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!

We are in Switzerland - supply chain here seems to come from Italy so online stores already showing low supplies and telling customers they have above average number of stocks unavailable.

I have bought a few extra things with long sell by dates just in case

I am known for always having loo rolls and tissues as well as soup, rice and frozen veg and fish. I think a lot of it comes from growing up rurally and always needing to be prepared. I think it is sensible to have stuff in, we use it and I just stock up my stock if that makes sense. So we might have 4 tins of soup in the cupboard and if we use one I replace it rather than us having 1 in the first place.

None of us know what will happen. I think it is already widely in the community to be perfectly honest, I would be amazed if it isn't. I think in another week or so they will be beyond having lockdowns as I think it will be past that and we just have to get on with things but I would rather have some stuff in just in case.

Or just rather disorganised and don't need to count every penny!

I have a good few weeks of supplies in the cupboards, but I'm certainly not disorganised and don't have to count every penny.

You don't need to be broke to care about your spending. I could easily buy all our stuff at our grossly expensive convenience store. But I don't because I've been brought up to respect money - hence why we are well off! You don't get to have money by spending it frivolously!

As for organisation, I have a shopping list on an excel spreadsheet which I review the evening before I go shopping - it's like a military exercise down to only buying the exact number/amount of fresh stuff I'll need for the forthcoming days of meals, which I've pre-planned. I buy specific numbers of fruit & veg rather than buying pre-packs and therefore have very close to zero food wastage. As for tins/packets etc that last for several months, then I bulk buy when they're on offer - I never buy a single tin of beans or a 4 pack of loo roll - I just wait until the offers come around again - it's always the same things that keep coming up on offer every few weeks.

The majority of people on these sort of prepping threads are those suffering with anxiety and they like the idea of planning to give them sort sort of perceived control.

Could you possibly be more patronising in addition to being wrong? "Preparedness makes us powerful" said the Prodigy in the sleeve art for one of their albums and they were right. If you have two weeks' of food, at least some of which needs no heating, and a few days' water, you are insulated against water main ruptures, power cuts, bad weather stopping the lorries from getting to the shops, etc. These things are foreseeable and are common in some areas of the country. My mum lives in a village where flooding is commonplace preventing access to the shops and the village was cut off by snow during Beast from the East. This is in mainland England, not a farflung Scottish island. Preparing for predictable problems is not a symptom of anxiety, it's good sense.

I am of the same mindset as I was with the Brexit stockpiling - that if you can afford to do so, and the food won't go to waste, then why wouldn't you?
I have a nice little Brexit stockpile so would have enough tins and packets to make meals from for a couple of weeks but I need to top up UHT milk and bread flour.

I've actually found it very handy to have a stockpile. I've got backups of most of our favourite items and it's useful to be able to raid the stash for a jar of peanut butter or box of cereal when they run out. It reduces the need to pop to the shop for "just one thing" and come out with a trolleyful...

Preparing for predictable problems is not a symptom of anxiety, it's good sense.

Exactly. Perhaps those living in big cities have no concept supply problems with them being used to being surrounded by shops, good infrastructure, etc.

I live out in the North West of England - still pretty civilised, we even have shops up here. BUT, weather related problems are pretty common. Back in the 70s, the town got very badly flooded - shops were closed for a few days. A few years ago, we had storm Desmond which wiped out the power and telecoms for a few days. Even in "normal" weather, we can suffer power cuts of a few hours which close shops and melt your freezer contents. It's all part and parcel of normal living.

Taking reasonable precautions isn't a sign of MH or anxiety - it's common sense. During storm Desmond, we were grateful of our gas camping stove, battery powered radio, torches and candles. I was a child during the miners strikes of the 70s - power cuts were the norm - it's just automatic to have plenty of batteries, candles, etc in the house and something we've always done. Likewise, in addition to the wireless telephones in the house (which are useless in a power cut), we also have a wired phone which doesn't need electricity!

Given the way we're closing power stations and relying on windfarms, I think power cuts will become more common, so no reason at all not to take reasonable precautions for the inevitable, whether due to weather or due to inadequate generation levels.

Likewise, in addition to the wireless telephones in the house (which are useless in a power cut), we also have a wired phone which doesn't need electricity!

