Preparedness for when

[Deleted User]

BessieBooBoo wrote: »

and a tiny bag or bottle of water.

I don't think you will be needing the water.

Dogs and cats are pretty good at finding their own water supplies.

If water is ever so hard to come by, that a dog or cat can't find any for itself, then you are in a situation so dire, that you will need to keep every drop for yourself.

D&DD

Spanish you sound like you're off to a flying start to me :T I have the food in my BOB's wrapped in a ziplock bag you could maybe tuck one into your kit when travelling.
Ideas would be 3in1 coffees,oats satchets,breakfast bars,nuts etc all lightweight and nibbly stuff really,then add maybe a mugshot or two and cupasoups for something a bit more filling.
I use a lot of lock'n'locks for my stores I get them from Debenhams when they have their silly sales and cheap!

Butterfly so glad you're home in one piece,well minus a few bits! Hope the recovery is pain free and they sort out the probs quickly for you XX

Thrilla *waves* thats right I remember you too yes thats very true I tend to have my BOB in sections,mostly wrapped in ziplocks or dry sacks so if I need only part of it eg the first aid kit I can grab just that rather than the whole kit and kaboodle.

Butterfly_Brain

spanishlivinginUK wrote: »

Hi!
So I have been considering my chances in a bad situation, I am luckily trained in First aid, and have always been quite organised, I've never let my car fuel go below 1/2, I make my own cleaning products, I can cook out of nothing etc........ and circumstances are making me very conservative with money lately.... But that comes to nothing if I have no resources to begin with!

Right, so I have spent all day going around the house and checking how we would fare if anything was to happen right now.
We have a freezer with a couple of chickens, few steaks, a couple of ready meals, Chicken nuggets, sausages, chips, fish fingers and a few other bits.
We have also about 8 tins of beans, same with tomatoes (whole and chopped), a few jars of pasta sauce and curry sauce.
I have a few packets of rice, about 2kg I would say, 5kg of pasta, 1kg of dry kidney beans, and 1kg of lentils.
Fresh food wise we have some cheese and some salad, but no frozen veg.

I think I should invest in some frozen veg, even tho we wouldn't use it's nice to know its there if its needed, we should also get a few tins of tuna and ham. Again, not to be used but to have.

Because of work, I always have a suitcase ready to go with clothes for a week, plus a mini FAK, and toiletries. No food in it tho... Might just make a small bag and grab both if needed be.

If gas an leccy was cut off we have a gas BBQ we can cook on and one of those little stoves, the one with gas cartridges. For heating in winter we also have a gas fireplace, but we could shut off the gas to it and replace the lava rocks with real wood if needed. We also have a wind up torch, about 200 tea lights, and a few pillar candles (half burnt)
We have a bar outside with a big cabinet where I can keep a few 2l bottles of water.

Our garden is fully decked, so growing much veg is not an option, but again, we have some tomatoes and some peppers growing in pots, might be wise investing in a potato growing sack, but would those keep growing? for how long?

We do however have enough shower gel and shampoo to last us nearly a year, same with cleaning products for the house, but we only ever buy toilet paper as we go......

So, my idea is, with the small space we live in, to have a couple of sliding boxes under the bed (queen size, lots of room there) with some rice, beans, pasta, tins, flour, sugar, salt, coffee, powdered milk, batteries, candles, gas for the mini hob, toilet paper, toiletries and other bits and pieces, 10 2l bottles of water outside, and more veg in the freezer.

How would you store rice and beans to long term? I've seen people using 2L bottles of coke?? Would they be ok??

That is my initial plan and then we will se where that takes me!
Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

Ps. I have to really invest in another box with meds, and FA......

You have made a good start

Freezers are no good without power so I tend to have a good stock of tins, jars, packets of food as well as seeds. I used to have all the tinned meat in one place and veg, packet goods and sauces in another, but I have found that it is easier to make up a meal plan of 14 or so of dishes that can be made from your store cupboard (I have been experimenting on the family for months mwhahah). So everything is stored in meal blocks so I can just have everything needed to make a meal in one place.
We have a store cupboard meal once or twice every week to ensure good rotation and to get the family used to these sorts of meals.

For example:
Family of 4
Rice, a couple of tins of chicken in white sauce, a tin of mushrooms, a jar of peppers and curry powder makes for a tasty curry ...you can leave out the chicken and replace with a tin of mixed veg and you have a good vegetarian version.

Rice, a tin of kidney beans, 2 tins meatballs, a jar of mixed peppers, a tin of tomatoes, tomato puree, dried garlic flakes, and some dried chillies makes for a cheap and tasty meatball chilli, alternatively used tinned mince, but I find that the meatballs do fill you up more.

Tuna pasta.... Pasta shapes, 2 tins tuna, an instant white sauce, a tin of tomatoes half a tin of sweetcorn and a tin of mushrooms

You can buy tinned pies and a tin of new potatoes with a tin of mixed veg and some bisto for a meal

Just think outside the box as to whatever your taste is.

You can grow potatoes in containers on your decking I have been doing it for years and poundland sells potato growing bags or as others have said on this thread you can use ikea bags. I prefer to grow my potatoes in tyres they seem to love it as do other root veggies; don't worry you can paint the tyres lots of different colours
I have two miniature apple trees that are self pollinating on my patio; one is an eater and one is a cooker and they give a good crop. You can also get miniature pear and cherry trees, strawberies can be grown in hanging baskets, I have four all flowering at the moment which means that I have something that is both ornamental and edible win win.

