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Prepping – The Basics

I’ll begin every one of these with the note – I am not an expert. I’m fumbling through this coronavirus pandemic just like everyone else. We cannot change what we did prior to this but we can change how prepared we are for the next crisis, whether it be a pandemic, a war, an EMP, a snowstorm, an ice storm, or even a short term food shortage. Without a doubt, some who never saw the value of prepping are now wishing they had done just a little of it. If you’re one of those folks, hopefully we can learn together and be ready for whatever happens next. One thing I’m fairly certain about – there will be another time in the future when we have to rely on our preparations but hopefully, not in the near future.

Now that we all know what CAN happen with our food supply, I think we all are more open to some kind of food storage.

Today I’m going to go over the reasons I’ve heard people give as to why they do not prep. Let me say right now . . if you don’t want to prep . . don’t. There’s no crime in not prepping. But, please, don’t make excuses as to why you don’t prep. If you feel like you need to have a few things set aside, you will find a way to do it. If you think we’re all crazy . . so be it.

Mice love toilet paper and paper towels so I wouldn’t recommend storing those in a garage or place where mice can get to them.

No Space:

I get it. We have way too much stuff in a small with no garage but thankfully, a sewing room and I have two decent sized closets in there.

Now that we’ve all gone through the toilet paper shortage of 2020, which, at the time of this writing may or may not be over . . I’m betting you’re all seeing places where you could store things, even if you had previously thought you had NO space!

I have a wall on the north side of an extra bedroom and I keep it lined with toilet paper. I buy the same brand and it stacks nicely and I figure that’s insulation. You can put your bed on risers and store things under it; you can look at closets and decide if there are things you might could get get rid of to make room. I’ve heard of people stacking things neatly behind their sofa, then putting a cloth on it and pretending it’s a sofa table.

The end of the line for me is this: When I look around at what’s in my house, in a pinch where there’s no food and no toilet paper, what would I rather have – a Martha Stewart looking house or maybe some makeshift storage.

Just look around your own home and figure out what works for you and what you can live with.

No Extra Money:

I understand that too. I realize there are some who really barely put food on the table as it is so having extra money to build a food stash just isn’t there. I wish I had a magic potion for you but I don’t. But, there are things I can suggest that might help a bit. Most of us couldn’t go out today and buy the extra food for a month but just a little here and there can help a lot.

Aldi had some “108 regular rolls” packages of toilet paper for about $19.99. That’s a lot of toilet paper when you don’t have any and if you came up with just $1 extra, it would take 20 weeks (5 month) to add one of those packages of toilet paper to your provisions.

Shop the sales! You may not find toilet paper on sale but you may find ground beef on sale and the money you save on that can be applied to your toilet paper bill.

When you find good buys, purchase a few extra and set those aside. You may be surprised how quickly it adds up.

Also, think about things you may be paying for that you don’t need. We’ve cancelled our Amazon Prime account. It’s about $100 per year. That alone would buy a lot of toilet paper but if you order a lot from Amazon, it may cost you more than the cost of the membership so everyone has to examine their own situation.

My Husband Thinks it’s Crazy:

I’ve always felt like any time you’re going to do something major, you should both be on board. If one spouse thinks prepping is great and necessary and the other wants no part of it, I recommend somehow coming to terms. Maybe make a deal that you’ll only buy enough to give you an extra week’s worth of food. Marriages have enough stress without creating more stress.

I do believe there are ways to have conversations to get them to see how you’re feeling. Don’t badger. Don’t get angry. Vince will usually come around if I convince him it’s really in our best interest. Honestly, if anyone’s husband needs convincing after this virus, I think I’d not hold out much hope that he’ll ever come around.

Your Assignment:

  • Think about (and share in the comments if you don’t mind) what you have missed not having during the past couple of weeks. It may be something you just cannot find (yeast comes to mind). It may be something that’s readily available but you aren’t going out shopping.
  • Think about (and share if you wish) things you wish you were more adept at doing. Bread making, meal planning, using leftovers, finding a way to keep yourself entertained.
  • Think about this: If you had known this was coming but had only one week to beef up your supplies, and everything was available, what would you buy that you don’t have now.

