Prepping: the new world...

Cherryfudge

There is such a lot of sense in this, @Broomstick . I think I will copy your idea for the car - I feel sorry for your mouse but I would rather not feed them! I have a spare biscuit tin that I could easily stock up with some small snacks, as well as the foil blankets and some first aid stuff. I used to have access to a good list for cars but it was on a group that's closed and most of the time, we don't need it so it's largely lapsed.

I recharge my laptop and phone daily, toothbrush a couple of times a week as it's ancient, and Kindle about once a week. The power bank doesn't get used much so it just gets topped up if there's a forecast of power cuts.

I had forgotten about keeping cash to hand as well: that's one I'd like to get back to. I have £11.76 in my purse right now: that wouldn't feed us for long. Mind you, my small purse also has spare sticking plasters, hair bands, a piece of emery board and some nail scissors, and those do get used!

P.S. off topic but on the subject of mice, I once stayed in a house that wasn't used much of the year. Two packets of gluten free pasta had been discovered in a cupboard by the mice, who had eaten the entire contents of one and sampled but mostly ignored the one next to it. No difference in accessibility, so presumably there are things they just don't like!

Broomstick

@Cherryfudge I think planning ahead for pests is something worth doing. As well as the visitor to the car, I've had two invasions by mice in my current home. I debated humane mousetraps but they were relatively costly and I knew I'd have to buy loads because the first time I seemed to have been invaded by an extended family seeking warmth as well as nourishment - it was freezing outside. That was the time of the car-mouse as well. They chomped their way through some very unappetising stuff in the under-sink cupboard - none of it human 'food' from what I remember - and then moved on to the main rooms. I bulk bought a big box of traditional mousetraps and got the problem sorted.

The following winter, as soon as I spotted mouse #1, I acted, and ended up having to kill far fewer, maybe because they didn't have time to show all their friends the way in, or live to breed some more. It was hugely useful to have the means to deal with them so quickly. Spare traps are definitely on my list of non-food items to always have in store.

Being prepared to deal with the local wildlife, including insects, and co-exist in a way that works for all of us, with entry points blocked is important especially if you have tasty stores of their favourite foods. They are essential parts of the food chain after all but it's awful to have to throw out human food that's been got at.

Cherryfudge

@Broomstick , we have a bundle of humane traps as the meece seem to appear with the colder weather. I agree, fast action is key as they breed so rapidly. We did some sealing up of possible entry points but I think the last couple have got in around the pipes where the sink and washer drain out of the house. They seem to get through tiny spaces though wire wool is pretty good as a filler.

MrsCD

Popping in to say we're having problems with rats in our garden, so we've had to buy some of their special 'food' to put in the locked boxes, with a 'run-through the side. I'd always been told if there are rats, you won't have mice, but today I saw a small mouse too... oh well, as long as they stay outside until we sort them out!

We have gardens close by with sheds, with nice spaces underneath for them..

Keep calm and carry on as they say!

DigForVictory

Much intrigued to know what a mouse-proof snack might consist of, other than your choice in a sealed tin. I've an elderly NATO cook set in the car (the sort of thing certain vintage of camper has, bought from the army surplus after the Falklands), so that should I break down a long way from anywhere, there will still be tea. Not giving odds on biscuits, and have a couple of those cheap flapjack bars that are filling without being flavoursome. (I have to fend off teenagers as well as other pests, despite them being family.)

Chez Dig, strategically placed Brillo pads can be seen where mice have tried to enter. A mouth full of wire wool is really not popular.

DigForVictory

Anyone got family on holiday in Tenerife? Their Storm Therese must be making the sun & sand a bit surreal as I gather there's snow….? Plus heavy rain & severe winds - the easter egg hunt will be different.

PipneyJane

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81927435#Comment_81927435

You and me both, @Broomstick, re recharging everything and keeping the car filled.

Filled my car last Tuesday, when I spotted Unleaded at 138.9p/L at our local MrT's. I'm now feeling smug because yesterday, it was 142.9p/L there. At the nearby Sainsbugs, it was 141.9p/L last week and 144.9p/L yesterday. My DH is feeling the pain more than me, because he has to fill up weekly - can't work from home - whereas I only need to fill up once every three weeks.