I hope this has given you a few ideas x

D&DD

Got to dash out but I just got my 1p book from Amazon called The New Larder it looks really good from a cursory glance..:D

GreyQueen

BessieBooBoo wrote: »

Wow, thanks for this list GQ, I am scribbling down stuff we haven't got, like the universal plug...

BBB

The amount of times I've stayed in places (proper hotels, even) where they haven't had a blinking plug. And I'm a fan of ultralight travel (goes with my ultrasmall travel budget) so there's no way I'm carting several weeks' worth of duds with me. I wash and go........

When you get your lovely universal plug it's a good idea to loop a bit of cord (paracord or a scrap of bootlace) thru the triangular metal bit on the top to give you summat to grab hold of, about 3 inches knotted into a loop is plenty.

A passing tip; if you're a fan of the face flannel (me) you can't always get them dry when you're moving on every day with certain forms of travel. And they get vile and stinky shut up inside bags. But GQ has experimented the answer for youse; J cloths. I have pink ones (because I'm a girl and am allowed.:p)

Mrs LW, would you mind asking your DD1 the brand of the solid washing-anything-bar she uses? I would like to have a reliable product. I have heard great things about Dr Bronners pure castile liquid soap which serves as a wash-anything product and of which a little lasts forever, but it seems I can't get it in the UK.

Today I have had a delightful time after work poking my nose into the 99p Store and £land. I have found sachet-shampoo and sachet-conditioner, both l'OreAl. They're marketed for damaged hair but I don't think they'll baulk at gracing my coarse but otherwise undamaged locks. 24 sachets for 99p. Bonza.

I would recommend a browse in the First Aid section of the 99p Store for anyone who has access to one; there's pretty fine selection of stuff inc bandages and various other bits and bobs. They also have hand sanitiser gel on caribiner type clips (pack of 3 for 99p).

I was in a chain chemist looking for lightweight deodorants and was about to spend a £1 on a woman's brand when I happened to turn around and glance at the men's deos and you can get a Gilettttte one the same size for 39p. Gosh.:o

I figure I'm woman all the way down to my chromosones and don't have to have things in pink packaging to prove my girliness, so I bought that and saved 61p. Actually, since I bought one for the BOB and one to use on holiday, I'm ahead by £1.22.

In general terms, you don't need to spend shedloads of cash to make some preps. Lots of things will be around your home anyway. If you choose to run more of an inventory, food and cleaning product wise, than most people, as long as you rotate and use oldest first, you haven't wasted any money.

In fact, as you will probably be able to stock up when a sales cycle comes around, you may even end up saving money by being a prepper. Plus, there's that well-known phenomenon where you pop out to the shop because you're out of milk and come back £30 poorer.:rotfl:

Just think, a litre of UHT in the cupboard (best price I've found is Icelund at 55p) could have saved a trip and saved your purse from a gralloching.

There are some funny things happening with prices atm. As longer-standing readers are aware, I have an imcomprehensible fondness for the Fray B*ntos tinned pie. I never pay more than £1 for them and am well-stocked. My most recent ones are from Icelund so I was shocked to see that they've jacked the price up to £1.50 whilst Tosspots Metro has reduced theirs from £2.19 to £1. Tosspots are now officially cheaper than Liddly and the £stores for things like tinned fish.

Oh, and I did see that they had that pasta that looks like big fat rice grains (orzo?) but it works out at £3.40/kilo so I thought Id see if I could get titchy pasta cheaper elsewhere.

It seems that the retailers of outdoorsy type stuff are anticipating a carp summer because there's Mid Season Sales going on all over the place. And I've had a new Goo Oootdoors catalogue thru the post today............

Hokay, time to get the supper on. Past time to get the supper on. Going for a real downhome supper of bacon and egg, just like muvver used to make.

greenbee

GQ - summer naturals does castile soap, and some of the 'green' online shops...

lillibet_dripping

Just listening to the shocking news of the hacking to death of the soldier in Woolwich.
My blood is running cold.... Am I alone in thinking this may one of our major SHTF moments?

GreyQueen

lillibet_dripping wrote: »

Just listening to the shocking news of the hacking to death of the soldier in Woolwich.
My blood is running cold.... Am I alone in thinking this may one of our major SHTF moments?

It's a horrible thing.

The emergency committee Cobra are meeting tonight. Gawd knows what goes through the heads of people who would do such a thing and they seem to have waited around for the police to arrive and then went for them, almost as if they wanted to be martyred for some "cause".

The danerous thing is when an act of violence triggers something in the style of the Rodney King LA riots, and I guess the government and the Police will have that as a background fear.

That dead man has family and friends who are going to be so devastated right now..........those poor souls.

maryb

GreyQueen I can get Dr Bronner's in my local independent health food store. Comes in different perfumes. I went for lavender as it is supposed to have vaguely insect repellent qualities

GreyQueen

maryb wrote: »

GreyQueen I can get Dr Bronner's in my local independent health food store. Comes in different perfumes. I went for lavender as it is supposed to have vaguely insect repellent qualities

I shall have to have a look in my indy health food shop to see if they have it, too. It's lovely in there but far beyond my pocket most of the time, full of serene ladies of a certain type (I'd be that type if I could afford the lifestyle). Bookish, green-ish, cultured..........with interesting shoes.