We can all learn from each other so please feel free to share anything that might help others.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Peanut butter. I like the one that only has peanuts and salt and is crunchy. Haven’t been able to find any. I usually have a couple of jars but had been gone for 11 days to a retreat when this started. We have plenty of other food we an eat.

  2. I let my Long Life milk storage get low before this happened, will not do that again! We do not use anything else, but a neighbour managed to get me some ordinary milk and I have frozen some of it to keep us going.
    I probably have a month of most things but flour and bread flour and yeast have been difficult to get here in England UK.

    • I tried freezing milk but wasn’t happy with it so we’re just going to take our chances and hope we can get fresh with curbside pickup and if not, we’ll be using powdered milk.

  3. Salad vegetables, strawberries, going to get a missing ingredient! We grow salad greens in containers but summer weatherin South Carolina is quickly coming and most do not do well. We are pretty much prepped but being gone to N Zealand last year for 9 months meant many things were still being replenished. We are prepared but no thermometer as of yet! We have plenty to do and read.

    • Same here with the salad greens. I’m going to try planting just a few seeds and harvesting them quickly and see how that goes – maybe being able to eat them before they get bitter.

      We did think to replenish our thermometers before they got in short supply. I had wanted one that wasn’t battery operated so we found one that isn’t mercury but doesn’t use a battery. Wouldn’t you know it arrived broken! Hope you find some soon.

  4. In the early 70s my aunt found herself single with 3 children 5 and under (and an ex who didn’t think child support or alimony were really his problem). She used food stamps for awhile and she told me that her biggest fear was not having any food in the house for her children. Her first emergency stash consisted of a box of oatmeal, jar of PB and box of saltines, and a 2-pound bag of dried beans. She gradually built on that till it included enough nonperishables to feed them for a few weeks. Another trick she used was to tear a $5 stamp coupon (this was back in the day when the stamps came in a paper booklet) and hide it in her wallet. She used that to stock up on sale items when she found a good price. Fortunately I was never in her position but I remembered what she told me and for many years I always put back $5 or $10 each week for just in case. I also always kept (and still do keep) a well-stocked house.

    • Good for you. For those who do not, I know many have felt panic and concern over getting the food to feed their family these past few weeks – even those who were not concerned about the money. I wish everyone would learn the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re going to be ok – you’re not running from store to store to look for toilet paper or flour.

  5. I like all your ideas. I work with a lot of low income families, so I ask them to write down what they eat in a week. Then I have them make a list of what foods they need and which can be stored. I encourage them to buy an extra something that would help with an extra meal such as a can of soup or can of veggie or fruit. If they keep doing this, they end up with entire meals on the shelf. Not the fresh stuff but this way they can have some extra for a situation like this or maybe it’s an extra meal for their family. Where I live we have case lot sales and such. This really helps the budget, if you can afford.

    • I’m so glad you’re helping them. When money is very tight, it can be hard to see any potential to get ahead.

  6. Thankgoodness I saw this coming and bought extra thigs and stored them Like couple bags of flour and have made cake and cookies. I bought a jar of peanut butter and 4 packages of ground meat and 2 packages of chicken and 2 packages of porkchops and a couple of boxes of instant potatoes. you get the idea. I saw that China had it bad and a few cases in US and As A Nurse I know what a virus can do. So I preped a bit at the last minute. Did not over buy but have enough for a month or more. I like you have toilet paper but store mine in the extra unused bathtub. So did not even buy more when others were.
    I miss the apple turnovers from the grocery store I buy every week otherwise I am fine. I did go last week to the grocery store but now there are two cases in my city and I am not going again except for medication from the pharmacy drive through.

  7. I also am having issues with my phone, It only has worked during the night but not in the daytime. I suppect the local tower is overwhelmed.

  8. I was pretty set since I’ve been working on increasing the stash over the last few years (thanks to Judy) and was aware of the potential before everyone went crazy. What I realize now is that I don’t have a good system to know how much I use (how long does a roll of TP or a tube of toothpaste last?) as well as where I might have stashed that extra box of whatever. So, while I have stuff, I really don’t know how for how long.

