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 ?

Madness. I have total faith in my local corner shop. Not once did they run out of toilet roll during COVID, stacked up to the ceiling it was! They even took orders from customers for items from the cash and carry, and delivered to their vulnerable customers.
Love my corner shop.

Why is it bothering you? If it gives her some kind of peace of mind and it's not causing harm, then there's nothing wrong with it.

It’s a good idea to keep quiet about storing food water and equipment

We have a well stocked cupboard, freezer in cool storeroom with shelves
for toilet paper shampoo, cat and dog food, water etc. and an old but
serviceable fridge for drinks and drugs (animals) lotions and potions.
See, organised, as we used to live in the middle of nowhere so well trained.

A neighbour came round as I was putting away a large monthly delivery,
tins, rice, lentils, pasta, etc. and remarked on my ‘Armaggedon supplies’
I had promised her 6tins for the Harvest Festival hence the one and only
and for her, well timed visit. She is ‘active in the community’ a retired
person I have always instinctively kept at arms length.

that very weekend I had a text from her asking could I let her have a bag
of pasta and two cans of chopped tomatoes until she could shop on
Monday and if I could spare a pack of bacon that would be grand

the next week two other people commented that they would know where
to come in the event of shortages, said with a laugh

then! said neighbour texted to say she was in the village hall for the
Harvest lunch - they had run out of vegetables so could I go around there
with tins of veg, as they were waiting but frozen would be better

A friend brings us toilet paper/kitchen roll/useful stuff from Costco occasionally
in heavy duty non see through black plastic bags, even backs his car up to the garage doors, for security reasons, he says, making this a furtive exercise

In summer a friend loaded up her capacious car boot with (empty) boxes,
12 pack of toilet paper in the back seats, all left on view.

Neighbour asked where we going camping?? Friend on cue says no we are
emptying the storeroom at last, there is too much, I’m taking it all to the BHF
so Fru Fru can have a walk in closet. Essential lies told for my peace of mind.
Friend drives off, dumps boxes at recycling centre, flings Andrex in the boot.
Under cover of darkness, brought it back in the house in a black dustbin bag

We felt this pantomime well played when another neihbour asked me was I
enjoying my freshly painted dressing room now I have too many clothes?!?
Apparently her husband who has never even said hello in 7 years, asked OH
was he getting rid of gas rings and spare gas refills as he could take them off
our hands

This is life in a cul de sac

HTH

I think some people get really into prepping. And you never know how handy it would come in.

Before Covid me and my DW started a stockpile and I cannot for the life of me remember why we started, it wasn’t Covid but Covid hit and it came in so handy, the work we do means that we were getting a lot of requests for food and a lot of charities had shut temporarily while things were up in the air and we ended up donating a lot of it to our employers so when a food parcel was needed we could give a few cans out to tide people over.

We never restocked but think we will again now we’ve been advised to, but we don’t have the space to have much of a backstock now we’ve moved

I have a camping stove and head torches, along with a camping lantern and a few power banks - mainly because I use them for camping too, but they're handy to have in. Also a wind-up radio, just in case.

As a city flat dweller, space is at a serious premium so large stocks of food and water are not realistic, but I have a decent amount of food in at any time (probably 3-4 weeks' worth, and about the same in cat food!).

It's due to be a super El Nino which is predicted to increase the severity of the Autumn/Winter storms.
The govt advice is for weather but also systems going down/cyber security which has caused distribution issues previously notably the Co-op last year.

I think it really depends on your location to how much you need to prep tbh.

I'm Northern Scotland its nothing new we often get multiple days power cuts, food delivery interruptions etc in Autumn/Winter because of snow or extreme winds closing roads. We are pretty used to it all and the community checking on each other.

Would say in cities you generally need less as your priority for getting back on grid. The further out and remote you are the less so.

If I lived alone I would keep more, I know. I agree with whoever said you'd feel less comfortable going out and leaving your house empty.

In a nice fluffy easy world governments could do all this for us - storing and rotating emergency supplies paid for by our taxes in warehouses and depots all over the country, so the country as a whole would be fine no matter what happened.

In practice, they are trying to achieve the same effect, but instead of putting it all in big warehouses, they're getting national emergency supplies distributed across all our individual homes (and we choose and pay for our own directly, not via extra taxes).

The end result should be the same - we'll all individually be better prepared for local power cuts or water problems, but as a country we'll also be better prepared for something much less likely but much worse, like all food import routes into the country being temporarily blocked.

