Did you underestimate?

[Barbararara]

Just curious how everyone feels their preparations matched up to actual needs. I didn’t put enough thought into how eating habits would change when we are all at home. Or how many cups of coffee dh drinks at work or that I would need so many freezer bags instead of my usual boxes that take up too much space. I didn’t anticipate how much laundry washing I’d have to do - proper hot soapy washes, or that we’d want to shower after every trip out. It never occurred to me that I’d need hand cream, something I’ve barely ever used.

Hand cream is a big one. I have some but not nearly enough - my hands are destroyed from all the washing. I have now progressed to using unopened Christmas gifts

I did get extra hand cream - old with dry hands so I already had it in my mind as hygiene stuff.
What I forget - I always keep a stash of frozen bananas that had got too ripe to eat fresh. I use them in smoothies or baking. About six months ago we had a freezer door issue and I had to dump a load of its contents including bananas. I forgot to build back my banana freezer stash and dd has been having bananas in a daily smoothie- as I desperately try to sneak goodies into her system.
Plain flour. I've got a fair bit of strong white bread flour but not enough plain flour.
All in all I'm pretty happy with what I have compared to what I know non- Preppers have.

Yes.

Stuff I didn’t get enough of/didn’t consider

Washing powder
DD’s sanitary towels (got some, not sure if enough)
Vegetable seeds
Compost

I could have done with more washing up liquid, olive oil, instant espresso and all gluten free flours. Everything else has been ok.

I shall top up this week for us and my parents and then see how long we can go. I managed to get a Tesco slot last night for the 20th April so ideally want to last through till then.

Veg seeds too. Beans and whatnot. I didn't foresee not being able to go get [facepalm]

I should have bought more tinned fruit.

I had absolutely no idea how much rice we would eat! I have a lot of spare ground almonds though...

If have liked to have more powdered egg and plain flour but I think we have enough to see us through a few months.

We are coming to end of the jam I made last summer and have 2 of raspberry and 1 blackberry. I’d have liked more but we have alternatives.

I’ve got 2x plain gluten free flour and 1x sr gluten free flour but wish I’d got more of that as well. At this rate I’m going to be using all the weird flours like the rice flour.

Oh and potatoes. Though I managed (just) to get a massive sack but had to try a few places.

I’d expected shortages of loo roll, cleaning stuff, pet food, tinned food, pasta, rice, pasta sauce, etc.

Never thought about vegetables and meat to be honest. Don’t really ever eat meat though so not fussed about that.

Yes veg seeds and compost here too, also snacks for hungry teenagers. I also wish we had more alcohol but my husbands got no self control so we don't tend to keep it in the house...poor me! Now wishing I had bought more things like torches...

compost and snacks

I underestimated flour. Weve been bakung bread and biscuits and go through a lot
I also underestimated 'treats' i lnow its not healthy but i have worth startch, meat and veg but really want a chocolate bar.
We didnt quite get all our veg seeds

YEAST. Like bloody gold dust. DH chucked ours out for being like a month out of date just before this all kicked off. Fuming!

My hoarding of sample sizes and beauty box stuff has paid off though as I have enough hand cream to moisturise a herd of cows.

Got loads of yeast, not enough flour. Duh!
And vimto. I decided it wasn't essential bit it turns out it is.

@TestBank If only we lived nearby we could do an illicit swap. Got plenty of flour!

Oh no! Really? How annoying for us both never mind, in the apocalypse we can barter with each other, perhaps set up a mobile bakery

I wish I’d prepared and frozen vegetables, and a bit more cheese. But on the whole I’m happy, my kids diets haven’t had to change much which was my aim. I’m pleased I bought a lot of tinned fruit and tomato soup as they’ve gone through it swiftly!

Strong white flour. I'd underestimated how much fresh bread DS would eat.

Tinned tomatoes- were having lots of soup at lunch so getting through them much faster than I thought- but glad the kids will all eat soup as it gets a good portion of veg in them easily.
Peanuts- for snacks.

Chocolate, crisps and bread flour everything else nicely stocked I even had Easter eggs stashed away but with stress eating 2 teenagers and hubby the amount of sandwiches, toast and picking we're doing I should have doubled up, no flour to be found

I’ve still never used hand cream. Can’t bear the feel of it.

Went through the 700g of stored plain chocolate rather fast, mostly through baking. I have it down to get 1500g in the next apocalypse.
Lots of flour, sugar, rice, pasta left, lots of frozen meat. Ran low on milk, eggs, the quickest of all, but got good at making oat milk, almond milk, and could manage on these long term if needed.

Not sure about eggs. Didn’t expect them to be the crunch item.

Also wine. I hadn't factored in that our intake would increase threefold..

Things I had increased but not enough:
Ground coffee
Liquid soap
STs
Soccer balls (dd has burst 2, she only has 1 left even though I had bought 2 spare!)
Tonic water - beer, wine

My food is going ok, but I had got some extra soup for lunches that has not been used. And we have had surprisingly little time to sit around and munch crisps, biscuits etc - but we are taking time off work over Easter so they may be useful then.

We have used even more eggs than usual, and milk, and cheese. We are using more bread too but I haven't yet had to resort to making it.

I haven't been baking much yet, other than a loaf of banana bread to use up black bananas, but I aim to over Easter as well.

I am glad I got extra teabags, they are diminishing rapidly but we are still well stocked for a number of weeks, I just underestimated (significantly) bith DH and my coffee intake at work!

I have 2 bottles of alternative milk (an almond and an oat) and found my pack of dried milk powder in the cupboard last night (I could get any new, but had feared I had thrown out the old one in a pre-Christmas clear out) so have a half a tub, and a couple of cans of condensed as well (and evaporated for caramel and baking but the condensed is for drinking - unless I've mixed them up again...). So far, the only problem had been 2 days drinking ordinary milk that DD rebelled against as there was no organic available, but stocks have stabilised again so we are just trying to keep a min of 2 bottles in the fridge and buying 5-6 bottles when we shop, for the 2 calves I live with (dd and DH, not actual bovines).

Oh, and low on tinned tomatoes and pasta sauce.

I have 1 large Easter egg for sharing stashed in my car boot.

I think I had overdone the porridge oats, not realising I had 2 packs already stashed and thinking dd would want flapjacks, but I can experiment with making oat milk. And I am ok for flour but it won't last that long once I get baking ...

Yes, milk and eggs.

I didn’t realise that the family would suddenly only want omelettes for lunch and scrambled or poached eggs for breakfast as they have more time and that DH would get fussy about UHT (I have lots of UHT but even offers to add chocolate powder to it are frowned at).

We’re still fine and haven’t needed to leave the house for 3 weeks at the moment but I’d plan better for frozen milk and egg consumption in future.