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 ?

I can highly recommend the book Starry Sky by Lars Wilderäng. It has recently been translated to English and is absolutely brilliant. No drama or anything, just such a good description of what could actually happen in real life. Everyone should have to read it.

Yeah, I don't believe they actually have technology or functioning nukes.
They are also running out of poor men...
If they had any kind of advamced twch they would already use it, instead of getting into sunken falacy situation.
I wonder if the fear of Russia doing x and y is from cold war here.

Don’t be silly, how can everyone have off grid underground facilities!

@RedToothBrushI am being dim I know since that was a really insightful post and very understandable.
Can you explain as if I were a three year old, the issues that could land on the ordinary persons doorstep as a result, please?

“Bloody hell, why does everything cost so much?”

I would hope that having observed it go that way for m&s, supermarkets might started working on resilience and contingencies

It's unlikely to be nuclear, or quick.

First rule of prepping is don't tell anyone you are prepping. If you do then inevitably some of your close friends and family will think why should they bother if you've done it.

Also if you want to be prepared get solar panels and a battery.

You might want to read the thread. This is not really about being a prepper, even though you are of course right in what you are saying.

This and
"What do you mean there's nothing on the shelves?" I'll just get it off Temu. What do you mean, delivery 2028?!"

If it gets really bad
"Fuel rationing?!"

"I heard John lost his job too."
"Shit another one"

Fucking useless if no ones got any fuel and you can't drive over to theirs.

Thank you clarifying! Thought as much.
How much more can the ordinary person absorb, I wonder.
My way of doing things when I buy a bit extra is to look at the offers that offer the biggest reduction without being short dated - and that my family enjoys. Also things we import that might be impacted by global instability. And the missing link in a chain, such as lighters for candles, batteries for headtorches and lanterns, and water carriers if you have to collect from a bowser or standpipe. No point having headtorches if you have no batteries!

Thanks!
Yes, that makes sense!

We are all going to have to absorb at least some more. It IS going to get tougher. There is absolutely no doubt of this in my mind.

This is going to be before Burnham does anything at all. If Burnham does the wrong thing with the budget he could make it a whole pile worse too. He HAS to get it right.

It is highly likely interest rates are going to start going up before then.

It's also possible we could see a stock market crash. There's lots of speculation on this. We will see.

I could talk about worse case scenarios here. But I don't think that's helpful. I'm trying to stay on the sensible side and the optimistic side.

I am not thinking about Nukes either in case anyone thinks I'm going down that route.

The thread about middle class living standards isn't liking to age well though.

I guess it makes sense in my mind that rather than having long term preps, I want to be ready for the whole story in a short term glitch, within reason.
I think about what it would be dangerous to be without, then what it would be miserable to be without - and then think of the steps to provide that resilience.
I remember being without water once for several days, and the realisation that in order to collect from the bowser a couple of miles away, we had to drive up the track we lived on and had no suitable large containers with lids to fetch the water. Its not something you think of till you need it!
We've always kept an old style phone to plug into the socket if needed ( when I was pregnant I was worried I couldn't call anywhere for help and we had frequent long powercuts) I hear now though these old phones won't work any more? If so, what a stupid short sighted situation to have got into!

I never have enough for 1 week let alone food put by for months 😳 My salary won't stretch that far..

Who has advised this?! And why?

I'm also planning to change my flower garden into more of a cottage garden, growing produce amongst the flowers. I've tried proper vegetable gardening and it's been quite the failure, but anyone who has a garden can get some things to produce, like courgettes, beans, kale and chard.
In my mind it's not worth the effort and space to edible results equation to try with things like cauliflower, sweetcorn and peas!

Tins of tomatoes 45p
tuna in brine 59p/145g
penne pasta quills 69p/1kg
porridge oats 85p/1kg
long life milk 65p/1 litre

All priced at Tesco this evening but most of those prices are the same at Aldi and Lidl at least.

You don't have to store for months but having a few extras might be helpful.

You can regrow some things just on your window sill, like the root ends of a bunch of spring onions from the supermarket in a glass of water..not much but it will keep growing.

The links to the news stories and the guidance at gov.uk are in this thread and multiple others on MN.

We've cleared our summer crops now, lettuces, toms etc and we're turning it over for carrots, potatoes etc

The Swiss government mandates each household has certain levels of stocks. They also get companies like Nestle and others to hold 3 months worth of inventory of items on their essentials list.

Tell us more.