Prepping/stocking supplies

[Chic Rustler]

what do you guys keep a supply of now that weve been educated by the covid lock downs and shortages?.....besides the obvious rice and ammo?



stuff for your car? how much gas, do you keep on hand just incase? fluids and filters? idk if yall noticed but motor oil prices are spiking high and there have been some shortages.

cleaning supplies? how long can you go without buying dish soap or laundry detergents and stuff?

light bulbs? pther regularly used items around the house?

 

[tortoise]

I doubled the cleaning items and light bulbs I stock. I keep 6 months' worth now. Two factors in this were 1) I had underestimated the rate I would use cleaning supplies and 2) when panic buying started unscented cleaning products were slow to recover. I'm allergic to fragrances.

 

[flowerbug]

i have a lot of beans and garden seeds, oatmeal and we usually have toilet paper for about a year. aside from the canned and frozen foods there isn't anything else i particularly stockpile.

do bookshelves full of books count? i have a fair number of those now and i barely touch most of them since i've already read them or they are references "Just In Case" of the Great Tacolips (what i call the apolcalypse because it's easier to spell and i don't have to care if i got it right or not).

we have lightbulbs up the wazoo because we have track lighting and i took advantage of an ultra cheap sale of LED bulbs to replace all of them. since we use them so rarely i could swap out one of those for one i use more often and would likely not even notice for months as i hardly ever use those or many others. they're there and useful but do not get used that often.

for fuel and oil, those happen at the gas station or the mechanic's place and i'm quite happy for them to keep them there until we need them. same for most other items. we just don't have the space for a lot of extra. if i get some things then i have to start thinking of what i have to get rid of.

rice, nope, i'm not much into rice, we have some on hand, but not normally nearly as much as oatmeal. and beans i probably have 100-200 x more beans than i have rice.

chocolate we do stock at a good amount. that's always useful in all sorts of ways from immediate food/fuel to cooking so many recipes.

instant coffee, sugar and flour fit in with the baking supplies, we normally keep those on hand in enough quantity that we can make a few thousand cookies or other things.

water.

worm bedding materials, i'm hoarding some bean pods right now until i can get them fed to the worms. they seem to like them better than shredded paper so i have been building up more paper shreddings the past few months. i'm mixing some of the paper in with the bean pods. just to get the worms at it. eventually they do break it all down.

 

[tortoise]

oh! I added whole milk powder and heavy cream powder to my pantry. It helps a lot when grocery trips are infrequent. I like cooking with heavy cream powder and it saves a fortune compared to buying fresh. I haven't bought fresh cream since.

 

[Chic Rustler]

i have a lot of beans and garden seeds, oatmeal and we usually have toilet paper for about a year. aside from the canned and frozen foods there isn't anything else i particularly stockpile.

do bookshelves full of books count? i have a fair number of those now and i barely touch most of them since i've already read them or they are references "Just In Case" of the Great Tacolips (what i call the apolcalypse because it's easier to spell and i don't have to care if i got it right or not).

we have lightbulbs up the wazoo because we have track lighting and i took advantage of an ultra cheap sale of LED bulbs to replace all of them. since we use them so rarely i could swap out one of those for one i use more often and would likely not even notice for months as i hardly ever use those or many others. they're there and useful but do not get used that often.

for fuel and oil, those happen at the gas station or the mechanic's place and i'm quite happy for them to keep them there until we need them. same for most other items. we just don't have the space for a lot of extra. if i get some things then i have to start thinking of what i have to get rid of.

rice, nope, i'm not much into rice, we have some on hand, but not normally nearly as much as oatmeal. and beans i probably have 100-200 x more beans than i have rice.

chocolate we do stock at a good amount. that's always useful in all sorts of ways from immediate food/fuel to cooking so many recipes.

instant coffee, sugar and flour fit in with the baking supplies, we normally keep those on hand in enough quantity that we can make a few thousand cookies or other things.

water.

worm bedding materials, i'm hoarding some bean pods right now until i can get them fed to the worms. they seem to like them better than shredded paper so i have been building up more paper shreddings the past few months. i'm mixing some of the paper in with the bean pods. just to get the worms at it. eventually they do break it all down.

i tend to just hord anything i think ill need later. its not really a good thing. like the tower of mason jars. glad i have them now tho!

the motor oil thing...well i got a buddy that just took his truck in for an oil change. it cost him $90 for the fancy synthetic his truck requires. it cost me $12 to change my oil at home because im always looking for sales and stock up when i find them. i have enough oil and filters to change the oil on our vehicles 5 times and my mower 3 times. i need air filters for the cars tho....


speaking of filters its cheaper to buy filters for your home air-conditioner by the case from an hvac supply house. saves money and you have them on hand when you need em.

 

[Chic Rustler]

oh! I added whole milk powder and heavy cream powder to my pantry. It helps a lot when grocery trips are infrequent. I like cooking with heavy cream powder and it saves a fortune compared to buying fresh. I haven't bought fresh cream since.

thats a good idea!

 

[flowerbug]

i tend to just hord anything i think ill need later. its not really a good thing. like the tower of mason jars. glad i have them now tho!

oh, now see, i don't consider those hording at all because we do use them each season when needed. every reuse also means the investment was money well spent.

the motor oil thing...well i got a buddy that just took his truck in for an oil change. it cost him $90 for the fancy synthetic his truck requires. it cost me $12 to change my oil at home because im always looking for sales and stock up when i find them. i have enough oil and filters to change the oil on our vehicles 5 times and my mower 3 times. i need air filters for the cars tho....

that's a lot of vehicles and a place to work on them i'd do a lot more than i do. but after i sold my car i have zero inclination to even do that, because once i do it then i have to either store the waste oil or find a proper place to dispose it and that would just be at the mechanic's place anyways. just let him do it and he can deal with all that...

speaking of filters its cheaper to buy filters for your home air-conditioner by the case from an hvac supply house. saves money and you have them on hand when you need em.

they've gotten rediculously expensive for what they are.

 

[Chic Rustler]

finding places for things can be a challenge for sure. I find that we have to be creative

 

[Chic Rustler]

what about emergency lighting supplies? what do you guys think is proper to keep on hand? we dont have much, just a few lamps and some candles. definitely need to work on this for sure!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Solar landscape lights worked pretty well for us after a hurricane. And for summer time they don't give off any heat which is nice!