Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Evening all.

ginnyknit, good luck with the dark arts of breadmaking. I'm fine with bread but it's lucky if any cake I bake turns out as advertised (my Victoria Frisbees have sunk many a duck ). I think it's a matter of temperament; I tend to treat recipes as a starting point rather than a set of rules and throw things around with gay abandon. Cakes don't respond very well to such behaviour but bread is a lot more forgiving.

I read somewhere that cake making is a science and breadmaking is an art. It made sense to me. Best advice is, don't overthink it and relax into the texturality of it all.

Errmm, not sure if texturality is a word but it kinda sums up what I mean........... I relate very happily to clay as well and have been known to build a fine pot or two.

I chat regularly with my Dad and he's a very thoughful man who often remarks on how unworldly a lot of people in the youngest generation or two are. Perfectly pleasant, he agrees, but knowing very little about the wider world, about history, about how society came to be as it is, and very passive in accepting what gets handed down to them from above.

He contrasts that with the men he worked with on farms as a boy, joining the workforce as a 15 y.o. in the 1950s. His workmates had all been thru WW2 and some had served in WW1. They'd been to hell and back and refused to put up with any "nonsense" from employers, as they deemed it. Any proposal from the bosses to make changes to their detriment was met with a grim face, sleeves rolled up and a prophecy We'll see about that! and they'd get "nonsense" nipped in the bud.

That generation is either passed or at least in their early nineties, now. People who've done military service and who know one end of a gun from another are less likely to be botherable than others. I know an ex-army guy who'd served in Bosnia, and let's just say he doesn't sweat the small stuff if some petty lout off one of the estates here wants to demonstrate how big his cojones are by giving it some attitude.

In general terms, I fear that a lot of people are sleepwalking into what's shaping up to be some very dark times with lots of hardship already signed, sealed and arriving on a doormat near you in the next few weeks. With more to follow over the coming months. It's a sensible time to be clasping those pennies firmly to one's apron and only parting with them for good solid deals on food and household goods.

I can see a lot of young adults returning to the family nest and even not-so-young adults needing emergency support from the Bank (or Larder) of Mum and Dad. Which may be struggling to fund itself, never mind support the whole family. We will do our best, of course; it's all you can do.

Keep calm and keep the old OPSEC (military jargon, operational security). Mum's the word, loose lips sink ships etc etc.

I have just rented myself Ray Mear's Extreme Survival from the library, which I consider to be an interesting way to spend some time. You never know in this life, that random piece of info/ knot/ edible weed/ whatever might just be the tipping point between making it or not at some future point.

craigywv

hi all, been mia too for a few days i go like this "once a month" i feel so low and cant be assed doing anything even coming on here . i like a monster in the house its getting worse with every passing month then when my "friend " arrives i a differentpersonmaybe easrly menopause or something. ok enough of all that . i have been reading all your posts there now and have realised i have relaxed my prepping dont know how that has happenned anyway what i would like to know is how much food is enough...when do i stop buying? its the way the prices going up, government shambles,jobs the list is endless how many bags of flour should i have etc... i know its store whatever i will use but when do i stop buying? oh i dontknow what im rambling on about, glad some of u had sun shine have a lovely evening all xxx

GreyQueen

Hi craigy, sorry you're a bit low atm. Hope it passes but you may want to talk to tehe GP if you think you're having an early menopause (I'm late forties and haven't got there yet, dammit).

Re how much in stock, could you perhaps estimate (or label certain items as you open them to see how long they last) to see how much of any given class of groceries your family goes through in any given period? Then you'd need to factor in the BB dates and the availability of storage and offset against the money available.

F'rinstance, I use one litre of cooking oil per month, month in month out. Might vary a little but only by a coupla days so 12 litres of oil = 1 year's supply. I also use a box of 80 teabags and a kilo of porridge oats per month. So I can tell at a glance with those items if I'm OK, understocked or overstocked, IYSWIM.

Other stuff is more erratic as I don't eat the same thing each week but having a structure to my stores is helpful. Perhaps you could start by sticking a bit of tape on items as you ues them and noting when they run out and start to get a picture of your household's unique consumption pattern.