It does make sense.

I’m a camper so have:

torches, lamps, batteries, two gas stoves and canisters, UHT milk, cool boxes, tinned and packets of food - considering a water butt but other than that I’m not panicking

I haven’t done anything specifically because the government has said to, but my family of 6 could last a few weeks I think (as long as the freezer stays on!).

In general, I buy our regular things in bulk and store them. I’d never buy a single bottle of ketchup - I buy 8 and put them in the store cupboard, then there’s always one there when we need it! Same for pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes, baked beans, soup, noodles, flour, sugar …….

We have a well in the garden that harvests rain water from the roof. It’d be a bit of effort to get water from it and it’d need boiling, but there’s plenty of water there if it’s needed.

I have an electric cooker/hob, a wood burner and lots of logs, a caravan with a gas hob and oven and limited gas, a gas BBQ and a charcoal BBQ. So unlikely to completely run out of heat/cooking ability.

We also live rurally, with plenty of neighbours with guns. My neighbour would gladly share the rabbits and pheasants he could shoot, if I did the labour of making the stew!

We would get very bored of eating without fresh food/freezer power, but we could certainly keep ourselves fed, watered and warm enough to survive for a sustained period.

I don’t consider myself a prepper. I have just learned to keep a big buffer of commonly used cupboard staples because last-minute shopping is a burden here. The camping gear / well / logs / gun-toting neighbours is just a result of lifestyle/location.

People who dismiss having extra supplies as being dramatic are really foolish. The government is trying to encourage us to have more and to be more resilient. There is no massive supply of emergency rations. We no longer hold the supplies we used to. If we have very severe weather issues or we are the subject of a cyber attack from Russia we are very exposed. The shops hold enough food for three days only and then they run out. We live on an island so if supply chains are disrupted we have serious issues very quickly.

I don't want my family to be at risk and I am hopeful that after a few weeks max, supplies would start to come though even if there was something severe like an attack on our power supply (although when goods tarted to come through the purchase cost could be very high). As a result, I have put aside enough that we could last for a few weeks. As a PP said, it's exactly the same as house insurance which nobody would think twice about.

Have we been advised to stock up then? When? I guess I missed that message?

Yes the government has published advice

We are advised to have enough food and water to last at least a few days.

Don't most people keep more than a few days' worth of food in their cupboards and fridge?

I have tins of tomatoes, beans, tuna, coconut milk etc for tins, sauces, pickles and chutneys, stuff in the freezer, flour and other baking items, herbs and spices etc.

Unless finances are an issue do people really only buy one tin of tomatoes, for instance instead of a pack of 4?

My view is that if there is no food for six months, law and order will break down and anyone not starving will have their house broken into and their supplies stolen. There would be murder over food. It’s such an extreme scenario that it’s not worth preparing for.

She needs to keep quiet about that. If we’re in a situation where she NEEDS 6 months worth then desperate people are going to take what she has.

Having a headtorch, or at least a hand torch, in somewhere accessible in the dark is just normal common sense isn't it?

It’s not bothering me . As I said I don’t know she’s ott or if I’m naive !!

More likely than no food for six months however is that there would be rationing implemented after a period of disruption. Those who have put aside extra will be in a far more comfortable position. Of course broadcasting your more comfortable position is completely crazy.

I think some people genuinely live a couple of days at a time re food. However even with those of us who keep more well stocked cupboards, the government is asking us to have more than we usually would. They don't have warehouses stuffed full of extra food, they are asking us to buy it and keep it at home.

maybe a bit of both. She's taking it to extremes (but isn't hurting anyone so its up to her), you are not taking it serious enough if you will "probably get a few days worth of stuff at some point"

Bit of both 😊

(lighthearted)

I'd love to stockpile, but my husband is on the carnivore diet. Vegetables and wheat really upset him, and he's been doing great eating just meat and eggs. We live in a tiny cottage, and all I can think is that we need to keep a secret cow and a few chickens in the bathroom - any better suggestions?

Crazy! What about those of us in tiny places with no storage? I'm in a 320 sq ft cottage, small fridge, absolutely teeny freezer, no shed/garage, no cupboard under stairs, very little storage full stop.. I live day to day..

Er...beef jerky and powdered eggs?🙈😅

For the low cost and the small space it takes up, a gas camping stove and a few cans of gas are a good thing to have if you rely on electric for cooking and lose supply for a while

Agreed. I live rurally with overhead power cables so if there's anything more than a slight wind it takes us out every other day.