Not a prepper, but I just bought my first stash! What do you think?

[QueenGizzard]

Taking government advice on board, I bought some extra bits in my weekly shop yesterday.

One carton of long life full fat milk
Tin of pears
Tin of mandarins
2 x tins of curry
Tin of herring in tomato sauce

I've also ordered (before I needed to) extra bags of cat food as they are on special diets.

I'll buy a few more bits each time I go shopping.

What do you think so far? It's not much i know, but it's a start!

If you eat them, that’s good stuff. Try and add a big bottle of water to each weekly shop for a bit. Or a pack of 6 if you can carry it.
Consider what your household eats for breakfast because waking up hungry and miserable is rubbish

Thanks @bellinisurge - the weight of the water admittedly put me off. I'll make sure to focus on this more.

What do preppers generally agree is best for breakfast? Cereal I suppose?

If everyone is so financially stretched how can we afford to stock up on extra food, fuel, household items and cash?

The head torches are good. Can be used for camping too. Water is essential. I get the huge bottles. They last more or less indefinable if not opened. A camping gas stove with gas bomb means you could have hot food: soup, pasta, rice, baked beans etc. I'd hate to only have cold food for up to a week.

@Gall10that’s obviously a valid point. Here’s some handy resources for tin can recipes https://www.cannedfood.co.uk/recipe-booklets/

Massive tin of coffee - even a nuclear war isn't going to stop me drinking coffee.
Mix of long life carton milk and tub of coffee creamer.
Tins of a variety of beans i.e butter beans, chickpeas for protein.
Tins of corned beef.
Massive bag of rice.
Big bag of pasta.
Tins of chopped tomatoes.
Tins of fruit - I don't want scurvy.
Parmesan cheese - lasts for ages.
Camping stove with gas cannisters.
Cans of sweetcorn and potatoes and some other veg.
Wind up radio.
Solar light which works brilliantly. I've had it for years.
Mayonnaise in sachets.
Seasonings.
We have a tap outside that runs from a natural spring that everyone locally drinks from so I've filled up lots of big water containers from that. I've been drinking the spring water for years. It's very pure.
Big bags of cat food and litter.
Candles and lanterns.
Everlasting lighter and striker.
Mind you this has been very gradual over some months. I'm not made of money.
A lot of it camping gear I already have.
Vitamins and minerals and dispersible vitamin C.
Medical kit I already have as I work in the NHS and have my home visits bag.
Water filter.

I've been in a disaster when I lived in the tropics as a teenager and we had no electricity or water for three months so I have a good idea of what's needed.

Very gradually.

So we aren’t going to be nuked/frozen/boiled/de-wifi’d/empty shelved/starved/dehydrated or another pandemic for a few years yet?

Because everyone isn’t truly broke

they may have to make choices they didn’t used to make

but most of the UK population isn’t actually without a penny to their name

If some folk can't afford to, it's even more important that those who can, do. We can share with our neighbours, or reduce the pressure on those providing food and drink in an emergency, so they can concentrate on those that don't have anything.

"One carton of long life full fat milk
Tin of pears
Tin of mandarins
2 x tins of curry
Tin of herring in tomato sauce"

Curry aside this sounds exactly like the contents of a box we found in the back of my parent's pantry when we were clearing it out after they'd died. Everything was over 20 years out of date. They'd obviously got some kind of 'PROTECT AND SURVIVE' leaflet in the 1980s, done a little stock up and then never witnessed the apocalypse or got hungry enough to eat Pear and Herring Surprise.

The pears is a very good idea. Apart from sweetcorn I cannot think of anything I would eat out of a tin. I was thinking we might not have the water to boil for pasta? I am also not a prepper, it I am terrified of being thirsty so buy 6 bottles of water a week on my weekly shop, loo paper and cat food.

It does sound a bit like a Harvest Festival Box. I love those herrings btw. Good choice.

BUT op do you even like any of those items???

Has anyone liked these items since 1945?

I love a herring in tomato sauce. Although i traditionally call them pilchards, a totally different fish. And who doesnt love a nice fruit salad made out of tins. Nice bit of syrup. Yum

Unless you run your cupboards and fridge/freezer completely empty every single week there is absolutely no reason to stockpile we could eat for several weeks if we couldn't leave the house and we don't stockpile we just do a normal weekly shop. We don't spend the day before shopping day sharing a tin of peas because thats the only thing left

The only thing I have bought is water, 6 big bottles which is apparently enough for one person for 3 days (there’s 3 of us). My cupboards are always full of tins, rice and pasta. We live rurally and have been cut off by floods before, we also get a lot of power cuts so I was kind of prepared before the announcement to stock up. So for us, water is the only thing we really need a stock of.

Good call!

I had completely forgotten about breakfast!

Not sure what to get for this - I suppose weetabix would keep well?

Anyone got any ideas that aren't porridge?

In the event of a prolonged blackout. Do you have something to hook your freezer up to?

Yes but I think the idea is to have things you don't necessity need to cook to be edible.

So without electricity and running water things like rice and pasta arent much use unless you have a gas stove and a stash of water.

Hence why there is always plenty of food in the cupboards to. I just don't understand how people get to the end off the week and have no tins, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice

Your freezer contents will spoil after maximum of 24 hours assuming you don’t open your freezer.
Your fridge contents will spoil after 4 hours assuming you don’t open your fridge.
Unless you eat everything pretty much immediately, your refridgerated/frozem stuff will go to waste if the power is off more than 24 hours

Weetabix keeps fine for ages as long as you seal an open packet

I suspect the cost of living crisis doesn’t affect you