Works for non-edible consumables, too, such as t.p and laundry deteregent and shampoo etc etc. HTH.

siegemode

craigywv sounds like you are having a bit of a melt down and need a cuppa and maybe cake. I sometimes wonder wether I'm into the menopause but am refusing to acknowledge it. I have what I call my Blue Ars£d Chicken moments, manic and unstable, trying to acheive too much and succeeding in little, often with a large dose of anxiety. Best I can then do is withdraw/recamp and take a break until I have a plan.

I find that how much you buy or store is really dependant on the things that you can save the most on and have long dates along with providing a simple nutritious meal if water or cooking ability is in short supply. Another consideration of course is your storage options. My major shtf fear is financial and so addicted to bargain shopping as I am I try and stock up on tea, coffee, sugar, pasta, oats and flour. Honey, jam, tins and dried yeast. Also toilet rolls, kitchen roll, washing powder, all toiletries and cleaning stuff. Apple cider and white vinegar and masses of vitamins from boots glitches last year. All this gives me such piece of mind but I think in a global shtf situation we would run out of food long before washing powder and toothpaste.

Our small spare room is in dire need of a sort out and is quite daunting. Am in the middle of trying to sort out lge built in wardrobe in our room and determined to declutter, but not doing very well. If I loose weight like I mean to then I won't need to buy clothes for years.
Just taking a break to watch emmerdale and oh has made me a cupper and served cake, oh dear diet put off yet another day. Well its the thought that counts isn't it.

craigywv

thanks GQ will deffo rotate my stock this week as i do still have a lot, as when oh was being made redundant i had a case of nerves and got in enough dry goods cereals lentils etc to feed a small country for a while...................but ive been using them and not taking note of whats going! so a whole inventory for me on sunday i think as i will be a whole lot better by then. i agree a visit to the doctors is well due my mum agrees too as she did have early menopause. thanks for replying my friend xxx

craigywv

thanks siegemode didnt see your post when writing to GQ your stores list is identical to mine lol xxx as for the cake well oh is making me pancakes and bacon.......and thats after we have had our dinner!!!!!!!!!!! son is in grans so we could have an old romantic one lol well we have had dinner and i feel !!!!!! so does oh he running about suicidal....LIVERPOOL just got beat lol so we really in the valentines mood oh almost forgot son aged 9 just topped it all offlol came home today with a valentine card i got all excited UNTIL I READ IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was to his granny!! lol he loves her. well me and oh going in to watch something on tv soon so thank you for your your advice.... I LOVE THIS THREAD YOUR ALL SOOOOOO LOVELY XXX

pineapple

craigywv wrote: »

what i would like to know is how much food is enough...when do i stop buying? its the way the prices going up, government shambles,jobs the list is endless how many bags of flour should i have etc... i know its store whatever i will use but when do i stop buying?

This is a common topic on prepping forums. Not many of us have the money to prepare for everything so it's a matter of taking a guess at what you think might happen and prepping for it as far as your finances will allow. I would be wary of storing too much flour. Check the sell by date. I find those Bero canisters tend to have longer dates than the budget bags so I get a mix of both - as well as some of the speciality flours.
I have enough of basics (including fire steels, water purification stuff etc) for at least 6 months - enough to cover short term disruption but not the collapse of civilisation as we know it.
Plus this year I may move house as I'm worried about land stability here. Climate change and the effect on local land is something that may affect me - but not others.
So we all have different circumstances. If I was younger and fitter I would be putting more effort into sustainability - foraging, gardening, fishing, trapping etc.
Money is getting steadily devalued and who knows how safe your cash in the bank is so I have the odd splurge - but only on kit which is practical, or which will help me be more self reliant or even save money - rather than glitzy new technology.
Plus I'm learning small things. I just bought some fresh tagliatelle then thought how stupid am I - it's a fraction of the price to make yourself .

nuatha

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The pessimistic view is that you can never prep sufficiently for everything that may happen and your preps for what does happen will have holes that hindsight has you kicking yourself over.

However, 1, I'm a realist not a pessimist and 2, any preps and the ability to adapt them is far better than none.

