Are you stocking up on food/household items?

[DaisyDooley]

Have you started ‘stocking up’ on items you think might be rising sharply or might become harder to get hold of?
We know that there will be a knock on effect of ships being stuck in the Straight of Hormuz.
I read that food prices are expected to go up by 9% by Christmas. I can’t remember where I read it don’t shoot me but I thought at the time that it was a ‘proper’ source (as opposed to my mates from school on Facebook).
If you are stocking up -what are you buying?

I remember a panic buy in a transport strike early 00’s and going back even further to the 1970’s with a sugar shortage that was not real.

there was also a salt panic buy which did not bother us as we lived on top of a salt mine

Its not fair, I totally got the panic of people but it was just greed, no thought for anyone else. I seen people that i know, that are single in the ahop during covid buying stupid amounts of bread, milk and loo roll and leaving hardly anything there for the wee older people who can't try getting online shops and only have the locals to rely on 😢.

But since you lot are on about pasta, loo roll and bread, im off to bulk buy gin off amazon...there will still be loads for me since you all aren't too bothered...😜.

Dont mind me in a few months when im on here making a post (whilst pished) about being desperate for a slice of toast with lurpak 🤣

I’m off to buy a cow, 6 or 7 hens and a small combine harvester.
And tomato plants from Dobbies

Im not a panic buyer -I plan and stock up to save money, hence why I started this thread to see what others were stocking up

How many times it’s the collective action! So if everyone starts stocking up because of reading threads about shortages & price rises it creates actual shortages because the supermarket buying cycle will be based on usual patterns.

I’ll swap you 4 loo rolls, 500g coffee beans, 4 tins chopped tomatoes, 2 kilos of rice and ajar of pesto for a bottle of gin at Christmas-deal? I’ll even throw in 6 crackers (the pulling type, not the cheesy type).

Ohhhhh - I’m going to do a ‘what will you swap me for xxxxxx’ thread tomorrow!

Im in...as long as its not my secret bunker of gin stash! 🤣

Nah...thats not worth it, id rather wipe my arse on Boris face till the stocks come back in, ehat about 2kg pasta 8 tins of chopped toms, 6 packs of savoury rice and 8 red peppers? (Use a lot of red peppers and tinned tomatoes here) 😆 🤣

Not food no. But I have started a seed store. Really got the allotment in order and today I decided I am starting a farm for herbs, lettuce and microgreens in my kitchen! Very exciting

Having been through the same 'prepare for it' situations and having survival stock, including dried food used for astronauts, which went out of date so used during covid.

It's always wise to have some extra things, including those magic filtering straws, but to panic buy will create the same unfair situation.

In any emergency are fortunate to have the government to respond with food packages and support but if it's nuclear bombing or virus then we don't stand a chance.

@Cocktailglass if a nuclear attack is coming I want to go in the first wave.
If not, I’ll have a few drinks, take rather a lot of prescription drugs and help myself along with cuts in my wrists.
I watched ‘Threads’ twice last year so l know what I’ll be doing, Just don’t know how I’ll do the dogs in! (God -I only wanted to know how many tins of beans people were going to buy.

I'm not doing any more shopping than usual. I always buy extras when things are on offer, eg I just bought 36 tins of mutti tomatoes as they can be 50% more expensive. And for every item I use I have at least one duplicate ready to replace it but that's something I've always done.

Ever since the fuel strike in the early 00s when we lived rurally and had 2 small children, I have kept a stock of food to last us 2-3 weeks. I haven't changed my buying patterns in the last few years and was bloody glad of that 3 week stock in COVID. We also have a delivery of Who Gives A Crap loo rolls twice a year. We're fortunate to have the space to store stuff.

If people all suddenly start buying "a little bit extra" that has a knock on effect and leads to shortages. Imagine that Tesco works on the basis that everyone doing their weekly shop buys two tins of chopped tomatoes and two tins of baked beans as that's the norm. Suddenly everyone buys 4 tins of each instead of two. Tesco then runs out of those items. People realise Tesco has run out of some staple items so then buy additional other staples as they are worried that the might also run out. Which of course they then do because everyone's bought more.

If everyone sticks to their usual buying patterns then there won't be any shortage.

