Your mobile phone, keys, maybe a work ID and a credit card… although even those have now become unlikely in the digital age. These are the items that you would likely grab day-to-day.
But for Dr Sarita Robinson, a ‘go bag’, filled with a change of clothes, medicines, a water purification bottle, tea bags, a miniature kettle for a stove, a first aid kit, hygiene products and enough food for 48 hours, is required whenever she leaves the house.
She is just one of a growing number of women in the UK who are readying themselves and their families for when ‘disaster strikes again’, be that a natural catastrophe, the breakdown of civil society, or even the start of World War III.
With the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and now the US and Israel‘s joint war against Iran, becoming a ‘prepper’ is a flourishing trend – and not only with middle-aged men who like to don cargo trousers, sit in their impressive bunkers and polish their weapons.
Plenty of women across Britain have now joined the movement, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Sarita, an associate dean in the school of psychology and humanities at the University of Lancashire, the global outbreak of coronavirus finally proved to her friends and family that her prepping over the last 20 years wasn’t ‘bonkers’.
‘Most people are a lot more on board with the prepping now’, said the 50-year-old, from Preston, who’s married to a retired computer programmer with two children in their 20s.
Noting the rise of female preppers, Sarita told the Daily Mail: ‘I think since the pandemic more people are aware that things can go wrong quite quickly… the world does seem a little more unpredictable at the moment.’
The United States and Israel launched a campaign of air strikes against Iran last Saturday, killing its supreme leader and sparking retaliatory attacks by Tehran across the Gulf.
Dr Sarita Robinson (pictured) is just one of a growing number of women in the UK who are readying themselves and their families for when ‘disaster strikes again’, be that a natural catastrophe, the breakdown of civil society, or even the start of World War III
The conflict has seen mothers across Britain taking to prepper Facebook groups, asking where to begin when it comes to becoming a ‘doomsday prepper’.
Sarita suggested buying extra food is a good place to start. ‘We try to keep around three months of supply of food in the house.
‘However, it isn’t any of the fancy survival food that’s marketed. It’s just food that we would normally eat, we just buy extras. So instead of buying a small pack of rice we would buy several kilos at a time.
‘The great thing is that this actually works out a lot cheaper in the long run. I think people think you have to do something special when you are stockpiling food but it just isn’t the case.
‘You should just buy food that you would normally eat but just have a little bit extra each week.’
Sarita – who doesn’t have a bunker (a house modification some international preppers boast of), but wouldn’t be adverse to purchasing one if she could – also keeps a supply of over-the-counter medicines, as well as other basics such as water purification tablets, a wind-up radio, a battery pack and power banks for mobile phones.
‘It’s also important to keep some treats and a good supply of teabags, sugar and some UHT milk. You can recover from most emergencies as long as you have some hot sweet tea and biscuits available,’ added the professional.
Sarita started prepping after living in LA for a year in 2004, and experiencing an earthquake. ‘It really made me reflect on how quickly the world could change from being safe and predictable to being dangerous and chaotic.’
Melanie Williams (pictured), a wellness advocate and mother-of-six from the UK, preps to always ensure she’s ‘one step ahead’
She suggested that most of the fellow preppers she knows started stockpiling or carrying emergency kits with them due to similar reasons, noting: ‘Some have experienced emergencies before and so are keen to be ready in case disaster strikes again.’
‘Most of the preppers I know are completely normal people,’ insisted the mother-of-two, who revealed that parents of young children make up a lot of the prepping folk she knows.
She has completed a range of training in order to survive a disaster – including something as simple as first aid, to the more unusual skills such as helicopter underwater evacuation, firefighting and wilderness survival.
Sarita believes that everyone should be a prepper, suggesting that if everyone who can afford to preps, then local governments’ limited resources can go straight to vulnerable groups such as the elderly.
She added: ‘I am hopeful that everyone will undertake some preparations for emergencies, even if it is just updating their first aid training and buying some extra canned food. In the heat of an emergency these things can make a real difference.’
Sarita isn’t alone in encouraging others to prep. Wife and mother-of-one Ana, based in Wales, urges others to join the prepping movement online.
She’s been prepping for years – but it was during the pandemic, when she couldn’t find baby formula for her newborn, that she really upped her game.
Now, the 41-year-old keeps her cupboards and a pantry full of grains, lentils, beans, tinned goods, flour, oats, canned goods, ingredients for cooking from scratch as well as medicines, toiletries and cleaning supplies. She preserves her food by pressure canning and dehydrating.
Sarita isn’t alone in encouraging others to prep. Wife and mother-of-one Ana (pictured with vacuum-sealed food), based in Wales, urges others to join the prepping movement online
Then all her vehicles have small packs of essentials inside, filled with power banks, warmer clothing, waterproofs, water, snacks, a micro cooking stove and a water filter.
