I'm not a prepper. I'm not an alarmist. But AIBU to be considering a small stockpile or supplies because of Corona?

[Hollyboba]

I've never done so in my life.

I usually have a wee snort at the preppers board when it pops up in general convos (sorry guys, no offence)

But reading about the Italian villages that have been put on lock down and families can't leave their homes has got me thinking...

Italy isn't a million miles away. Its not a 3rd world country. If its happened there...

Maybe just some bottles of water and some tinned goods? Medicines?

Am I going mad?

Just the more I read about the more sensible it seems. Even if it's not a case of being officially quarantined then it might be a good idea as it goes on not to have to go shopping as often as I do now?

Argh I don't know!

I won’t be buying tins of SPAM or 500 toilet rolls but I am making sure that the freezer and cupboards are fully stocked up with the stuff I usually buy and keep in. Things like having a full complement of chick peas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, black beans, tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, stock cubes, pasta, rice, frozen peppers, courgettes, butternut squash, spinach, onions, broad beans, peas, sweet corn, veggie sausages etc Making sure that there’s spare coffee and tea in, porridge oats, baking stuff. Nothing that will go off or be wasted but enough that I could feed everyone for a couple of weeks if I had to. I always have painkillers in.

If I’m quarantined I’m rewatching the West Wing from the start.

We had a bit of a Brexit stash, but all things we use regularly. DP got made redundant just before Christmas so it came in really handy saving money-wise, and we are now building it back up. We’ve always got a good storecupboard, but things like cat food, loo roll, tissues we’re just popping a few extra bits on the shopping order as we go. I walk through Boots on my way home from work and have been picking up paracetamol, cough mixture and stuff if I am buying other things. I always have a load of latex gloves for colouring my hair, but am ignoring emails about masks so far.

You should always have some bottles of water and enough tins to cook for a couple of weeks if you need to. As the government advice has said for many years.

Always a good idea to have enough supplies in to last a good few days.

I do this because....why not? If it had been us instead of Milan we' be so happy to have a cupboard full of food, if we never need it then I'll just use it up another time when I can't be bothered to get to the shops (I wouldn't buy anything I won't use up at some point).

Agree PitterPatterofBigFeet. I am getting my repeat prescription requests in early because they’re going to be under more pressure than usual.

Not unreasonable at all - but unreasonable, maybe, not to have a bit of a surplus stockpile already. I'm no prepper but it only seems sensible to have a little more in your storecupboards than you need in a week. You could all go down with flu and need to live out of the kitchen for a week.

I've still got the remains of my Brexit 'box' that I started ages ago but which stopped getting updated and rotated when nobody knew what the feck was going on and I could do with reviewing it. I don't think we need to buy in bottled water though. Just get a bit extra of whatever you use. If you have space in your freezer, use it. Think about what would really inconvenience you and your family if a Coronavirus emergency really did happen in your area - you might not be able to leave the house for two weeks. What would you need?

And then get supplies sorted now. There's no need for panic-buying. Just get some extras now and keep that topped up whenever you do a shop. If we did have a bad time with the virus, the very last place you'd want to be would be in an overcrowded supermarket with lots of other desperate people coughing in each other's faces.

I am looking forward to anti social dog walks where no one comes within 20 feet of you and I don’t have to keep pausing my audiobook.

Comparatively at this stage of an outbreak swine flu resulted in more deaths than Coronavirus.

Keeping well stocked all the time sounds sensible until one day you realise you have 8 cans of chickpeas in the cupboard and a spinach drawer in your freezer

Are we not already stockpiled up ready for Brexit?

Why do people buy water? We have our own anyway but just curious.

We have filled the freezer with things that are useful anyway and a few extra tins , but might add to it all as I do think this is still such an unknown especially if it’s escaped from a Wuhan laboratory rather than bats though neither sound great .
I am keen to get one of those huge bags of rice as used to do this anyway as much cheaper

Can never have too much corona in the house!!

I can report that Fray Bentos meat pies have gone downhill and now contain hardly any meat.

I thought I might be misremembering, but around two years ago there were a lot of complaints about the recipe changing to keep the price down. Now contain about 15% and no chunks. Gravy and a bit of slurry.

The Australian market (brand owned by different company) is 40%

I have just done this too, so that I can avoid going out if I need to. It also makes me feel better to know have done something....

This thread is hilarious - and the irony of the amount of you using up your Brexit stockpiles is clearly lost on all of you

The dates on my Brexit stash were running too near, I’ve had to start using all my long life milk and juice - will need to restock that but I’ve got loads of tinned beans and loo roll! I’ll do a shop this weekend to replace - maybe tinned fruit too. We could probably last a couple of weeks I think.

Not mad as it will help ease things if people do the same as in Italy.

But water do we need that - I assume water will be ok?

Need to buy it I mean - assuming tap water will still be available.

I always have a cupboard full of tins and I've a freezer full of bloody quorn products from when dd2 decided she was a vegetarian (and lasted 1.5 days). We also have bread ingredients agogo as DP likes to make a loaf or two of a weekend.

I don't want to admit to myself that I'm prepping but I have allowed myself to buy more ibuprofen and paracetamol than we really needed...and a lot of tonic water... if I'm going to be stuck in I want to be able to drink my way through it and we had a lot of gin and vodka given to us by the contractors on DP's building site at Christmas...so we need mixers.

Hadn't thought about the poor doggies though actually. Might get them an extra sack of biscuits to be on the safe side.

I'm actually longing for someone to tell me to self isolate for a few weeks, assuming I didn't actually have it. I feel rubbish with a (normal) chest infection that I'm struggling to get over but can't take any further time off work with it. Could do with a good week of enforced staying in.

Don’t forget your pets 🙂

I’m also not sure why people are buying water (ever, what’s wrong with the tap?!)

It’s not the death rate that is worrying, it’s the knock On effects, and also the fact that death rates are low (that we know of) but serious cases are running at about 20%. We don’t have enough ITU beds without a bloody flu type of epidemic with that rate of serious infections. We don’t cope now without that demand! and weirdly there seems to be no new hospitals being chucked up! The fatalities will go higher due to the non-availability of critical care beds.

Thanks, Tories. No, seriously, THANKS.

I've just added deodorant to the list. We've a house full of teen boys!

My dogs are raw fed and have their own freezer with food delivered fortnightly :/

Don't know what would happen in that situation

It's the unexpected things I'm concerned about, as pp say, you may have it bad but not awful and yet your at risk because NHS can't get you on a bed and respirator because it's busy.
Or vital component in equipment is not there because its manufacturing in China.

Being silly, what if all oil regions get seriously affected so no petrol, no deliveries no food...

It's the unexpected side affects that are concerning me.

We have enough tins and dried pasta to live off for a few weeks but I think the complaining from the DC might kill me if it came to that!!