To think 'prepping' is just shopping to ease anxiety

[JeffsanArsehole]

The likelihood of something 'happening' that prepping would have helped is pretty small isn't it?

Isis/alien invasion/zombie apocalypse - all pretty unlikely.

Apart from the pack of candles, a torch, and a 4 pint of milk in the freezer I'm not 'prepped' for anything.

So maybe people just buy 400 tins and a generator to ease anxiety?

Most people I know, don't even have torches or candles. But I suppose power cuts aren't as common anymore

If the papers are to be believed, electricity shortages are increasingly likely; the National Grid is working with very tight margins apparently.

no harm in having stuff in. Illness/snow/people over unexpectedly. Or money suddenly running out, cos the banks have gone mad or summat.

I lived very rurally growing up so it would seem odd to me not to have "supplies" in.

Plus I kind of like it, in a sitting on a branch with 10 pots of honey sort of a way.

no harm in having stuff in. Illness/snow/people over unexpectedly. Or money suddenly running out, cos the banks have gone mad or summat.

I lived very rurally growing up so it would seem odd to me not to have "supplies" in.

Plus I kind of like it, in a sitting on a branch with 10 pots of honey sort of a way.

Or the times when illness strikes the family distant to you, and you have to spend every weekend running "down home" and most of the week without a car and still getting on with school run and work, but no chance of getting to shops or thinking straight.

Sorry, I am of the Scouting/Guiding mindset ("be prepared"), not really the complete BOB mindset re alien invasions but have been thankful that my general organisedness and prepper stuff have seen me through various issues (from as simple as people announcing they were in my city (unexpectedly, or at least to me!) needing beds/dinner half an hour before I leave work to dash to afterschool club and evening activities, through snow and floods problems and electricity or other outages over the years, and current issues around keeping all the balls in the air while FIL battles a terminal illness a few hours away from us).

And mostly, it is not about having enough in the cupboards to FEED us for a year, but rather having though about alternatives to deal with washing, cooking, heating, entertaining etc in the absence of our normal systems. Many of which are possible to use regularly anyway (e.g. we BBQ anyway in summer - but for fun when it snows we have a neighbourhood BBQ on the green, and would use it for cooking anytime if both gas and electric were gone; and I tend to use a lot of candles for atmosphere so I generally have a stash (and matches) when the power goes out).

Yes the grid is a worry in the energy business. I think because they don't happen much now, people will be caught off guard.

I remember power cuts in my first house, 14 years ago.

The night we moved in, dhs dad brought us round a nice of candles, torches batteries etc.

We used them quite a few times in that house.

Imminently sensible to be prepared to power cuts and severe weather I reckon. We are too reliant on a system that is actually fairly fragile. But I also agree that prepping can be used as a way of alleviating anxiety by some people.

I don't do a lot of prepping but 5 years ago our water supply went off for about 5 days, it was just after Christmas, I was 7.5 months pregnant and had two small kids. Traipsing to Tescos to get bottles of water wasn't on my fun holiday list of activities planned. I now always keep some big bottles of water. A few years ago the network of bank machines used by Ulster Bank/Natwest also went down - they were slower to come back in NI than other regions. I never kept cash in the house before that, I do now. Not loads but enough.

I live in a large Canadian city and we are advised to keep enough supplies to hand to be able to look after ourselves for 3 days should something nasty happen and before the emergency services/city can get to you.

There was a massive flood a couple of years ago, and we often get a lot of snow, so it's not unlikely something could happen.

Our school has a whole trailer filled with earthquake supplies and emergency items.

I have an emergency supplies kit, when you live in an earth quake area it's extremely sensible.

In the UK a massive kit isn't required, however a little more canned food in the cupboard, some bottled water and torches are quite sensible to have on hand.

dh keeps talking about getting a small generator to keep the freezer and central heating going....I am beginning to see it could be a good idea. Esp since my giant freezer packed to the gunnels is going to be fuck all use after 48 hours of no leccy. 3)

I keep a good deal of food in, tins/pasta/beans/dried goods, never really thought about water. Weather wise we've been "cut off" properly once or twice in the last twenty odd years...once over Christmas so no one planned to go anywhere so I don't really count that

and maybe another three times where dh has got out with plans to maybe have to walk out/back from town but not had to.....we are about three miles from a small town.

