Preparing for Winter V

Uniscots97

Primrose said:

I don't think many people really realise the benefit of a well stocked food store-cupboard until they become an older/frailer person in an icy winter.  You then start to fully appreciate the benefits of taking the stress off yourself in difficult conditions.

If only we could bank  the excess heat of our heatwave summers and release it in winter when it's badly needed!  

I think some people appreciate it more if they or young children aren't well and they can't go out. I would have thought after Covid with lockdowns and shortages more people would have a sensible supply of things 

MrsCD

Totally agree on keeping stores up. I remember when we've had power cuts and heavy snow, so I like to have foods that can be heated on the camping stove or just with hot water.

I've tried to rotate my stocks, not always successfully, but try not to let things go out of date, although I'll still use most of them!

Just made a pan of broth with bendy veg, barley, lentils, and stock cubes. Used an out of date packet bread mix to make bread rolls to go with the broth at tea time. 

dreaming

Primrose said:

I don't think many people really realise the benefit of a well stocked food store-cupboard until they become an older/frailer person in an icy winter.  You then start to fully appreciate the benefits of taking the stress off yourself in difficult conditions.

If only we could bank  the excess heat of our heatwave summers and release it in winter when it's badly needed!  

Yes, and you never know when that "frailty" will hit. I am only 67 and up until February last year considered myself a reasonably fit (although with dodgy knees), independent woman. Then I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease (myasthenia gravis) which affects muscle strength and energy (among other things), then the eye problem was discovered and surgery proposed for Oct/Nov 2022, but then it was found I had womb cancer so the eye thing got postponed in order to go ahead with the hysterectomy. Thankfully the cancer was in a very early stage and no further treatment should be needed, so the eye op. can now go ahead in February, all being well. So in the space of 1 year I feel as if I have aged at least 10, but hopefully will get back to driving later this year and am feeling pretty optimistic at the moment (thanks to the lovely NHS). I can't bank the heat of the summer, but before I retired I had solar PV panels fitted to my bungalow so even in the present icy conditions my electricity bill is pretty low as it is also so bright where I am. I had also built up quite a credit balance with my supplier (who pay interest on it) so didn't worry about using the gas CH when I came out of hospital. I'm currently on a fixed rate which ends next month but hopefully it won't be quite so cold by then and we'll be heading into Spring. I have plenty of warm clothes and blankets etc. in any case. I have always been "a prepper" as growing up and during my marriage money was always tight. Since my divorce some years ago I put most of my money into paying off the mortgage and any excess cash went into my company pension. When I was offered relocation or redundancy at the age of 58 I took the latter and managed quite well with just my company pension until the state one kicked in a couple of years ago, so now feel I can relax a little. Having said that - old habits die hard.

Cherryfudge

Wow, @dreaming, such a tough year. I hope 2023 will be a lot better for you.

I can second that about health changes - I've had some relatively minor blips but they do make you realise we are all potentially vulnerable. Having a cushion of provisions against being stuck indoors is just one sensible thing we can do that might prevent an avoidable injury which in its turn might be a major setback.

I'm shopping for some supplements to my emergencies supplies this afternoon - butterbeans, tinned fruit and ibuprofen are on the list, and I think dried soups and noodles would be sensible too.

YorksLass

When my children were little (40-odd years ago) money was very tight but, whenever I found I had a little cash left at the end of the week, I would buy an extra tin or packet of whatever so we always have something in reserve for the occasions when there was more week left than money.    That's how my store cupboard started and it's a habit I've continued over the years.

Now, at 70+ years old, it's more because (a) I don't want to be going out in cold, icy weather - the NHS has enough to do without us making their job harder (broken limbs etc) and (b) if we get snowed in we've still got food to eat.  I rotate everything so nothing goes out of date and once a month I have a No Spend week.  The stores we probably use/replace most are oats, cereal, flour, oatcakes/crackers, tins of fruit, tomatoes, baked beans and LL or dried milk powder.  I didn't have a freezer all those years ago but now I do there's always a stock of hm ready meals in there.

