To ask for a roundup of all the 'non-essentials'?

[SuckingDownDarjeeling]

I've seen some beautiful examples of things some commenters think are 'non-essential' and therefore people shouldn't be leaving their houses for... trawling through each thread to find them is so tiresome, will some kind MNers please share what they've seen that made them laugh?

I'll start... Newspaper, Bread, Milk

Not looking to name and shame anybody, I just want some insight into the state of things right now.

I'm just waiting for somebody to start listing off 'essential' medications. Maybe that will stop selfish people flocking off to the pharmacies to buy Germoloids finally! (That was a joke please don't kill me )

Agreed on the rhubarb and custard hot cross buns - very sweet, not much flavour.

Any vegan or vegetarian food (tofu, plant milk etc). Being vegan isn't a real dietary restriction, it's just fussy faddy nonsense. If you can't find any plant based protein when you go shopping you should just buy some meat or starve to death instead of making a second trip. Those fucking vegans and their deeply held moral beliefs, selfishly considering food they can actually eat to be essential.

Anything ordered online, but especially exercise equipment. As one poster said "why would anyone need an exercise bike? They should just watch YouTube videos about exercise or do like that man in France who ran a marathon on his balcony."

And of course if your bread runs out, instead if buying more you can just use crackers. You know, those crackers that everyone has in the cupboard. And if they have no bread or crackers then let them eat cake.

Baby clothes. Apparently they don't grow that fast and ones about to be born can just be rolled in pillowcases or something

I know I should not laugh but that's hilarious, I'm just imagining loads of newborn babies randomly wrapped only in pillowcases

I have just eaten an aldi rhubarb and custard hot cross bun and I love them. I am a vegetarian and if I put meat or meat products in my mouth now it makes me gag so vegetarian products are essential to me. I would say 90% of all people I have seen whilst food shopping are just doing their usual shop. That includes wine, beer, desserts and chocolate. The supermarkets still want to make their profits I'm sure. Also this situation is bad enough without being unable to have something enjoyable. Also I normally chat with the assistants in our local store whilst we are being served and they have said they can't wait to finish for the day and have their bottle of wine.

I think it's about the number of trips to the shops not so much what you buy. So going out for chocolate is a needless risk. But buying chocolate with a weekly shop is completely fine. It's absolutely redic to suggest it is a problem.

If we go there, I could probably survive without 3 meals a day for months. But I'd become ill.

Devlesko a fridge is essential to me, my injections cost £2k a month and I'd imagine those complaining about me buying a new fridge next week would be giving the nhs the cost of my meds because they'd need replacing.

Tbf I agree newspapers are not essential
Luckily, we live in a democracy and access to information is considered essential. In fact, journalists are keyworkers - thank God. Watching the news on the telly doesn't give the same depth of information as reading a newspaper, and not everyone has access to the Internet.

Envelopes. Essential if your job requires you to post things.

Where I live marijuana is considered essential so the pot shops are still open. I imagine that would cause some MNers to clutch their pearls so tightly they would choke.

Thigh

In fairness I didn't consider this until my dsis told me.
As you know they sell all white goods, so I never thought tbh.
I suppose many won't appreciate it until you inform them, but either way people don't need to be nasty as they don't always have the full info before complaining.
I hope your fridge is delivered with no complaints from anyone. Stay fit and well, my love.

Newspapers are essential to me. I need them to light our fires . 🔥🔥🔥

@Veronicat You are not allowed to have HEAT it's not essential ffs

@GoodnessSake I suppose I can keep warm by shivering

I took this photo in Japan last year.
Can't comment on what it tasted like as I was too busy controlling my gag reflex just from looking at the poster!

My brother went to the shop for lemonade and lettuce yesterday. The lemonade was to go with medication my mother needed to take (recommendation from nurse as she was struggling with it). Lettuce as he was there and hadn't been able to get it at the supermarket. But anyone seeing a mid thirties bloke just buying that...b

@Weedsnseeds1 🤮

Can I add...

Contraception/the pill. Completely non essential and I should be ashamed of myself for getting a prescription refill.

I've also heard though that getting pregnant at the moment is wildly irresponsible/reprehensible AND that sanpro is non essential too. Not sure all of this adds up tbh.

