Food & water

Building a seven-day household reserve

Build a useful reserve gradually from ordinary things you already use.

There is a slightly unfortunate image attached to the idea of keeping emergency supplies at home. Many people are embarrassed to even admit that they keep an 'emergency' supply of food or other items, fearing that people will see them as some sort of Doomsday prepper with a shed full of catering-sized tins of beans and a shotgun.

That is not what we are talking about here.

A household reserve is simply a little breathing space. It means that if the electricity goes off, the water supply is interrupted, severe weather makes travelling difficult, you are ill and cannot get to the shops, or some other disruption occurs, you do not immediately have to solve the problem of feeding everybody in the house. No-one wants to have to struggle to Tescos to buy dinner and paracetamol when they're aching all over and running a fever; even worse if you're having to haul sick children around with you. Keeping extra supplies is just a way of cushioning yourself against the challenges that life loves to throw at us. It might not be a glamorous dinner, but you will at least be fed and, hopefully, comfortable.

The UK Government's Prepare guidance recommends thinking about the supplies your household might need during an emergency lasting a few days, including food that does not need cooking, drinking water, medicines, lighting, communications, and hygiene supplies.

At Ready Enough UK, we suggest going a little further and aiming for seven days, where it is practical for you.

That is not an official Government requirement and it certainly isn't a guarantee that you will be able to handle every possible emergency. It is simply a useful target: long enough to make many ordinary disruptions considerably easier to deal with, but short enough that most households can gradually build the reserve without needing a warehouse or spending a fortune.

The important word is gradually.

You do not need to go shopping this afternoon and come home with £300 worth of bottled water and tinned potatoes.

Start with the food you already eat

The easiest emergency food supply is mostly ordinary food.

Have a look through your kitchen cupboards. You may already have pasta, cereal, crackers, tins of soup, beans, fruit, vegetables, tuna, corned beef, long-life milk, sauces, biscuits and other foods that will keep for months.

That is the beginning of your household reserve.

There is no point in buying specialist survival food if nobody in your household normally eats it. An emergency is a particularly bad time to discover that everybody hates the twelve packets of dehydrated chilli you bought because somebody on YouTube said you needed them.

Instead, buy slightly more of the things you already use.

  • If you normally keep two tins of soup in the cupboard, keep four.
  • If your household gets through a packet of cereal every week, consider keeping an unopened spare.
  • When you use something, replace it.

Over time you end up with a rotating reserve rather than a collection of "emergency food" slowly approaching its twentieth birthday at the back of a cupboard.

Make sure some of it can be eaten cold

A cupboard full of dried pasta is not much use if the electricity and gas are both unavailable, and that goes double if the water is off as well.

Your reserve should therefore contain food that is safe and reasonably pleasant to eat without cooking.

That might include things such as:

  • ready-to-eat tinned meat or fish
  • tinned fruit
  • tinned vegetables
  • beans
  • cereal
  • long-life milk
  • crackers
  • oatcakes
  • peanut butter and other spreads
  • cereal or snack bars
  • dried fruit
  • nuts, where allergies are not an issue
  • ready-to-eat puddings and similar foods

UK Government preparedness guidance specifically recommends keeping some non-perishable food that does not need cooking.

And yes, keep a manual tin opener.

You do not need seven identical days of food

Don't overcomplicate this by trying to construct a military-style meal plan. You are building resilience, not organising an expedition to Antarctica. Think instead about whether your household could put together reasonable meals for several days using what is already in the house.

The first day or two might involve eating fresh food from the fridge.

After that you might move increasingly towards cupboard food.

Your normal diet will probably become slightly odd towards the end. That is fine. Nobody will suffer because Thursday's dinner consists of tomato soup, crackers and a tin of peaches. The aim is not gourmet catering, the aim is not needing to join a queue at an overstretched supermarket because you have absolutely nothing to eat.

Water needs a bit more thought

Food is comparatively easy to store. Water takes up space and becomes heavy very quickly.

Government guidance cites a minimum of around 2.5 to 3 litres of drinking water per person per day for survival, while around 10 litres per person per day allows considerably more scope for drinking, basic cooking, and hygiene. Additional water may be needed for babies, pets, or medical equipment.

You can immediately see the problem with storing seven days' worth of water at the more comfortable figure; for one person, 10 litres a day would mean 70 litres. For a family of four, it would mean 280 litres. That is a lot of water to keep behind the sofa. So, be practical; keeping even a modest supply of bottled drinking water is far better than keeping none. You might initially aim for enough drinking water for three days, then increase the amount if you have the storage space.

