Crisis What Crisis? Is my friend over doing the stockpiling and am I too? Continuation thread (2)

[RedToothBrush]

Continuation of the AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling thread for discussion about the government advice to stockpile for an imminent emergency and what the heck that emergency might actually be.

I'm moving it over to chat from AIBU as it makes a bit more sense to be there at this point.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5576816-aibu-to-think-my-friend-is-overdoing-emergency-stockpiling?page=1

Spoiler: it's more of a perfect storm of lots of factors coming together to potentially form one great clusterfuck from economic woes, global energy shortages (mainly diesel), potential food shortages, war and madmen to crazy weather patterns rather than a clear identifiable singular thread.

This is a practical thread and a bit of a handhold thread to make sense of events and how they may affect you. This is not an end of the world thread.

We are however going through a period where various governments throughout Europe think there is an elevated risk of some kind of problem due to global instability and we should start to get our heads around the possibility of needing to be ready for anything.

Remember an emergency can range from a temporary unexpected event to a much longer crisis but the underlying principles generally stay the same.

So this is for everything from tips and considerations about what might be a good idea to do /save minimise potential risks to just straight old political bollocks talk about how things are developing.

This is the official government information and advice, if you want further details on what the actual recommendations are:
https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/

This does actually explicitly say to write a personalised plan for your household which everyone knows and understands and to talk about the issues you may face to help you be able mobilise for any situation which might arise. Which is exactly what this thread is ultimately for.

Yep, two parts: the mentality, and the ability.

When push comes to shove, I am not confident many possess the former.

I've seen some very impressive basements full of preps in American homes, and of course you can be sure that at the top of the stairs is a person with a shotgun. So very different from here in the UK!

The dried ones are sadly incredibly expensive over here. We pick fresh ones in the forest, mainly chanterelles. And we also pick buckets of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries for the freezer.

Living as a lone woman one could always buy a baseball bat, or rounders bat - bit shorter, still effective. I'm joking, I think...

Occasionally, mostly when I'm starting to feel stress over the news rising, I'll remind people that an important area of prep is ensuring good mental health. Take time to practice good self care - whatever that looks like to you. For me, its taking breaks from the news and social media. Getting out in the fresh air, ensuring that some funds go into small acts of self indulgence.

I've now got my digital life on an airgapped hard drive. I'm continuing to trickle in a little extra into the food cupboards each week. My next focus is going through our medicine box and making sure we have remedies for coughs, colds, pains tummy bugs and basic first aid. Gaviscon has been added to the list for when anxious tummies become sore tummies. Anything out of date has been replaced.

Prescribed medicines are harder, but hrt has been a priority over the past few months.

An extra months supply of contact lenses has also been bought.

Yes, I had a week off from anything to do with the news last week, which is a luxury some can't afford to do for their safety.
It did my mental health a lot of good.

On a seperate note, I've gone and opened my stash of ginger biscuits and dark chocolate, orange ones kept for Christmas! I don't normally buy sweet things due to developing a sugar intolerence in middle-age but I got stressed and they were there hiding behind the tins of butter beans and rice cakes.
That is the trouble with stocking up on things😏

We dry our own as well as chillis and garlic in a dehydrator it’s handy to have.

I’d like to try that actually.

You can pick them up relatively cheap we have had ours for over 10 years not. First got it we had dogs and wanted to dehydrate liver and stuff as treats for them.

Done apple crisps for the children before but they were not keen.

With the chilli, garlic, onions and mushroom some we leave it larger bits and some we grind down to a powder. My children are not too keen on mushrooms but I always put a spoon of the powder in Bolognese and nobody seems to know.

I buy mushroom powder from an Asian shop and also put it in Bolognese. It makes all food taste so much better!

I don’t have anything nice in my prep stash, likewise I can’t buy anything nice early for Xmas, as I can’t trust myself not to eat it. We will have stuff to eat but we won’t be eating really tasty stuff- but I think in a dire situation a bit of nice stuff isn’t going to make that much difference mentally.

Just for a bit of good news, Albert Heijn’s website and app are working again. Apparently their customer service isn’t back online yet, and IIRC home deliveries will begin again on Thursday. They say there are still a few hiccups in the discount system that need to be ironed out, but it seems that things are close to getting back to normal.

ETA: Dutch supermarket chain for those who don’t remember

LBC radio has a great phone in right now about prepping Claire, don't know her last name has started to do some .it's very interesting I wondered if any callers were from here .

Wow the thread that keeps on giving !
I use a mini chopper to turn mushrooms into mini flakes and put it in Bolognese i never knew you can get mushroom powder !

Plus side in my house a rather annoying family member is allergic to mushrooms and oh well wouldn’t you know I’m just blending up some mushroom dust 😂😂😏

Holy your not the poster with the axe skills as well are you 😂😅

Mushroom powder, lots of different kinds https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/search?search=mushroom+powder

I love mushrooms thank you .

👀👀😏

Tbf my grandad was pretty good at making sure we knew where our food came from. He took us fishing and we have to scale and gut the fish, he used to come home with pigeons and peasants that we had to pluck and get oven ready and then taught us to shoot peasants.

Still not overly keen on hopper poppers but if had to I would and you’d get some fur as well as the meat.

Squirrel is a bit of a smelly meat in my eyes so not something I’d be keen on hitting but if needs must. A few of my allotment chaps however are regularly taking out the squirrels to save their corn and then they bbq them.

I often watch the local squirrel running up and down the street collecting whatever it is he/she collects, and thinking, I'm doing much the same! 😂

Kayta Adler on bbc with a programme about the Balkans, Albania currently.
however it was first broadcast in Feb 2025

An early heads up that some of the solutions that weather models are throwing up show potentially stormy weather into Friday. Worth keeping an eye on.

I spent the morning yesterday sorting out the pantry. We have lots of some things (pasta and rice) but are low on protein (other than beans). It's easy to throw a couple of extra bags of pasta into the trolly but I need to think about putting things together more. I also want to have extra vitamin tablets.

While musing over my medical supplies I thought about first aid and the greater likelihood of things like burns and injuries from trips if the power goes out in winter. If you arent a confident trained first aider, then a book on first aid would be a good shout.