FWIW I rely on my contraception to keep my endo symptoms at bay. I'm guessing "elective" hysterectomies are also non-essential at the moment, which at one point was going to be my only option if I couldn't find a suitable contraceptive option to help. Believe me, if I was to suddenly start menstruating, I wouldn't be able to go to work to do my essential job!

Further elaboration of "non-essential" vs "avoid extra trips" is that if you don't even go out but order something deemed non-essential in your online delivery you are ALSO a Very Bad Person.

(Let's not get into how anybody who uses an online slot is a murdering starver-of-the-vulnerable, whilst simultaneously anybody who goes out to the shop is a murdering spreader-of-virus ).

Don't buy sanitary towels either. I haven't told my children yet but according to a woman in Asda they're not essential. Not sure what my girls are meant to do next month.

On the sanitary towels issue, I did actually buy some cloth ones online last month.

But that was less about avoiding inessential shopping trips, and more to do with the Tesco trip where the entire sanpro aisle was alarmingly empty. Not one single box or packet of sanpro in sight.

Sanitary protection is definitely something I’d consider essential. With the usual provisos about trying to include sanpro purchases in a larger shopping trip if possible rather than making a special trip etc etc.

Oh yeh, sanpro and contraception definitely aren't essential. No way. Just bleed all over yourself like they used to in the good old days. Also anyone complaining about not being able to have the birth they wanted in a MLU/home birth/with the birth partners of their choice need sto suck it up. But its OK, according to most of twitter and all the major political parties, women don't suffer disadvantage on the basis of our biology and "female biology" probably doesn't actually even exist. So that's a relief.

Yep sanitary towels

The women saying this must have either stopped menstruating and forgotten what it’s like or are those mythical unicorn women who bleed a teaspoon of blood once every three months.

Also summer clothes for kids for the garden - wear last years (even if said child is 4 inches taller?) or just cut their leggings in half to make shorts and cut the arms off jumpers. Shoes aren’t needed.

Oh and I had a woman tell me on Facebook whilst I was sticking up for a pal who’s asked if Argos was open - that a new kettle to replace a broken one was not essential and if my friend HAD to have a hot drink she should boil a pan on her stove and decant into a flask to use throughout the day like they did ‘in the war’ apparently ?

Nope. One was ordered off amazon.

Interestingly enough, even in Wuhan, which is often hailed on here and SM as the best version of lockdown, where people’s doors are welded shut (yay!) and even beaten by police for leaving their houses (double yay! Bring it on!) they had luxuries. They featured some millennial aged Chinese men and women on BBC news yesterday talking about what lockdown was like. They talked about how on Valentine’s Day one woman’s husband got a cake from the shops and a bottle of red wine and flowers. And another said her family were baking and making cakes a lot. Another said something about her husband doing a special meal with steak on her birthday I think. So it’s disingenuous to think they lived on rice and water for 11 weeks.

I got evil glares at Tesco yesterday when I joined a very small queue at self service just buy a single vegan Easter egg. In my defence, I'd been working in the store for 10 hours, had no other shopping I needed to get as my husband had done the weekly shop, and I didn't want to put his own easter egg on the shopping list. You'd think I'd murdered babies the glares I got.

Starting to think that being a woman isn't essential at the moment.

Also confused by the statement that sanpro is essential but must be included in a larger shopping trip and not a special one-off trip. I can absolutely see this argument for chocolate and similar items but surely by definition, if you suddenly need to go to the shops for sanpro and nothing else, it's because it is essential at that moment.

Again, going by my own experiences before I found a method of stopping my period hell; I was so irregular, it was impossible to keep track. My periods would often last up to 10 days and then it was anyone's guess as to whether I'd come on again 4 days later or have 8 weeks with no sign. During those 10 days, I'd wear tampons and pads together and still flood. I'd go through boxes and boxes of sanpro. I'm glad I'm not in this situation now but can imagine others are and cannot imagine criticising any woman going out to buy sanpro during a lockdown whether it is a lone purchase or part of a big shop.

Also disgusted with myself for repeatedly typing the word sanpro. I hate this term but I'm also too lazy to keep using the full words. What have I become???

Also confused by the statement that sanpro is essential but must be included in a larger shopping trip and not a special one-off trip.

I said if possible

Clearly it’s not always possible, people get caught out sometimes or have irregular cycles, but if you’ve got a regular cycle then it’s possible to anticipate that you’ll need sanpro on this particular week and add it to the list for the big supermarket shop.