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 ?

we have a jackery which runs our freezer for a good few hours in a power cut situation. It has a solar panel to recharge.

If there is an issue with the gas supply then there will be an issue with electricity. about 40% of our electricity is made with gas on average but its higher in the winter and lower in the summer (when we can get a decent amount via solar).

The combination of turmoil in the middle east and Putin/Trump both trying to rule the planet means power shortages are a significant threat for us. We are very vulnerable as an island now that we no longer have our own supplies, no longer store gas, import all our fertilisers and most of our animal feed and no longer carry surplus human food supplies.

Best way is to keep it somewhere cool (although not too cool, as they have ranges of operation).

Make sure the freezer is full up. I would put veg around the sides and meat/fish dairy in the middle. If you have unused space I would fill them with containers full of (frozen) water.

It really does take ages for stuff to thaw out in a chest freezer that is full of stuff. It's hard to say when it passes the safe limit though.

If it take a 3 pint container of milk out my freezer and put in my fridge it takes almost a week to thaw out.

A jackery with solar is a good idea for solar battery backup.

Also I’ve heard good things about those ninja ice coolers lasting days for campers.

Completely agree, also watching the Wargame.

@DaisyDoo09 you will find plenty of like minded people here.
I am feeling quite a sense of urgency and I'm prioritising getting the most important things sorted and working down the need list to the would like list.
There is a perfect storm brewing.
I think the leaders of the western world are literally frantically scrabbling to try to beat the tipping point.

I can remember the times of food mountains and gasholders.
How have we allowed ourselves to get so complacent?
What arrogance to think we will now always be a land of peace and plenty!

i am planning to buy a disposable bbq

You would probably be better off buying a low cost non disposable one and some bags of fuel- you'll be using it outside so why not have one you can use more than once?

good idea, i cant find any anyway

Most places stopped selling disposable ones when we hit the heatwave and wild fires.

But due to the time of year most shops are reducing the prices on their bbq ranges so you could get a good bargain.

For camping we have a portable folding bbq.

Not a bad one:

I also bought a large pot and lid to use on our firepit and bbq for heating water or non bbq type food. Tested and works well- wanted one just for outside use.

They’ve been forbidden for many years where I live.. There are some really good portable ones. Good idea checking for sales right now!

@taxidriver I'm going down the route of buying a camping gas stove with canisters. Looking at this one at the moment but you can get much cheaper ones.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B08145SDBQ/ref=ox_sc_act_image_2?smid=A30DC7701CXIBH&psc=1

We've got these too, I just restocked on canisters and noticed the prices definitely higher than last year...

I found portable LED lightbulbs being really good, easy to hang anywhere and they light up really well. You need batteries though. Our lasted for ages.

We also always keep in some glow sticks. For fun but also it’s a nice low night light for children. So now it’s just part of our kit helpful in a power cut in a fun way for children.

We had military practising where I live today. They are usually extremely loud, but today was something else with neverending huge bombs going off for half the day. It was awful, I have lived here for a long time but today I don’t know what they were doing. My ears actually hurt for a long time, as you never know when they go off. There was also a loud weird sound quite a long time after they had gone off, which I’ve never heard before.

Imagine if it was real, how scared you would be. A friend of mine has a dog that is deaf, but even he was really scared today.

Anyone already got the Ryobi batteries and charger like us? I've noticed Ryobi are doing an inverter (obviously needs pre charging) can run low power items eg phones, radios, priced about £44. Seen mixed reviews so far but wondered about it as we already have the charging kit. Wondered if anyone had one?

I don’t have one but I’ve seen things like this.

Likely something my brother in law would have as he retrofitted his children’s electric bikes to be able to take his work drill batteries rather than just the standard low powered ones they come with.

Being cynical but does Labour acknowledge that there will be a general election soon because atm we have an unelected PM in office.

If they keep insisting that people stockpile (started with 3 days worth of food and water) and keep saying that people need to have 3 days supply, we are reading it on here, people keep adding and adding bits and pieces to their stock.

So when a general election is called and Labour fail to get in, suddenly the messages to buy don’t happen, people stop purchasing because they are making their way through what they have bought and food other goods people have bought falls off a cliff

It will leave the next government with a falling economy and a headache to begin with and Labour can point and say how much consumer confidence there was under them .

A lot of people won’t remember or connect the dots that “consumer confidence”was from the governments own directive to go out and buy for a disruption that never happened

I am not in the UK but this is the advice we’ve had from our governmment for many years, same as many other European countries. UK is just a bit late to the party.

But, it’s not a big deal here. No drama or conspiracy theories. Because it’s common sense, and we can think for ourselves - but a reminder like this is just a good thing.

You can do what you want, obviously. Just don’t expect anyone else to help you if you couldn’t be arsed to help yourself.

This is not new advice and as others have said, not unique to us. It's not based on one single perceived short-term risk.

Yes a lot of people catching up can create slightly increased spending briefly, but even if that's visible on a graph and a government is quite pleased about it, it's not going to take away the value of households being prepared.

Complete peace could break out tomorrow and the weather and pandemic types of risks would remain.

A personal disruption could be as simple as sudden unemployment.

If you truly don’t believe anything else could happen, this could happen and is a great way to be prepared for.

I may be wrong but I don't think this advice will disappear with a different government/party.