Been doing a bit but now more serious.

[RobNfk]

Hi,
As it says for a while ive been putting stuff into a large metal cupboard in an outhouse.
Tell me if ime doing anything wrong.
Ive 2 gas stoves and 12 canisters
Wind up radio
Matches candles and rechargeable lights
50 litres of bottled water
Tinned food
60 25 year life survival meals
Dried milk
Pasta
Cooking oil.

In another place i have a generator and 2000w power pack.

My main concern is no electricity. It feeds everything that we touch. Petrol stations, supermarkets and above all water supplies, especially here in east Anglia where its flat. Water and sewage all pumped.

Ive started rotating the tinned foods into the house for daily use. Chat gpt says ignore the bb dates and as long as the tin is as new its ok. Is that true?

[pseudonym]

Hello and welcome to the Forum.

Looks like a good start, I'd add things you use daily to that list i.e coffee/tea/ sugar,milk, toilet roll, soap, medications etc. You get the idea.

BBE is best before. The quality starts to reduce after this date

Use by is exactly that. One day past is probably ok but use your sense of smell and taste to check. Also have extra bog roll on hand just in case

[jennyjj01]

Good start. Try to rotate pretty much everything. Stash lots of tea, coffee and dried milk and Treats. Bbe on tins can usually be exceeded. By 5 years. But you will get separation of ingredients and some corrosion in the tins. I've had tomato soup tins virtually dissolve.

[Peter]

BBE dates are more advisory to encourage you to use the product and replace it.

Salt can be millions of years old with a bbe date maybe three years.

I take bbe dates with a pinch of you know what.................Yes salt.

Use common sense.......Just reject rusty or blown tins.

[Frnc]

I've had tomato soup tins virtually dissolve.

And she lived to tell the tale!

[Frnc]

Hi,
As it says for a while ive been putting stuff into a large metal cupboard in an outhouse.
Tell me if ime doing anything wrong.
Ive 2 gas stoves and 12 canisters
Wind up radio
Matches candles and rechargeable lights
50 litres of bottled water
Tinned food
60 25 year life survival meals
Dried milk
Pasta
Cooking oil.

In another place i have a generator and 2000w power pack.

My main concern is no electricity. It feeds everything that we touch. Petrol stations, supermarkets and above all water supplies, especially here in east Anglia where its flat. Water and sewage all pumped.

Ive started rotating the tinned foods into the house for daily use. Chat gpt says ignore the bb dates and as long as the tin is as new its ok. Is that true?

I would just try to eat stored food before the date. You normally get 2 year approx. It's one reason I don't keep vast amounts. I don't like to waste.

Regarding other stuff, I dunno. I presume you thought of obvious stuff like first aid, torches and so on. Think about every thing you do in a day, and every high impact think that could happen. So if the first thing you do is clean your teeth, make sure you have an extra tube of toothpaste. And so on. First aid kit covers a lot of high impact scenarios. If the bottled water has a date on it, make sure to rotate that as well.

[RobNfk]

Thanks everyone for looking at the post and comments.

I need to rotate the stock more often.

What about flour? Is there a storage solution for food in paper bags.

TIA

[pseudonym]

Snip> What about flour? Is there a storage solution for food in paper bags.

Decant into Glass jars.

I prefer Kilner either the clip top or scewtop for preserving.

[GillyBee]

And don't forget the less physical preps.
Emergency funds.
Physical fitness (within confines of your age/health)
Up to date with all health related items - eye tests, dental, vaccinations and anything else that might not be easy to access if things go upside down.
Documents: Organised, backed up and plans for if you need to meet up with family/friends and comms are down? Mundane stuff like Power of Attorney and wills sorted out?
Skills. Do you have 1st Aid training? Can you cook from scratch? Do you know how to mend & maintain the things you use daily? Could you learn?

Some of this covers personal SHTF, some is good for wider issues. I did hear of someone who evacuated Hurricane Katrina and was offered a better job in a new city. He could not accept as his proof of education certificates were still sitting in a wet house in New Orleans.

[Adjee]

What about flour? Is there a storage solution for food in paper bags.

We freeze our flour for 4/5 days to kill anything lurking in it then vacuum pack/seal the packet before storing in sealed food buckets in our cellars. Stored this way it will "allegedly" last for 10-15 years.
We have opened and used both our own and supermarket flour we have stored this way without any issues.
The last we used had been stored for over 5 years.