    When I go to the store, I usually ask for paper, but will accept the plastic. I was saving the bags, but at one point in time, tossed a bunch. I wish I hadn’t since the small bags do come in handy. I’ll find a storage place for them in the future. My newspaper comes sleeved in plastic. I am saving those in a bucket by the front door for later use, such as emergency hand gloves.

    For now, I am using what I have, but making a list of things to get for that next run to the grocery.

    • One of the first things I learned when I first started trying to be prepared was to use a Sharpie and write on the bottom of a tube of toothpaste or a bottle of shampoo the date when I started using it. Otherwise, I’d have no idea how long it lasted. The Sharpie marker quickly wore off so I wrote the date on the box the toothpaste came in, then stacked the empty box on top of my other containers of toothpaste so when I went to grab another one, I’d see the empty box, notice the date and know how long a tube would last — assuming all the tubes I buy are the same size!

      I understand about the environment but I detest paper grocery sacks. We park at the shop and walk to the house and it’s so much easier to carry 10 plastic sacks than 2 paper sacks and we re-use the plastic so much. Mostly, yarn gets stored to keep like skeins together in a tub. But, we had way too many and I almost tossed them. Glad I didn’t because we’re using those for getting the mail, opening boxes, pumping gas – saving what few gloves we have for when they’re really needed.

    • I don’t try to time it close enough to really care how long things last. I wanted to know, more out of curiosity because I had no idea how long a tube of toothpaste lasted. Same with toilet paper – a roll can last weeks but . . the last time we ate at a certain restaurant in town, I think we went through about three rolls in one night and yes, Vince ended up going to the doctor. There are times when I fix canned green beans three times in a week and then it may be a month before I open a can of green beans again. I just want to know that I have plenty and it doesn’t bother me if it’s 6 months worth of green beans and 10 months worth of corn . . just so I know I have more corn than green beans.

      I should probably be a bit more organized with it but food is food and when I’m hungry, it isn’t going to make that much difference what I’m eating.

  9. I am pretty well set I think. I miss fresh fruit and fresh veggies the most but at least I have some frozen packages of both. Just don’t like the anxiety I am feeling.
    Stay well everyone!

    • I miss the fresh fruit too. We have some apples that are getting old so I think I’ll make apple crisp tonight. I got bananas in my pickup order today. Last night we had raspberries in our yogurt. I was thankful to find 5 bags of raspberries in the freezer that I had vacuum sealed several years ago and forgotten about.

  10. I think the thing we learned most in our house from this may be communication! I buy the supplies and hubby is totally onboard with prepping, but we’ve noticed that one of us is not good about letting the other know when they are taking things out of the supply. For example my comfort food is Ruffles chips, french onion dip and a Diet Coke. Our first drive up grocery order we got Ruffles and Diet Coke but not chip dip. Yesterday I ran into a small local store to get fresh fruit and meat and they had chip dip (yay!). When I got home hubby informed me he had ate the entire bag of Ruffles the day before :(. There have been other examples but this is the one that really had me frustrated! But, I know there are folks in a lot worse shape and if the worst thing I can say is that I can’t have potato chips then I am pretty grateful.

    • Oh, no! I can just about imagine how that must feel. You’re right – there are people in worse shape but when you don’t have to be in the shape you’re in . . if someone would stop eating your Ruffles . . that could be so easily solved with some effort on his part! Vince is really good about saying “Is it ok if I eat this?” and I’ll always say “Eat what you want!” but when he starts talking about drinking a Dr. Pepper . . no! That’s a line he shall not cross!

  11. We went snowbirding for the winter, left in December were to come back April 1st, I always had extra, but decided when we left in December didn’t want to leave much in the house, and couldn’t take much since there’s not a lot of room in a fifth wheel. Used up a lot of the extra I had, and took what was left with us. Started getting a little apprehensive mid March and came back home. Did shopping there before we left picking up the essentials, came home to no toilet paper or flour in the stores, we have been able to get most of what we needed over the last 3 weeks. Also purchased some long term food storage food, that we will carry in the fifth wheel if we will be gone for a period of time. Just for an emergency situation. Wasn’t a very confronting feeling only having about a weeks worth of food , and the grocery stores essentially bare. The one thing I want to learn about is different types of wheat berries and what they are used for. Been thinking for along time I’d like to grind my own flour, but need to learn the basics and what to purchase.

