AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling?

Like people saying, you need an emergency pile of ‘treats’ but plan to eat everything cold out of the tin.

people planning litres and litres of water to drink, ready to waste it but that’s ok. However, wasting food is a no-no so you only buy what you know you’ll eat.
Or a stock of toilet paper
But no one is planning water to flush the loo or wash dishes. Now imagine the state of the loo after 5 days with no water…..

id be worried about heating in winter. Because great to have food in the house. But the cold after 5 days? After a couple of weeks with no heating? What’s the plan there?

And I think a plan to deal with the anxiety, the fear in those times is an absolute must.
So is finding ways to ‘entertain’ yourself during the days. When you’re stuck at home, no Tv, no music etc…. Even more with children. Both because days would be long but also because it can reinforce the anxiety if you just wait doing nothing.
Because my main memory of those days with a hurricane (and the few days afterwards) is that anxiety and fear. Not food. Food for a week or so is fine. You find something to eat. And often you’re not really hungry anyway.

If we’re planning for weeks of disruption then it’s a different matter.
I do believe that we will get disruptions (of food) this winter. We will have empty shelves. But that’s much easier to deal with. You can stock what you know you’re eating in advance to have a buffer. It doesn’t require short cooking time, long life milk and being happy to eat foods you dint normally eat.

Like people saying, you need an emergency pile of ‘treats’ but plan to eat everything cold out of the tin.

people planning litres and litres of water to drink, ready to waste it but that’s ok. However, wasting food is a no-no so you only buy what you know you’ll eat.
Or a stock of toilet paper
But no one is planning water to flush the loo or wash dishes. Now imagine the state of the loo after 5 days with no water…..

id be worried about heating in winter. Because great to have food in the house. But the cold after 5 days? After a couple of weeks with no heating? What’s the plan there?

And I think a plan to deal with the anxiety, the fear in those times is an absolute must.
So is finding ways to ‘entertain’ yourself during the days. When you’re stuck at home, no Tv, no music etc…. Even more with children. Both because days would be long but also because it can reinforce the anxiety if you just wait doing nothing.
Because my main memory of those days with a hurricane (and the few days afterwards) is that anxiety and fear. Not food. Food for a week or so is fine. You find something to eat. And often you’re not really hungry anyway.

If we’re planning for weeks of disruption then it’s a different matter.
I do believe that we will get disruptions (of food) this winter. We will have empty shelves. But that’s much easier to deal with. You can stock what you know you’re eating in advance to have a buffer. It doesn’t require short cooking time, long life milk and being happy to eat foods you dint normally eat.

Which stuff isn't as important as it looks?

No it doesn't. At the moment there are no supply chain issues so if people buy more the shops simply order more.

The selfish people are those who dont bother to do anything and rely on others to bail them out.

This isn’t how ‘just in time’ stocking works. The scanning of the bar code tells the stock programme that an item has been sold. When enough have been sold, the programme orders more (with some leeway for shoplifting / damage etc).

If the computer goes down, whether due to a power cut or a cyber attack or any other reason, the order for more doesn’t go in and the shop doesn’t restock.

(Similarly if the lorries can’t get through, the shop can’t restock so bad weather has a similar effect though the cause is different).

At the moment, there is nothing to stop the shops replacing goods purchased by customers. That means buying now rather than when there is a problem with restocking (if that occurs) is a good thing.

The cyber attack / inability to know what to stock is what happened to M&S last year. They had power and the weather was fine, they didn’t have the stock on the shelves because they didn’t know what was needed because the stock control computer had been hacked. That was apparently 4 teenagers. A country carrying out a planned attack would target all shops at once. It took M&S months to get back on track. Imagine the same with every supermarket chain in the country.

Well there’s sure to be shortages if everyone’s trying to do as your friend is doing. It’s selfish and just causes more problems for those who are not in a position to stock up or can’t afford it.

Well there’s sure to be shortages if everyone’s trying to do as your friend is doing. It’s selfish and just causes more problems for those who are not in a position to stock up or can’t afford it.

Well there’s sure to be shortages if everyone’s trying to do as your friend is doing. It’s selfish and just causes more problems for those who are not in a position to stock up or can’t afford it.

I get that we have been advised to stock up on essentials, though I think it will encourage panic buying. I will probably get a few days worth of stuff at some point . My friend however has, at least in my opinion gone ott about it. She’s stocking up a six month supply of food. She’s bought head torches, a camping gas stove and various other stuff. She thinks I’m being naive …Am I missing something here ?