The wired phone is also useful if BT decide to "tidy up" the phone connections in the green box at the end of your street and disconnect you in the process, as happened to me last year. Wireless phones are no good for testing the line.

I have a few bottles of water in because we had a burst main water pipe in our small town a couple of years ago, and supplies were cut off for 2 days.
It started early on a Sunday morning and by 11am there was not a bottle of water to be found in any of the shops. The council issued bottles of water from a car park, and quite literally, fights were breaking out (made it onto the local news)
So anyone wondering why people keep water in is is clearly unaware how quickly systems can break down.
I keep a few large bottles of drinking water and a large barrel of water in the shed, plus a couple of old plastic milk bottles in the loo for flushing.

As to the rest, our family could cope for a month or more without getting out to buy supplies if necessary. I don't want to be out there battling for supplies if everyone suddenly goes out all at once to 'grab a few bits'.

Spare a thought for these nursing staff this letter was in the Lancet from them:(

On Jan 24, 2020, we came to Wuhan, China, to support the local nurses in their fight against the COVID-19 infection. We entered the Wuhan isolation ward as the first batch of medical aid workers from Guangdong Province, China. The daily work we are doing is mainly focused on provision of oxygen, electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring, tube care, airway management, ventilator debugging, central venous intubation, haemodialysis care, and basic nursing care such as disposal and disinfection.

The conditions and environment here in Wuhan are more difficult and extreme than we could ever have imagined. There is a severe shortage of protective equipment, such as N95 respirators, face shields, goggles, gowns, and gloves. The goggles are made of plastic that must be repeatedly cleaned and sterilised in the ward, making them difficult to see through. Due to the need for frequent hand washing, several of our colleagues' hands are covered in painful rashes. As a result of wearing an N95 respirator for extended periods of time and layers of protective equipment, some nurses now have pressure ulcers on their ears and forehead. When wearing a mask to speak with patients, our voices are muted, so we have to speak very loudly. Wearing four layers of gloves is abnormally clumsy and does not work—we can't even open the packaging bags for medical devices, so giving patients injections is a huge challenge. In order to save energy and the time it takes to put on and take off protective clothing, we avoid eating and drinking for 2 hours before entering the isolation ward. Often, nurses' mouths are covered in blisters. Some nurses have fainted due to hypoglycaemia and hypoxia.

In addition to the physical exhaustion, we are also suffering psychologically. While we are professional nurses, we are also human. Like everyone else, we feel helplessness, anxiety, and fear. Experienced nurses occasionally find the time to comfort colleagues and try to relieve our anxiety. But even experienced nurses may also cry, possibly because we do not know how long we need to stay here and we are the highest-risk group for COVID-19 infection. So far 1716 Chinese staff have been infected with COVID-19 and nine of them have unfortunately passed away. Due to an extreme shortage of health-care professionals in Wuhan, 14 000 nurses from across China have voluntarily come to Wuhan to support local medical health-care professionals. But we need much more help. We are asking nurses and medical staff from countries around the world to come to China now, to help us in this battle.

We hope the COVID-19 epidemic will end soon, and that people worldwide will remain in good health.

I was a child during the miners strikes of the 70s - power cuts were the norm - it's just automatic to have plenty of batteries, candles, etc in the house and something we've always done.

Unreliable infrastructure breeds resilient people. You get used to stuff not working all the time and preparing for it becomes second nature. People who've never had a powercut in their lives don't understand this.

Oh Justaboy! That's awful! Those poor people.

I've just been shopping and stockpiled on tinned tomatoes and pasta. They were on offer, they're both produced in Italy and I've probably been a bit impulsive but I do feel a strange sense of satisfaction with my cupboard.

bd67 I agree. Older MNers like me have lived through times when there were shortages and power cuts etc. There was still rationing when my mother was a child.
My adult children have never known anything other than a very smooth running 'just in time' supply chain, and find it hard to imagine not being able to nip out and buy whatever foodstuff takes their fancy.
So I suspect the people who think that keeping a month or so of stock in is rash or impulsive are of a similar age.

Yep... not usually my style at all... but I just spent 160 stocking up so I do feel prepped!!

Exactly Funkycats and bd67thSaysReinstateLangCleg .
Totally agree about experience of unreliable infrastructure.