Also try to keep torches at the ready and batteries, probably ought to make sure they are all good to go now winter is here.

I didn't know there was a peepers topic. Where is it?

The preppers are in Ebola topic. I happened upon it accidentally and promptly added a generator to my Xmas list

Thank you

I don't feel I need to do any of this. I don't live in the wilds. My neighbours have solar panels, other neighbours have a veg garden and we could always eat the third set of neighbours rabbits. Oh and I have a big jar of sloe gin in the garage. Between us we could managed.

So it's ok to rely on your neighbours forethought? I hope you're not my neighbour, because what I have is for my family. I'm not sharing with anyone, not if it impacts upon my family.

This is why people who prepare rarely talk about it in RL. If you want stuff, you get your own. You don't sit back, and expect others to do the work, then share.

Grasshopper and ants. I hope your ants are more generous than me.

But I will share my gin with the neighbours! We're all ants friends, we would pitch in together.

I'm not sharing with my neighbours, those noisy buggers have been slamming their gate and waking my littlest for the last two years, in fact if it all gets a bit Lord of the Flies I'll be calling for them first.

I think my husband is a secret prepper.

Tidying up an undersink cupboard yesterday I found:

7 bottles of Mr Muscle draincleaner
5 bottles of bathroom cream cleaning fluid
5 boxes of Colour Catchers
4 bottles of floor and surfaces cleaner
3 bottles of carpet cleaner
3 bottles of Febreze-type stuff
4 pairs of Marigold gloves

He must think it's going to be messy.

Abraid2 Maybe he knows how to deal with zombies.... Febreze them into submission then flush them down the drain. The cleaners to get everything tippety top after the Grand Battle.... I must admit, the colour catchers are a puzzle though.

Yeah I wouldn't share with my neighbours. Noisy twats.

They need to bargain their way in and bring more rum something to the party before they cross my threshold

"The likelihood of something 'happening' that prepping would have helped is pretty small isn't it?"

Not really. Try not to think about world apocalypse scenarios and look more at smaller emergencies where prepping in advance makes life much easier for you. Banging on the door at 3am, it's the police and you, your husband, and your 3 kids must evacuate your house RIGHT NOW because of flooding. Life will be a lot easier if you all have go-bags waiting at the door that you can just pick up and know that they have everything you need for the next few days. Car breaks down in the middle of the country with no GPS, no mobile signal and it's a 30 mile walk to the nearest town. That will be a pain in the ass of course but you are a prepper so you've got energy bars and bottles of water in the boot to make your walk more bearable. Little things like that are what prepping is, it's really NOT about hunkering down in an underground bunker hiding from flesh eating zombies. My prepping isn't about anxiety, it's about me acknowledging that small steps taken now may pay dividends in the future. I have a go bag ready to well...go...as the name suggests. I may never actually need it but I'll be very glad if I do need to, that it's there.

"And I think the 'zombie' apocolypse refers to the masses of unprepared people in the event of a disaster who go on the rampage for preppers stores in a scary zombie like fashion."

Yes. My concern is that if there is something like a temporary food shortage and neighbhours who haven't stocked up on food are dying of starvation, they will get very angry and violent in their search for food. If they know I have weeks of food stocked up, they would decide they are somehow entitled to a "fair share" of it. Those are the people I simply wouldn't help, if you aren't willing to invest time or money in prepping now, then I'm not willing to invest some of my preps in you if/when they are needed. So generally I don't talk about prepping now to anyone because it's like painting a big target on my back. People mock and laugh at you for prepping but if their children were ever starving to death, you can bet they would remember that conversation and decide to come and take their "share" of what isn't theirs by force.

I don't drink, none of us do. You'll have to do considerably better than gin.

Finger--should I let Rick know about the Febreze? Could be helpful in that RV.

Hmmm. Well along with the gin in the garage I have several pairs of roller boots, a lot of Japanese ingredients, disco lights and a ton of pet bedding. We could have a roller disco with sushi buffet around a campfire. That'll cheer us up. I bet that's worth a bottle of water and a tin of beans?

(Abraid you're invited, please bring your DH to clean up afterwards)