As I've mentioned in the past, the SHTF personally almost 6 months ago, OH became seriously ill and a number of hospital stays and emergency visits later we're no closer to a diagnosis let alone a prognosis. I thought we were reasonably well prepped for the likely scenarios, approx 6 months living expenses, approx 6 months shelf stable and frozen food stocks.

Expenses have been higher than anticipated, hospital parking fees have been quite significant. I've had to cut back the hours I work, to look after Herself and take her to hospital and other appointments. My health has deteriorated, stress lead to high blood pressure which ended with me being currently blind in one eye (and yet more hospital visits). Two of our freezers have failed.

Yet six months in, we're still afloat, have food in the cupboards and are still stocking. I only discovered the second freezer failure when I switched it on, needing to defrost the remaining freezer. I have maxcold cool boxes which were used to store the frozen food so the defrost could go ahead. I need to rethink how much reliance I place on frozen, and will be looking into pressure canning and dehrydrating. Having batch cooked meals has been a major help.

To me, the biggest asset of prepping is thinking through possible scenarios, and adapting to meet them or other things that happen. If we hadn't started this situation with the preparations we'd made (none of which were particularly aimed for this situation) we would be in a lot worse situation than we are.

GQ offers good advice (as usual) in how to estimate likely consumption and plan ahead. Having an idea what you will use allows you to take advantage of bulk buying special offers (funds and space permitting).

Prep and plan for what you can - if nothing else its breathing space that allows you to think rather than just react.

nuatha

GreyQueen wrote: »

siegemode, perhaps the young person hasn't ever seen lorries bearing the logos of the supermarket chains plying the highways of Blighty. It may be that she thinks that supermarkets miraculously self-reload overnight. Groceries can be streamed via broadband, I'm sure.

I'm middling-cynical and have often wondered whether the careful removal of useful skills from the curriculum to be replaced with useless versions (witness the death of cooking and the rise of food technology) is part of a cunning plan to render the nation incompetant and reliant on bought-in products and services.

But perhaps I'm getting a bit "tin hat" in my middle age.

I suspect that people raised on some of the current crop of games would devolve into looters quite handily, but there comes a point when, if we faced a Survivors-type scenario, ther would be nothing edible left to loot. So, those who hadn't thought about homesteading or had thought, and weren't prepared for the hard graft, would face an uncomfortable and hungry future.

Which would quite possibly involve attempting to rob homesteaders, who could well be armed and unwilling to be robbed. Going out for dinner might be the last thing a looter ever did.
...

I grew up in homes without c.h. and bathrooms and that's normal to me, although I prefer not to rough it, I do know how to dig latrines and maintain hygiene without flushing loos. Rather not exercise those skills, but they are there if needed.

Its a long time since supermarkets actually carried stock as opposed to goods on the sales floor.

Deskilling the curriculum has never made sense to me. I learned to use a forge, lathe and kiln at school. I missed learning to weld by being a year too young. My brother, 4 years younger, same schools used a lathe, the forge and kiln having been mothballed.

thriftwizard wrote: »

I wasn't allowed to do Home Ec., art or textiles at school & was made to do Latin & Chemistry etc. instead. To my long-suffering highly-academic mother's total despair, I couldn't wait to teach myself as soon as I got the chance.

I was the wrong sex to be allowed to do Home Ec., though I'd been taught the basics of embroidery at primary school. I learned to cook and bake at home from Grandma (a professional cook) and Mum. I regret not paying more attention to Dad curing meats and making sausages, pates etc. From time to time he did these at home.

siegemode

nuatha hope your situation improves soon and your oh gets a diagnosis. I doubt we really appreciate our health until it deteriorates for one reason or another. I have worn glasses and contacts since the age of 3, but it is only recently that oh has needed reading glasses and he gets so frustrated. I'm so fearful of losing my sight, hope yours is fully restored soon.

Just thourght of another good store cupboard item. Atora suet, if you have no butter or other fat it has several uses, sweet and savoury and is a source of energy. Down to my last 2 boxes and waiting for the price to drop again when I'll be stocking up.