The downsides of stockpiling

[CurdinHenry]

Batteries are huge fire hazards, particularly as they age
Ditto those mini gas camp fires
Plastic leaches from bottles into water
Food attracts vermin especially if you live somewhere prone

Surely there should be advice on this element of the whole thing

Maybe they could swap them for something decent ? 😀

(That's a bit unfair, as I love Ryvita ....)

Yup we will be fine with our pink lady Dash and Bold Beans. Running out of loo roll has never worried me. I’ve managed without it in SE Asia.

Exactly. Utter bollocks.

I've probably got about a fortnight's food in at any time, but only if I wanted to live on tomato risotto for the second week!

My plan is to get in more of things that I'll eat anyway, plus some bottled water.

In fact as far as I can see the government haven’t told anyone to ‘stockpile’ … that’s just the media clickbait term isn’t it? The government are asking us to ‘be prepared’ with 3 days provisions. That’s really not the same as stockpiling.

Precisely.

Smirnoff Blue Label 100 Proof Export Strength Vodka keeps and is not perishable. I would know as I've been buying it for years. Best to buy it by the case.

Bailey's does not last longer than a few days.

How much do people think we need to be worrying about this? I genuinely don’t really know what to make of it all…

All they're staying is keep a stocked household so the cupboard isn't bare if something happened and the shops didn't open.
I have an extra pack or two of loo roll on top of in the wardrobe, and a stash of other essentials - tins, pasta, essential toiletries (san pro) - so instead of only buying when I run out, I always have one in stock - so when I finish something I get the one out from my stock cupboard and replace that when I next go shopping. I buy nothing that I don't use regularly (apart from I do have a few bottles of water)
I live in a major city so it's unlikely I wouldn't be able to get out to a shop, but I guess there might be a lot of competition for scarce items.
The most important thing to remember is to keep a bit of cash handy - I have £250 in ten and five pounds notes stashed secretly - so that if a cyber attack meant that card payments couldn't be taken, I'd still be ok.

3 days? You have more faith in UK Power Networks than i have. Anyone else remember Christmas 2013?

Can see some people think to buy 3 months worth and not 3 days.

To anyone who buys 6 packs of 24 loo rolls - that is too excessive

I think it's easy to miss the point, it's not have 3 days worth of stock up it's have '3 extra days' so shop as you do now, but make sure you have 3 more days always in supply and absolutely I do not agree that everyone can do this.

A 4 pack of tuna is a fiver? How long does 4 tins of tuna last an average family, I can't really see my kids eating cold beans from a tin. Batteries and torches are not cheap. But this information has also been out most of the year, idk why it's suddenly so aggressive but I can imagine it's only going to get worse.

Regardless, I unfortunately do not have the space to store back up water bottles and tissue rolls and tinned stuff. My house is a box.

I will however work on stocking up on a bit of extra pet food because I know plenty of my neighbours have kids and food, but I don't really know anyone who has a dog.

I remember during early covid having to use cut up cloths to wipe my newborns arse because everyone took all the baby wipes and tissue.

Cba with it all. It'll be what it'll be, I suppose.

Well they would have to eat it or eat nothing 🤷‍♀️

You need coins as well. Unless you're just going to tell them to keep the change.

Arcade change machines are good for this. Get a mixture.

Use them up?

I guess the pile of raisins and marshmallow packets may finally get eaten.

babe, you do you but.....
have you checked the expiry date on batteries lately? its YEARS
ditto camping stove gas cannisters
ditto bottled water
I'd love to meet the rat who can easily chew into a can.

I am not worried at all. I have done this all my adult life

Its simple. dock leaves yes, nettle leaves no.

Gas camp stoves are not a 'huge fire hazard'. If you read the instructions and use them correctly with the right fuel (and in most cases outside not indoors) then they are perfectly safe.

Plastic leaches from bottles into water Yes eventually it does. It's not the only way to collect water though. If your water is past the BBE date then it's useful for washing, loo flushing, watering the garden, etc.

Food attracts vermin Yes, so make sure it's stored properly and securely against rodents. Or have a cat or three. Mine is a very good mouser.

We do need proper advice on these aspects as well, I suppose the powers that be didn't want to 'overload' our delicate brains with too much information!

I have a variety of camping gas stoves, single ring, double ring, lightweight, teent tiny ones and the various gas cylinders needed, never felt any were dangerous or risky. Also have gas lamps (gives a bit of heat too), oil lamps, tilly lamps, alcohol cooker (hobo stove) and lots of other camping gear which could be used if necessary but our kitchen hob is gas run from cylinders of which we have spares, our house has a generator wired in so we can run the heating etc, our multifuel stove heats rads and water and there is always at least a few weeks food in the cupboards alongside flour etc for making fresh bread, a few litres of uht milk plus milk powder. None of this is because of any warnings but because I enjoy camping, summer and winter, we live in rural Ireland where weather can put power out regularly (hence the generator) but it does surprise me when my neighbours end up borrowing camp stoves,lamps etc year after year because they've not learnt from the past.

One obvious downside of having a cupboard full of non-perishable food is that you have to rotate it.
You can't just shove the new shopping into the front of the cupboard, you have to always bring the old stuff forward and reach in to put the new stuff at the back.
Yes, most stuff has about two years before the BBE date, but it is still good practice to rotate, so that you use up stuff that has only a few months left before the two-year stuff.

Second downside is that if you always each quality fresh food from the fridge, it will be an unpleasant experience if you have to eat from the store cupboard for several days following a flood / fire / outage etc.
The way round this is to get used to eating a 'store-cupboard-only' meal at least once a month, e.g. pasta and a jar of sauce, or rice and a tin of meat made into a sauce or curry, plus tinned or dried veg added into the sauce, with lots of dried herbs and spices.
This ensures you know how to cook the stuff into reasonable meals, and keeps the rotation going.

If I run out of water we've got fruit juices etc and otherwise I'll drink wine!

We do have a wind-up radio.

Tinned fruit and chocolate are good things to have in. The problem is I want to eat them.

If it came to it I wonder if we would finally pull out the 1970s fondue set I inherited from my mum. Never used it. I guess it would keep us warm while eating….

I had a jerry can for when I had a new bathroom a few years ago. Filled it up again early this year I think 'just in case' - is that general advice that it is not fit to drink after only 3 / 6 months? Must admit, it's plastic so am a bit iffy about it, but I hate wasting water and I seriously doubt we'll need to water the garden in the winter in England - especially as we've got an incredibly wet winter ahead of us. Could use it to flush the loo I suppose.

Sidenote: Won't food in the freezer spoil quite quickly if the electric goes off?