This is building resilience though for emergency situations.

Then I think I have a different idea of what resilience means.

Id happily treat a 5 days stint with no electricity and water as a camping trip.
Water tablets (+ a portable water filter) and a water butt for rain water so we can at least flush the loo.
A Trangia for cooking
Wood for the wood burner in winter.
Solar panel to recharge the power bank so we still have access to the news
Cash in the house (we usually have very little)

The rest feels too ‘panicky’ to me.
Not helped by what is feel is the pressure to ‘try new foods’ just so I can stock my cupboard. 🙄🙄

Maybe it’s from having the lived experience of a natural disaster (hurricanes) that has shown me some stuff isn’t as important as it looks.

This is building resilience though for emergency situations.

Then I think I have a different idea of what resilience means.

Id happily treat a 5 days stint with no electricity and water as a camping trip.
Water tablets (+ a portable water filter) and a water butt for rain water so we can at least flush the loo.
A Trangia for cooking
Wood for the wood burner in winter.
Solar panel to recharge the power bank so we still have access to the news
Cash in the house (we usually have very little)

The rest feels too ‘panicky’ to me.
Not helped by what is feel is the pressure to ‘try new foods’ just so I can stock my cupboard. 🙄🙄

Maybe it’s from having the lived experience of a natural disaster (hurricanes) that has shown me some stuff isn’t as important as it looks.

This is building resilience though for emergency situations.

Then I think I have a different idea of what resilience means.

Id happily treat a 5 days stint with no electricity and water as a camping trip.
Water tablets (+ a portable water filter) and a water butt for rain water so we can at least flush the loo.
A Trangia for cooking
Wood for the wood burner in winter.
Solar panel to recharge the power bank so we still have access to the news
Cash in the house (we usually have very little)

The rest feels too ‘panicky’ to me.
Not helped by what is feel is the pressure to ‘try new foods’ just so I can stock my cupboard. 🙄🙄

Maybe it’s from having the lived experience of a natural disaster (hurricanes) that has shown me some stuff isn’t as important as it looks.

I've got lots of solar panels, a massive battery and it works if the grid goes down. Apart from that I only buy things I'll eat anyway but I store extra. Nothing gets thrown away, it just requires some stock rotation.

I wonder what people think campers/caravanners do. I've got two bottles 7kg+ 4kg in the locker of my caravan and two 500g bottles of butane/propane mix in my camper van.

Where would you suggest they store it?

I haven’t done a thing either, no shopping, no dooms day prepping here! The issue is, as with Covid I will buy a lot of stuff we don’t ever eat and then have to throw it all out in a few months!

If it all goes to shit where 6 months food is needed, then those who have stockpiled will just be attacked and robbed by those who haven't.

I haven't got got enough food in to last this week, let alone months !

This is building resilience though for emergency situations.

Nobody is suggesting you go out and buy lots of things that you will never eat. However in an emergency most people will be flexible

Without knowing what you eat it is difficult to know what suggest but we have things like

Cous cous
quinoa
packet cooked rice (we don't generally eat this type of rice but it wouldn't go to waste since we could eat it)
tinned beans
tinned peas
tinned sweetcorn
tinned tomatoes
tinned ratatouille
tinned water chestnuts
tinned chick peas
tinned soup
tinned tuna
tinned sardines
tinned mackerel
tinned grapefruit
tinned pineapple
tinned apple pie filling (which the kids will happily eat with custard)
tinned peaches (again the kids happily eat these wit custard)
tinned custard
ghee
jarred olives
jarred carrots
jarred peppers
jarred sun-dried tomatoes
vacuum packed beetroot
vacuum packed corn on the cob
nuts (various varieties)
pasta
noodles (we would use in stir fries)
dried stuffed tortellini
powdered egg
powdered milk
shelf stable parmesan
packets of nut loaf
bags of soya mince
jarred pasta sauces and pesto
honey
marmite
relish
rice cakes
crackers
biscuits
cereal bars
chocolate
crisps
flour
oats
sugar
yeast
sunflower and coconut oil
cereal
long life milk
oat milk
tea
coffee
hot chocolate
squash
long life juice

extra dog food
extra cat food

Obviously you then have anything else that is already in your cupboards/freezer/fridge. I have a well stocked pantry with spices and seasonings.

If you don't want to buy water then buy a food grade jerry can and fill it from the tap. If you leave a small gap at the top then you can reoxygenate it before use (or use it up to water plants and then refill)