2 adults
1 child
£120.00
Plan your just-in-case pantry
A hard month
This covers your household for about 28 days — in one cupboard, for £112.90, with £7.10 left.
Daily calories needed
5,200
assumes school-age child
Calories planned
145,880
Budget used
£111.45
Your £120 fully covers a hard month for this household, with about £8.55 left over. Spend the rest on the Essentials list below — that's what turns stored calories into actual dinners.
Space audit
What storage space do you have? It's the most honest constraint — most households find the space before they find the money.
Space-saving gear
Vacuum storage bags or sealer
The same food, using less space
Don't vacuum-seal loose rice or pasta directly in shrink bags — sharp grain edges can pierce the film over time. The safer method is a rigid container with a vacuum valve lid.
Foil / space emergency blanket
Compact, lightweight heat retention
A compact, lightweight way to retain body heat if normal heating fails. Costs a few pounds and takes up almost no space.
Fire blanket
The simplest kitchen fire safety tool
A fire blanket is the more universal starting point — cheaper than an extinguisher, needs no training, and covers the most common domestic fire type (pan fires).
ABC powder fire extinguisher
Broader coverage for households who want it
A step up from the fire blanket — covers wood, paper, flammable liquids, and electrical fires. One extinguisher per floor is the standard recommendation.
Scenario
What are your utilities like?
Power
Running water
Protein
Tinned beans, chickpeas, and lentils are the cheapest protein you can store — own-brand at Aldi or Lidl consistently leads on price. Tinned fish costs more per gram but adds variety and needs no cooking. Prices change, so always worth checking what's cheapest at your local shop.
At least one item in this list needs no cooking and no water — if the power's out, you can still eat.
| Item | Calories / unit | Shelf life | Cost | Storage | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peanut butter | 2,006 | 12 months | £17.50 | 4.5L | 10 | Buy on Amazon |
| Red lentils | 1,750 | 24 months | £13.20 | 8.4L | 12 | Buy on Amazon |
| Tinned chickpeas | 640 | 36 months | £2.60 | 1.8L | 4 | Buy on Amazon |
Fits in half a cupboard shelf.
Staple carbs
The bulk of every plan: cheap, dense, and boring on purpose. Plain rice and pasta are the cheapest calories in the whole plan — own-brand at any supermarket is fine. Instant and specialty noodles cost several times more per kg for convenience and flavour variety; they're worth having for a change of pace, but don't let them push out the basics.
| Item | Calories / unit | Shelf life | Cost | Storage | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasta (dried) | 1,850 | 24 months | £10.45 | 9.9L | 11 | Buy on Amazon |
| White rice | 3,600 | 24 months | £7.20 | 8.4L | 6 | Buy on Amazon |
| Rolled oats | 3,700 | 18 months | £4.05 | 6.3L | 3 | Buy on Amazon |
Fits in roughly one cupboard shelf.
Smaller categories
Fats
The most calories per pound and per litre of anything you can store. One jar of vegetable oil quietly outworks a whole shelf of tins — own-brand rapeseed oil is the best value here. Lard costs more per litre but adds cooking options when oil won't do.
| Item | Cal | Cost | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vegetable oil (rapeseed) | 9,000 | £3.30 | 2 | Buy |
| Lard | 4,500 | £10.00 | 4 | Buy |
Fits in a shoebox.
Micronutrients
Calories keep you alive. These keep you well. Dried fruit and tinned fruit are the most affordable sources here — own-brand dried apricots and raisins are a solid choice. A basic multivitamin fills any gaps without needing to think about it. If you're two weeks or more into stored food, you can grow fresh greens with almost nothing: a spoonful of dried red lentils or peas in a jar of water will sprout in 3–5 days — no soil, no garden, no special kit needed. A tray of microgreens on a windowsill takes 7–14 days and gives you fresh, nutrient-dense leaves from the same approach. A proper sprouting jar or microgreens tray makes it easier, but the jar-of-water method costs nothing beyond what's already in your cupboard.
A sprouting jar or microgreens tray makes it easier — see options on Amazon
| Item | Cal | Cost | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raisins | 600 | £8.75 | 7 | Buy |
Fits in a shoebox.
Morale
A crisis pantry without chocolate gets abandoned. This is not a joke category — food you look forward to is food you'll actually rotate and eat. Own-brand chocolate and instant coffee are fine; honey keeps indefinitely.
| Item | Cal | Cost | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark chocolate | 550 | £4.50 | 3 | Buy |
Fits in a shoebox.
Vegetables
Not for calories — for staying human. Tinned tomatoes, sweetcorn, and peas are cheap year-round, and own-brand is just as good as anything branded. Buy whatever's on offer at your local supermarket.
| Item | Cal | Cost | Qty | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato puree | 160 | £29.90 | 46 | Buy |
Fits in half a cupboard shelf.
Everything above fits in two cupboard shelves, or one under-bed box. Most households find the space before they find the money.
A small comfort
This isn't for calories. A hot drink — or whatever yours is — costs next to nothing and makes a hard day easier. Included in every plan.
- Tea bags, 80-pack — £1.45
Coffee or hot chocolate work the same way, for about the same price.
Essentials and flavour
Salt, coffee, spices, vinegar. Nearly zero calories, but they're what makes week three taste different from week one. Don't skip these.
- • Multivitamins
- • Coffee (instant)
- • Salt
- • Soy sauce
- • Vinegar
- • Dried herbs / spices
- • Stock cubes / bouillon powder
Two things this list can't do
It can't store water for you. Dried food is compact because the water isn't in the tin — it's in your tap. If the taps stopped too, you'd need about 3 litres per person per day before any of this list becomes dinner. Food first is fine; just know water is the other half.
It can't guess your kitchen. The storage figures are honest estimates, not measurements. Brands and packaging vary — treat every volume here as “roughly,” and check a shelf's weight before loading it entirely with tins.You don't have to do this in one shop
Nobody buys a month of food in an afternoon. Add one category to your normal shop each week and you'll be fully covered inside two months, without ever feeling the cost. Print the list, stick it on the fridge, and cross things off as they come home.
Then eat it. The best just-in-case pantry is one you cook from and replace — food that rotates never expires, and a shelf you use is a shelf you trust.