Food supplies and what you should go for:

This is an easy project to start with. We all go shopping at regular times so all you need to do is buy a couple of extra tins of beans (or whatever) on top of your weekly shop. This is a cost effective way to do this and you won't really notice you're stocking an emergency pantry of food until it's full!

Okay, so you're now looking at putting aside a little extra food each month but what do you go for? Soups, tinned meat (such as tuna fish and corned beef) and tinned pasta (ravioli or spaghetti hoops) are just a few of the things you should have on hand. It's important that these are ready-to-eat products, so they can be eaten right out of the tin without cooking or other ingredients. Watch out for high-salt items; these can dehydrate you more quickly and are not as healthy. It's worth remembering what your kids will and won't eat at this stage. There's no point in having a cupboard full of ravioli if your kids won't touch it with a barge pole!

You can also have things like tinned vegetables, such as peas, carrots and potatoes to go with your tinned meat. And for pudding, how about tinned peach halves? Really, the only limit is your imagination and, of course, what you and your kids will or won't eat!

You'll need to keep an eye on the use by dates as well. Once they start getting close, just swap them out into your regular food cupboard and replace what you've swapped out with fresher stuff.

Try to get at least two weeks worth of food in. The government guidelines are for you to have a weeks worth. We're doubling that just to be on the safe side. You could always continue to buy extra tins until you have as much food as you are comfortable with of course. Not many people have got into trouble by being 'over prepared'.

Obviously, it won't be nice eating cold baked beans so perhaps you'll want to look at PROJECT 4 so that you can have a hot meal...

Don't forget about your pets! You don't want to have enough food for you and your family to last two weeks if you only have 3 tins of dog food for your Great Dane! If a pet that size gets hungry, well, you could be in a whole world of trouble...