For toiletries and cleaning supplies it's a "one in use/one spare"; once the spare comes out of the cupboard I'll get a replacement and quite often can wait until I find it on a promotional price.

dreaming

YorksLass - that's exactly how I started in the 70's.  We lived in a terraced house with a cellar and I used to squirrel stuff down there - my exH (who was, and apparently still is, quite careless about money) and his brother thought it hilarious and called it the nuclear bunker. Some of that was, I think, because a couple of years prior to that I worked in local government and my department was responsible for collating and printing the "Protect and Survive" leaflets (remember those?)  about what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion and I had told my exH about it.  Then about 8 years ago  eldest moved back in with me for a while and christened my stores the Apocalypse cupboard, but found  it was useful during the first lockdown when they and their new partner (both clinically vulnerable and in their own home by then) couldn't get grocery delivery slots initially. I would fill a carrier bag or 2 and leave it on their doorstep. Even youngest, who thinks it's all a bit OTT has been known to "borrow" a couple of cans just before payday but has admitted that they now also buy a couple of extra things when they see offers. I don't really see it as "prepping" as such - just common sense. I am aware that it is partly rooted in previous financial insecurity which I haven't really experienced for some years now but I can't see me changing anytime soon. Most of my extra "winter" stores will be finished by the end of March. It's usually by end of February but I do have extra this year due to health/surgeries. I will then continue with just minimal store cupboard until September/October then start to build it back up. As for No Spend Weeks/Months I would estimate that at least 50% (and probably more like 75%) of each month is No Spend as living alone it is quite easy to eke things out, so apart from my planned online deliveries (usually twice a month) and 1-2 trips to the local shop for the odd bit of fresh fruit and veg (and occasional treat) that's about it. Even my clothes spending in past years has tended to be quite minimal as obviously during lockdown and then with the health problems last year curtailing my socialising I haven't really needed anything new so actually it's a really easy thing to stop spending on this year. Having given up the car has also saved me a lot of money but some spending has been necessary for taxis when I have hospital appointments as there is no direct bus there and it's not always convenient for people to take me (I do offer parking and petrol money if they do though). I actually recently sold my car as it was deteriorating sitting on the drive, and although I do miss the freedom it gave me of just being able to go out when I wanted to I often think I may continue to do without one. That's a decision for the future though.

Primrose

Having lived as a child through WW2 rationing  and the austerity years which followed, emergency storecupboards were a way of life for our family and most others, which has spilled  over into other ways of life like financial planning.

i don't regard myself as deprived for having lived through that period.  It was a valuable life skill which has stood me in good stead.   I feel sorry for young people who have grown up in a "have it all now" lifestyle.  When hard times hit they are especially vulnerable in trying to manage with very little and dont seem to know how to make their money stretch further because they,re so focused on having their lives filled with non essential items, and so profoundly influenced by all the temptations of social media, which didn't exist in my childhood. 

slm6002

My XH use to laugh at me for having a store cupboard.  He left before lockdown and told the children he has not been able to get food as the shelve were empty.  We had plenty. Sorry not a lot of sympathy for him lol

Primrose

Dreaming.    Your ewrlier work experience had obviously prepared you well.
in my working life i spent a while involved with my company,s Contingency Plannning Committee,  ie you would sit as a group  and try and come up with solutions for every conceivable disaster which might go wrong and place your business in jeopardy.

it was a very challenging brain exercise of the "what if?" variety.  My learned experiences have stayed with me though and kick in whenever a difficult situation looks like arising.  Certainly during Covid lockdowns, keeping a good storecupboard proved very useful.

dreaming

Primrose said:

Dreaming.    Your ewrlier work experience had obviously prepared you well.
in my working life i spent a while involved with my company,s Contingency Plannning Committee,  ie you would sit as a group  and try and come up with solutions for every conceivable disaster which might go wrong and place your business in jeopardy.

it was a very challenging brain exercise of the "what if?" variety.  My learned experiences have stayed with me though and kick in whenever a difficult situation looks like arising.  Certainly during Covid lockdowns, keeping a good storecupboard proved very useful.

I actually did something similar in my last job. It was in addition to my normal work and was actually a "punishment" assignment as I was considered too outspoken for the new management but was also the only one who could do certain tasks so they couldn't get rid of me easily. I think they thought it would keep me quiet/out of the way for a while as they were doing their feasibility study about relocating/redundancies, etc. (and which all the staff believed was a done deal). However, I absolutely loved it and not only came up with some solutions which were adopted, I also identified some possible "disasters" which hadn't been considered - one being the fact that I was the only person with who could do certain jobs as my co-worker had left a year earlier but they wouldn't sanction any training in light of the possible redundancies. Perhaps if they had been better "prepared" they wouldn't have had to pay me overtime to train the staff who were hired from the new location (as, surprise, it seemed it was feasible to relocate). Someone even had to ring me several weeks into my early retirement as "something has gone wrong and no-one knows what to do". I had actually provided detailed written instructions for such emergencies (from my own notes collated over several years of doing the job) but apparently no-one had bothered to read them. What can you do? You can lead a horse to water .............