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I’ll be straight with you: buy most of this at the supermarket. Tins are cheaper there, and I’d be a fool to pretend otherwise for the sake of a commission on beans. The links on this page are for the handful of things that are better ordered in.
In a hurry? The one I'd buy from each shelf.
- Food you don't have to cookWayfayrer ready-to-eat meals£5–8 a pouch
- The tin openerCulinare MagiCanUnder £10
The list, per person
| 3 days | 7 days | 14 days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filling tins: beans, soup, fish, meat, pulses | 9 | 21 | 42 |
| Tins of fruit or veg | 3 | 7 | 14 |
| Oats, crackers or cereal | 300g | 700g | 1.4kg |
| Long-life or powdered milk | 1 L | 2 L | 4 L |
| Snack portions: nuts, dried fruit, biscuits | 6 | 14 | 28 |
| Tea, coffee, squash | Some | More | Lots |
That’s roughly three tins a day plus a dry breakfast and something to pick at, and it comes out near 2,000 calories. Multiply by the number of people. The kit builder will do it for you and add the water.
Two rules matter more than the numbers:
- Buy what you already eat. If nobody in your house likes tinned mackerel on a good day, they won’t like it in the dark.
- Eat it and replace it. New tins go at the back. This is called rotation and it is the entire secret. Nothing in my cupboard is older than the cat.
Food you don’t have to cook
For the first three days, assume no cooker. These all eat cold from the tin or packet: baked beans, tinned fish, corned beef, rice pudding, custard, tinned fruit, oatcakes, peanut butter, cereal bars, long-life milk.
Ready-to-eat pouches are the one “survival food” I rate, because they’re real meals that need no water and no heat.
Wayfayrer ready-to-eat meals
A few proper dinners in the cupboard
What Duke of Edinburgh groups eat on hillsides. Fine cold, better warmed in a pan of hot water. They keep for about three years.
Summit to Eat freeze-dried meals
A sealed box you forget about
Add boiling water and wait. They weigh almost nothing and keep for years. You do need to be able to boil water, so pair them with a stove.
What to skip. “25-year survival buckets” at £300. You are preparing for a fortnight, and you will not be the same person in 25 years.
The tin opener
Plenty of tins still don’t have a ring pull, and the electric opener is no use to you now.
Culinare MagiCan
Every kitchen drawer
Cuts cleanly, leaves no sharp edge, costs very little. Buy two and tape one inside the food cupboard.
Worth ordering in
- Dried skimmed milk, which keeps for a year and is fine in tea.
- A 1kg tub of peanut butter. Dense, cheap, needs nothing.
- Oatcakes, which outlast bread by months.
- A big box of cereal bars for the children and, realistically, for you.
If you have a baby, the official advice is ready-to-feed formula, since you may not be able to boil water. For pets, keep a spare fortnight of whatever they normally eat. Our cat would rather the humans went without.