The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

thriftwizard

Sad to hear about your job, @Toonie - I hope something better turns up swiftly for you.

I'm rubbing my hands with glee a bit; we had to pop into the wholesalers for some bags & bits for the stall on Thursday, Queueing for the checkout, we spotted trays of tins of chickpeas for 98p. At first glance, I assumed that was 98p per tin, and nearly walked on past as that's not much of a bargain. But it was actually 98p per tray, i.e. 12 tins, dated bb4 June '24! Same for kidney beans. So there are now 4 trays of chickpeas & 2 of kidney beans sitting in my porch; 2 hungry vegetarians to feed through the winter here, still with a possibility of isolation! I know dried chickpeas are cheaper still & don't take up so much storage, but they do take forward planning, which my 20-somethings are still developing. 

If only I could find a similar source of festive bargains...

DigForVictory

I got to Costco! Albeit shackled to Himself, who declared he was there to ensure I “didn’t go wild”. Then bought three sorts of bun before I could even get to the tinned tomatoes… still, there is a
low wall of tomato beans & Persil (long story) so if we get snowed in, there will be food and clean laundry. Turns out there was a ‘buy one get one free’ on muffins, and a lovely staff member whisked off to get us a second “anything but chocolate” (as we had some already. Sons, unloading, not quite laughing at me as they contemplate lots of food being stashed under my work desk (still plenty of leg room, I’m short).

Toonie

Thanks @thriftwizard I've already managed to line up a telephone interview for tomorrow and a friend is going to help me rewrite my CV to reflect a career change option so I feel a little less despondent.

Today DP and I are going to visit FIL and then we're going to go to Aldi which is nearby. When we do this on a Sunday we run the risk of a few empty shelves, but often end up with some good fresh items reduced to clear. I've made a list, checked out what they have on offer and decided most of it is unnecessary nonsense we wouldn't buy anyway (I do not need a Christmas themed trivet), and we've decided we can both choose one festive treat to have over Christmas so we both feel we're having something nice.

LadOnTheHill

DH has had the dehydrator out and we've made some dehydrated chips. Basically, raw potato, cut into chips then put into the dehydrator until they're dry. Soaked in water for a few hours, they come back up to normal and fry up just fine.

It's going to be an easy way to store a large bag of potatoes for the long term, and the fact they're not cooked means we can turn them into mash if we want, or boiled potatoes, or whatnot. Our only other type of stored potato is ready made mash, so this gives us some much needed variety. Plus, they're a reasonable caloric staple and they're shelf stable.

Karmacat

LadOnTheHill said:

DH has had the dehydrator out and we've made some dehydrated chips. Basically, raw potato, cut into chips then put into the dehydrator until they're dry. Soaked in water for a few hours, they come back up to normal and fry up just fine.

It's going to be an easy way to store a large bag of potatoes for the long term, and the fact they're not cooked means we can turn them into mash if we want, or boiled potatoes, or whatnot. Our only other type of stored potato is ready made mash, so this gives us some much needed variety. Plus, they're a reasonable caloric staple and they're shelf stable.

That's so clever!  I'd want to do it with sweet potatoes too, I bet it would work the same.

LadOnTheHill

It's worth a try. Neither of us like them or I'd have a go for you.

Karmacat

LadOnTheHill said:

It's worth a try. Neither of us like them or I'd have a go for you.

That's sweet, thank you!

thriftwizard

Does anyone else have a feeling that we might really be in for a cold winter, this time? It's got colder, quicker, down here than I remember for quite some time. 

greenbee

@thriftwizard FB tells me that it's not too bad compared to this time in previous years. I've been out in the garden today in the sunshine. It's not that warm, but it is once you get working! Now the bitter wind has gone, it's been quite nice. 

Si_Clist

Perishing cold in a bitter wind today in this neck of the woods.  I have no doubt that it'll be a hard winter this year, on account of the birds have long since stripped the last berry off our wossname bush.  Our neighbour swore that was a sure sign of one.

Mind you, he also swore that other definite signs of a hard winter a-coming for sure including the birds not eating the berries, squirrels eating the acorns but leaving the beech mast, squirrels eating beech mast but not the acorns, berries on the holly bush over the road, no berries on the holly bush over the road, and so on.  Guaranteed different  every year.

I often wonder if he ever noticed something which was a portent of him turning his toes up when he did ...