From Lockdown Chaos to Family Resilience

A construction manager’s journey from empty shelves to food security, saving £3,600 a year while working 50+ hour weeks

The Breaking Point

March 2020. Kent, UK.

My wife was recovering from major surgery. Our daughters were 2 and 4, confused why they couldn’t go to school. The supermarket shelves looked like something from a disaster film – completely bare. No pasta. No tinned goods. No bloody toilet roll.

I stood there in Tesco, staring at empty shelves that should have held our weekly shop, feeling something I’d never experienced before: genuine food insecurity. Not “we might have to eat beans on toast tonight” insecurity. Real “I don’t know how I’m going to feed my family next week” fear.

The irony wasn’t lost on me. Here I was, a construction site manager who’d spent years interested in bushcraft and preparedness, completely unprepared for the most basic challenge: keeping my family fed during a crisis.

While others were panic-buying mountains of pasta they’d never eat, I was driving to three different towns just to piece together enough food for the week. Petrol stations had queues stretching down the road. Some had already run dry. Every trip felt like a gamble – would I find what we needed? Would there be fuel to get home?

My wife, still weak from surgery, was trying to entertain and manage two young children while I worked 50-hour weeks on site. We were surviving, but barely. Something had to change.

The Light Bulb Moment

One evening, exhausted after another fruitless shopping expedition, I did what I’d been trained to do on construction sites: I treated our food situation like a project that needed managing.

If I could coordinate deliveries of thousands of tons of materials, surely I could sort out family meals?

That night, instead of collapsing in front of the TV, I grabbed a notepad and started planning. Not doomsday prepping with bunkers and gas masks (though I’ll admit, the thought crossed my mind). Real, practical planning that would work for a tired dad with two kids and a recovering wife.

What if we could:

Shop once a week instead of daily panic runs
Know exactly what we’re eating for the next seven days
Build a buffer of supplies without becoming “those preppers”
Actually save money instead of haemorrhaging cash on emergency shops and takeaways

It seemed too simple. But then again, the best solutions usually are.

From Site Cafes to Sunday Prep

Let me paint you a picture of my pre-prep life:

5:30 AM wake up. Grab whatever was in the fridge for breakfast (usually nothing good). Stop at the garage for a meal deal – £5 gone. Site cafe for lunch – another £8 on something fried that left me feeling sluggish all afternoon. Too knackered to cook dinner, so takeaway – £30 for the family.

That’s £43 a day, just on rushed, rubbish food. Over £200 a week. Nearly £11,000 a year.

Mad, isn’t it?

The first Sunday I tried meal prep, it was a disaster. I tried to cook everything I’d seen on Instagram – thirty matching containers, colour-coordinated vegetables, the works. Four hours later, the kitchen looked like a bomb site, the kids were crying, and I’d made enough bland chicken and rice to feed a small army.

But here’s the thing about being in construction: you learn that the first attempt at anything is usually terrible. You iterate. You improve. You find your system.

Finding Our Rhythm

Week by week, we refined our approach. My wife, getting stronger, started joining in. The girls went from suspicious observers to enthusiastic helpers (turns out, kids love putting lids on containers).

We discovered that meal prep isn’t about perfection – it’s about progress. Some weeks we’d prep everything. Other weeks, just breakfasts and lunches. Even that small change was revolutionary.

The site cafe that had been draining my wallet and energy? Haven’t been in two years. That 3 PM energy crash? Gone. The stress of “what’s for dinner?” Eliminated.

But the real magic happened in the numbers:

Weekly food shop: Down from £180 to £75
Takeaways: From twice weekly to once monthly
Time saved: 10 hours a week not shopping, queuing, or arguing about dinner
Money saved: £3,600 a year (that’s a family holiday, or a decent emergency fund)

Beyond the Kitchen

Here’s what nobody tells you about meal prep: it’s not really about the food.

It’s about reclaiming your time. Those 10 hours a week I saved? I use them for press-ups in the garage, teaching my daughters to ride bikes, actually talking to my wife over dinner instead of wolfing down another rushed meal.

It’s about building resilience. When fuel prices shot up in 2022, we barely noticed. When everyone was panic-buying again during the lorry driver shortage, we were calmly eating from our well-stocked freezer.

It’s about teaching your kids real life skills. My daughters now understand that food doesn’t magically appear. They help plan meals, prep vegetables (with supervision!), and take pride in their packed lunches.

The Unexpected Journey

I never intended to become “that meal prep guy.” I was just a knackered dad trying to keep his family fed during a crisis.

But when mates started asking how we always had home-cooked meals despite my crazy hours, when school mums wondered how our girls had such varied packed lunches, when my own energy levels transformed from surviving to thriving – I realised I’d stumbled onto something worth sharing.

Project Prepared isn’t about becoming a doomsday prepper (though having a few extra tins doesn’t hurt). It’s about taking control of the most basic aspect of family life – feeding ourselves – and using that as a foundation for real resilience.

Why This Matters Now

Four years after that panic in Tesco, the world hasn’t got more stable, has it? Energy prices through the roof. Food inflation making the weekly shop feel like a mortgage payment. Global events that remind us how fragile our “just-in-time” supply chains really are.

But here’s the thing: you don’t need to be scared. You need to be prepared.

Not prepared with bunkers and bug-out bags. Prepared with simple systems that work when life gets complicated. Prepared with skills that save money when times are tight. Prepared with habits that give you time for what actually matters.

Your First Step

If you’re reading this thinking “Sounds great, but I can barely make toast without burning it,” I get it. I was you. The construction manager who thought cooking meant heating up beans.

Start here: This Sunday, spend one hour prepping just your breakfasts for the week. That’s it. Seven portions of overnight oats, or egg muffins, or whatever gets you going.

One hour. Seven breakfasts. No more morning stress.

That single change will save you:

35 minutes each morning
£20-30 per week
Countless arguments about who’s making breakfast

Once you nail breakfast, we’ll tackle lunch. Then dinner. Then building your emergency supplies. Then teaching your kids. Step by step, week by week, building resilience one meal at a time.

Join the Journey

Project Prepared is more than a blog – it’s a community of regular people building extraordinary resilience through ordinary actions. We’re parents juggling work and kids. We’re not survivalists; we’re survivors of the daily grind who’ve found a better way.

Every week, I share:

Real meal prep strategies that work for busy UK families
Budget breakdowns showing actual savings (with receipts!)
Simple preparedness tips that don’t require a bunker
Stories from our community making this work in flats, houses, and everything in between

Ready to stop surviving and start thriving?

Join our email community below. You’ll get my free “First Sunday Prep” guide – the exact one-hour system that started our transformation. No spam, no doom and gloom, just practical help for real families.

Because if a perpetually knackered construction manager from Kent can do this, working 50-hour weeks with two young kids, you absolutely can too.

The question isn’t whether you need to be more prepared. It’s whether you’re ready to start.

Welcome to Project Prepared. Let’s build your family’s resilience, one meal at a time.

Christopher started Project Prepared after realising that true preparedness begins with the basics: feeding your family well, consistently, and affordably. When he’s not managing construction sites or meal prepping, you’ll find him teaching his daughters to cook or doing press-ups in his garage in Whitstable.

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Why I Started Project Prepared