Prepping With Chuckles-Winter

Welcome to my Prepper Posts which aims to help you be ready for any kind of short or long term disaster that might come along, and showing you the importance of being ready and able to help yourself when the authorities cannot assist you. I don't claim to be an expert on these subjects but I'll tell you what I can and direct you to prepper sites for further information if you are interested. Prepping is for normal people, and I aim to give you common sense reasons for thinking about how ready you are.

I think it's time to look at preparations for winter. Depending on where you live, you might be starting to feel that change of colder air coming in that lets you know we are in autumn. Here in my part of the UK, it is back to having fires on inside the house and not wanting to slither out from under the duvet for a late night toilet in the freezing cold bathroom! I hate going to supermarkets in December and over the festive period so I try to get everything done early so I can happily hibernate for a few months in front of my nice warm fire and forget about shopping other than bread, milk and a few other basics! It is certainly colder at night and the seasonal storms are beginning. This year, it is being suggested that the UK might be in for an even colder winter than last year which barely seems possible. That has me deciding to start winter prep a couple of weeks earlier than normal just in case.

1) Food Prepping-Fridge and Freezer
Basically, I started today by taking a look at the available space in the freezer and working out what I'll have space for foodwise. We have four drawers in the freezer. The top one always has a form of ice cream in it, usually two tubs for variety. For the winter the rest of this drawer will be getting stocked with a few favourite deserts like rhubard crumble, cheesecakes and gateau. This is the treat drawer! The second drawer has frozen baked potatoes and meat. We get supplied with a huge bag of chicken breasts every couple of months from a local farmer and we freeze various red meats and meat pies ready for use. Drawer three has the 'bags'-supplies of potatoes, prawns, curly fries, chicken kievs, chicken burgers, beefburgers etc. The final drawer is easy food like fish fingers, crispy pancakes, sausage rolls, satay pieces, kebabs. I've been running the supplies down all summer ready for this winter restocking which I plan to do this week if time allows.

We also have a fridge and that will be for the food we intend to consume in the run up to winter so I don't have to touch the winter supplies until November. This will be a mixture of preserves, microwave meals, fresh fruit, dairy products, fresh juice etc. I'll be restocking this weekly until November starts and for my final shopping trip before winter sets in, I'll ensure it is full to capacity with everything we need from the supermarkets so I have no need to battle the seasonal shoppers there through December and into January!

2) Food Prepping-The Cupboards
The food cupboard is something that several generations of women in my family set up and I've never known anything else. It was the attitude of stock up on everything you need while times are good and live off it when things are tight and that really helped when my parents and I all lost our jobs in the space of three years.The fully stocked cupboards and fridge and freezer meant all our money was spent on bills and heating, not on food. Our food cupboard has plenty pasta, rice, oats, lentils, tinned fruit and veg, pasta and meat sauces, sugar, soup, spices, cake mixes, tinned meat and fish, stock cubes and gravy, curry and so on. Enough to do the whole winter. It is reassuring to know that I'm loaded for bear! 

3) Heating 
My old electric fire for my bedroom broke during the summer so I've got a great new replacement for it ready to go, and a spare one as backup. We have gas fires in the hall and living room and a calor gas with cylinders in case there is an issue with either gas fire during winter. We got caught out with that ten years ago and shivered through winter and I don't want to ever repeat that! My dad is also looking at a possible oil heater as well this week. Now is the time to give whatever you have a service or get stuff replaced before you need it!

4) Essential supplies 
At the end of summer I always restock my supplies of other things I'll need through the winter to save me having to go out in snow to get it if I run out! Here is some of what is on my list.
-purchase extra batteries from Amazon for all devices ie clocks, MP3 players
-cleaning products from Aldi to fill cleaning cupboard
-refills for bedroom de-humidifiers
-screws and hooks for doing all the small niggly jobs over winter we had no time for in summer
-stocks of extra toilet paper!
-medicines ie extra cough bottles, ibuprofen, stomach tablets, supplements, etc (I get a lot of this at the Pound Shop cheap and it means as soon as a sneeze or cough starts, I can deal with it without trooping out to the pharmacy)
-salt supply for snow and ice 
-candles and other light sources in case of power cuts

5) Other tasks
Here are a few other things we get done in September/October.
-car serviced, oil and water levels checked
-flu jab at doctors
-checking pipe conditions in the house to avoid leaks
-replace any essential electrical items (we need a new hoover)

Are you ready for winter?