AIBU to think the stockpile advice suggests something to come??

All good preparation 👍 love our solar/wind up radio/torch/charger and power banks. Most people I know do have similar camping stoves to us, I know sales of them and the cartridges have increased lately too. The usb hot water bottle intrigues me! One I hadn't come across. This thread has definitely proved useful for lots of info.

Totallly agree- I added dried herbs, extra paprika, garlic and tomato puree to my stores 👍 I also bought a tin of Nido (full cream dried milk) which has a lot of uses as well as the obvious if milk runs low.

Whatever about having a stash of tinned fish, corned beef, fruit, dried/uht milk and water etc. for example, most people would not have access to a camping stove or other forms of cooking in an emergency where all power and mains gas is gone. So my stash consists of the above tinned stuff + bread, crackers, cakes, biscuits, weetabix, protein powder and whatever is non perishable + toilet rolls (!).

I am on my own now so there's only me to cater for. I also have three mahoosive power banks and a wind up/solar powered torch/radio and candles aswell as those chargeable lights that you can stick up all around the place, but they only last as long as the charge that's in them. I have a note on my calendar to charge everything up once a month on a Sunday. It's easy to forget and then the charge runs out.

I also managed to get a spare month's supply of my meds from my (non NHS) very kind and understanding doctor. So I have a month's extra supply always now + spare paracetemol and neurofen.

On my list when I log out of here for a bit is to buy one of those usb chargeable hot water bottles. I could charge from one of the big power banks if needed. I hate to have cold feet!

El Niño

Maybe our experiences of covid have affected how we respond to this. Some people have said they didn't have much of a problem getting enough food, but my family certainly did. And the fear of not being able to put a meal on the table for my dc's has stuck with me.

Yanbu - I am trying to put together a 'go bag' but so far its an empty suitcase full of water 😩

This message isn't being filtered out for no reason. We have the Strait of Humuz (sp?) stuff still going on, threats from Russia, el nino and a very bad harvest this year.
If you can do something to help yourself and others, you're foolish if you don't.

That's a really good point about pets, we have two rabbits and they can't just eat grass and drink water from the pond if there's a heatwave when disaster strikes. We totally ran out of rain water this year, and we have three huge water butts, our back garden was a dust bowl and we had to buy in a lot of hay. Even foraging for dandylions and sow thistles became impossible, they were all dead. I had to get pellets.

I'd like to be in a position to help out others, too. Luckily our street is pretty good like that and i'm sure others would also share resources with those who are elderly or have little kids.

Think in terms of meals.
If you store some pasta, also store sauce or the ingredients of sauce: tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, dried onion, dried basil, tinned sweetcorn, etc.
If you store rice, think of what you will eat it with. Tinned stew plus curry powder? (Hopefully you are a better cook than me.) The makings of a risotto?

Herbs and spices can make all the difference if you are facing tinned and dried food for 3 days.

Its why we've been preparing in our house- it will be if anything an event that affects power/water/digital infrastructure. As I've said in my other posts, everything I've stored can be used as normal and replaced, I rotate it. The stove and canisters we use on days out etc so that's the same principle. Extra pet food, litter, same; use, replace. Further, I have a couple of neighbours who are elderly and vulnerable, one has no family- I want to be able to help them if need be even if it was only hot food, drinks, etc, and making sure they were warm/safe.

I have been thinking of doing this for a while, but i was thinking more as a prepartion for if there was a huge cyber/drone attack that affected card payments, bank accounts or energy supply.

I recon some bags of rice, pasta, beans, tinned fish and fruit, and some longlife fruit juice or milk powder. Definately a camping stove and lots of gas cannisters. Money in cash, etc. We recently bought an extra freezer for stashing a few extra things like meat and veg, but we haven't gone mad.

Most people of my grandmother's generation did this as a matter of necessity in case they got snowed in or the war/rationing affected food supply. I remember my gran's cupboard full of tins.

Not in a loft - it gets way too hot and gas expands. I wouldn't risk it with a cannister that was part-used in a stove. Actually not even with intact new cannisters.
Any cupboard, garage, or shed is fine. Cold is fine. Not wet as they rust.

Fortunately having a DH that is quite outward bound we have things like water filters and purification tablets, though I think he will be more inclined to use the local puddles and stream than I will be.

The craziest item we have which wasn’t purchased as a prep. My husband likes to go to storage auctions and stuff.

He came home with a 8 person life raft 🤣🫣 ready for great floods apparently.

👍😊

We have bottled water, I do have purification tablets on my shopping list 😅 push comes to shove id use the water out of the pool.

Im sure dh actually has a water distiller somewhere in the back of a shed.

Our water butts are all full and the sealed type, comes to about 1000 litres all told. Can be boiled (we have the necessary gas stoves and gas canisters) DH also has water purification tabs (he's ex military, I'd say he's cautious rather than a full on prepper 😅). And like everything else we've stocked up on, if we don't use it we'll use it in the garden at some point. There's something he did to also stop the water freezing.

Yep. We have two and approximately at the moment 14 cans or so. Stored in hall cupboard, which has a battery light so I can find it easily.

Agree. I recently received a high value voucher I could use at my usual supermarket; I have a disabled DH and whilst we already had a good stock, I've ordered a delivery, all items we use anyway which I can use and replace, and non perishables like toiletries etc. Great if there's never an emergency, nothing lost. If there is I don't need to get anything for quite a while. I think the 72hr period a lot of countries work on, the time its felt it would take to reorganise after a big power outage/cyber event is pretty realistic.

Exactly. They can't even take cash payments if there's no power because they can't safely open the shop.

All the shops shutting is very imaginable if card payment systems and atms go down.

Also, given how people get into fights over a Black Friday discounted tv, I don't think I want unnecessary trips to supermarkets if food shortages get bad.

Anyone with half a brain would realise that if we get power issues then no shops will be open since none of their systems will work - lights, electric doors, security cameras, tills, freezers, banking systems - all go down.

No. They don't think it will be necessary. All the shops shutting is fairly unimaginable. Sure not being able to buy the food you want, but having zero food available to buy is unimaginable

People probably think the government is going to bring a food package round their house, they seem to expect the government to do everything else.