Keeping your preps stocked due to cost of living

[Medusa]

I had a sort out of my store room today. I had several bags of food for my stores which I needed to sort onto the shelves but have noticed that my shelves are looking less full than previously. This is mostly due to the cost of living, the general increase in the price of food and household items. Previously I would have used the old BOGOF but this is no longer a thing. I am quite a savvy shopper and compare prices, buy things when on offer, can meal plan and bulk cook, but it is getting more difficult. The "spare" money I once had for preps is now much less. There are certain items which make their way onto my shopping list every month and others which I purchase when I can. I make the most of our small harvest, fruit has been made into crumbles and pies, vegetables have been frozen, the dehydrator broke so has not been replaced yet and I realised that freezing stuff is not a solution should the power or the freezer fail. I feel lucky that we are able to pay our bills and eat well but how are you prioritising what to buy prep wise?

[jennyjj01]

I feel lucky that we are able to pay our bills and eat well but how are you prioritising what to buy prep wise?

Grocery shopping has been pared down over the last few years and I perceive my weekly shopping list as two lists: For immediate consumption ( E,g. Bread, Milk, Fruit etc ) And for rotation through the reserves (E.g. Tinned food, Pasta). The latter items can be bought or not bought in any week depending on funds available and other expenses. If I'm buying meat or other expensive items, the 'second list' items are not bought. When not buying meat, I spend extra on Tinned food.
Any time I see tinned foods on offer, they are bought by the case. Such offers are infrequent, but I did snap up some tinned strawberries reduced by 30% and I'm still over-buying LIDL instant coffee for £2.69 for 200g.
I'm currently over-buying petrol reserves, which are unlikely to ever get cheap.
Spending on equipment ( Solar etc) has pretty much ceased, apart from jerry cans .

[Frnc]

Everything is dearer. I've had to put Quorn chicken style pieces on my shopping list for today, which are a bit boring, but they are on offer, and are cheaper than other quorn things anyway. Less that half the price per kg than quorn escalopes, which I prefer.

I chucked out some pasta yesterday, as I'd left the bag open for months. Found a plastic container for the next bag. Gonna make some pasta sauce tomorrow, about 5 servings. Will freeze 3 and put one in the fridge.

Having Dr O pizza tonight, as it's half price on Nectar.

I moved bulky stuff like cereal to the cupboard vacated by the lodger, so now I can increase my prep food stocks, but as you say, money is tight. Too tight to mention, as the song goes.

[GillyBee]

I can still afford the weekly shop - for now but am having to look retirement/caring in the face which will come with a hefty drop in income that is going to make things very tricky.

At the moment the main impact is to make me more thoughtful about my bulk buying habits. Having bulk bought since Covid I now know which items lurk indefinitely, which ones are in regular use and which ones lurk but would be very useful in an emergency (dried milk I'm looking at you).

I try to avoid waste both in every day cooking and in stores. Leftovers are used or frozen to go into another meal. I don't tend to throw things out just because they are old unless we will genuinely never use them. I do refer to sites like https://www.stilltasty.com/ to help me understand what does need to go.

I am starting to expand my foraging skills to go alongside my small garden.This year we have lots of jam from foraged cherry plums which will be used this winter on oats/yoghurt, as part of fruit cakes etc.

[Arzosah]

I'm ok with everyday shopping for now, though I don't splurge particularly. Although I've long had energy issues after chronic fatigue, I've been ill over the summer, and dowgraded from frozen veg to tins ... I was literally on my last tin of baked beans Now, 10 weeks after falling ill, I'm stocking up again, my cupboard of tinned goods is almost full again - I've noticed there's not so many ring pulls as there were, which helps them last. And I've gone back to what I always used to do, soaking my own beans and cooking them in the slow cooker, which is much cheaper.

I buy in bulk - 3-5 kg of sugar for example, even from Sainsbo. I buy wholefoods from online suppliers, though sometimes the website of the one I use most is tricky.

As far as other preps are concerned - for batteries, I needed to replace some, and I downgraded from eneloops to amazon (rechargeables). I've done a bit more foraging this year, though not as much as I wanted. I've harvested more from my garden, though not as much as I wanted (250g blueberries! that was a win). I've let the fox cubs and their parents take over the garden, and since I think the world situation is going to get a lot worse, I need to reclaim that.

