How long can you sustain your family on your stored food? And tips how to rotate

[Omega]

I have gone down the route of Military MREs pouches off ebay all bought singular at first to taste test and check the ingredients.

That and the tinned fish and pork/chicken I can say 5 months at 2 meals a day, longer if I reduce that down to 1 and a 1/2 meals.

This seems to me the most convenient way for rotation - I will eat MRE and canned food for my lunch or when I am hungry, but lazy/tired to cook. However, adding rice, pasta and beans won't be that expensive, but will significantly diversify meals. Adding more canned vegetables will balance food even further

[Omega]

I've calculated that Nido at £9.90 for 900g is just over twice the price of fresh milk.

Agree – I saw the price and concluded that it is best buying normal milk. I used some pasteurised milk to make cheese, but won't do it again, just keep about 6 boxes and rotate whenever I use half (usually when I find I don't have milk for coffee in the morning)

[Omega]

...not everything will suddenly disappear...

Agree - I remember the 80s in the USSR: yes, some food and good items suddenly disappeared from the shelves (soap, flour, sugar, matches, cigarettes, alcohol is what I remember well because they were readily available before and then suddenly disappeared), but then the government introduced cards and we managed for several years

[Omega]

...I checked online just now, 34% of adults have < 1K, and 65% don't think they could last 3 months. Personally I hit collapse when I was unable to work, but was refused ESA. Meanwhile the public think benefits fraud is 34 times more than it is.

Agree with this too - financial difficulties are likely to happen then problems with food

[Omega]

I now start thinking if I should reduce my food storage to 1.5-2 months. These are the reasons:
1. I suspect financial difficulties are more likely than food in my case
2. I can go to work abroad. Last time, I travelled abroad thinking I was going for 1 week, but came back after 9 months
3. TSHF can happen while I am too far from home and no chance getting back home
4. I suspect if something goes quite badly, then the government will ask people to evacuate. And then I won't be allowed to take much food with me
5. Just read about the most horrible siege in recent history - Leningrad: the siege started at the end of August 1941, the worst time started mid-November and lasted until end of February 1942. This was the worst, I don't see it is happening here
6. Supermarkets introduced rationing during Covid, I guess the society will self regulate to some extend, riots won't last for too long

[grenfell]

...not everything will suddenly disappear...

Agree - I remember the 80s in the USSR: yes, some food and good items suddenly disappeared from the shelves (soap, flour, sugar, matches, cigarettes, alcohol is what I remember well because they were readily available before and then suddenly disappeared), but then the government introduced cards and we managed for several years

I remember watching a programme about Cuba. Some things there were in short supply or just simply unavailable. I suppose the US trade sanctions played a huge part in that but the experince should serve as an indicator as to what could happen here if world trade were to nosedive. The programme mentioned a ration scheme there too so that everyone was entitled to a basic diet , rice , flour , oil , sugar that type of thing which rather ties in with my idea of disproportionate storage of items I mentioned in another thread. If a situation is so bad that government can't even attempt to feed it's citizens then we have a bigger problem than six months worth of tins is going to solve...

[grenfell]

I now start thinking if I should reduce my food storage to 1.5-2 months. These are the reasons:
1. I suspect financial difficulties are more likely than food in my case

Agreed. I'm afraid a lot of preppers get focused too much on gear and stocks ( not just on here , I've visited several other sites) . Storing some food is still a good idea to cover against severe weather , strikes , blackouts or just simply as a hedge against inflation but financial preps will get you out of pretty much any situation and really are THE prep...

[GillyBee]

There is a limit to how much room I can allocate to storage. And also the possibility that action will be taken against "hoarding" in the event of a real situation. In WW2 there was anti-hoarding propagada, public sentiment was strongly against anyone thought to be hoarding and in some countries this was enforced legally too.

[PreppingSu]

Thinking about the last post and the attitude to 'hoarding' food etc, how would anyone know? If your stocks are already good then each shop is updating your stocks which should look like a normal family shop. My shop is always big as I'm feeding 4 adults and shop every 2 weeks. Extra bits are just absorbed into the shop.

Might be worth starting to consider hidden storage around the home but that's another thread.

[jennyjj01]

Thinking about the last post and the attitude to 'hoarding' food etc, how would anyone know? If your stocks are already good then each shop is updating your stocks which should look like a normal family shop. My shop is always big as I'm feeding 4 adults and shop every 2 weeks. Extra bits are just absorbed into the shop.

Might be worth starting to consider hidden storage around the home but that's another thread.

Loose lips sink ships. I think preppers become conspicuous to preppers, but in certain circumstances, revealing preparedness could be disastrous.
As others have noted, come crisis time, we may NEED a deep sense of community if we are to survive. Hunkering down alone is well and good, but we won't live on our stores forever and would need to emerge into a new dystopian community. Being 'that **tch that never shared her hoard' could be a bad way to emerge. But depending on what transpires, sharing and revealing resources too early, to 'the wrong sort' could result in enforced sharing or confiscation. It's a matter of our own moral compass how mean we want to be. ( I fit in the 'mean **tch' category ). The 'wrong sort' certainly includes those who are self entitled and would sneer in my face if they knew I had a tray of baked beans and some oats stashed. Are YOU prepared to watch your neighbours starve to death?

Hidden storage around the home..... Been there, done that. Revealing the extent to MrJJ is another matter.

As to shopping events, I go with using my extended pantry as my grocery store and my supermarket visits as top up wholesaler runs.