Prepping frugally

What is a prepper?

A prepper is someone who prepares for the worst case scenarios and future catastrophes.  I am a bit of a prepper. That doesn’t mean that I think that there will be a zombie apocalypse.  I just like to be ready for emergencies.  Being a prepper has meant that my family have not suffered when I was ill with no pay, when there was a pandemic and items were missing out of the supermarket, when I had to go away and look after a relative for a couple of weeks, or when we were snowed in. I have to do all my prepping frugally as we live on a very small income, and it is an ongoing process as items need to be rotated so that there is no waste as things go out of date.

Is a prepper a hoarder?

Experienced preppers are not hoarders as they usually just buy items over time and then rotate what they have. Prepping is an ongoing activity. As a frugal prepper I can only afford to add an odd item to my shopping list, but I also preserve things that I forage or grow to make sure that I have extra food in case of emergencies.  These extra preserves and food help me through the hunger gap after Christmas and until my garden starts producing food.  At the moment I am just using up the last of the Blackberries in my freezer as I know that the new season is starting. I have also just made a lot of pizza sauce out of tomatoes that were grown last year and frozen.

I didn’t have to fill a trolley with flour and toilet rolls in 2020.  I was the one that was offering  them to other people as I was organised and had already built a small stock of them for emergency months when big bills might come in and I can’t afford to shop.  I always get weeks like that in July when the MOT is due.  Things like the toilet rolls had all been bought when they were on offer.  I also buy things when they are reduced or discounted.  Last year I got 12 tins of mixed beans for 9p each as they were a discontinued line. My garden is also my pantry and ensures that I have fresh food for a lot of the months of the year. A frugal prepper is therefore someone who is organised and wants to be prepared for difficult times, but does it as intentionally and sensibly as they can, without getting into debt or panic buying.

Does a prepper just store food?

I like to have items besides food prepped for winter.  I will therefore get foraged wood during the summer.  I will have made fire lighters.  I will have enough matches, candles and camping lights in case a storm puts the power out as it did a couple of years ago.  I will have enough warm items to keep my temperature up if there is no heating.  I stock items to make cleaning products and toiletries, and have items that will preserve foods should the electricity go down. Medicines are also a good thing to have a good stock of. Besides physical things I also build up my knowledge and skills.  These include my foraging skills, my growing skills, my cooking from scratch skills, my survival and fire lighting skills, learning about herbal medicine etc..  These are just as important in an emergency as physical items.

Does a frugal prepper buy everything cheaply? 

Cheap things are often poor quality but that does not mean that if you do not have a lot of money that you can not have the best things to be prepared.  I  buy good quality things second hand, or in sales.  My preserved food is organic because I grow it myself.  Being organised means that I know what I need for my prepper pantry and cupboard and so I can keep an eye out for things when they are on offer.  Last week we got a 10K bag of organic wonky and broken carrots for £2.20 from a farm shop.  I had noticed that carrots have been increasing in price and have watched programmes that said that there will be a shortage of root vegetables this year.  I therefore  preserved lots by dehydrating and freezing them, and shared them with others.  My family will now not miss out on carrots this year.

Do I need a cellar or a lot of space to be a prepper?

Some people have cellars or special cupboards to store food and survival items, but many more store them in sheds, under the bed in boxes, in a spare bedroom, in an extra cupboard in the kitchen, or in a loft.  You have to work with what you have or think outside of the box.  We built an extra cupboard in the kitchen to store the food and put an extra freezer in the spare bedroom.  I started small and slowly built up some extra food over a period of time.  I don’t have loads and so I did not need a lot of space.  My stock is focussed on providing nutrition and I know what I have.  It is a good idea to keep an inventory of what you do have so that you do not waste money having lots of the same thing.  I also colour code mine so that I know when things need eating up,  At the beginning of each month I will go through my prepping cupboard and take out what is going out of date and use it over the following weeks, and then add the items to my grocery list so that I never run out of any thing.  Another mistake that many new preppers make is to buy things because they will store well and hydrate easily eg cuppa soups or pot noodles.  The trouble is, if you don’t like the item, you will probably never use it.

Start now

We are living through some very uncertain times at the moment and so food and energy are increasing rapidly and many people are finding that they are struggling to make ends meet. My prepping has cushioned me a lot from the cost of living.  I am still using sugar from my prepper pantry bought two years ago that cost 59p.  It is now £1.09 a packet when I replace it.  Next year it will probably cost more.

The bad weather has also meant that crops have failed or not been as abundant in many countries around the world.  Farms are also closing down.  Europe has lost a lot of farms over the last 5 years. This may mean shortages or price increases in the future.  It will therefore be prudent to add odd things like rice, pasta, oil, or other things that you use regularly to your shopping trolley now, and store them for use later.  If someone just spent £2 extra a week on buying staples for the next 2 months they would have a big box of food by the end of that time.  A few tins of cheap baked beans,  a tin of potatoes, a tin of peaches, and a bag of oats, could be bought for that from a discount supermarket or shop. The next week you could buy spaghetti, tomato puree, some rice, and stock cubes. It is as easy as that to get started, and if you pop the items in your ordinary shop it does not take any effort. Maybe you could even make some jam or cordial from some free foraged black berries if you are feeling motivated..

What should I buy for my prepper pantry?

Think about what you eat and use regularly.  I have things like tomato puree, oats, pasta, rice, tuna, oil, pilchards, flour, sugar, preserved and dehydrated vegetables, home made jams and pickles, dried pulses and beans, home made pasta sauces.  I keep things that will make a meal but also add nutrition to my diet.  It is a good idea to have some water, too, as if the electricity goes down, the taps don’t work.  I have bought mylar bags and oxygen absorbers so that things will last longer.  I also store things in glass jars that have had the oxygen taken out. There is no need to do this, but it will make items last longer.

Do you have a prepper pantry?  What kind of things do you store?