New to this: starter equipment?

[BlackeyedGruesome]

What would your starter essential equipment be?

We have battery torches and lamp and one wind up lamp.

I can charge the phone in the car using that battery but if petrol is short or we are not going anywhere that is not much use.

We live in a flat with west windows only so good light, and warmish. Some plants struggle to grow in 40+ degree in the sun windowsills.

We have a small garage for storage but only narrow stuff round the edges as we are required to keep the car in there as part of the lease. There is a loft but not very accessible when I am on my own most of the time but something small and light? The flat is packed full of everyday stuff already. Realistically I do not have time nor energy to do a big clear out to make room. The kitchen cupboard has taken most of a week. two autistic children and me a single parent with energy sapping conditions as well.

I was thinking wind up radio which needs to pick up radio 4 as that is my favourite and solar chargers for phone for ds who relies on it or something...but that is only things I have seen mentioned.

What criteria do you need to look for in equipment?

We are only electric in the flat so some sort of cooking equipment for emergencies?perhaps to boil water or heat a tin of beans? There is nowhere to store a traditional BBQ but maybe something small in the garage? Easy to use for a scardy cat.

Take it slow. I'm assuming this is what I call general prepping rather than "Brexit prepping".
Just in case anyone pops on here and thinks I am making suggestions for Brexit.
Cooking and heating is a tricky one if you are thinking about off grid stuff but live in a flat.
For cooking, if you have your own garage that's a bonus because obviously ventilation and safety is an issue.
A quick fix is to look at camping equipment.
If you are having any heating or cooking equipment in a flat or indoors generally, you really need to pay as much attention to safety and ventilation as you do to actual kit. Carbon monoxide detector/fire blanket / open window etc. Some firm ground rules for your family to avoid risky shortcuts. If you have a balcony, use that.
Alternatives might be looking at haybox cooking which minimises the amount of time needed to have an active heat source. I bought a Wonderbag and trialled it recently to good effect.

battery pack for charging phones etc - we have a couple of small handbag ones, a lager one and a solar one.

wind up torch

solar powered radio

matches and candles

water purification tablets (very cheap on amazon)

fire steel

garden solar lights which in the event of power cut can be moved inside and used as a light source.

we don't have anything special for cooking because we have a multi fuel burner and masses of wood. We can heat things on that.

With limitations for safely cooking (especially in a flat with 2 children) I would 100% advocate food that doesn’t need cooking. Unless you have a drive or garden you can use a camping stove on then I think indoor cooking is not safe. The tinned stuff I have come across can be eaten cold, it only needs warming up for taste/texture purposes and is safe to be eaten cold. Even meat in tins is pre-cooked. The added bonus of tins are the long dates and low-tech need to eat/open them.

Blankets and thermals: even worth looking at your windows and investing in thermal curtains (they are cheap at Dunelm and look the same as normal ones).

There are things called MREs which are very expensive for more than a couple of meals. It's what the army have to get hot meals without a heat source. Again, super pricey for more than a meal or two but might tide you over for a day or two while you sorted yourself out. If that works for you and your budget.

I'd look at beanfeast (soya mince) as an alternative to pricey MREs. You literally add water. Expensive on amazon but £1 a pack in tesco.

@cloudtree , interesting about bean feast. Do you need boiling water? If so, that might be a problem if getting a boil going isn't immediately possible. MRE (while pricey) means a hot meal with no power. I can envisage a scenario when there's a problem of some kind, everyone is pissed of/nervous/whatever and a hot meal would help chill everyone out but isn't possible yet.

Ive never tried to do it with cold water but I suspect it would work because its really just softening the soya. I'll try and report back

Sooooo I’m intrigued what are you actually prepping for?!

Being snowed in - this has happened to me
Power cut - this has happened to me
Unemployment- this has happened to me
Ill health- this has happened to me
Water problems- this has happened to my mum
Brexit- that shit is happening to all of us

Having autistic children who find supermarkets painful and school holidays happens 6 times a year.
Water going off happens quite often
Snowed in
Illness and disability making it difficult to get out, also regular.
Evacuation due to bomb... Narrowly avoided as we were over the road from the exclusion zone. Happened once.
DV happened to me.
Redundancy and cut in maintenance always a risk as difficult industry.

We have a garage with a tip up door. If the car is out then there is the possibility of sheltering from rain and using a small stove. If everything had gone tits up and it is not a good idea to be outside I have a solar kettle to heat water (birthday present) as coffee is one of my essentials and hot soup/ chocolate for the kids.

I need to look at more just add hot water
(Noodles, rice, cuppa soup, sauces)
and open and eat food. (Crackers, tuna, and goodness knows what ds will eat as it is hard enough after school when he is in near meltdown and hungry)

We have had electricity supply issues before, we rely on services going through other flats before ours, joint water supply.

I am, over a decade after we first needed it, going to prepare an emergency evacuation bag.

I have got complacent. My running away bag/ kit is no longer needed as I ran away and kicked him out after, but we have narrowly missed a serious gas leak when the cleaner in one of the flats left the gas on, an evacuation of nearby buildings due to bomb threat, and thankfully only rumours of rioting coming our way. There were sewage problems where the waterboard refused to help as it was on private communal land and the plumber had to dig down five feet to the problem. There is a lot of building work and potential to bugger up services to everyone by going through a pipeline or lorries collapsing services on our very old road.