To ask if I really need to prep?

[evianliveyounger]

I keep seeing things online about prepping for winter. How serious is it?! Do I need to???

Is this your first day on planet Earth?

I’m talking about stockpiling. I have never needed to do this before.

I don’t know how likely it is that there’ll be a worst case scenario happening, but there’s certainly no harm in stocking up some extra things to tide you over for a few days in case you get snowed in or have to deal with a power cut or whatever.

Well, as Abraham Lincoln once said, you shouldn't believe everything you read on the internet.

Stockpiling is different to preparing.

It is always wise to have a decent stock of tins and dried goods in (stuff you'd normally use)

A way to cook that doesn't involve the mains (we have a small camping stove)

Good clothes and blankets ect to keep warm (could be winter)

Torches and batteries

Body cleansing wipes for washing

Water

Nothing major, enough to manage for a day or two if the gas/electric/water got cut off.

Think power cuts and major water pipe leaks, not war.

Why do we need to stockpile?

i have never done so before

even in lockdown we managed to get stuff in shops or delivered

wgat is happening to prompt this panic?

Because the gov has warned the just in time food supply chains are likely to fail in the next couple of years. Due to conflict and bad yields and Russian/other nefarious attacks on tech/energy supply chains.

Ps: I haven’t done any of this yet either - I’m swamped enough coping in the day to day - but that’s the reason

when i read this i actually thought it was for something rude

Look in your food cupboard, fridge and freezer. If you couldn’t buy anything how long could you feed yourself? If you have a car keep it at least half full. Write down phone numbers in case you can’t use a mobile phone.

It's nothing too taxing - enough food and water and torches/battery packs/whatever to do you for 2 or 3 days in the event of power cuts, water contamination or cyber attack on infrastructure.

You don't need to try and survive a nuclear winter, just a couple of days until things get resolved.

I am not a prepper, but the very real risk of diesel shortages would mean a shortage of goods at supermarkets so I have started adding extra to my usually well stocked pantry just in case there are any shortages of food.

The government do so enjoy keeping us in a perpetual state of fear & panic. Probably best to stop watching the news.

I think you win the internet today

I'm not believing that for a moment.

How rude of you. The op was asking a genuine anecdotal question. Are you this gauche in real life?

You should always have had some supplies in. You always needed to do it but never realised that it was best practise. Guessing you were born after the 1970s

The OP was very vague and without background or context, as if asked by someone who has never experienced a winter before. Internet forum users are unforgiving; if you want a sensible answer, ask a sensible question.

You need to be prepared for illness or if your car breaks ect thats being an adult but you don't need to buy 500 toilet rolls. We could easily survive a couple off weeks if we got flu or something without going hungry. The issue is you see posts on here my childs contagious but we have no food in the house, live in the middle off nowhere so can't get food delivered , have no family and friends so is it ok if I take her to tesco.

I might be wrong, but this is the first time I can recall ( I am late 40's) that the government has issued an equally as vague statement about prepping. They backtracked a bit when people started panicking, but it has been clear this may not necessarily be just because of el nino. But this aside, not everyone knows everything about everything and the op shpuld not be made to feel rubbish for asking a question that matters to them.

Feels like common sense - but then we're rural, with overhead electric cables that occasionally get brought down either by weather or idiot drivers. Plus supermarkets are a 30min drive away - 1 tree down in the wrong place could make that drive tricky. Or bad snow/ice. Plus factor in our rural supermarket may not be the priority for the restocking, the bigger ones in towns where more people live may be. So if the "just in time systems" falls over, we may suffer.

So we already have a camping stove, with spare gas. Always a load of pasta, some jars of pesto and other sauces. Add also some tins of cannellini beans etc for protein hits. We can then also make hot drinks, and we have a log burner for heating.

If the electric is down, then we keep the freezer closed to prevent too much food loss. Otherwise, we have a fabulous meal of everything in the freezer that needs eating or needs to be thrown away as its defrosted! But that is rare - it's normally fixed in less than a day...

So not really stock piling, just having a few planned extras in case needed.

Oh - and the medicine cupboard is stocked up - but with my families propensity to injure themselves that's a given at any time.

If I'm ill or my car breaks down I could order a 2 hour speedy shop from multiple different stores, or send my ds.
No I'm not prepping or stocking up. I live in a city where you can get anything delivered in a matter of hours so don't really see the need.
I do usually have a weeks worth of food in anyway and could happily live on cereal for a week 😂
I have torches/batteries/candles just because they are generally useful.

Yep. Never really experienced anything like this before!

There is no way supermarket chains will allow this to happen. They will adjust to whatever is required.

As long as your freezer is full (efficient), and you have a proper larder you'll be fine.
If you don't eat at home normally and don't have food in, well...