Overwhelmed.

[jennyjj01]

It's easy to panic. Don't panic until the government tells you not to panic

To kick start your preps, buy something like a 5kilo bag of rice or a couple of 3 kilo bags of pasta: Cost less than a tenner. That's your calorie source for many weeks in one simple go.
Next week augment with maybe half a dozen tins of everyday value tinned tomatoes and/or beans: That turned your pasta or rice into MEALS you could survive on.
Then, just pad it out with stuff to give nice variety: Maybe a kilo of porridge oats and a tub of powdered milk. Keep cost low buy buying acceptable quality 'value range food' Don't give two hoots what your fellow shoppers or checkout operators think of you.

Bingo. You're ahead of the neighbours.

Going forward, treat your stash as your grocery store and your grocery store as your wholesaler. That way, all food you buy gets rotated and you actually find yourself buying what you normally eat.

[ForgeCorvus]

I'll weigh in with a few more things.

Water, you can't store a huge quantity in most homes. So decide which jobs you can do with "found" water (or tap water if you're under a Boil notice)..... Basically if it goes in your mouth, nose or eyes or Anywhere on an infant or immune-compromised person it needs to be treated water (either from stores or treated by you). You can wash up in bleached water (swimming pool, hot tub etc) but you shouldn't drink it if its that strong...... Don't store drinking water in plastic milk bottles, you can never get all the milk proteins out.

If anyone in your prep group need prescription meds, try to work up a rolling stockpile.... If these need refrigeration then there are several threads and quite a few folks on here to advise.

Finances are a whole separate topic. But try to have some cash to hand and a back-up stash in a bank..... Both of these can be built as slowly as necessary (I work a just over minimum wage job with a short week..... Sometimes I've only had a fiver to spare and four different prep adjacent jobs for it. You always feel guilty that you're not progressing fast enough, the important part is that you're trying to move forward)

Reading costs nothing but time, plenty to read here

[JimmyJoeseph]

Again thank you everyone for your replies.

My wife does have an inhaler that needs refrigeration. I will search the threads for that.

Need to consider milk for the toddler. UHT should do. Doubt she would drink powdered.

[ForgeCorvus]

Again thank you everyone for your replies.

My wife does have an inhaler that needs refrigeration. I will search the threads for that.

See if you can can an extra one, sometimes thats possible if you're going on holiday or something like.

Need to consider milk for the toddler. UHT should do. Doubt she would drink powdered.

UHT is really good stuff, I rotate mine by taking the oldest to work (when it gets close to date) and replacing it....... Dairy have Use By dates. BBE is fairly meaningless, but Use By means just that...... Sorry if you already know

[JimmyJoeseph]

UHT is really good stuff, I rotate mine by taking the oldest to work (when it gets close to date) and replacing it....... Dairy have Use By dates. BBE is fairly meaningless, but Use By means just that...... Sorry if you already know

I was aware of the difference between meanings but never put them to the test. I wondered if anyone has pushed the boundaries on them to see if it's actually ok, far beyond dates.

I sometimes wonder if corporations put these dates on just to keep you consuming faster to buy more. Tin foil hat moment, I know haha

[Ara]

Speaking of BBE dates, I once (well, more than once as I made more than one meal out of them) used dried chickpeas that were 10 years out of date. I'm still here.
At the moment, breakfast is porridge, a year out of date. I really must remember that there aren't any children living at home demanding flapjacks.

[itsybitsy]

Speaking of BBE dates, I once (well, more than once as I made more than one meal out of them) used dried chickpeas that were 10 years out of date. I'm still here.
At the moment, breakfast is porridge, a year out of date. I really must remember that there aren't any children living at home demanding flapjacks.

I think anything dried is absolutely fine TBH.

[ForgeCorvus]

UHT is really good stuff, I rotate mine by taking the oldest to work (when it gets close to date) and replacing it....... Dairy have Use By dates. BBE is fairly meaningless, but Use By means just that...... Sorry if you already know

I was aware of the difference between meanings but never put them to the test. I wondered if anyone has pushed the boundaries on them to see if it's actually ok, far beyond dates.

I sometimes wonder if corporations put these dates on just to keep you consuming faster to buy more. Tin foil hat moment, I know haha

Brother used to work for, lets just say a multinational food company, this was down on the line not anything salaried.
One week they're running retort pouch pasta meals with a BBE 13 months out, the next week the BBE is nearly two years off.
Same product, same recipe, same processing.... The only difference is the length of shelf-life and the destination.
The second weeks product were packed for the Australian market and they get shipped surface.

If you want to know more about post BBE food, look up Jennyjj01's "Experiments"