Getting prepared just in case

[Olympeagal]

Is anyone else preparing or making plans, in case the situation in the Middle East escalates?
Ive filled my car up with fuel. Should i be doing more?

I’m going to say this as an actual prepper - no. We’re fine here. No panic currently needed.

I am mostly like that. Run petrol down to nothing. Until my car broke down and a bunch of strangers had to push me and the kids in the car off a A road.

Could you think of it another way? Like if I get a 1/4 of tank I will fill up so I'm not reliant on others fixing things? Driving around on low petrol warning worked well for me for decades. Until it didn't. There's no difference in frequency of filling up if your set point is 1/4 full or on fumes.

I can try. It's hard to change.

Petrol isn't cluttering up your house. I'm really rubbish at filling my car up too. But my adverage journey could be 2 miles to dds school or a 60 mile round trips to ds school. I feel better knowing I don't have to go out of my way to get petrol and could get in the car to ds at the drop of a hat.

I'm trying to fill up at the weekend when I pass a petrol station to ds club or mid week when I'm.at Sainsbury's anyway. So just fill up when your doing something anyway.

Petrol is something that if runs out, it's going to run out. That's only happened once in my lifetime.

I've never run out of petrol so I guess I'm not doing too bad.

I don't use the electricity grid and my broadband comes from space. I think that's enough for now. (I did fill up my car today but it was empty anyway).

I went tonight as just driven from the NW to the SW and back over the weekend.
3 cars in the petrol station and price was the same as before I left.
Trust me, I live in a place that panic buys everything on a rumour

Not this again. I had to step away from MN in the past because of scare mongering…

It's mortifing when you do. My car can do about 40 miles after it says its empty. Or go under the empty line by quite a bit ( 2014 Reg so has the clock type fuel gauge. But it will misfire then conk out within a mile.

The last time I was on the red I was on the M25. In between junction 9 and ten and shitting myself it would conk out at the junction 10 slip road. I drive on the m25, the A3, in the ULEZ zone. It just isn't worth the risk to me for the sake of filling up one day early. It's not just my risk on places like the M25. Someone has to recover you. For burning through the last £5 in my tank.

I went to top up petrol today as I actually needed it and was happy to see no hysterical queuing. Let’s hope it stays

Start to stockpile? Should have been doing this for years.

It's not about Iran invading the UK or any such Neocon crap. However, a supply chain disruption is not only possible but very likely.

Well OP, in just a couple of days we've arrived at fuel tankers being attacked, a seafarer dead, the strait of Hurmuz closed, and oil plants temporarily pausing. The price of fuel is expected to double. So, you weren't as silly as some PP made out!

I was replying directly to the OP’s concerns, which were about the U.K. being in direct danger and about supply chain worries. I’m not sure why you’re being so rude to me over that.

No, I haven't done anything or bought any petrol. It wouldn't last long anyway so would barely make a difference, plus I'm too disorganised to manage extra things - I only go to the petrol station when the light is on!

I'm trying to think when it was when there was a proper petrol shortage, 2002ish? I am NHS and we had to get special vouchers to be allowed to get some of the limited stock. Doesn't bother me so much these days as I can wfh, OH can cycle to work and we could manage school run at a push on foot/scooters.

There is a prepper's section... People are more understanding there

It was 2000 I think - my dad was worried because he had to go to Scotland in the car.

In any event, what we learned from that was that ordinary people should not try to stockpile
fuel. We also learned that ordinary people do not understand that the fumes that come off petrol are flammable, and that keeping petrol in anything other than a proper petrol or jerry can is a recipe for disaster. The burns units had a lot of business that year.

But for a lot of people filling up a few days ago wouldn’t exactly stop them being affected by any of those issues if or when they do happen. I need to fill my tank every 2 weeks to get to work and back. Even if I fill it today, I’m back to the same position and will still be affected in 2 weeks. So I don’t really most people think someone is ridiculous to fill up in anticipation of rising prices or shortages, more that doing it won’t stop many people being affected very soon after. Fuel isn’t a one time purchase. For a lot of people it’s needed very regularly. So if everyone runs out panic buying now, it doesn’t mean that everyone is then “safe” from the shortages.

I would assume you're already fully prepped though...

It was around then. If that happened again I'd just not drive anywhere once I got down to my last 100 or so miles. I'm rural. No taxis. Very rarely a bus. I'd keep the car in case I needed to get the kids to hospital. Or that's what I presume I would do. Rushing the kids to hospital is pretty rare.

They have already managed to put fuel up by 3p litre in my local garage. Didn't take long.

What about taxi drivers and delivery drivers? For all the people saving their own fuel the drivers would still need fuel to provide a service

For all those that mocked me for filling up my car...well oil prices just soared!

Unfortunately people like to bury their heads in the sand - and label people scaremongers when they raise concerns.