Prepping For Pandemic..... 11

[ItsNotJustTheFuckingFlu]

Thread 11.

This prepping for a pandemic pack was posted one one of the previous threads, I thought I’d post for this thread as there’s more people joining the threads. I had a quick scan through the last couple of thread to find a list that’s been posted a few times but couldn’t find it. The pack seems a bit end of days in some parts buts it’s got some useful ideas.

Pandemic Preparedness Pack

The Emotional Prep thread started by @Neome might be worth a look for those of us feeling anxious as things ramp up.

Emotional Prep Thread

Also attached a screenshot of a post on previous threads by @blackeyesusan (hope you don’t mind) with storage ideas for those of us living in smaller homes.

@mumoftwodc That looks promising thank you

Iran's reported 1,234 new cases and 16 deaths in 24hours.

There's over 100,000 reported cases globally.

Feel anxious for today's reported cases to be announced.

I'm starting to worry. I have some food in the house and freezer but not loads and I only have £137 which will come in on Monday. I'm a single parent to two children and money is always tight anyway. I also need to top up my meter as I've only just moved in and haven't been moved to a pre-payment meter yet. It's starting to make me anxious.

*moved to a credit meter

Hand gel - am I to assume if it says: 'active ingredient: ethanol 70g per 100g' that it's 70% alcohol and therefore good to go? Just found about 10 small bottles in my local co-op by the office. Surprisingly there is no limit to how many I could buy. I picked up 3 - one for me, one for my parents and one for my in laws.

@fullofteaandneedstopee - things like smash, baked beans, own brand supernoodles/pot noodles etc will mean you can stock up a bit without breaking the bank

Our village shop, large and well stocked for a rural community, is out of all soap but plenty of loo paper and everything else.

@ifonly4 Do you have any to spare? It would depend on how often she goes out but if it's often I would say it would last a week. I gave a family member a couple of bottles because he only had 1 and has a serious health condition. Frustrating when I've been telling him for weeks to stock up but the guilt I would feel if I didn't would play in my mind.

What I don't understand is why places are still out of stock of soap. Surely they should be rushing them back in stock? instead there's nothing

@fullofteandneedstopee will yours eat porridge?
Eggs are filling a tray of eggs will last a few meals (depending how many is in your family) and a roast chicken can be used for a few meals too.
That might allow some space in the budget to buy long life food to store.

@rhij86 what would be good to get in the house that's healthy for me and the kids? I'm used to always cooking fresh, but I'm aware if I got poorly my parents couldn't have the kids as my dad is very much an at risk group. I had flu at the end of January and it completely flawed me and I had to have my parents help me out. I have a bag of rice, dried noodles, dried pasta, long life milk, beans and soup. I probably could last a week on what I have.

I just looked in my cupboards and I probably have a weeks worth of food. I will get some smash and eggs for certain. I probably have 30 loo rolls as I forgot I had some in the cupboard a couple of weeks ago and got another big pack. I don't have a very big freezer, but I do have a few bits in, including a packet of frozen peas and sweetcorn.

fulloftea The best thing you can try and do on a low budget is plan.

What foods do you like that are affordable and can be stored until needed? Work out what you can afford to spend on extra food after your bills, and then work with that. Most supermarkets sell pasta at 45p a bag which will provide at least 6 servings or (3 days for 2 people) and jars of sauce of 70p that's a meal a day for about 80p.

If you have a spare £10 buy pasta and sauce x 4 and 2 x fray bentos pie (£1 each) and a couple of packs of instant or frozen mash and a bag of frozen sweetcorn (£1 each). Tinned soup is about 40p so buy some of that with any money left. You then have over a weeks worth of meals to put away should they be needed - or similar foods that you like - rice and curry sauce for example.

Try tot to panic and definitely don't panic buy in terms of getting foods you wouldn't normally eat. Go with a list already written up of what you need.

@OhYouBadBadKitten I have been grumbling and huffing for over a week about the shitness of Heinz tins in terms of stacking! Good luck!

@itsnotjustflu thanks for the update on recovered numbers. Not sure whether we should be concerned at the high % in hospital...Maybe at this stage they still have the luxury of being overly cautious?

@rhij86 Conflation of 2 stories there. The hedge fund taxi people are not in CW and it isn’t a known contact situation - the boss just wants them to avoid the tube.

@fullofteaandneedstopee I'm sure others will be able to offer some good tips - @Readyme has already made some suggestions!

Perhaps get some tins of chopped toms/passata and some dried herbs so you can make pasta sauces. Either a few bags of frozen diced peppers/onions/mushrooms to add to it, or buy fresh, and dice and freeze them yourself.
Eggs is definitely a good idea. Porridge too.
Not sure how old your little ones are as that will obv affect what they eat? Some tinned fruit if you want them to have fruit but are worried about it going off before it gets used.
tinned kidney beans to add to passata etc to make a chilli sauce - with or without mince?