    • I can imagine! The news reports and people reporting shortages probably made it even worse. I’d love to share what I know about wheat berries and those types of things. Thanks!

  12. we have both freezers full but never though before of Toilet paper

  13. I always learn something new from you so I’m looking forward to more prepping posts. I think we’re in pretty good shape. If things got really bad, I would miss fresh fruit the most. When we lived in West Texas, there was a fenced in orchard on the ranch. I miss that orchard.

  14. Here’s my current experience with powdered milk.
    I recently bought some powdered milk, as I was down to the last quart of fresh milk, then make a quart of powdered milk and mix the two. I remembered that I hadn’t liked powdered milk as a child, but thought mixing it could be ok.
    My husband walked in and began giving me instructions. His mother had done this. He said you have to use a hard plastic container for the reconstituted milk. You get out your stationary blender and mix up a quart of powdered milk per directions. It will be very frothy, about a quart and a half of milk. Put it into the 2 qt. hard plastic container and put it into the fridge overnight. By morning all the froth will be gone and it will be back to 1 quart. Mix it with the 1 quart of fresh milk, and there you have a delicious batch of milk.
    I did this, and can’t tell that it is half powdered milk. I think that the powdered milk has improved greatly since I was little. I may even be able to use it as just powdered milk alone, no fresh milk in it.
    Which is good because the fresh milk that I tried to freeze in glass jars broke the two jars. Evidently milk expands MORE than water when it freezes. I was able to save most of the milk as I thawed it out. Then I put the mostly ice milk into a plastic pitcher and the next day after it had thawed all the way, I blended it together again. It is good. So now I know that milk expands twice as much as water as it freezes, and a stationary blender gives reconstituted milk a lasting smoothness.

    • Yes, I think powdered milk has come a long way. What brand were you using?

  15. I was pretty prepared, thankfully. I grew up with a great aunt who lived through the Depression. She saved and reused aluminum foil, among other things. I haven’t missed anything from the grocery store. I am only going to my job caring for a 91 yr old lady at her house. Haven’t been anywhere but there in over 2 weeks. My kids are grown and have stopped by, keeping their distance. I miss being able to hug them.

  16. For years I have been buying extras. So when there were no eggs, I didn’t panic, I had enough at home until I could get some more. Same with butter and bread. There was no bread at United one day so I went to the Bakery and bought one of their French loaves of bread. I was not too sure about it since I had never bought it before. But for just the two of us, I figured I could freeze it and slice off what we needed. I cut it in half and put it in two 1-gallon zip lock bags then in the freezer. When I put the bread in it was very soft. I have cut slices and made Garlic toast and also just put butter on it and put it in the oven to thaw. It is still very soft and very good. Sometimes you can even get it when it is hot from the oven! You do what you have to do. Just think of what my parents and grandparents did in the depression! They made do with what they had.

    • Yes. I think of that often – what they went through and what they did without. We’re spoiled. Glad you found a fix for your bread. We may all learn new tricks before this is over.

  17. You inspired me to begin prepping a bit more seriously, and over the past year and a half we have collected a reasonable amount of food. When we saw what was going on, we bought more coffee, tp, and frozen meat. Here’s what I forgot to stock up on: yeast, GF flour, chicken broth and distilled water for my husband’s cpap (and my iron). I really enjoy your prepping posts and learn so much! Hope you continue them.

  18. Because I was raised by parents who were children in the depression they always had a food supply. I always thought everyone did. We canned every summer and fall. My husband and I continued to do that. We moved to a smaller house 3 years ago I dumped many really old jars of food and swore I would be better about keeping track of what we have. In January my husband and I put in new pantry and cupboards in our garage. I organized all the foods and noticed a few gaps. Like not much canned fruit. I got a few things but not very many. I live in Washington state so we started hearing about the virus early on. I did get extra eggs, lots of veggies and oranges and apples by the bag. I didn’t remember to buy onions so I have had to use dehydrated. We have not been shopping in two weeks but a friend called me from the store today to ask if I needed anything. She was able to get me a bag of flour since I am down to my last five pounds. I still have yeast. I always buy a pound container or that. I wish I had thought of powdered milk. It is impossible to find now. We have been eating out of our freezer and pantry and can survive for a long time on what we still have. I do wish I had a few more fruit items. And I am concern about finding seeds this spring. I have plenty of sewing to keep me entertained and lots of books to read or listen to as I sew. Because of all the rain the last week my husband has been bored as it is to cold and rainy to work outside. I keep giving him jobs.

