what does the forum think.

[old age prepper 70]

I would like to ask the members of the forum what they think of a four months stock pile of food and water.
How much is too much and how much is enough.
None of us knows when the shtf or how long it will last.

[Yorkshire Andy]

It's good think I could just about stretch a month....


But you must rotate and use the stuff it's no good sat there slowly going off even dried stuff and tins unless packed / stored in perfect conditions will only last so long....

Store what you eat / eat what you store and rotate

[grenfell]

How much is enough? I don't think there's a figurative answer as such , I'd say " as much as you feel happy with" is probably a answer of sorts. Some might want a months worth , some a years . To be honest I don't actually know how long our stocks would last , maybe three months worth or so but it's enough to make us feel comfortable with something to fall back upon.

[Deeps]

4 months is a hefty stash, fair do's. Have you got a (relatively) balanced diet ? Have you got the cooking oil/condiments to accompany it ?? Not a criticism, just asking, its hard to properly 'stress test' our preps so we sort of have to try and do mental exercises on it. Four months of water is a very long term (and bulky) prep, water purification is also an option. I have a couple hundred litres of water, I also stockpile other liquids (soft drinks/bevvy) because I try and store what we use.

[Arzosah]

Four months food is pretty good - four months of water is astonishing! I know you said you were prepping for total societal breakdown - in those terms, four months isn't going to cut it, but short of that, to me it's plenty, it's about the amount I have. Though most of mine is dried, so I'd have water issues, and like grenfell I've never actually gone through it and sorted how long things would last.

For water, I don't think it's all about storage: it's about learning to work with what you've got, I think you have to build in some flexibility: accidental contamination still happens to the best of us, for instance. Good storage; then access to local water supplies, and treating that to make it good: filtering, decontaminating, storing well. Learning to lessen water useage, and still stay healthy, that sort of thing. Can you harvest your rainwater?

[jennyjj01]

I would like to ask the members of the forum what they think of a four months stock pile of food and water.
How much is too much and how much is enough.
None of us knows when the shtf or how long it will last.

We don't know what the future holds, but we can each visualise a number of possibilities. Let's do that...

1)
Brexit goes bad. Prices of staple items go up by 50% on month 1 and 50% again. Prices don't go down. Sustained inflation, unemployment and unrest. You are not wealthy
Having 4 months food buys you some time to adapt your lifestyle. You don't go unscathed but you eat better than your neighbours.

2)
'Normal' Floods or disaster cut off your region, . Transport and distribution disrupted. Getting to work impossible Takeaways close down, some supermarkets have shortages...
If you have a few hundred pounds in your safe and 2 weeks food in your pantry, you'll barely notice.

3)
Maybe a major oil depot or a port blows up..Significant power station and internet outage causing disruption for a couple of months..... Big supermarkets and cash machines go down intermittently for weeks on end...Water, Gas, Electricity, petrol disrupted for at least a month. Prices rocket. Some societal breakdown.
If you have a months or two food and supplies stashed and an alternative heat source and a couple of barbecue gas bottles, you'll be in a solid position.

4)
UK suffers single nuclear attack or asteroid hit or similar.
Assuming you are not at ground zero,
If you have six months stash of water and food, you'll probably be well placed to bug in, but when the riots start, you'll have some thinking to do. At least you'll have thinking time.

5)
But what if there's a sustained war? Think Yugoslavia or Ukraine or WW3...This can last 5 or more years or forever.
You won't have 5 years stash. You'll need enough to last until you can learn to grow food or join a commune. A years food will be a fantastic stash.

6)
Your home and neighbourhood is destroyed and you have to bug out or flee. There are some here who bury their stash in multiple locations and have hidey holes arranged in the wilderness. That's a certain way of planning.

But, balance the probabilities. What if you have a years worth of stash and get hit by a bus, or cancer, or messy divorce?

Ultimately, you need to weigh up what risks keep you awake at night. Then stash what you expect to need to keep you comfortable enough to see it through.

Even a really modest 2 weeks stash of food, water, loo roll, barbecue fuel and tea lights would give you a serious advantage and time to assess and regroup most likely scenarios. There are MANY homes with no food in and disaster is a one day closure of Greggs or a single bounced pay cheque.

I suggest that depending on financial position, somewhere between 3 weeks stash and a years worth is pretty optimal. More than a years worth, and you'll probably survive into an apocalypse long enough to wish you were dead anyway.

4 months is pretty good if the quality and diversity is there. I felt great when my own stash crashed through 3 months worth.

I'm up to about 8 months worth of reasonable food, drink and warmth for me and spouse. We'd need to adapt diet and lifestyle but I almost relish the prospect. I personally expect to increase my stockpile in quantity and quality to about a years to 18 months worth. By then I hope to have rotation and new-age diet as a way of life.

JFDI, however you see fit.

[grenfell]

Just a thought so that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet but how do people class a day's stock? Do we or should be working on the calorie count and iff so what sort of figure should we be aiming at. 1500 would probably be sufficient for a sedentary existence but if we are having to dig the garden , chop and saw wood and go out hunting and foraging that figure could easily be doubled . And if we are hunting and foraging how do we factor that food into the stocks or for that matter any produce from the garden. What could be a months worth of food in the depths of winter will last a lot longer when it's augmented with fresh produce at other times of the year.
Or do people say simply count cans . There's three of us in the house. If we have a tin ( or half) of corned beef with perhaps a tin of tomatoes and a couple of sweet corn there's a meal which makes for pretty easy maths
As I say just trying to clear up exactly how much or how it's quantified to give a day or a months supply and whether that months supply is for one person or six people.
By the way I'm impressed with four months worth of water . I have limited quantities of potable water to hand although there's well over1000 L in butts although that would involve filtration .

[korolev]

I have several million calories stored in my waistband

[grenfell]

Ah canabilism , for when I've eaten all the tins of beans...

[jennyjj01]

Just a thought so that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet but how do people class a day's stock? Do we or should be working on the calorie count and iff so what sort of figure should we be aiming at.

I estimate based on 2,000 cal per adult per day. Anything extra that is grown/hunted/foraged is a bonus that would probably have a calorie cost anyway.
I also try to have enough variety and stocks/spices etc, but that's not exact.
For tea/coffee, I just figure enough for 5 cups per day.