How much do you actually have?

[FeralUnicorn]

Ok, I know it will be personal to each person dependant on a variety of things i.e how many you have in your family, how many weeks your prepping for etc

But how many of each product do you actually have? At the moment I have 8 each of the tins we eat, I have 3 bags of flour of each although I did have a lot more pre lockdown, I’m still finding it hard to come by with online shops plus I also keep 3 kg of pasta 2kg spaghetti and a huge tub of rice.

Also how many weeks are you prepping for? I was going for 6-8 weeks in the end, is this enough?

Sorry for all the questions, I’ve always kept at least a few weeks of prep but am just looking at going that bit further but not too sure where to start so have a lot of questions

Oh and we’re a family of 7 :)

I have 3 months supply of cleaning, toiletries, medicine, staples, and tins, plus supplies for Halloween, Christmas and birthdays.
I kept track during lockdown of what we used and how fast as I had underestimated some things, not allowing for extra meals in the house, constant coffee drinking, boredom snacking, etc. We were also cleaning and showering more for a while.

I’ve learned a lot about what substitutes work and which don’t. My ds has food sensory issues, so, my aim isn’t to be entirely self sufficient, but to be able to devote resources (either money, time or limited quotas) to sourcing certain foods for him. Some things that he eats, like grapes, can’t be stored in a form he will accept.

Some things are trickier to quantify. We went through a lot of rice, because dh and I were leaving the pasta and potatoes to the dc. Even now, having built my stash up on the basis of lockdown usage, I’m aware that circumstances can change habits dramatically.

For a different view point I prep slightly differently to most on here; I'm not a prepper normally and only started doing so for coronavirus - though Brexit was already on my horizon too. I don't have the space or frankly the inclination to prep for months.

I prep for around a weeks worth of everything for us (2 adults, 2 children). This is on the basis that after a week (if we have to self-isolate) we would hopefully be able to get a delivery/help from a neighbour/relative. If the supermarket deliver slots go mad again I might increase to two weeks. In general I have one spare of everything that we use regularly - everything from butter/jam/washing up liquid/nappies to deodorants and cleaning stuff. Certain things that we get though very quickly or that we would rely on for a week of meals - like pasta/pasta sauce/corn beef/frozen veg - I have more than just one spare, I have enough for several meals for all of us.

Flour, or more specifically bread, is one of the things that we love that I predict being most affected by Brexit so I have several big bags of bread flour and yeast.

After a surprise a couple of weeks ago when our water was turned off by the water company (just got a couple of hours whilst they repaired something) I was scared and have now got 6x2l bottles of water too.

From a coronavirus/self-isolating in winter POV I have also planned activities and things to do with my small DC - I've bought and hidden DVDs/games for the Wii/small new toys as well as baking ingredients AND I checked everyone has well fitting wet weather gear so that we can all still play in the garden too.

I'm on my own so I need far less stuff and I don't eat 'adventurously' either!
I aim to be able to survive for about 4 weeks, assuming I have plenty of fresh water. I guess it's probably not long enough.....

Thanks for this thread and for reminding me I need to make a new list!

I have just been using whatever I had bought in febuary.Which actually came in handy when I developed a really bad cough and didn't leave my flat for 16 days. I have used up a lot of previous items and my shopping bills have been cheaper as I haven't had to buy lots of items.

I will be moving in july so am trying to not have too much.

I also donated a a few bags of rice and couscous with chocolate.