Sensible (not panic!) prep ideas for if no power/electricity, etc.

[PrepNotPanic]

I’ve been scrolling through some of the threads on here, as I realised it’s probably sensible to do a bit of prepping. I generally have a sensible stock of things for if we were all suddenly unwell or snowed-in, etc. but I’ve realised quite a lot of these things would still require an oven, hob, kettle or microwave.

Some of the threads on here mention this, but the ideas are mixed in with ideas for if you still have access to power/hot water.

I thought it would be helpful to create a separate thread with ideas just for if we were in a situation where we had no power. (I also don’t want ideas that require a camping stove or BBQ as I’m in a flat.)

I’m not a panic buyer, but just thinking through a few sensible ideas. Come and join me if you have a similar mindset and we can share ideas.

Think of things you already use that can be eaten uncooked/unheated.

Muesli - use water instead of milk. Let it soak for a while and then imagine it's oat milk. I eat one of Aldi's muesli this way. Also bran sticks but they take a while to fully absorb water.

Tinned sweetcorn.
Tinned tuna or other fish.
Tinned fruit, rice pudding.
Cream crackers or similar.

It might be helpful if you tell.us what you do have OP. Can you store tins and packets?

It's not just ourselves we need to think about. We can be well prepped to.the hilt but if your neighbours are careless with candles and cause a house fire we'll need to evacuate quickly. So grab bags need.to be prepared as well.

Camping supplies are the first thing to look.at. I understand no stoves, but stuff like lanterns and water bags come.in handy.

I"ve just bought hot hands type disposable hand warmers off amazon. I plan to use them stuffed in various pockets if we lose heating.

We have a few woodburners so in Storm Arwen when the power was off for a week or so we were lucky to have hot food and could boil a kettle. But thats not much help if you don't have one in a flat!

Merino wool thermals would be the thing I would make sure I have and woollen socks and sheepskin slippers. Wind up/solar powered torch. Battery powered headtorches for doing chores and seeing to brush your teeth. DH had a big solar power bank that could power a lamp in the kitchen which was lovely.

I know you said you don’t want bbq/ camping burners, but you can use chafing fuel in a flat. I can live on cold food, but would miss tea and coffee.

For cold food, I keep crackers and jars of pate. Cheese will keep for ages as long as it isn’t too warm. I also like those triangular wedges of Swedish crispbread.

You can use packs of pre-cooked rice with tinned sweetcorn and fresh salad to make a rice salad. And tinned potatoes, spring onions and mayo to make potato salad.

Most tinned foods can be eaten cold, even if they are nicer warm. “No we aren’t having tomato soup for dinner, we are having a nice chilled gazpacho.”

Food wise I have a stash of cereal bars, biscuits and crisps plus crackers, frozen loaf of bread, UHT milk and loads of water.

I have loads of candles and matches, a head torch, and one of those things you put down the loo to stop sewage backing up if the water goes off. Sorry, can’t remember what it’s called!

Lots of blankets and books.

Those big jars of beans that you can get now are lovely. I would have them with tuna and chopped tomatoes and cucumber quite happily. Chilli flakes and salt would be useful if you had to live off cold baked beans for a while. Overnight oats maybe..if you lived in my house with no power on or fires on you wouldn't be worrying about not having a fridge...

We have an indoor-use gas cartridge burner, like this one, though it was £15 a few months ago, not the crazy £85+ that they are now!!

If this is unaffordable, it might be worth keeping an eye on the price of them, it's sure to come down once all the current panic subsides.

If you have some tealights ( £4 for 100 in Ikea) you can put a few in a muffin tin, put an oven shelf on the top and make a little stove that will heat canned food through and boil water. You can also put a roasting tray on top to create a small radiator. Your average tea light gives off 33 watts.

Obviously the usual provisos apply re putting it somewhere safe, out of the reach of children and pets.

I also have a little terracotta pot with holes in, I put four tea lights in there and put it in the downstairs loo and it takes the chill off the room.

We're going to get a couple of spare gas canisters for the camping stove. Also we have quite a few of those small portable charging packs for phones etc so just making sure that all of those are charged daily

Tinned fruit/fish and cereal that doesn't need heating. Packets of noodles/soup that would be easy to cook on the camping stove.

An extra box of breakfast cereal (comes with a year sell by date)
Cartons of flavoured milk, the 200ml ones if you are a small family.

Plain couscous - add cold water and wait an hour or so. Add tin tuna, sweetcorn, onion nuts, dried fruit, seasoning and grated carrot etc.

Muesli bars, box of custard, tins of rice pudding, tin or pot of fruit. Packet of hobnobs.

A tin or jar of pate - check your local Eastern European shop. Crackers and a jar of roasted peppers (Lidl and B&M are the cheapest).

Stash a tin of ready made coffee at the back of the fridge for time of desperation.

Fleecy lined thermals from B&M or Primark. A hat and gloves.

