Are you stockpiling?

[CravingHobnobs]

Are you stockpiling food, clothes, toys, medicines? I’ve gotten a bit worried lately with the news of price increases and limited supplies. Shelves seem fairly full where I am (London) but perhaps that’s not going to last? Can’t help but notice much of my food comes from abroad, not to mention medicines, DC clothes and toys, etc.

I’m a bit skint already but if prices will rise and I can do a bit of Christmas shopping for DC now I reckon I’d rather have it sorted.

[quote EdithWeston]@Keladrythesaviour - what you describe is exactly what I'd call keeping a stockpile!

And I agree it reduces shelf-stripping panic buying[/quote]
I guess as I'm not climbing over piles of tins to get to the TV I don't class it as such. It all fits in a very bog standard set of kitchen cupboards!

Best to get stuff like pickle, cranberry sauce etc early, less to think about just before the big day, nothing worse than have to go round the supermarket 2 days before Christmas with a huge trolley of stuff you could have bought 2 months earlier

@Keladrythesaviour - stockpiling can just mean one shelf, depending on the amount of space you've got.

If you have always kept a week or so of supplies, and always keep a spare of something (buying again when you crack open the spare, rather than not having one and buying just-in-time before you run out) that's a form of stockpile.

And it means you don't have to panic buy if there's bad weather forecast (as you'll,have enough in) and if there's a temporary interruption in supply of something, it doesn't matter because you're not going to run out quite yet

Even at the height of the panic buying and stockpiling last year I didn't have to open a tin of something just because I couldn't get anything fresh. At no stage was there not a single item of food in the shops.
I don't much like pasta or tinned tomatoes anyway.

@allfurcoatnoknickers

I'm not stockpiling, but ever since the first lockdown when it was really hard to buy food, I've always made sure to have a few weeks worth in the house - that usually means buying an extra non-perishable or two per shop.

I also started bulk buying loo roll online so I always have loads.

Same as allfurcoatnoknickers. My husband is CEV so if we do go into another lockdown then the onus will be, as before, on me to do the shopping. We have no car at the moment so will be relying on home delivery and me carrying stuff home from the shops.

Yes - medication, as told to do so.

I can only take a branded version of it, rather than generic - I have three months supply. It took two weeks get the last prescription filled as there are already issues with supply.

No, am not stockpiling, but was in Sainsbury's yesterday and there was a noticeable shortage of pasta, then again I am not brilliant at planning ahead

@bumblingbovine49

I'm not sure buying Christmas stuff now is considered stockpiling . Some on the Christmas threads seem to have bought everything by the end of August!!!..That seems to be called being organised instead

I think it's fine to get a start on Christmas buying early just don't call ot stockpiling on here because as you can see you will get a roasting .

I've also bought DS a load of clothes in advance of him starting college. He has more than he needs but I got extra.so I don't have to worry about it for the next 6 months or so. Is that stockpiling?. Maybe except it is how we always shop for DS's clothes

I also have at least 1-2 ( sometimes a lot more ) of staples I use a lot of in the house. That way I rarely run out of stuff that I regularly need . Is that stockpiling? I call it being organised

Buying Christmas presents earlier is not the same thing as purchasing a massive freezer and buying way more food than you need this week and putting it all in there.

Oh, have two weeks of meal-planned canned and frozen food, but also CEV.

Don't disappear down this rabbit hole. My mum was a war baby from an impoverished family so she learned to stockpile from infancy and has never broken the habit. She is (obviously) old now and has moved from her family home to a retirement flat. The amount of stockpiled groceries, clothes, craft supplies, toiletries, household linen, cleaning products, stationery etc we are having to sort through is simply obscene. What started as sensible precautions developed into extreme hoarding. And the waste involved is obscene. She had so much stuff stacked up over the years she would forget what was there and buy it again. And again.