A couple of years back both of the kids fell ill just before Christmas. No chance of going shoping with ill kids, no chance of online delivery in a week leading to Christmas.
That taught me the importance of having some food buffer “just in case”.
Dry ingredients(rice, pasta, flour)
Tins whatever they are- tuna, veg, fruit.
Long lasting supplies bought in bilk when they are on the offer.

We've had posters on here saying they'll just get an online delivery. Really? It's not a public service. People who load the vans or deliver the food also have kids whose school might be closed etc etc.
Or, "I'll just stay home with Netflix ". Presumably these are people who don't need loo roll or food.

I don't think it's overly cautious to be prepared. It's a matter of when, not if, now and to have a few face masks, sterile gloves and a good supply of food, water and medicine is only sensible.

The British public perception of wearing face masks and practising good hygiene is something else though. How difficult is it to remember to use a tissue to cough or sneeze into and then anti-bac or wash your hands?

If people decide to stay at home to protect themselves and look after their families, who will be delivering parcels? Working in food shops? Handling bank transactions? Working in the meat pie factories or flour mills?

Utilities such as water, electricity and gas can dust off their emergency procedures, but nobody can guarantee staff will turn up if scared.

We're stocking up on tins etc already. Can't do any harm, can it.

We live rurally and get lots of power cuts, usually less than 24 hours in duration, but we had a 3.5 day one in 2017 and nearly 3 days unexpectedly without water last summer. I grew up in a similar sort of location and we’d routinely lose power for up to 5 days. We often get snowed in, roads blocked by fallen trees etc. We’re only a tiny hamlet of maybe twenty or so houses, so are bottom of everyone’s priority list when it comes to restoring power/water/access.

I have around 2 weeks of cupboard food, plus another 2-4 weeks of food in the (huge chest) freezer plus spares of soap/shampoo/loo roll etc. I also keep a small supply of drinking water since the unexpected loss of water last year. We even have a little generator so we can run our freezer every 24 hours during a cut to avoid food spoiling. We have a wood burner which provides a secondary heating and ability to cook food, make tea etc. We’re pretty self sufficient for short periods, but then we need to be. I think we’ve had 5 power cuts in the last 12 months alone. We lost power and had to remain in our house for safety for nearly 2 days during the recent storms. Not unusual.

I hadn’t really thought of coronavirus specifically, but I do always make sure we have enough medicines in case the DC and I come down with norovirus or flu or similar. DH works away a lot, so I can’t guarantee he’d be here to help either.

I never thought of it as prepping, but I suppose it is.

We've had posters on here saying they'll just get an online delivery. Really? It's not a public service. People who load the vans or deliver the food also have kids whose school might be closed etc etc.
Or, "I'll just stay home with Netflix ". Presumably these are people who don't need loo roll or food

I think it shows how utterly pampered we have been as a society that there are those who just can't picture life without all the things available right now for our use and disposal... These are the people I want to avoid in the supermarket if the shtf for real.

I have inverters and car batteries to power the freezers if need be. I wonder if inverters have gone up in price. They were under 30 quid last time I checked.

Living in the hills, i always have a stockpile of food, water, loo roll and medicines. I always have a dozen gas cannisters for my camping stove. I also have a wind up radio, although reception where i live is very poor. It wont hurt to have a stock pile but it will hurt if you need to stay at home.

I was in the area affected by the cryptosidum (sp?) bug in the water in 2015. We went pretty much the whole summer having to boil water to sterilise it before consumption, which then tastes like shit when you are boiling and want a nice cold drink. Also with a full time job and 2 kids, one still being an infant at the time this was a major fuck about. It was cheaper in the long run to buy some bottles of water vs the cost of boiling on a gas hob.
For this reason (although the chances of same thing happening again are miniscule) I always have a couple of bottles in the house now.

I am not a pepper by any means but I do like to have a few extra tins of food we like, a couple of cartons of uht (more because we go through loads of milk and coming down in the morning and realising I can't have a brew really pisses me off) and a few other long life items so that on the chance of feeling shitty and cba, being totally skint or any other reason means I have a small back up.
I have also had one of those years in the past where 1 month the car died costing a couple of hundred, the next month the washer gave up, then the oven broke etc. Having a small back up made a stressful time a little bit easier.