    • Sounds like you’re doing good. Like you said, those of us who grew up with parents who knew the importance of keeping reserves .. we know the importance of keeping our supplies stocked. I think of people who either ate out several times a week or who didn’t keep a well stocked pantry. I can’t imagine how stressful this is for them.

      Seeds do seem to be in short supply. Good luck.

  19. There’s only one thing that I can say I’m truly missing at this point, and that’s the specific brand of cracked wheat sourdough bread that I use for my breakfast toast every morning. I too froze milk in ~8-oz containers – we don’t use it often, and when my husband runs out of his cereal, probably won’t use it at all except in cooking. I generally keep a well-stocked pantry and small chest freezer, though some items were low. When I last went to the store, I got a few things in twos that maybe I usually only get one of, but would still have liked to have found yeast. I have a bread machine, and I know how to make bread from scratch. I got a sourdough starter going but it’s only day 3 so far and while I won’t have the cracked wheat [hmmm, wonder if there are wheat berries in my fridge/freezer? will have to check my spreadsheet], I’ll still have that wonderful sourdough flavor eventually. I haven’t done my monthly-ish Costco run so some of those usual items are on my watch-list and will be replenished when I do go…maybe next week? Our Costco has an 8:00 a.m. opening for ‘seniors’ on Tues. & Thurs. and next week is forecast to be raining, so maybe any crowds will be less next week. And that’ll put us at about the “projected peak” of this current event, so maybe the week after. I just figure that at some point, when people get past the “two weeks” or “one month”, there’ll be another huge run on grocery items because everyone will have used up what they usual use, and will need more. But some will still have plenty of tp. 😉

  20. I’m a little late to post on this, normally I have a well stocked pantry but last June I went to work full time and since then have not kept things as stocked. We went into this with 1 pound of hamburger meat when usually I have half a beef in the freezer. There is very little pork in the freezer. We do have a lot of deer meat and chicken and other cuts of beef so we could still manage with what we have for a couple of months.
    We use a lot of Worcestershire sauce and for some weird reason I did not have a back up bottle in the pantry and apparently everyone bought that to go with their toilet paper lol!
    We don’t have a lot of snack food in the house because my husband normally buys that stuff weekly, I rarely buy that so I’m going out today to try to get some stuff for the kids.
    I think this is a lesson for me to stay more prepared. Even though we are still going to work everyday, I would have like to avoid the grocery stores more than we have been able to. My plan is today to fill in where we need to last a month or so. Hopefully we can get the garden going well enough to help be more ready for the winter and the following year.

  21. The one thing I forgot to pick up, and really bothered me when I ran out, was marmalade. Toast and marmalde are my favorite comfort food. I think I went about five days without it and it really bothered me. DH finally decided to do a food run and he picked up two jars for me. I felt a lot better.

    When all this started I picked up an extra bag each of flour and sugar and a jar of yeast. I also picked up two jars of applesauce because you can often sub that for eggs in baking.

    DH usually keeps a deep pantry so the only things we were worried about were eggs. Our Costco was out for a while but finally got them back in. He just went to the local market and Aldis and said that there was a shortage of meat. I wonder if it is because it isnt’ being processed?

    • No idea why but I’ve been seeing lots of pictures of empty meat counters. And, I’m glad you got your marmalade. It’s not fun to really want something and not have it.

  22. If you’re going to freeze milk, freeze skim or 1% milk. In cooking, it will be fine, and if you’re desperate for milk, it will be fine. I freeze it all, and the cream sort of separates, but I haven’t noticed a huge difference in taste. Just close your eyes and drink it. LOL

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