The first time I did a real inventory, I was shocked at how quickly the water part becomes dicey. I always focused on food, but the actual gallons per person add up fast—especially if you’re factoring in washing up at all, never mind just drinking and cooking. My rain barrels and a couple filters are what I’m banking on if the grid’s down for more than a week, but if drought hits, I know I’d need to ration hard.
Foodwise, I’ve got about four months of home canned goods and dried staples, longer if I rotate in garden produce, but fresh veg goes fast in the winter here. Batteries are less of a worry since I went with a bunch of rechargeable AA/AAA and a few solar panels last year, but I still keep a stash of regular ones just in case.
Prescription meds are the thing that keeps me up at night—can’t stockpile more than a couple months max, and I haven’t found a workaround for that yet. Anybody out there have a good system for managing longer