Citing negative stereotypes of ‘grumpy middle-aged men surrounded by cans of food or in a bunker’, Ana insisted: ‘I’m not prepping for an apocalypse or zombie invasion.
‘Most of the things I prepare for are actually very ordinary. Economic pressures, price spikes, supply disruptions, storms, power cuts or simply times when life becomes more difficult financially.’
She insisted that preparedness ‘is really about softening the impact of unforeseen circumstances, rather than preparing yourself for the end of the world’.
‘Having a stocked pantry, knowing how to cook from basic ingredients, growing a little food and understanding where your food comes from – those things create resilience in everyday life and in my eyes that’s what prepping truly is,’ insisted the mother.
Ana continued: ‘These are things people did for generations before supermarkets made us rely on weekly shopping. So none of it is a new concept, just a forgotten way of thinking for many.’
Like Sarita, the preppers Ana knows – which is a considerable number considering she started her own UK Preppers Club on Facebook with 10,000 members and has a combined following of 32,000 fans on her Instagram and YouTube accounts – are just ‘ordinary, sane people’.
‘Many are women, parents, families, people who simply want stability and security. They are gardeners, cooks, teachers, office workers, nothing like the stereotypes you see in films,’ said Ana.
She revealed that prepping is becoming more popular amid ‘global uncertainty’.
‘When you know you have food in the cupboard, practical skills, and a plan if things become difficult, life feels less stressful. Preparedness is about removing panic from situations that might otherwise cause worry,’ she explained.
Donna Lloyd (pictured with her van, which is filled with supplies), from Wales, who now works in education after serving in the military, says ongoing events in Ukraine and now the Middle East have caused people to ‘reassess their safety and readiness’
Donna Lloyd, from Wales, who now works in education after serving in the military, says ongoing events in Ukraine and now the Middle East have caused people to ‘reassess their safety and readiness’.
The 60-year-old – who runs a local preppers group on Facebook – also suggested that some Britons would no doubt be increasing their knowledge of prepping after seeing the government’s apparent ‘lack of readiness and preparation’.
She noted how a business in Powys, focused on the tools apparently needed for prepping (think anything from freeze dried food to axes, crossbows and gas masks), had seen a ‘significant uptake’ in online purchases and in-store visitors recently.
Donna’s earliest memory of prepping was when as a child, her grandmother gifted her a paperback book about survival after having lived through the uncertainty of both World Wars.
But it wasn’t until after the pandemic when Donna started becoming an enthusiastic prepper.
‘Our electricity went off and a neighbour brought a camping stove to enable us to make a cup of tea,’ she recalled.
‘In that moment I saw how such a simple object meant the difference between the ability to make hot drinks and food and even being able to purify water, and being vulnerable and helpless.’
Donna now has supplies at the ready and keeps three months worth of food (including soups, stews, dried milk, sugar, tea and coffee) in the house, as well as some in her van.
She insisted that prepping is no longer for the ‘paranoid, isolated individuals’ – instead it’s for the mothers, fathers, teachers, people who want to keep themselves and their families safe if another disaster strikes.
‘More and more the message to prep is coming across from Eastern Europe, places like Poland and Finland, who neighbour Russia, and whose prepping and readiness both as individuals and families also extends into the community and is a part of instilling a feeling of unity,’ said Donna.
Like plenty of female preppers, writer Rebecca Tidy (pictured next to her daughter), from Cornwall, started prepping after the pandemic – before Covid, she described herself as a ‘classic millennial minimalist’
She said she doesn’t like to feel like she needs to carry around a bag filled with essentials or stock up on food, and would much rather the world be more peaceful, however warns: ‘Prepare, be ready for the unexpected, but get on with living and enjoy life.’
The extent to which preppers engage in the habit varies. At one extreme, there’s the doomsday preppers ‘readying for war and a complete deconstruction of society’ while others take a more moderate approach.
Melanie Williams, a wellness advocate and mother-of-six from the UK, is less worried about total societal collapse. Instead, she preps to always ensure she’s ‘one step ahead’.
Her well-stocked larder means she is prepared to combat most ‘everyday disruptions’ such as ‘rising food costs, supply issues and power cuts’.
‘We have all seen how quickly things can change, whether it is global events or local emergencies. It is not about panic, it is about peace of mind and staying one step ahead,’ she said.
Taking a ‘slow and steady approach’ to stockpiling, she simply adds ‘one or two extra items during my regular grocery shop, things like beans, oats, or a bottle of oil’.
She then ‘decants many everyday items into glass jars and containers’ so that she can see what she’s got, and what might be going off, all of which she documents in written records.
‘Bulkier items like large bags of rice, oats, or flour go into food-grade storage buckets to keep them safe and organised long-term. I regularly update a detailed inventory to cross off what has been used or add anything new.