I haven't witnessed any panic buying, yet, but it's early days.

• Pip

Broomstick

I'm in the throes of going through absolutely all my toiletries, over the counter meds and first aid bits and pieces, collating them and doing a stock take. I thought I was quite efficient at not overbuying nowadays but I'm rather surprised at the numbers of certain things I have found tucked away - how many plasters or unused travel tubes of toothpaste does one need in a crisis? 😀

However, there are a couple of thoughts I've had that might just prove useful to add to sensible preparedness lists where relevant so I thought they might be worth mentioning: a headlice comb and extra cheap conditioner (for anyone whose children are prone to lice) and a non-internet wrist watch and/or alarm clock with batteries that work, just in case of mobile/internet outage or battery failure. I do wear a watch but I rely on my phone for alarms. I've never heard this last one mentioned anywhere else on prepping lists but, for anyone who needs it, there's also contraception (check it's in-date!).

twiglet98

It's been years since I looked at OS and the prepping threads! I'm retired, all offspring grown, just me here now with two senior dogs and two senior cats, hoping the 40 year old boiler keeps going and the roof stays intact.

Possibly facing a hip replacement and having seen the GP recently to discuss pain relief, thankfully I can still walk, and drive, but not without several degrees of discomfort. I came away with a new prescription, which had an unexpected effect on my digestive system. With IBS I'm very used to managing those …er, loose and frequent movements, but blocked up quite uncomfortably for two and a half days. There was Senokot upstairs, which did absolutely nothing, so I bought Dulcolax, which sorted it overnight. The Senokot was bought when I was having chemotherapy in 2008, with an expiry date of October 2010! No wonder they didn't work.

I kept, "just in case", various anti-sickness and sleeping meds from that time, plus a strip of Tramadol from 2011. They're all going back to the pharmacy on my next visit.

Then when picking my grandson up from sports training he had a small graze on his knee. No problem, there's a first aid kit in the car boot, never been opened. The antiseptic wipes were bone dry and the sticky plasters had no stick. I remembered the first aid kit had been bought when his mother got her first car, in 2003.

Must do better. These incidents just a week apart have been a kick up the behind, I used to think I was well prepped but waste not, want not had got out of hand.

I do rotate and refill my stored water, which is less of a worry now the family have moved out, I no longer store enough food to need to maintain a spreadsheet of the freezer contents, larder and storecupboard, and just have a small fridge freezer now, no need for a chest freezer stuffed full. There's a little cash, supplies to get me through a few days without electricity, I continue to forage wood all year for the open fire and if I have to, I'll saw up and burn the side tables! It'll be ok, and better, I hope, if I can get the hip sorted so I can ride my bike again!

Broomstick

I've been reading back through the thread and a couple of posts about helping older relatives have reminded me of some other prepping essentials. There's no point in storing food if you can't access it!

All of the tinned food I have in my pantry now has ring pulls on the top. I don't know if this is a general trend or if that I just happen to be buying tins like this. I haven't actually needed a tin opener in years and hadn't bothered to replace my last one that broke. Then I had a situation where I was in the middle of cooking supper and the ring pull on a tin snapped, fortunately I had another but I now have two different tin openers, just in case!

I know my late parents had difficulty sometimes in opening tins and jars. It may be worth checking to make sure that anyone you are helping out who doesn't have the physical strength can also open the food packaging they have stored. Anyone relying on an electric can opener (plug in or battery) might be stuck if the power fails. My parents also had something called a jar key which is a simple, brilliant gadget to break the vacuum seal on a jar that won't open so that you can unscrew it easily. It's now in my kitchen drawer and I get good use out of it.

I've heard that wrapping a rubber band round a bottle lid, or wearing a rubber glove to open a cap that won't budge on a bottle works really well so I'm waiting for an opportunity to try that out. I've had instances where I've filled a thermos with hot water and have found it really difficult to open the tight cap later in the day so maybe I should deliberately try to replicate that for a rubber glove experiment.