Looking at the 'stockpiling' threads..

[EinsteinaGogo]

Is there genuinely ANYONE who could afford to get a couple of weeks shopping into the house, who hasn't?

And if so, WHY?

Yeah. Obv you can only stockpile fresh stuff if you're going to do something to it first. Well, things like spuds can last a while if kept properly but most stuff doesn't.

I have a chest freezer JustDavesWife I have a mix of batch cooking, meats, veg, cheese, butter and the beige stuff in there.

I have a pantry. That's tins, rice, pasta, biscuits, flour, sugar, cake mix, oil, baking stuff, uht milk, coffee, tea and cereal.

In the attic is toilet rolls (Farmfoods do 4 lots of 18 for £10), Christmas presents and Christmas sweets and chocolates.

In the linen cupboard are boxes of toiletries which I buy on offer. Under the stairs is booze.

My actual kitchen cupboards look normal if well stocked.

I'm at a point now where apart from essentials I mostly only shop on offers. It took a while but it probably reduces my shopping bill by 25%.

Food Warehouse is great if you want to do a bigger shop without needing a membership like Costco.

I could stock up if I wanted to no problem. But the 'worst' of March time wasn't actually that bad - stock came in regularly, it was just cleared by the panickers. I admit to doing it a little myself and buying some extra bags of pasta, jarred sauces, tinned food - a small amount of which is still floating around now.

Shops are better prepared to deal with it now in terms of their stock management and customer limits on the obvious stuff.

No need to panic.

I did get a 16 pack of Andrex the other day vs the 9 pack I probably would be fine with - but it was notably cheaper per 100 sheets according to the label and there were piles and piles of both!

People do understand that it's no use to you if the shops are open if you're self isolating, don't they?

Yes - and people also understand the concept of online deliveries, neighbours and friends. We’re not pig shit thick 🙄

Don't know about you but we struggled to get delivery slots during the worst of it. Is that you, Boris?

@FreeGlib thank you, that’s really helpful.

I always used to keep a small stock of extras in stock just in case. A couple of cartons of long life milk, a few tins of beans/tomatoes etc. I released when I became a single parent when dc were only 5 and 3 that it was all too easy to realise at 9pm that there wasn't enough bread and milk for them to both have breakfast and lunch the next day. Which meant either leaving them asleep and going to the shop (not worth the risk imo), or waking them up and dragging them to the shop (no thanks). So I slowly built up some extras.

Then (now ex) dp moved in. He didnt see the point in my little prepped stock. And in some ways it didnt matter anymore. He could drive (I don't). We had 2 incomes, so while we weren't anywhere near rich money wasn't as tight as I was used to. And slowly slowly we ate all the extras and only bought what we needed. He also drove past an Aldi on his way to and from work so could call in if we decided to change the meal plan and needed something.

Then he left. And I slowly started to build my stash up again. Although the DC are 10 years older so can be left, or go to the shop for me, I just prefer to have that stock to fall back on.
Then I hit a period of financial difficulty and was very glad I had that stock because it meant we could actually eat.

Then lockdown happened. And I was fucked. No carefully prepped stash. Hardly any money. No car. No big supermarket that I can walk to and carry enough food from. No cheap basics available because bastard fucking panic buyers bought them all. No offers on my usual shopping. Plus all of us at home all day so more snacks/squash/milk being wanted. Thank god for the food bank!

I've managed to build my stock back up again now. Because I've realised that in an emergency my family cannot be relied on to help me. As long as they are all OK then fuck everyone else seems to be their attitude. I've gone without things I need the last few months, and have robbed Peter to pay Paul make sure i have that stock. Because I will not let myself get into the situation again where I can't feed my dc.

To the panic buyers who bought all the cheap basics even though they can afford better stuff, or who bought vegetarian food because its "better than nothing" and then binned it when they realised they didn't like it, meaning I couldn't get any for my vegetarian child; I say "fuck you. Cunts."

We probably have enough food for 2weeks always have a months worth off toilet rolls and other toiletries. I started stocking up after bretix. We used slot of our stuff when shops were manic in march. I will replace it over next few weeks.
I think it makes sense atm to have as much as you can store in case of getting sick or self isolating.
There is plenty of food in shops if l buy an extra packet of something I'm sure no one will suffer.

I understand how smaller families can ask for help from neighbours/family/friends.

We're a larger family, I wouldn't like to ask anyone to do our shop if he have to isolate, especially if supermarkets restrict goods and delivery slot sizes again. 80 items doesn't go far if 10 of them are apples.

Sorry that's a bit long and ranty
Basically I'm a prepper and can't understand why people aren't (and I'm poor and have hardly any storage space). But each to their own.

My mum couldn't get deliveries in March.
She's got a little store cupboard and a spare freezer though, because at 84 she's always lived that way. Times gone by it was fruit and veg from the garden. And homemade pies. Like me (because I inherited the idea) she freezes soups and stews. Not a hoarder, just practical.
There aren't shortages at min anyway. Every time something is bought of a supermarket shelf, more is ordered. So people gathering a few extra bits now really isn't causing shortages.
This thread has proved that not everybody is rushing out to 'panic buy'.

Don't know about you but we struggled to get delivery slots during the worst of it. Is that you, Boris?

