Preparedness for when

vanoonoo

salt is a really important thing to store actually not just from a flavour point of view, sodium is a really important mineral (?) that we really do need in our bodies to be able to exist. that's my reason for eating so many crisps

http://www.maldonsalt.co.uk/Education%20and%20Fun%20Essential%20for%20Life.html

mardatha

OK try this one - and please try to stay on topic -This is shamelessly pinched from UKP.


There is going to be some kind of announcement in a few hours time which, knowing the population of the UK, will cause mass panic buying of food and fuel. There is no determination when food and fuel deliveries will start again could be a week, could be three, could be three months.

You have a couple of hours head start on most 'normal' people.

You decide to top off your preps (food, fuel, general supplies) What is your immediate plan of action? What do you do, what is on your list? Do you even have a list?

vanoonoo

is this a stay at home type one? if so:

scan the store cupboard for any gaps and calmly shop locally for the essentials probably rice, flour, pulses, water, dried milk.

top up the car(s) with fuel and check my close family and friends can do the same.

collect any prescriptions meds which may be waiting for me at the pharmacy.

get some cash out of the cashpoint so I've got a little bit to hand if needed and buy a local paper to get some changed into smaller denominations.

whip up a batch of twinks.

put the kettle on, turn on the radio/tv, log on here and compare notes.

sit back and relax.

grandma247

We would struggle for fuel after a week but then so would everyone else. I assume that if it was three months then electric and gas would be rationed.

I would probably get cash out of savings for anything I needed that we did not have but at the moment that would possibly be fresh milk, butter and cheese. although I have a stash of marge in the freezer for baking so I may just use that for buttering toast.

I would also try and get refills of my calor gas bottles so I can use the caravan cooker that is stored in the loft. I plan to do that anyway soon.
We have gas for the little camping stove already.

I have enough flour etc to bake with for about a year and could probably bake for my dds too if and when the gas or electric was on.

I always buy at least 20kg of rice at this time of year anyway so that is sorted.

We have lots of tinned and dehydrated stuff stored. I would probably either dehydrate or can the stuff in the freezers just in case. I could do that on the caravan stove if necessary.


Lidl have skim uht milk on offer at the weekend btw.

tryingtobethrifty

Hi everyone, I have been MIA for the summer but now the kids are back in school it's time to start the winter prep and this board has caught my eye too. I'm interested in all this stuff but have never been able to look in to it properly because the proper when the SHTF stuff on the internet is too 'scary' for me. I think people are great for prepping for it but mentally I can't cope with thinking about it, I start obsessing about it and feeling very low and panicky. I like this thread because it's more manageable for me, and I can imagine the real life situations (stuck in house for weeks because of snow with 3 small children and a bored husband- done that!). So, thanks for the thread, I'll read with interest and disappear if it gets too scary.

To the questions: I think Vanoonoo summed up pretty much what I'd do.
Get extra fuel in cans in case it last longer? But I don't like the thought of storing it. I live in the country so we need the car to get anywhere as I assume buses wouldn't run after a while. I like the idea of baking, everything seems better when you have something nice to eat.

Thanks again everyone for an interesting and informative, not too scary, thread.

grandma247

It is illegal and highly dangerous to store more than one 5 litre can of petrol. It must be kept outside the house.

I think diesel is a little safer but I would be afraid of that too.

During the fuel strike a few years ago a man near here stored petrol in his house in a dustbin! He was found out because a policeman could smell it when he called about something else. He was prosecuted. Can you imagine the fire from that lot if it had gone up?

valk_scot

mardatha wrote: »

OK try this one - and please try to stay on topic -This is shamelessly pinched from UKP.


There is going to be some kind of announcement in a few hours time which, knowing the population of the UK, will cause mass panic buying of food and fuel. There is no determination when food and fuel deliveries will start again could be a week, could be three, could be three months.

You have a couple of hours head start on most 'normal' people.

You decide to top off your preps (food, fuel, general supplies) What is your immediate plan of action? What do you do, what is on your list? Do you even have a list?

Top up both cars.

Head for Tesco for ..cat food and litter, loo rolls, disinfectant, shampoo, soap, flour, yeast, sugar, tinned foods, as much meat as I had space for in the freezer, LL and dried milk, rice, pasta, lentils, tea bags, honey and the absolutely vital ketchup. I've got all of this stuff in the emergency store cupboard already of course, around a month's supply of each, but I'd be looking for an extra couple of weeks of everything I think. Yes, I'd be panic buying! But I'd like to think I was doing it in a controlled sort of way. Yes I do have a list of what's in the emergency cupboard so that under normal circumstances I can keep it topped up. (It gets rotated into the normal larder supplies as a matter of course, I don't let it just fester till it's out of date.)

Buy extra milk, butter and cheese. And chocolate.

Put a request into the GP for repeat prescriptions if I was near the point I was allowed to. I keep a normal two month supply of my prescription meds in hand, I'm not allowed to get too far ahead of myself though as my meds have controls on them.

Get some cash out the bank and stuff it under the mattress.

Go and fill up the water containers in the utility room.

Go and clean out the garden water butt and put some milton in it, with a view to possibly filling it up with drinking water if necessary.

Err...that's it, I think. I've got all the extra gas I can cope with. And candles, and batteries. Actually I think if someone locked us in the house this minute we'd manage to last the month so I would't feel that stressed. Would I have mentioned it to my friends and neighbours? Yes, but that's also going to fuel the panic buying, wouldn't it?

Oh yes, and I'd put the radio on. And phone my hubby if he was at work to tell him to watch out for congestion near the supermarkets on the way home.

mardatha

Tryingtobethrifty - nice to see you back in. You're the only person I know on here who lives near me!
Great answers so far, but I think if I had any money in the bank I'd take it all out. Re panic buying, I think if you're a prepper then there's no such thing - it's moving quickly and decisively then :rotfl::D
Actually I'd be getting Calor gas too.

valk_scot

Oh yes, and once I was back in the house I'd make a strict inventory of every last food item in the house. I've always got a good idea of what's here of course but there are always a few stray odds and sods I've forgotten about. And I'd make a menu plan to use up anything perishable first, and to make sure I wasn't going to eat all the jummy things first and leave us with nothing but lentils and instant custard to eat in the sixth week...;)

ETA: I think if there were no deliveries of food to the shops for three months we'd be up serious !!!! creek in this country btw and would have more things to worry about than most of our threads here have discussed. Like how to fight off starving mobs for example, and where to bury all the people that have started to die off from starvation. And the disease that will follow. Yes, by that time I'd have started thinking about nicking the neighbours 4x4, draining a few pertol tanks under cover of darkness and heading up for a croft in the Highlands, taking my family, the neighbour's chickens and my spinning wheel with me.

[Deleted User]

Fill up the car, pet shop for extra hound food and bikkits, fresh foods - milk, cheese, onions and root veg. Reckon we have all else we would need either in store or in the garden and polytunnel. Would also bring in logs, kindling and paper logs in case anyone decided that was what they needed and helped themselves from our stocks, and things like the kelly kettle and ozpig would come into the house for the same reason. I would also contact DDs and check on neighbours and make them aware of possible problems and advise them to do the same. Can't think of anything else off the top of my head Cheers Lyn x.