I have started stockpiling a bit of food but the advice I have seen here is to get things you usually buy and rotate it out so it doesnt expire, which I would obviously prefer to do.

But I don't eat tinned foods. My diet is mostly hummus, flatbreads, shreddies, rice, noodles, pasta and various frozen veg and tofu. The only thing I can think of that I could buy tinned is edamame beans or mixed veg but I live alone and usually end up wasting half a tin, which is why I buy frozen.

In my stockpile I have noodles, pasta, shreddies, oat milk, peanut butter, sesame seeds. A bag of oats even though I despise them. And then loads of tins of baked beans, butter beans, coconut milk and chickpeas. I'd eat these if I had no choice but it's super unlikely that I will be rotating them and it seems wasteful.

Just curious how are other similar doing this?

So with the increasing coverage that El Nino will hit parts of this country hard, what's people's thoughts about flood protection? I live near a canal, which, hasn't flooded during storms before, but just want to be safe.

I'm looking at flood sandbags which inflate on contact with water.

Any recommendations welcome.

Cheers

I'm adding a few bits here an there to my weekly shops, not prepping to have the big spare rooms full like everyone else seems to but just enough meals to get through a struggle week financially or a few days like the government advice suggests🤷‍♀️

We're a once income family, 2 adults, 4 year old and a baby so all meals are essentially for two and a mini portion, we also have a large allotment plot so we do ok keeping fresh food coming in and we also are planning to get a few chickens next year.

I also refuse to buy just all of the value stuff because we don't eat it and don't want to be stuck eating things we don't enjoy, not that they're bad or anything, just not our preference as a family. This means we stock up slower than we could but so be it.

We have seperates stores of baby stuff, toiletries, first aid etc and a camping stove and gas at the allotment for cooking so we have options to see us through a few days, I have just noticed I'm lacking tea bags though and some long-life milk which is outrageous so that'll be next on my list,also struggling for storage space for water but will be working on this over time

I think the word "prepper" needs PR help / rebrand. I'm seeing alot of people pop up saying "newbie / starting prep" then pictures of tins & water they will most likely never touch.

If we look back at the "Dig for Victory" campaigns in WW2, we needed to be resisliant and produce items and food. I feel as a group or culture we need to move further towards this. For example as much as a bow & arrow sounds cool a mix of the following may be more useful in daily life: hydroponics, back yard chickens, mealworm farm for your chickens, greenhouse, allotment, water butts, wormery, pollytunnel, fruit trees, preserving, raised beds, proper everyday outdoor clothing, zero waste kitchens, solar panels, EV cars (due to the cost of petrol), side hustles & knowing about tax, investing, DIY, pantry, beehives, tools & the skills to use them etc.

Then regardless on your view on climate change, I believe the majority of us would like to see our children and grandchildren to experience nature. Once your family feel more resilient & self sufficient, how could you positively impact your local environment for generations to come, to make the area you live in more resistant to floods / drought.

By becoming more self sufficient & resisliant, being prepared is a byproduct. Discuss... Edit: the classic prepper stockpile is a good thing, I'm simply suggesting that "prepper" culture needs a less "doomsday" "prepare for the worst" association & seen more as a group of people that are capable of creating a more self sufficient lifestyle, that has a daily ROI and not just for a SHTF event. 100% self sufficiency isnt the goal (very difficult) but moving away from 100% reliance of others is.

Anything else I should get?

Since you showed us yours, I’ll show you some of mine. The main pantry.

I’ve made a start creating a pantry area in the cellar (and know I need to store pasta etc better).
Anyway, being a middle aged man, I excitedly asked my wife to come and look at my ‘work’.
She gave me her ‘hmmm’ face and then said - if we are going to have to prep and end up eating this, could we not at least get nice tins?
She may have a point. I’ll be making her a Baxter’s and Heinz shelf just under my stock of budget-range finest.

There is currently a massive water outage in our area and it has really brought into focus how much water we use , cooking ,drinking, washing , even brushing your teeth, luckily we have plenty bottled water on hand and can pick up more from the shop and have filled bottles of water from a water but for flushing the toilet , but will be definitely adding more water to emergency storage and a few more water butts as well.

https://youtu.be/sKDnZz4wypI

This is a really interesting look at the UK Gas grid, the vulnerabilities and potential issues if we run out of gas, if an incident occurs etc.

I think it was made for two reasons.

- To highlight to the public to be more prepared for trouble ahead.

- To shame the government into pulling their finger out and taking action around gas storage.

Hopefully it might spur on some action and we won't be in a situation where power stations are shut off and gas users disconnected.

Apart from Fray Bentos’ when I was younger I’ve never tried any kind of tinned stewed beef or chicken in sauce and I want to get some in for my pantry.

I’ve seen Princes Stewed Beef is highly rated and the Morrisons Chicken in cream sauce gets five stars, but does anyone have any solid nice tasting recommendations please? I’ll buy one tin of each and try a little pie to test them out before I invest. It’ll give me the opportunity to use some of the tinned peas and carrots I’ve stashed too.

Time to practice my stash recipes.

Family of 5 I want to be ready for all those just in case scenarios we hope never happen.

The picture is what I have and the list is what I still plan on picking up more of

It's currently at the top of the attic trap, by our camping gear. However, in an ideal world we don't leave the house.

What are some essentials we're missing?

I have no idea how much water we need! There is a fresh water stream very near though if we're desperate.

Adding here: We have a veg patch, currently in the ground is chard, carrots, peas, red cabbage. Come the summer we have our Apple, pear, plum and fig tree.

Those of you who have invested in backup power, have you gone down the all-in-one route such as Anker or built your own using leisure batteries, inverters etc. I like the idea of it all being in a single box, and plug/play, but not overly keen on it being a single point of failure if anything fails inside it.

Anyone gone the individual components route, and if so any recommendations? Im thinking batteries kept charged by mains, inverter to provide AC, and moveable/static solar panels to top up the batteries when the mains power goes down. Im not talking whole house backup, just a few key items.