Also if you have a garden could you have a bonfire or small fire? (I know this doesnt apply to you OP) You can cook jacket potatoes wrapped in foil in the embers and also use a saucepan for beans. We also have a tripod with a small cauldron lthough I admit its not something we use regularly...

Chorizo for flavour in cold things as that lasts.

is it any couscous you can add cold water to?

Cheap basic couscous like this https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-wholefoods-cous-cous/105658837

thank you @MrsPernicious

Merchant (Ivory, I'm thinking but I know it's not that..) do ready made couscous. Much nicer in an emergency Id say.

We have a wood burner and a campervan with solar energy which runs a fridge plus we have two outdoor gas stoves.
We will stock like we are going camping and maybe we just will go camping!

Make sure your car has enough fuel so you can sit in it with the engine going to warm up. If you had a bag of humbugs or something too that would make the whole experience more enjoyable.

This is giving me flashbacks to Storm Arwen. A desperate period...😆

Merchant Gourmet ready to go stuff is great but a bit costly. Sometimes we need the budget basics as well.

https://groceries.morrisons.com/search?q=Merchant%20Gourmet

Gourmet! That was it. Thank you.

We have a couple of flat butane stoves which are for indoor as well as outdoor use - we’re veterans after living in a village which loses power as soon as there’s any sort of weather event. With two we can produce a whole meal from our pantry stocks very simply. If you’re brave you can make toast over them too! And heat water to fill hot water bottles to keep warm.

We use Ryobi cordless power tools in the garden, and have also bought a couple of power inverters which run off their batteries, so we can run a lamp for several days off a larger one - much safer than candles. This will also power the router so we can use the ‘landline’ phone if falling trees have taken out the mobile mast or the outage is widespread. The inverters have plug sockets for regular AC plugs, and also usb ports, so we can keep devices charged for a while too. I always have a few films downloaded on an iPad for the first day, until its power runs out! We also keep a big stock of batteries and have an old battery powered radio stashed away with the other ‘power cut kit’.

I’ve bought some bottled water too, just a couple of trays of 500ml bottles so they can be used up easily when they near expiry if we haven’t needed them by then.

I realise that in a flat you won’t have much storage space but you could get a lot in a single crate that slides under your bed. Make sure that wherever you store your light source is easy to put your hand on in the dark. And keep devices charged so they are close to full when the power goes off.

I also keep some cash available as I know I could eg buy some raw milk and eggs from the farm up the road if things went on, as has happened when the village was snowed in for four days. And because I’d need to be able to get to vulnerable relatives, in winter I keep my car topped up - petrol pumps don’t work without electricity!

Get some oat milk, it tastes nicer than UHT (in my opinion!) and can be mixed with oats or muesli, I've got a few cartons of it in the cupboard to go with cereal etc. Cereal bars are good too. Tinned fruit and rice pudding are reasonably edible when cold.

Wraps are generally much longer life than bread so keep some in the cupboard and then cheese will do fine for a while if it's not too hot so you can make cheese wraps, tuna is good too or corned beef.

Have lots of condiments, the cheese wrap is an awful lot more appealing with some chili jam for example.

I also live in a flat.

Lighting: I have gone the DC power route. I did think about getting a solar power station (Delta 3 for example) but the cost is high and where to put solar panels an issue.

Have lots of 20,000MhA power banks. Have usb powered lights, some have their own internal rechargeable battery.

Heat: This is where I have an issue.
I have a heated wearable blanket - which runs off a USB power bank.
I have sleeping bag, woollen blanket, various synthetic blankets.
I have a small pop-up tent which fits in my tiny flat, so my theory is that I could be inside that which may help reduce area needing heat.

I have USB rechargeable hand warmers - which could be used inside sleeping bag to help warm me.

Cooking:
Have a small gas stove. Gas canisters stored outdoors (in the bin store, in a plastic box which has a breathing hole so if gas was to leak it has a way out. Out of the way of direct sunlight.

There is a BBQ in the communal garden, so I also have firelighters, kindling, and when I go for walks in the wood I collect dry sticks.
Getting some charcoal would be useful but I am very short on storage space.

For Summer Cooling: I have USB fans.

I have several flasks. My idea that I would heat kettle using the gas stove, then keep the water hot by using the flasks, so can make several hot drinks. Already use this method day-to-day using electric kettle, so know the flasks keep the water hot for a good 6 hours.

Heating food:
Gas stove, BBQ, and I have tea light food warmer and have foil trays (this may be useful for warming things which don’t have to get to boiling, such as soup, baked beans).

@nannynick a pop-up tent is a great idea. DD used to use her pop up tent inside a bell tent when she went winter camping.

If you have a family, all sleeping in one room adds warmth and reassurance.

Woollen thermals and layers of wool is the answer to that. My house is Baltic at the best of times so I often wear a wooly hat indoors.