No

1. not Boris
2. no issues getting online deliveries - Ocado (in fact added to online deliveries for CEV shielding until their priority slots kicked in)

So nope - won’t be doing anything different to before

definitely stocked up.
two disabled children, one will only eat certain things and will refuse to eat if not. one is vegetarian and allergic to several things and can not be left home alone. One needs 10-15 portions of fruit and vegeatbles per day to stay off medication and manage their condition. (thats shed loads of dried fruit and tinned beans and lentils. as well as fresh)
one was labelled clinically vulnerable, the middle category between shielded and no underlying conditions or extra risks.
I can't stand up and queue without falling over or being in pain.
we have been more or less confined to the home due to one being sent home from school for two weeks.
I have a cough every fecking winter for several months at a time. not something you want to be going out with and risking people catching it and having to self isolate until they get a test.
I couldn't get an online shop for 8 weeks and I was staying up til really late and trying all hours of the day to get a slot.
I don't have a whole load of people who can shop for me. Lot's of people I know were shielding, old, or disabled. I did have some help but they were also shopping for a lot of the other old, shielded or disabled people I also know so not really wanting to take the piss really.
When I could get a slot, they did not have the type of pasta my disabled child eats. They did not have the food my allergic child eats.

I have found it interesting that several posters say they are not stocking up, why would they, they have enough food for a couple of weeks in the freezer and cupboard. (that is stocked up)

i was buying extra from well before Brexit. Because I was buying extra right up until the end of February, shops were ordering more. (ok only a few tins more per week, ) so when I stopped buying when other people started, those were available for others, when otherwise they would not have been.

I restocked over summer when there was plenty in.

Government have warned there may be some disruption to supplies due to the end of the transition period. I am hoping that the there is no needers are right and there is no need to have extra in. hope for the best, plan for the worst.

@Aridane lucky you never having online delivery problems.
Guess what, not everyone has that experience.

I could afford to build an outbuilding dedicated to food storage, and fill it with all manner of non-perishables to last 6 months.

but I'm not doing that, and the reason is I see no need whatsoever.

I might be proved wrong. Life will get a bit more exciting if that happens.

six drawers of a freezer are three more than I had last time.

six drawers of a freezer will be fine. plenty there. I have now increased to three drawers of freezer though three are not switched on at the moment.

Getting a new fridge freezer sorted as mine broke during lockdown has so far needed the help of four neighbours and an ex. Cost a lot in beer. to say thanks.Loads were out of stock as people bought extra. couldn't get it delivered anyway.

Ex is about to buy a freezer as he does not have one. Tha will make life easier as we pooled resources and we were storing stuff for each other. some in my fridge, and potatoes under his stairs which is cold and dark.

the food went each way with the children who were allowed to be shipped between houses, except for the last two weeks.. roll on school later this week!

I take after my mother, or, more the point, she taught me to shop. Toilet paper is dull but does not go off. It also often goes on offer at 1/2 price. Buy as much as you can carry when it does. Ditto washing powder, washing liquid and so on. Have at least three packets of flour at the ready, one pack of sugar and so on. Basically have a full stock of dry-goods and cans (plus some) and wait until these are cheap to replenish.

The buy perishables as necessary.

Spend the extra on fun stuff.

Brexit or no Brexit, virus, or no virus.

We were not skint growing up but we were not rich and Mum felt that this was the most economical way to spend money. It explains why, crisis or not, I usually have well over 100 toilet rolls. In fact, until this year, I had never in my independent shopping life bought toilet paper at full price.

I've just had another look at the prepping board.

There is a thread from 3 wks ago where a poster has said flour is hard to get but they are still managing to slow build up supplies & another one saying there was limit about number of items they could order so they are prioritising food over household goods. Is that really good practice & not going to contribute to panic buying?

Yeah i could afford it but haven’t because there won’t be another lockdown, there is enough supplies to go around if everyone shopped sensibly and thirdly i have a small kitchen and nowhere to store stockpiled food/loo roll etc.

I don't do online grocery shopping since lockdown, but surely if you've only got 80 items you'd pick food over binbags. How does that cause panic buying?

Slow build up is buy one if you see it available in your area. If they bought 10 the fair enough, but surely by slow build up it's clear they're not clearing shelves. Do you panic if you see someone buying a small bag of flower?

I guess the answer is in the use if the word slowly.

If they were clearing the shelves it would be an issue but an extra bag will be factored in when the shop next does its order.

And if someone's within the limits then they arent doing anything wrong.

Cleaning stuff can be made at home. Vinegar bicarb etc and you can re use old spray bottles. Makes sense to prioritise food.

Again people don't deem to mind borrowing food and relying on friends ajd family.

How do they they think they get the stuff to lend them or have the cash spare to buy your shopping ( obviously you repay but they still need to have the money themselves to get it)

Flour ffs.

all those worrying about the elderly looking at empty shelves - that was me in March. However as I'd prepared well before the shelves emptied I could top up with just frozen food (the freezers were less empty) and didnt need to buy toilet roll when the shelves were emptying.

A prepper buys when food is freely available, not when panic buyers are out in force.

i have about a months supply of tinned food and much (longer for frozen goods). I always have a months supply but i have only 2 people living here and a massive larder and a very productive garden. I have enough bog roll for 6 months though. It's not that i stockpile i just buy in bulk when on offer (you never know when the next one comes along so buy once i have less than 50 rolls left). There is nothing wrong with having a food buffer so long as it is done gradually or grown ones-self in the garden. I have yesterday stocked up with 9 kgs of tomato chutney as the best way of storing tomatoes in the garden. I will get another 5 kgs of soup from the rest and another 4 kg's from the green tomato chutney. i have a fine selection of FFP3 masks i brought back at the beginning of january when everyone else (including the NHS) was complacently hoping covid would go away.

So there is nothing wrong with being prepared in advance there is everything wrong with clearing the shops out when there isn't enough to go around