@fullofteandneedstopee sounds like you have a decent supply already.
Other ideas
Cheap cereal it's fortified and can help themselves
Hotdogs can be eaten cold if need be
Tuna
Jar of pesto can last two weeks once opened
Part baked French baguettes or nann breads often have a few weeks on them.

Fridge stuff with long dates : bratwurst from lidl, yogurt, cheese, Gammon steaks

In case it helps anyone, we have a community nurse visit semi-regularly and when she washes her hands in preparation for wound care she’s been known to use our fairy liquid, so if you can’t get hand soap WUL could be used instead. I seem to remember she said cold water is ok too but don’t quote me on that.

When we were trained up for doing the care at home it was impressed on us that we should use paper towels for drying our hands. This is also on the government hand washing video. No point carefully washing your hands if you then pick up loads of germs from a grubby towel. On the government video it also suggests using the disposable paper towel to turn the tap off rather than touching it with your freshly washed hands.

@JustMeAndMyTins - good old daily fail bunching a load of stories under one headline and not making it clear! Thanks for clarifying :)

@fullofteandneedstopee - @LightofMine 's suggestion to plan and make sure you don't buy stuff you normally wouldn't eat is definitely a good one. Also as they said, try not to panic - you've already got a bit in by the sounds of things.

Also @fullofteandneedstopee dont forget medicine. Most own brand paracetamol is about 25p a pack, if you can find any at the moment and Home Bargains do children's paracetamol (own brand like calpol) at £1.09 a bottle and maybe an own brand lemsip.

Here’s a video:

www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/best-way-to-wash-your-hands/

I think I watched a different one, but the advice about a disposable towel is the same.

Also, our nurse said soap and water is preferable to hand gel.

Readyme I've got 450ml over various bottles (I didn't panic buy these before anyone frowns at me, just bought a few on three occasions 4-6 weeks ago).

We've all got reasons for needing them, I work with a high volume of people, DH will certainly be needed for work, DD just had an operation (she needed three lots of ABs on approach so immune system probably low now) and DM is elderly and I'd rather she use some before she enters her home, as it's only her so if this is done easy to keep off surfaces. Have come to the conclusiom to let her have one, in fairness she did get one a few weeks ago, but being elderly maybe didn't anticipate the need for extra.

@mumoftwodc same with me. I was so conscious when I found I forgot the handgel and then had to use the pin (Got so conscious I kept my hand away like a cup holder until I reached the car with hand gel 😂) This don’t touch your face is so annoying- my nose and face tickles all at wrong times

Thanks all, that's really helpful suggestions. Both children 7 and under and one is a very picky eater. I've only recently come out of a refuge so not had a chance to really stock up and had big house expense with the move. I'm not panicked I just want to be prepared and I know money is really tight for me right now, as I had an extra expense I wasn't expecting this month. I'm usually very organised.

If anyone is thinking about more community minded prep/ trying not to go round and round in ever decreasing circles I have with minimal effort arranged to do a collection through ds2's primary school for the local food bank next week. So far I've sent some emails and drafted an appeal to go out on parentmail. I reckon I'll just need another three or four volunteers to collect tins from the classrooms ( years of sorting out school fair donations) and food bank has offered to collect.

If we have to self-isolate I'll be marching the kids out on walks every day. We can walk miles and not see a soul thankfully. We are the last house in the village, so we can turn left out of our garden and straight into open fields.

There is of course a massive difference here between self isolating on advice because you're high risk or isolating yourself as a precaution over and above medical/public health advice....

If you go out and about at all once you've been told to self isolate than you're an arsehole of the highest order putting others at risk. If you've just chosen to self isolate as a self imposed precautionary measure then all fine and fresh air away from others who might be shedding virus is a good thing.

A bar of soap is all you need. Covid19 has a lipid outer layer which is fat.

Soap dissolves fat, which destroys the lupus layer, killing the virus. 20 seconds in contact with soap is enough to damage the lipid layer

Water washes viruses away

Hot water kills the virus

Use soap, no plastic, and cheaper, plus If the virus sits on the plastic pump dispenser it’s potentially a hazard. If it sits on a bar of soap, the soap kills it

@fullofteandneedstopee Boyes has children's paracetamol and ibuprofen at £1 a bottle of you're in Yorkshire. As a disorganised mum I have on occasion given mine half a normal paracetamol which is equivalent to one Calpol melt and much cheaper. I administer meds as part of my job though so am confident in my calculations