Bottled water is preferable for longer-term emergency storage than filling old drinks bottles from the tap yourself, because commercially bottled water is sealed in food-grade containers for storage. You might also consider food-grade "jerry cans" in 5, 10 or 12 litre sizes, but remember that water weighs a lot. Store your water somewhere cool and rotate your stock now and then.

And remember that other drinks already in your cupboards may also contribute to keeping you hydrated.

Medicines are more important than baked beans

If you rely on regular medication, think about that before worrying about how many tins of ravioli you own.

Government preparedness guidance recommends ensuring that you have enough required medication to keep you going for several days. Its national preparedness research also specifically looks at whether people taking essential medicines have at least seven days available. Keep on top of your repeat prescriptions and avoid routinely running your supply down to the final tablet before requesting the next one.

If a medicine has special storage requirements, or if you depend on powered medical equipment, speak to your pharmacist, GP, care team or equipment provider about what you should do during a power outage.

Don't forget hygiene

A water outage can create problems surprisingly quickly even if you have enough bottled water to drink. Keeping some basic hygiene supplies makes things considerably easier.

Government preparedness guidance suggests items such as hand sanitiser and wet wipes for situations where the water supply is unavailable.

A sensible household supply will also include toilet roll, soap, toothpaste, sanitary products, nappies where required, rubbish bags, and ordinary household cleaning supplies.

Again, there is no need for a special emergency crate. These are things you use anyway. Just try not to run completely out of them, or better still, try and keep a comfortable "buffer" for use in the event that you can't purchase more immediately for whatever reason.

Babies, children and pets count too

Emergency planning has a habit of concentrating on adults. Unfortunately, babies remain stubbornly unwilling to live on crackers and tinned peaches simply because there has been a power cut. Make sure your reserve takes account of nappies, formula, baby food and anything else a young child needs.

Government guidance recommends considering ready-to-feed baby formula because during some disruptions you may not be able to boil water or sterilise feeding equipment normally.

Pets need food and water as well; if the dog normally eats a particular food, keep some spare rather than assuming that in an emergency he will cheerfully switch to the elderly tin of sardines nobody else wanted.

Add the non-food essentials

Your seven-day reserve is not just a food cupboard.

Some of the most useful preparedness items are small and inexpensive:

  • one or more torches
  • spare batteries
  • charged power banks
  • a battery or wind-up radio
  • a basic first-aid kit
  • copies of important information and phone numbers
  • necessary hygiene items
  • a little cash

Government preparedness advice recommends torches, power banks, radios, batteries and first-aid supplies among the items households should consider keeping available.

Cash is worth considering because card terminals, cash machines and electronic payment systems all depend on communications and electricity somewhere in the chain. You do not need hundreds of pounds hidden under the mattress; a modest amount in sensible denominations simply gives you another payment option if electronic systems are temporarily unavailable.

Use it, don't preserve it

Your emergency reserve should not become a museum. Food goes out of date. Batteries discharge. Power banks slowly lose charge. Medicines expire. Children's needs change.

The simplest system is to use the oldest items normally and replace them with new ones. Put newly bought tins behind the older tins. Drink stored bottled water occasionally and replace it. Use the spare packet of cereal and buy another one to be the spare.

Find somewhere sensible to keep it

You do not necessarily need everything in one enormous emergency cupboard. In most homes, that would be inconvenient.

Food can stay in the kitchen. Water might be stored somewhere cooler with a bit more space - eg under the stairs. Torches should be somewhere you can reach easily in the dark. Medicines should be stored correctly and safely.

The important thing is knowing what you have and where it is.

You might find it useful to keep a simple list, particularly once your reserve becomes larger; that will help you to avoid overbuying one particular item while somehow continuing to own no actual meals.

What are we actually preparing for?

Not the apocalypse!

A seven-day household reserve can be useful during much more ordinary events:

  • A prolonged power cut.
  • A burst water main.
  • Flooding or severe weather.
  • Transport disruption.
  • Supply problems.
  • A period of illness.
  • Being advised to remain at home temporarily.
  • Or simply discovering that getting to the shops is unexpectedly difficult.

Most emergencies in the UK do not result in households being completely isolated for a week. Government guidance generally asks people to consider disruption lasting a few days. That is exactly why a seven-day reserve is useful; it gives you margin. You may only need it for a day, or you may never need it at all. But if something does disrupt normal life, having food, water and basic household essentials already available turns one immediate problem — how are we going to get supplies? — into something you do not have to worry about straight away.

And unlike many forms of emergency preparation, almost none of it is wasted.

You were going to eat the cereal eventually anyway.

Sources and further reading

Editorial note: Ready Enough UK is general preparedness guidance, not emergency, medical or professional advice. In an incident, follow instructions from emergency services and relevant official authorities.