Have you got a "War Cupboard"?

I've been watching TV today and a lot of the coverage has been about the 70th aniversary of the  D Day landings in the second world war. On there were a lot of interviews of modern day "cadets" or young people in the armed forces all under 18 and the overwhelming thought from these young uns was that they would not want to go to war and they would be scared.  I bet the paras and the landing forces were shitting bricks as well but they had no option but to run up the beach under fire.

So what would you do in terms of prepping if war was either iminent or in flow. Bare in mind we currently have the likes of syria that could have been a tipping point for war or more realistically the problems of the Ukraine becomeing a flash point. After all what American President can for go the thought of poking a big russian bear.

When we were putting the shopping away on a saturday afternoon in the 1970's ( this was when shops closed all day Wednesday and obly opened until 12 noon on a saturday) to put certain tins in "the war cupboard".  When asked what this was and what it meant she would say that it's in case there is another war.

She would buy an extra tin of something and put it away for future use. The aim being that you wouldn't miss the cost of an extra tin of beans or a tin of vorned beef each saturday but id there was another war then she would be able to suppliament the ration book with other food from her war cupboard.

So have you got "a war cupboard" ? If not, why not?

As mentioned above this is an easy way to build up some stock for your prepping without actually realizing you are doing it. Of course you can throw a lot of money at it and buy in bulk with a credit card etc but this way gets you into thinking about prepping every time you go shopping and these days it is more than once a week.

To start with you can write down what is in your cupboards at home. Then work out from this list what you will use these food items for in the week. As many of us only have 3 or 4 days of food in store anyway it shouldn't be to hard to do.

Alternativly you can make up a set of lists for meal plans you will eat over the nezt week or 2 weeks to start with.
This serves a few good ideas because you only buy food you need for that week so you don't waste food or money, you get to make fresh meals from fresh ingredients and also you keep alive your cooking skills in case TSHTF.
If you are so busy you need to use micro meals then this use of fresh foods can be done on your day off or on a weekend or when you are on holiday etc. There is no reasons why you cannot learn to cook  a hearty meal from freshly preppared foods. After all putting an egg in some hot water for 6 minutes makes a meal from fresh ingredients so it is a start.
If you really, really cannot use fresh ingredients then do the same thing with lists of frozen meals or whatever you use today to feed your good self as this will also help you to reduce wasteage and money after all we are told that modern canning and freezing techniques are as good as fresh ingredients. Personally I don't think so but then I love cooking and I have the time. 

Anyway, rant over but once you have you list of fresh food or your list of other foods you can start to buy an extra ingredient when you go shopping.

On your list you might have 5 tins of baked beans that you will use in  1 week. Each week when you go shopping you will buy an extra tin of beans over and above those you replaceso on week 1 you buy 6 tins of beans. 5 to replace those used and 1 for your "war cupboard" week two you buy another 6 tins so you replace the 5 you use and now have 2 tins in your war cupboard. Week 3 the same and so on until week five you have replaced the 5 tins you use each week and now you have 5 tins in the war cupboard for emergencies etc.

The following week you might buy tins of peas, cornbeef, dried pasta, tinned pies, tinned tomatoes etc.

Of course if your budget stretches further you can buy a lot more tins more frequently but this is down to you and your budget.
Don't fall into the trap that I did and buy a lot all at once then have no money left at the end of the month and thus I had to use my "war ciupboard" to feed the family. once learnt never forgoten.

Over time you will have a complete weeks meals in your cupboard that is extra to what you normally eat and the cost of this will not have been missed.

If you keep doing this day in day out, week in week out every time you go shopping then you will soon get a large amount of food saved up for whatever you deem to be an emergency because we all hope that we don't have to go to war any time soon.