My theory about preparedness has always leaned more toward learning skills rather than stashing stock, both out of necessity because poverty, and practicality because if things long term go to shit it's better to know how to grow your own food, for example, than have a ten year supply of beans and rice in your basement, you know? Plus I'm an apartment dweller in the city, so it's not like I have a big ass yard to grow a food forest/raise chickens/etc. But I can learn and practice in my small-scale way.
That being said, I do like to have some supplies on hand, such as my first aid kit, which I'm pretty proud of (and to go with that, I took first aid and mental health first aid classes, in addition to my training as a medical assistant). If I had the money I'd buy a whole cabinet full of cat food, because that's what I always worry about (and I keep having various foods Yuan eats go out of stock... ). I'm never going to be the "prepper with a bunker" type, but yeah, the supply chain is falling apart, and it's just smart to keep some things in stock, if you can, that won't go bad fast. Even without the "zomie apocalypse," shelves at the grocery store are empty on a regular basis now, and it's anyone's guess when something may come back in, if it ever does at all.
With that in mind, I just got these:
With my allergies, I cook a lot from scratch, and have flipped from being a former vegan to eating the allergy diet where dairy is a major staple, among other changes. So my groceries are mostly fresh food (if you're familiar with any kind of real food movement, I shop the perimeter of the grocery store for most of my food: that's where you'll find the refrigerated/dairy/eggs/meat stuff, the produce, etc., whereas most (not all, like baking supplies) of the middle aisles are processed stuff), just because I need the basic ingredients because I'm inevitably allergic to something in the twenty-item list of ingredients on most processed foods. But how do you stockpile fresh dairy and eggs and the like? They'd spoil.
I've long kept powdered milk on hand just in case I run out, now that milk is such a staple for me, but I honestly didn't know that powdered eggs or powdered butter existed at all, until a friend mentioned wanting to get some powdered eggs since she mostly just used them for baking and would have some go to waste if she bought fresh with as infrequently as she needed them. So I started poking around online and found these!
The expiration date is a decade away (if unopened), and I think it's supposed to be a year if opened (tho a reviewer said they used it for like a year and a half and never had any problems, and that's generally my experience with dried things too, that there is leeway there). Like my friend, I don't go through eggs very fast, so I might just start using the egg powder in general (after I eat the fresh dozen I just bought recently, lol). But either way, I'm glad I now have milk, butter, and eggs in a shelf stable form that will last a long time if there's a run at the store or they just don't get any stock.
My next goal, in addition to just buying cat food, is to buy the vitamins you need to add if you're making your own cat food. I've got a recipe from a trusted website, and with as often (a LOT) as I see various cat foods go out of stock and the fact that Yuan has food allergies too (he's allergic to fish, which as you can imagine is in like 80% of all cat food, period), I'd feel better knowing that if I really can't find any good food for him I can at least make some. It might not be perfect (the recipe wants you to have a meat grinder and do it bone-in for nutrition), but I can at least keep him fed and healthy to a decent degree as long as I can buy meat somewhere.