I'm a preper and always have 2 freezers full. One of meat and batch cooked meals and one of veg and fruit from the garden which I top up with a few loads of bread. I keep two sets of shelves in utility room and I keep it full with tins, dried food, yeast and cleaning products and always have plenty of bottled water, medicines and wine. I have frozen milk too and long life milk. I don't need to panic buying I'll just be buying as normal and I rotate my stock so nothing gets wastede

The trouble with price inflation being expected for something is that it means in effect that thing is on sale now relative to the price it may be in the future.

So normal clever purchasing to take advantage of a sale still makes sense, but in practice isn't limited like normal sales which usually only apply to limited amounts of stock. In theory it could lead to shortages.

I'm not going to criticise anyone on a limited budget from trying to be frugal and essentially buy more while something's on offer though. It isn't panic buying, either, really - logistically inconvenient buying, maybe, but mostly people who do this aren't panicking, just planning ahead. I'm not sure the government doesn't want this to happen to some extent, either - we are all supposed to have three days of food in stock, aren't we?

Same here. I don’t buy random stuff just because it’s reduced, but if stuff I usually buy is on offer you bet I’m stocking up on it. The oat milk I prefer is usually £2.40 but often on offer at £1.80 so when it is on offer I buy six at a time then rarely have to pay full price. A few months ago my favourite herbal tea was discontinued/packaging changed so they were selling it off for pence. I bought lots of it over the few weeks it was in store at the reduced price which has meant I haven’t had to buy any since.

I generally keep a few back ups of stuff we use a lot of so that we don’t run out- eg have six tins of lentils, six tins of kidney beans, a few bags of pasta, a couple of boxes of weetabix, a couple of bags of oats, a couple of spare marmite etc but not crazy amounts and probably no more than we’d use in a fortnight. It’s not panic buying though, just how we normally shop. I grew up with my mum having a good store cupboard so it’s normal to me.

No.

Impressed

I have always bought larger quantities when stuff is on offer. My pantry is always well stocked. I also have to travel to a Chinese store for items so I do bulk buy then.

What utter nonsense

It would be foolish not to be preparing. The government should be making plans and telling us what contingencies, if any, they have in place. Distributing free seeds to people with gardens or balconies and veg growing advice, free grow bags might be a small idea. So far I have heard nothing. I hope they're not going to wait until things get bad like they did during COVID.

Yes. To the extent that I try to be as prepared for emergency situations of any kind as possible. This year I've planted more tomatoes and other veg than normal on the basis that fertiliser imports have been affected and fuel issues could cause supply issues.

I always have a full pantry and bulk buy things we use regularly. One DC has a particular attachment to a certain item that will store for a very long time and so I have a lot of that available. I have also bought extra bottled water in case of emergency disruption to the water supply. I have multiple extras of things like sugar, coffee, chocolate, honey, rice, flour, cous cous, pasta etc. I've made extra space in the freezer for meat and used up low value stuff like ice cream etc to make this space

I'm surprised at the responses you had early on in the thread since I've been onto a number of other similar threads over the past couple of weeks where the responses were very different and people were being sensible.

Every time someone doesn't need to go to the shop in a time of emergency it helps those who haven't prepared (since there is more available for those people). Stocking up gradually before shortages does not create problems it eases them. Those who just bury their heads in the sand are irresponsible IMO. I just treat it as a form of insurance. If there are problems then I am a bit more prepared than I otherwise would be. If there are no issues then I've saved a bit of money by bulk buying the offers.

Maybe pop over to the preppers topic where others are indeed making sure they are more resilient given the turbulence in the word. MN preppers are more like lifelong girl guides than cast members from the Walking Dead.

They have. They've told everyone to make sure they could stay at home and feed themselves for at least 72 hours to enable contingency plans to kick in in the event of emergency.

Practically every government in Europe has issued the same advice (in many cases with longer periods recommended)

The first time I tried tinned grapefruit was during Covid! It was the only tinned fruit left on the shelf when the shop had been ransacked because of the panic buying. The tin was dented and reduced in price. No-one wanted it until I came along!

Tinned grapefruit is delicious and I have bought it ever since. Every time I buy it, it reminds me of that covid panic buying. Hopefully it never happens again.

My aunt told me yesterday chicken and pork, also fizzy drinks , No idea where she heard it but she is buying extra meat for the freezer