AIBU to think my friend is overdoing emergency stockpiling?

[bagpuss90]

I get that we have been advised to stock up on essentials, though I think it will encourage panic buying. I will probably get a few days worth of stuff at some point . My friend however has, at least in my opinion gone ott about it. She’s stocking up a six month supply of food. She’s bought head torches, a camping gas stove and various other stuff. She thinks I’m being naive …Am I missing something here ?

Hooray for you. I had to tear up and use old flannelette pyjamas and dispose of the squares in a bin. Good times.

Maybe it’s been covered up thread, but what event(s) are you all prepping for where you think food and water will be unavailable for weeks?!

Most people on this thread are discussing complying with government guidelines to have in 3 or 4 days of food / water plus wind up radio etc in case of emergency.

It could be anything - El Niño is meant to mean worse storms which could lead to lorries not being able to get to shops or a possible cyber attack on food distribution networks and/or power grid. It could be something unforeseen. I certainly didn’t see COVID shortages coming but I had enough in my cupboards to get by anyway.

Very few people are following the OP’s friend and storing 6 months worth. Most people today have neither the space nor the funds to stock that much.

The idea is to have enough for an emergency until the government sorts out food / water distribution not survive the apocalypse.

The government has officially asked everyone to have an additional emergency supply to see them through a few days of disruption caused by anything from extreme weather events through to cyber attacks on our infrastructure. We are seeing attacks every week. Just this week the Russians were trying to cut our undersea internet cables.

If you have a few weeks of food and water set aside for emergencies you will be in a far better position since the government has no back up supplies. They effectively want us to store the back up at home.

Good grief. I thought most people already had the common sense to store a few days’ worth of emergency supplies. Seems like a load of nonsense.

Well clearly many people don't have such common sense given the mockery on these threads directed towards those who are taking sensible steps.

@Era that's a good point about Russia attempting to cut our Internet cables. We are, because of our complete dependence on the Internet, correspondingly vulnerable to the utter chaos that would result if they were successful.
Everything would be temporarily disabled and we do not know for how long.

You’d think but M&S couldn’t despite having a smaller range of products and fewer customers than the supermarkets. Apparently the system simply isn’t set up for manual calculation. Computers are used for everything from ordering to calculating lorry loads to planning routes. No computers, no goods moving.

I would hope that legally they had to have something more robust in place but my hopes are probably misplaced.

Yes I have a generator that uses petrol and I have 10 litres of petrol and a camping stove and 6 gas bombs.

Legally robust such as what/how though? This is how our infrastructure is set up now and has been for a long time- almost entirely dependent upon technology.

I don't think companies, even if plc, can be legally forced to have that kind of contingencies. I don't think we would want that powers to exist tbh

I have a bit of food, let's say a pantry full. But only the stuff I normally use anyway as I don't fancy throwing anything away when it goes out of date etc
But I'm having a multi fuel burner/stove put in because I live a bit rurally and I'm worried about a harsh winter and issues with power. We have central heating but no power - no gas.
I can store a bit of wood and other fuels.
In the last 24hrs we had a power cut and water was out last night.
Before covid I would be laughing, my other half was laughing at me a few years ago when I said about the stove, now he's booking the tradesmen to get the work done. I'm not too sure where anything is heading so I want to prepare a bare minimum.
If nothing else, it will be nice to throw a log on the fire for Xmas.

Surely 10 litres gives you an extra 10 to 12 hours at most of freezer time. If the emergency involves a power cut, it sounds to me as though most of your emergency supplies won’t last (particularly if you keep opening the freezers to get food out).

I have now purchased a wind up torch/charger

we had one before but i may have thrown it out!

3 tins of baked beans, sardines, bottles of water, uht milk
might buy some tinned pineapple

But no one is planning water to flush the loo or wash dishes.

Many on these threads have indeed talked about water to wash up and flush the loo. Including buying extra wet wipes and even bin bags in the toilet with cat sand.

You can stock what you know you’re eating in advance to have a buffer.

Yes? This is the exact guidance?

They said on the news yesterday that they have a new weapon so don’t even need to cut the cables, there won’t even be any evidence.

You mean the Russians now have the technical capacity to just unplug, as it were, the West's Internet?
If this is so why the fuckity fuck do we not have the same capacity to unplug them, and why don't we just bloody well do it?
End the war with Ukraine and bring Russia to a standstill with minimum casualties.
I hope someone is planning this and we're not drifting along thinking they won't dare to do it to us because they bloody well will.
Have you got a link for that info, btw?

Yes. This is one of the articles.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-allies-foil-russian-subsea-cable-sabotage-plot-2026-09-10/

Edit;

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/11/ukraine-war-briefing-nato-foils-russian-undersea-cable-sabotage-drill

https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/russia-undersea-cables-nato-uk-norway-us-b3047868.html

www.dailymail.com/news/article-16122903/amp/Putins-undersea-threat-Britain-UK-woefully-short-ways-stop-cable-attacks-spark-chaos-experts-warn-Moscows-secret-weapon-sabotage-plot-foiled.html

Thanks @HeckYeah appreciate the links.

I agree, I also do wonder why we don’t have the same capacity. It seems mad, if we don’t.

Thanks for adding the links. There is a reason our threat level is currently set at Severe, for anyone doubting there are things to be concerned about.

I feel like they need to bring next June's big civil defence exercise forward somewhat.

It doesn't help that no one gags Trump and he's now in Ireland stirring the pot over Irish reunification and the Falklands. A man who starts wars on a whim.

I’d love to be prepper but i’m just too disorganised. I think it’s reasonable to have supplies etc for 6 months if you can afford it and have the space, but I wouldn’t be telling anyone about it! My parents have lots of stored canned, dried and pickled goods probably enough for a month or two. We live 400 miles away from them though so sadly my family would have to starve after about half a week.