Melanie also preps by growing her own food and by investing her time in reading up on and learning new life skills. Pictured, some of Melanie’s prep
Melanie’s larder is well stocked with food and other supplies – and she is prepared to combat most ‘everyday disruptions’
‘I keep a main pantry for everyday use, a separate one with surplus items, and a bulk pantry for long-term storage.’
Melanie also ‘preps’ by growing her own food, adding: ‘We are also learning how to raise goats, chickens, and other animals to support our self-sufficiency.
‘My boys tend to be more into survival skills, so I balance practical life skills with their interests.’
Her mother always had at least three to six months worth of food and supplies when Melanie was growing up, so it was only natural she would do the same for her own family.
But although she has always taken an interest in being ‘prepared’, times of turbulence has also kept her motivated. She described the Covid-19 pandemic as a ‘wake-up call’ that amplified her approach.
‘When people were queuing outside shops, I rarely had to because we already had what we needed at home,’ she recalled.
‘I have always kept a backup of essentials, something I learned from my mum growing up, she would always say to me have at least three to six months worth of food and water.’
While Melanie is open about her prepping, helping others learn her ways on her YouTube channel, she admitted some remain private about their habit over fears of being judged as ‘extreme’.
‘Some may also keep quiet because they do not want to draw attention to themselves, and that includes being private about what they have,’ revealed Melanie.
‘You never really know how someone might act if they are hungry or desperate,’ she said, highlighting a common fear among preppers who worry about others stealing their stock.
Citing negative stereotypes of ‘grumpy middle-aged men surrounded by cans of food or in a bunker’, Ana (pictured) insisted: ‘I’m not prepping for an apocalypse or zombie invasion’
But for Melanie, her children are at the heart of her motivations for prepping. She said her main aim is to ensure they will be ‘secure’ and can have their ‘needs met’.
Like plenty of female preppers, writer Rebecca Tidy, from Cornwall, started prepping after the pandemic – before Covid, she described herself as a ‘classic millennial minimalist’.
‘I prided myself on living a zero-waste lifestyle, borrowing and sharing things rather than owning a large supply of rarely used items,’ recalled the mother-of-one.
‘But when lockdown was announced and I stopped at Tesco after work, I was horrified to see empty shelves. My daughter, then two, has a severe dairy allergy and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), meaning she will only eat a handful of foods.’
Those affected by ARFID can eat only a very limited handful of foods that don’t cause severe revulsion.
Rebecca’s worries were increased when she realised that shoppers were limited to two of each item. ‘Far from ideal when your child only eats four or five things,’ admitted the mother.
The writer has been prepping ever since. She has around 40 cartons of oat milk stacked on top of her fridge and never lets her squash supply drop below 10 bottles.
‘I took things one step further a couple of years ago when I realised that my favourite holiday destinations are now war zones. Moscow, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Kyiv are all places I once visited without a second thought,’ said Rebecca.
‘Things felt uncomfortably close to home. I’m painfully aware that I’ll be the first to fall in a revolution if I don’t have my OCD medication.
‘These days we keep tinned food, gallons of bottled water and other essentials stored away. I’ve slowly filled the spare freezer in the garage with home-grown produce including berries and vegetables.
For Sarita (pictured), an associate dean in the school of psychology and humanities at the University of Lancashire, the global outbreak of coronavirus finally proved to her friends and family that her prepping over the last 20 years wasn’t ‘bonkers’.
‘I’ve invested in practical things like solar-powered battery packs for charging phones and devices, along with warm blankets and thermal clothing in case of power cuts.
‘There’s even a small amount of emergency cash tucked away – including pounds, dollars and euros – in case we need to leave the country quickly.
‘More recently, I’ve started thinking about energy security. My plan is to become energy self-sufficient this year, using solar panels and an air-source heat pump, like the rest of my family.’
Since starting her prepping journey, rather than coming across judgement from others, Rebecca has been astonished by the amount of people she’s encountered who secretly, or casually, prep.
‘When I mentioned my newfound habit to a very stoic solicitor friend in the Channel Islands, I was astonished when he said his family were prepping too,’ admitted Rebecca.
‘He had even bought iodine tablets in case of a nuclear disaster and military-grade storage for important documents like passports.
‘I don’t have a bunker or a haul of weapons, but I increasingly find myself watching the world news and wondering whether those famously enthusiastic American preppers might have had a point.
‘Our emergency supply of bottled water has already come in handy more than once, as we’ve had four burst water pipes in the past 18 months alone.’
Rebecca has urged ‘everyone should be stocking up’, insisting: ‘Right now, a hostile foreign power wouldn’t even need bombs to bring Britain to a halt.
‘Simply interrupting services like Deliveroo or Amazon Prime would cause instant chaos in a country that now expects everything from dinner to DIY supplies from B&Q to arrive within hours.’