me started. Being snowed in for five days without a source of caffeine. Still gives me the shivers thinking about it.

My approach is that everyone should take some responsibility for themselves.

Likewise petrol, I use daily to live up on the moors. I’d help you, as I often helped poorly prepared walkers who set out in sunshine and ended up in fog and low temperatures without a map or compass or appropriate clothing. But I’d think you a fool, especially if you had young children with you that your lack of forethought had endangered. I travelled hundreds of miles with small children, always with an emergency pack. Still have one in the car.

I wonder if some the attitude petrolpump28 encountered is due to the locals being somewhat tired of people driving there unprepared. I also live just next to the Pennines (luckily don't often have a need to cross them). The locals that I know take the risky route quite seriously, and get quite cross at people ignoring weather advice, or even driving on despite the Pass being officially closed. Obviously if it was a completely unexpected freak storm, it's not the same situation, but the attitude might come from that.

I would offer to help, if I could, in a situation like that, for what it's worth, but I don't get a lot of askers.

I've started my store with water, pasta, pesto and some cat food.

*petrolpump28

no I didnt have a mini stash in the car. It was totally unexpected and freak weather.

I dont understand the prep thing.*

So now that you’ve clearly been caught out badly by not preparing adequately for a journey, do you now understand the prep thing? Or will you continue to be blasé about your and your children’s safety? If so, this forum is not for you, as we don’t share your attitude.

We always carry food, water, first aid kit, torches and blankets on any car journey. Last time we had to break out the supplies was during a 6 hour traffic jam.

petrolpump28

You seemingly have no idea what this thread or topic is about and you don’t seem to be understanding what is being said here.

I prep for the following situations:

• Needing to leave the house quickly (fire/gas leak etc.)
• Needing to stay in the house for a couple of weeks (flu/snowed in)
• Power cuts/water shortage
• The unexpected.

I prep precisely so I don’t have to rely on others. If there was a national emergency I want to be able to rely on myself so those in need can be looked after by authorities or the army. I consider it sensible and prudent. To me it means that those less fortunate can be looked after and given food, medical care or water from a standpipe.

I help people in my life but I also prep for my family. It’s my form of insurance. Would you like me to insure your car too?
If there is a flu pandemic and you have enough food to last your family so you don’t have to leave your house and expose yourself and your children, would you really invite in hoards of strangers?

The car incident was totally unexpected. We had a torch, high visibility jacket, and food in the car. The snow came very suddenly and we went to a small cafe.

The car incident was totally unexpected

I’m sure and it sounds like an awful experience. Have you taken anything from the situation?

Ok so you were prepared then petrolpump?? Why did you buy a rip off banana then?

So what’s your complaint then @Petrolpump28? That the owners of a cafe didn’t give you free food? Surely that would be a very poor business model for them...

We had a torch, high visibility jacket, and food in the car.

You said previously that you didn’t have a stash in your car.

I find it highly amusing that someone who is prepped doesn’t understand prepping

Of course I’d help out someone under normal circumstances, but does anyone think they’d take food from their kids to give to strangers if there were food shortages? I really doubt that. It doesn’t make them greedy to want to save their own family.

I like the magically appearing stash. Where can I buy this wonder please petrolpump?

So will you plan ahead for next time, Petrolpump, or continue to rely on the kindness of strangers to keep you and yours safe? As for snow being unexpected on the Pennines, I assume you were travelling in June-October? Because otherwise snow is a possibility. Not to mention torrential rain and thick fog all year round.

Spare tin opener?
Therapy?
You say this is helping your anxiety, but I fear it is feeding your anxiety.
Handling your anxiety would mean having a proportionate reaction to an objectively assessed 'threat'.

*Julian

Therapy?

Nice

@JulianOfNorwich ; you say that the OPs list is a disproportionate response; however everything listed would come in handy in the event of:

Powercuts
Water supply issues
Poor weather
Illness

I have experienced all three of the above, and I live in the SE, near a major city.

OP is hardly querying buying a chainsaw to defend against Zombie invasion

The banana was to mush up and feed a toddler. It was sold to us for silly money by a grasping woman who saw an opportunity.

Of course I pay my way.

I am unfamiliar with the terminology here so what you call a stash, I call some old junk in the back of the car and the sarnies MIL had given us.

Hang on this story has gone from knocking on the door of an unpleasant stranger's home in a gale accompanied by a baby and a toddler to stopping at a cafe in the snow and being overcharged for a banana for a toddler when you actually had sandwiches in the back of the car anyway.

ok here goes

We set off with the junk in the back of the car, the toddler and the 8 month old and some sandwiches.

Suddenly the weather closed in so we stopped at a small local cafe.

There were quite a few people there in the same predicament.

I felt that the owner capitalised on the situation by overcharging us and other people.

We continued with our journey but made the decision to pull over and stay in a bed and breakfast.

Its not a story, its something that happened. It made me think about people pulling together and being kind or capitalising on others misfortune.

THATS IT.

How much was the banana?