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 ?

This is a great plan because the news this week is worse than the usual doom and gloom.

I’m genuinely worried about vulnerable and disabled people that I know of. I cannot look after all of them and I’m not sure how bothered some of them will be, but it’s a worry that I’m going to have to discuss with local friends over the next few weeks.

I think having a camping stove is sensible and thought most people did.

We were without power for five days after Arwen.

Have also seen us go a week without deliveries to the shops. Storms are predicted to be bad this year.

I think having a camping stove is sensible and thought most people did.

Why would most people have a camping stove?

We don't camp, nor do most people.

We do, however, have a firepit/small barbecue and loads of charcoal.

We have a camping stove and gas canisters - the trouble is that they are not the same ones that run the weed burner & oldest sons steam engine otherwise we could rotate them.

Large store cupboard that we rotate stuff through so we could survive for a week or two in a rather strange diet.

So who stores petrol or diesel then or has a generator??

Someone at the Model Engineering club has two Lister D's - small petrol engines that farmers etc used before mains electricity came along that he has set up to charge batteries, he was accused of being a 'prepper!'

Anyone doing it sensibly is only stocking up on what they would use anyway, and using and replacing so they're constantly rotated. That's what I do; most of the tins in my store cupboard (its a normal sized kitchen cupboard) are tomatoes, tuna, sardines, rice pud, beans, soups etc. Then its pasta, rice, cereal, cereal bars. All are currently dated between 2028 and 2030. As I rotate they just become later dated.
Edited to add: I only store enough for about 2 months at the moment. Beyond that imo we'll be in a long term war situation and that is hard for anyone to prepare for in realistic terms.

We don't camp, but we use our stove on day trips etc, but I agree not everyone has one just happens most people I know do, partly because of their pursuits and also family in rural area prone to intermittent power cuts. But I agree not everyone has them. We also have a firepit and large store of wood.

What is this for specifically?

I was talking to the owner of a Traction Engine with a 'Colonial' ie wood burning firebox, sounds useful

We had a brexit box before Covid.
It was literally a small box with medicines and tinned tomatoes.
We added a few hand sanitisers during covid!

This thread has made me think that I should make sure we have lots of colds and flu medicines for the winter. Not just for armageddon but it's so handy if you are ill to not have to go hunting for them.

They are about a tenner and power cuts happen every year. Being able to boil a kettle and warm soup makes a big difference.

The torch and camping stove I get, but 6
months of food feels very doomsday prepper

As I camp and go to festivals and so forth, I have a lot of gear like stoves, gas, head torches, etc.
DM was a wartime wife and always had loads of tins, jars, dry goods etc, as well as more specialised things like home preserved fruit and veg in kilner jars, jams, jellies, chutneys, you name it.
So as we live rurally and get lots of weather and power cuts, I do likewise and generally have a well stocked larder, if not to the extent that she did. She had the benefit of huge storerooms and pantries, unlike me.
I think we could comfortably go a few days, maybe a week.
Water might be an issue if that packs up but we have a clear spring a few miles away…

Oh okay, how come ?

You’re on the thread if you would like to go back and read to know more…?

Just hope any food among this gets eaten and not thrown away. Wasting food I view as criminal.

Underground facilities? What kind of facilities?

Maybe like a Narnia wardrobe but under the ground..?

There was that underground city in Turkey that someone discovered when doing some work on his house. Mind boggling

Its always sensible to be prepared. Where I live we get snowed in most winters so I stock up every autumn - tins and packets, bottles of water.
Also got all the usual power cut aka camping stuff

Same 👀 I’m now wondering if I should clear out the cupboards and start stock piling! Ffs

Wow..that surface Church!

I stopped using them shortly after Covid because I had had a subscription for quite a while but when my delivery was due I got emails saying that due to unprecedented demand they didn’t have any to send me. I felt they should have reserved some for their existing subscribers rather than sending it all out to new ones. Even if they’d just sent me a 4 pack instead of 48.
Same with Ocado actually, I’d had the same delivery slot for over a decade then Covid hit and I couldn’t book a delivery at all. I get they had to prioritise their vulnerable customers but to not be able to book any slot at all for months was ridiculous.

We have some stores but it wouldn’t last long. Basically we have what’s in the kitchen cupboard then three boxes of tins in a storage cupboard. As well
as a big box with pasta, rice, noodles, oats, flour etc, milk powder. When what’s in the kitchen cupboard runs out we replenish from the boxes then new shopping goes into the boxes. It doesn’t require too much thought and means we never run out of anything. There’s nothing in there we don’t eat normally except the milk powder but we use that for cooking or making yoghurt or ice cream when it gets near the best before date.

These are my thoughts....at some point you have to eat it as food is astronomical 😱

Thanks :) x