I was going to hire a green waste bin to get rid of it all, even though I really disapprove of being charged extra - there's loads of things the council charges for that I don't use, but I pay. But this one thing, they charge extra for, £90 a year. Grrr. Anyway. Turns out they're changing the way they handle rubbish and recycling, and I can't even sign up.

I need good shoes for winter, and I'm holding off getting them, but I know they're an investment.

I'm 9 years into retirement, and I have good genes - but I can only keep going for so long. I'm pretty concerned about the future, it has to be said.

[Frnc]

I'm ok with everyday shopping for now, though I don't splurge particularly. Although I've long had energy issues after chronic fatigue, I've been ill over the summer, and dowgraded from frozen veg to tins ... I was literally on my last tin of baked beans Now, 10 weeks after falling ill, I'm stocking up again, my cupboard of tinned goods is almost full again - I've noticed there's not so many ring pulls as there were, which helps them last. And I've gone back to what I always used to do, soaking my own beans and cooking them in the slow cooker, which is much cheaper.

I buy in bulk - 3-5 kg of sugar for example, even from Sainsbo. I buy wholefoods from online suppliers, though sometimes the website of the one I use most is tricky.

As far as other preps are concerned - for batteries, I needed to replace some, and I downgraded from eneloops to amazon (rechargeables). I've done a bit more foraging this year, though not as much as I wanted. I've harvested more from my garden, though not as much as I wanted (250g blueberries! that was a win). I've let the fox cubs and their parents take over the garden, and since I think the world situation is going to get a lot worse, I need to reclaim that.

I was going to hire a green waste bin to get rid of it all, even though I really disapprove of being charged extra - there's loads of things the council charges for that I don't use, but I pay. But this one thing, they charge extra for, £90 a year. Grrr. Anyway. Turns out they're changing the way they handle rubbish and recycling, and I can't even sign up.

I need good shoes for winter, and I'm holding off getting them, but I know they're an investment.

I'm 9 years into retirement, and I have good genes - but I can only keep going for so long. I'm pretty concerned about the future, it has to be said.

£90 is steep, I think ours was £50, and I went halves with next door. They still empty mine for food waste, but I have to put garden stuff in his. I mainly put mine out to remind him.

World situation and situation here are going downhill. Everything is going up in price. Council tax is my biggest expense. I seem to be feeling the cold more, so I might use more gas and electricity than I was hoping. I'm going to use an electric radiator in my room, and it's already out! But not in use yet. Am using electic hand warmers, which don't use much electricity to charge up, and stay hot for hours.

Have small things I want to buy, but am trying to ration them out, so they sit in baskets. My income is very low until I get my pension. All my decorating, new windows, re-roof etc all came out of my lump sums, and I don't have much left. Got to try and build it back up a bit. I bought two small things recently to replace things I'd lost, then immediately found them! Annoying. I think my plan to decorate the living room and get a new sofa is going to have to be scrapped.

[pseudonym]

I'm eating down tins that I don't regularly eat nowadays and not replacing them. I find comfort in the fact that I have saved money on what they cost now to what I paid years ago.


Tastes and habits change over time and I'm constantly honing my dietary needs. I try not worry too much.

[Frnc]

Am rotating some prep food tonight. Making pasta, and a batch of pasta sauce I make myself. Makes about 6 portions. I found I'd left a bag of pasta open for weeks, maybe months, so I chucked it. Found a plastic container I can put the new one in when I open it tonight, so it doesn't happen again.

Pasta, tinned tomatoes, tomato puree and tinned tuna are some of the things I keep the most of. Also tinned butter beans, to make my own baked beans. Note that none of this requires much cooking if SHTF. You can soak pasta in boiled water.

I only have 5 of 6 small containers, so I had the last of my last batch of beans today, so I have enough containers for the pasta sauce.

[timmyt79]

I focus on the basics first: rice, beans, oats, flour, oil. Everything else is “nice to have” but not essential when budgets are tight.

[diamond lil]

Hope you're feeling and doing better Arzosah, it's bad enough now without illness pulling us down.
I'm with you on the preps timmyt - simplifying, cutting back to basics, cutting out all the frills and eating old style. For years in the hard times we lived on porridge for breakfast, soup and puddings for dinner, and eggs/bread/butter & jam for tea. It works fine