Some of the choicer finds were an unopened bumper size pack of teabags dated 2001. Over 25 umbrellas, most of them still with the tags on. There were 2 blocks of cheese in the fridge, still in the packaging, both over 10 years old. I keep finding shoeboxes filled with greetings cards, each box contains at least 80 and there are 7 shoeboxes so far. There are packing cases full of unopened toys and craft kits she bought for my D.C. who are now 29, 26 and 23.

There is also a massive ball of elastic bands that she has picked up when local postmen discard them. It's about the size of a football and is so the bands in the centre of the hall have solidified into a single lump.

Every single one of these things would have represented a bargain that would 'come in handy' one day when she bought it. Now it's just a houseful of dirty tat. The scary thing is she is doing her level best to replicate it in her lovely new state of the art flat.

every single ,one of these

Buying Christmas presents earlier isnotthe same thing as purchasing a massive freezer and buying way more food than you need this week and putting it all in there.

Agreed. Not the same thing at all

I had a very meagre Brexit shelf we used to joke about with a 4 pack of baked beans and a couple of packets of pasta.
This lot did get eaten in the initial Covid hoo har. I couldn’t be arsed to replace it.
However if anyone sees any chocolate oranges for less than the £3.50 my local coop is flogging them at then I might be interested.

Yes totally. Buying extra "just a bit doncha know", encouraging others to do the same. Then next month I'll post in innocent astonishment at the lack of supplies available from retailers and the steep rise in prices.

No, for the first time in 2 years.

I had a Brexit cupboard with things I anticipated being in short supply and essential. That became my COvid cupboard. I’ve now run it down and just buy what we need. We live rurally so have to get in the car to go to any shops, so I always keep a good stock of the basics anyway to make life easier.

I did my annual purchase of stockpiling plastic straws yesterday as I don’t like paper, hats plastic, metal or any other types.

I don’t stock pile anything else unless it was something we regularly use or eat and was on sale at an exceptionally low price and then we might buy more to take advantage of the sale price.

I’m the opposite... After a disorganised summer of forgetting to get stuff out of the freezer/follow a meal plan, I’ve now made an inventory of all the food and ingredients in the house and am planning on spending as little as possible this month in the shops, while inventing new dishes to run down the store cupboard and freezer contents. Now I just have to think of a way of combining frozen smoked haddock and spinach with Borlotti beans😂

Not sure this is a responsible thread @CravingHobnobs
Reported.

It all fits in a very bog standard set of kitchen cupboards! Maybe size of kitchen determines whether you're classed as 'panic buying' (small kitchen so food elsewhere), 'stockpiling' (average kitchen plus a bit in garage) or just 'shopping' (expansive kitchen).

She had so much stuff stacked up over the years she would forget what was there and buy it again.

I hope that if I started to do this, my children would notice and try to do something about it before it got out of hand. In fact I know they would.

@JinglingHellsBells

Not sure this is a responsible thread *@CravingHobnobs* Reported.

You do know there's a whole Preppers topic?

OK, you might think the thread should be moved to it, but the idea that prepping is not a welcome subject on MN is wholly misplaced

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/preppers

Is no-one else confused about why the OP is stockpiling clothes and toys?

We're expecting online shopping to go berserk when the next Lockdown hits

There won't be another lockdown however we probably have at least one 'circuit break', as the government are now letting the virus run it's course.

Anyway we have always kept a larder/store cupboard. The trouble is we are coming into a perfect storm with farmers not having the staff to pick products, factories again not having the staff to prepare food, lack of transport worker and not to mention the new rules coming in on the 1st October due to Brexit. And that's not including any Covid issues.

@JinglingHellsBells

Not sure this is a responsible thread *@CravingHobnobs* Reported.

Bloody hell 😂😂

Sort of, but I always have plenty in. Loads of tins, pasta and rice as staples. Two freezers etc. with plenty of prepared frozen meals like bolognaise and curry that I can defrost and cook on a small stove, if necessary.

Where I live we often get power cuts in the winter after a bad storm (usually trees damaging power lines), and you’d be cut off from the shops too if trees have fallen across a road.

I’m in rural Ireland and our shops are well stocked.